Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 22, 2023 - 4th Week of Lent - Wed
[Isa 49:8-15 and John 5:17-30]Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. [John]
The gospel scripture for today follows the encounter between Jesus and the sick beggar at the pool of Siloam. These encounters serve as a kind of "platform" for the discourses that follow. In this case, the dispute over "work" leads to a discourse about Jesus' work being the work of his Father and then on to the effects of this work. The discourse contains three typical "Amen, amen, I say to you...." statements, which is a way of calling attention to the importance of the words that follow. I want to call attention to one of them in particular, which is quoted above.
Eternal life in the minds of many Christians, I suspect, means something that begins with physical death. In the Gospel According to John, eternal life begins with faith in Jesus as the one whom God has sent. One might sum up the entire Gospel According to John with the declaration: JESUS IS THE ONE WHOM GOD HAS SENT. Scripture scholars refer to eternal life in this life as "realized eschatology," a big term which might be said as "heaven on earth," were it not for some of the fanciful ideas we have of heaven. What the early Christian community was experiencing in terms of persecution and expulsion from synagogues would hardly fit those popular notions!
The "Amen, amen..." statements stand alongside Jesus' other important statements that begin with "I AM..." (the bread of life, the good shepherd, the way the truth and the life, etc.) which echo God's revelation to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). Faith in Jesus as the one whom God has sent is the beginning of eternal life for the believer who will find in Jesus the revelation of God. AMEN