SEEING THE UNSEEABLE
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Opening Prayer
No one compares to you, Lord God; nothing compares to the love and care you offer me. Thank you for offering me grace and mercy, for enabling me to know who you are.
Read JOHN 8:21–30
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Dispute Over Who Jesus Is
21 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up[a] the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
Footnotes
- John 8:28 The Greek for lifted up also means exalted.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘… God … made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.’1 What do you see?
‘What is your image of God?’ I find that agnostics and religious believers alike can be reluctant to describe their perceptions, whether through ignorance, laziness, indifference, or fear of offense. Some attempt a feeble stab at it which makes God sound like a vague idea or force. Others talk about someone ‘being there’, a comfortable,yet faceless presence. Internationals in my English classes engage variously with often very definite cultural beliefs concerning what God demands. Eloquent atheists can be more forthcoming when I ask, ‘Tell me about the God in whom you don’t believe.’ Privately, Christians struggling with prayer may uncover a divine caricature, a barrier to intimacy. Even the faithful are tempted to make God in their own image, saying, ‘My God wouldn’t be like this…’
Yet this ambiguity is not new. How can those ‘from below’ understand a God ‘from above’? No wonder Jesus’ interlocutors are puzzled. Their God is very different from the one this flesh and blood Jesus claims to represent and reveal. His ‘I am …’ statements have a blasphemous whiff of divine pretension. To many, he speaks in riddles, contrasting coming and going, being of this world or another, of dying in sin or pleasing the Father. Yet Jesus pinpoints the obstacle not as bewilderment, but as deadly unbelief. Ironically, the One sent to show them the Father is rejected.
In our prayers, we, too, are not ‘left … alone’ (v. 29). The Father has poured all of himself into Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, a person with a face. He speaks our language. He need not be a stranger. Revelation is on his terms, not ours. Startlingly, on a shameful cross, he is highly honored, bridging heaven and earth in his broken body.
Apply
Poignantly, amid the controversy and mystery, many believe in Jesus. Pray by name for individuals who struggle to respond to Jesus.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for breaking into the world’s cacophony, making yourself known, and showing me the great love of my Father in heaven, who gave you for me.
1 2 Cor 4:6
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