Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 252

So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

Baffled Pharisees ask Jesus, "Who are you?" They are not the Herodians, Sadducees, and Levites who will plot with the high priests and have him crucified. But neither are allies to oppose the conspiracy. They are curious enough to ask, "Who are you?" but not prepared for his answer, "What I told you from the beginning." 

Sometimes people have introduced themselves with the expression, "Here's the kind of person I am...." And sometimes they'll describe their several virtues. I don't put much stock in those self-assessments. I don't know that anyone would.

We know people by their actions, which invariably speak louder than words. And by their relationships, although they too might need verification. Some people shamelessly drop names they've never met. 

When Jesus declares, "The one who sent me is true." the Pharisees do not catch his allusion to "the Father." For that matter, they have not often thought of God as their Father; they're more familiar with Moses' Lawgiver and his seat in Jerusalem. 

We know Jesus, the Son of Mary, as the Son of God; and especially as "the only begotten Son of the Father." We cannot know him otherwise. His relationship with God is utterly unique. Denying his divinity denies his identity, his purpose, and his accomplishment of salvation of the world.  Like no other human being, his standing before God commands our attention, worship, and obedience, for he is the equal of the Father and the Holy Spirit. His human will is God's will; his desire is God's desire; his love is God's love for us. Those who have seen him have seen the Father. Anyone who would know God must know this man, born of Mary in Bethlehem, dying in Jerusalem, of two thousand years ago. 

When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.

Not many yet are willing to recognize the cross of Jesus, and that moment when he is lifted up. They see no glory in the macabre scene of public execution. They might see the tortured human body but they cannot honor his obedience, and that he does nothing on his own.

Much less can they take up their own crosses and follow in his steps. And that is the only way to wholeness, fulfillment, satisfaction, or redemption. The invitation remains: 

Enter, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
we are the people he shepherds,
the sheep in his hands.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
as on the day of Massah in the desert. Psalm 95