Heeding the Father’s Voice - Thursday 11th May 06
John 13:16-20 (GNB)
[Jesus said,]
16 “I am telling you the truth: no slaves are greater than their master, and no messengers are greater than the one who sent them. 17 Now that you know this truth, how happy you will be if you put it into practice!
18 "I am not talking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the scripture must come true that says, 'The man who shared my food turned against me.' 19 I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that 'I Am Who I Am.'
20 “I am telling you the truth: whoever receives anyone I send receives me also; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."
Fathers are a dying breed in the UK, particularly in the inner city areas. I heard recently of a single mother who had seven children, all by different fathers. And this is by no means untypical. Absent or casual fathers are becoming the norm in many areas. That fact is twisting the concept of fatherhood. But parenting is still very much alive in the minds of these families, many of which come into being precisely because of the craving for relationships that it is thought children might foster.
We have the wrong end of the stick if we think that God is concerned for Fatherhood in a gender sense (see Matt 22:30! ), but as in our current passage, the emphasis is on the parent/child relationship of the Father to the Son, and in particular the way that Godhead relationship is revealed by Jesus. Receiving (v20) is about welcoming warm-heartedly, wanting to know, or know more, about the one received. And here Jesus wants us to receive the Father, the one who sent him.
And Jesus wants his disciples to receive any whom he sends. The parent/child relationship is the same as Jesus wants of us to those he sends. Who are those he sends but our Christian friends, our Christian leaders and ministers? We have the joy of parenting and being parented in the same way as Jesus and the Father. And notice that the relationship is equal. Jesus here proclaims his deity (v19, and see John 10:30) and hence his equality before the Father, yet he maintains that parent/child relationship.
Questions. Do you ‘receive’ God as Abba?
How is that expressed towards your church friends and leaders?
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