Tuesday, May 30. 2023

           ¹⁹ Jesus said to the Jews, “I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. ²⁰ The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. The Father will show him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed. ²¹ In the same way that the Father brings back the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to anyone he chooses.

           ²² “The Father doesn’t judge anyone. He has entrusted judgment entirely to the Son ²³ so that everyone will honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴ I can guarantee this truth: Those who listen to what I say and believe in the one who sent me will have eternal life. They won’t be judged because they have already passed from death to life.

           ²⁵ “I can guarantee this truth: A time is coming (and is now here) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who respond to it will live. ²⁶ The Father is the source of life, and he has enabled the Son to be the source of life too. ²⁷ “He has also given the Son authority to pass judgment because he is the Son of Man.  ²⁸ Don’t be surprised at what I’ve just said. A time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice, ²⁹ and they will come out of their tombs. Those who have done good will come back to life and live. But those who have done evil will come back to life and will be judged.

       A chip off the old block.  There is part of me that resents it and resists it; there is part of me that is so proud of it.  I can see my daddy in me.  Sometimes I hear his voice in the words I say or my phraseology.  Sometimes, I hear him and see him in the way I interact with others.  In many ways, I’m a chip off the old block.

       In the passage, Jesus says the same thing, “I’m a chip off the old block.  I am one and identical with My Daddy.”  What a bold statement to make in a culture where God’s Name, Yahweh, was not even spoken and to speak it was pure blasphemy.  Yet Jesus says: I can do what My Daddy does.  I can say what My Daddy says.  And both with the same results, life and vitality.

       Father God, am I so connected to You that my words and deeds point people to You, that they know who I am and whose I am because of the way I act?  I fear not.  Truly, that light is dim.  O that today, You would come alive in me so that others might see I belong to You.  Amen!