In these last days before his approaching "hour" Jesus is speaking more and more clearly about who he is and where he is from. He is saying plainly that he comes from God, his Father (and ours), and that he is God's equal – he always was with God – even when God was dealing with Abram and making the original and lasting covenant with him.
The Jews who were close-minded and hard of heart could not bring themselves to believe this. They could only see Jesus the man, and not Jesus as God.
Jesus tells them that he does not say the things he says to glorify himself. He is saying these things so that they may simply believe – but they only hear what they want to hear and thus reject the life-giving words of the Word-made-flesh!
"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts." This is addressed to the Jews of Jesus day – and also everyone who has come after them including us. We are all called to be children of Abraham – children in faith of the first to believe in the One God. But we cannot do that if we insist that everything has but a natural explanation and that we will not accept conclusions or realities that are above the natural level: that exist on the supernatural level. God has given us the ability to meet him on his own level – he does this by the gift of FAITH – we need but receive the gift and use it!
Let us therefore this day – as we approach the holiest of all weeks of the year open our minds, our hearts, our memory and our understanding to all that God has to say to us – especially through his Word, his Son, our Brother, Jesus Christ! His word is life! His word will lead us to salvation!
No comments:
Post a Comment