Scripture Daily

Context No. 3304 of 4322 · John

Context · Reflection

John 12:44-50: in context

44Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. 45He who sees me sees him who sent me. 46I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness. 47If anyone listens to my sayings and doesn’t believe, I don’t judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48He who rejects me, and doesn’t receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke will judge him in the last day. 49For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. 50I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak.”

Jesus cries out with a series of striking claims: whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me; whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that no one who believes in me need stay in darkness. I came not to judge the world but to save it. And he ends, I know that his commandment is eternal life.

To see Jesus is to see the Father; to believe in him is to believe the One who sent him. He came as light so that no believer need remain in the dark. And there is tenderness in his stated mission: I did not come to judge the world but to save it. Yet his word is not weightless; the word he speaks will judge on the last day those who reject it. Notice how he ends: his commandment is eternal life. God's command, far from being a burden, is life itself. To receive Jesus' word is not to submit to a hard master but to step out of darkness into light, into the very life of God.

Do I receive Jesus' words as light and life, God's command that is eternal life, rather than as a burden to resist?

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