Hearing the Father’s Voice - Wednesday 10th May 06
John 12:44-50 (GNB)
44 Jesus said in a loud voice,
"Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in him who sent me. 45 Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.
47 “If people hear my message and do not obey it, I will not judge them. I came, not to judge the world, but to save it. 48 Those who reject me and do not accept my message have one who will judge them. The words I have spoken will be their judge on the last day!
49 “This is true, because I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak. 50 And I know that his command brings eternal life. What I say, then, is what the Father has told me to say."
Nathan is a preacher, but the trauma of being on the front-line of war causes his message to become hard and embittered. He drags his wife and family to Africa to the jungles of Congo to “preach the Gospel”. But here, his narrow selfishness, oblivious to the needs of others, serves only to increase his own harsh beliefs. His intransigent, bullying personality gradually kills relationships with everyone around him and his family slowly disintegrates.
The story in the novel The Poisonwood Bible* is poignant, showing, if we did not already know, that life without relationships – without love and compassion, collapses in on itself. Jesus reveals why that is. Relationships are in the Godhead. ‘I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me’. Jesus is in relationship with the Father. The Father loves the Son, the Son obeys the Father, the Spirit witnesses to the Son.
And we are in the image of God. We are made for relationships. Just as woman and man marry and become one; just as in all relationships there is oneness; so in Christ we are made alive: we become one, even as Jesus was able to say ‘The Father and I are one.’ John 10:30. This is a hugely powerful influence in a world searching for the relationship that really works, rather than the transience of the one-night stand or of “partners”. It was Jesus who showed that the love of God is the love of the Father. God becomes our father as we enter into life through Jesus. Jesus has lots to say about this.
But today, think of Nathan the preacher: is it like that for me sometimes? Meet the Father!
* Barbara Kingsolver, “The Poisonwood Bible” Harper-Collins 2003 | 