Monday 24 July 2017

Psalm: Psalm 40:1-10

Background

Confusion is present in this passage, confusion about Jesus,with his contemporaries coming to very different conclusions abouthim. In part, as elsewhere in John's Gospel, the difficulty isbecause Jesus' hearers wanted to take his words literally and thencould not make sense of them. These verses can also seem confusinguntil you think about how John's Gospel is written. John has adouble perspective; he is interested in what happened at the timeand what it all meant. It is the significance or the meaning whichis more important, because the aim is to help people really see andbelieve in Jesus.

In John's Gospel there are longer discussions or meditationswhich are written to help us believe. For example, there are seven'I am' sayings which are written to help us understand and see.This passage refers to these, as Jesus says "you believe that I amhe" (v. 24). There is no 'he' in the original Greek, but it makesbetter sense to add it for the English translation. Jesus is sayingthat he is much more than an ordinary human being, and he says herethat they will understand when he is lifted up (verse 28), areference to crucifixion. When Jesus is asked 'who are you' hereplies simply 'I am' when Moses asked God's name he replied withsome version of the verb to be, most usually translated as 'I AM'(Exodus 3:14).

Jesus honours the Father by doing his will and speaking theFather's words. It is his relationship with the Father which marksout his special identity, and that relationship took him to thecross where he died sacrificially for us. The big question remains'Who are you?' It is a question we must each answer. Many todayrevere Jesus as a great teacher or a religious revolutionary; butto believe is to understand that Jesus is far more than that andthat his life and death have meaning not just then, but now, notjust for others, but really for me.

To Ponder

• How open are you to what Jesus life means to you? Or do youwant to hide behind others?

• Jesus made it possible for us to enjoy a relationship with God,how can you?

• John's Gospel invites us to think about the meaning of Jesus'life. Try and find a few minutes today to do just that.