John 14:1-14
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” “I am the
way, the truth and the life.” “If you know me, you will know my Father also.”
“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?” “Do
you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”
We are five weeks past Easter, and two thousand years past
that first momentous time about which John and the other gospel writers tried
to tell us. It’s reassuring that humans perhaps haven’t changed much; we may
recognize the insistence from Jesus’ followers, Thomas and Philip, to pony up
the proof. It gives me some compassion for us, hundreds of years later, that we
struggle to believe the wonder of God’s love, as demonstrated by Jesus’ life,
when people who actually spent time with didn’t believe him easily either. But
Jesus offers us reassurance in the attempts he made repeatedly with Thomas and
Philip. He told them, and still tells us, how he comes again and again and
again every time we act in ways that he lived. He lived humbly, accepting
everyone, seeking and seeing the value in every person. Is he telling us it’s
as easy as learning to see the God-like element in every person? Is that how he
comes again to us? By engaging compassionately with everyone, no matter their
class, color, or wealth, we can reunite with Jesus by following his ways, and
thereby remind ourselves of God’s abundant love overflowing for us. In
relationship with each other we mimic Jesus’ example and come close to God. We
don’t need to let our hearts be troubled. We just need to relate to each other
with equal regard. And therein we find our connection to the divine. Helping
the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the uneducated, the mentally ill isn’t
about earning heavenly points. It’s about luxuriating in God’s love. Why would
we resist?
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