John 12:44-50 (NIV)
Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
These words were spoken by Jesus on His final day of public speaking in the temple, on the Thursday before the Passover began at sundown. And in these words, Jesus summarized who He was, and why He had taught the things that He had taught.
First, Jesus focused on His identity. Even though Jesus did not specifically teach about the Trinity, much of His teaching, especially those teachings recorded by John, focus heavily on His identification, His one-to-one correspondence with the Father, the God of the Jewish people.
Here He reiterates that teaching. To believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father who sent Him. And Jesus goes even a step further: to see Jesus is to see the Father Himself. If You want to know what God is like, all you have to do is to look at Jesus. If you want to know what God demands of His people, all you have to do is to listen to what Jesus teaches. Jesus consistently taught His identification with the Father, to the point that His identity as “God in the flesh” is a perfectly logical encapsulation of His teachings.
Next, Jesus identifies Himself as the light of the world (as He did in John 9:5), who was sent by the Father to dispel the darkness of sin and ignorance in which all humanity, even the Jewish people, were walking. Sadly, the vast majority of people continue to live their lives with minds tainted and darkened by sin and ignorance of God and His ways. And in that state, they are convinced that they are wise, and that they see clearly. But where Jesus is, there is true light, and in His words is the light of truth that cuts through the darkness. Those who seek the light are drawn to Him, but those who are convinced of their own wisdom turn away from it, because it so starkly shows their ignorance and inner wrongness.
Finally, Jesus points out that, since He has spoke the absolute truth, the Father’s own words to the people, their judgement on the last day will be based on whether they are willing to receive that truth and center their lives on it, or whether they reject His words, continuing to live in their own ways. If they receive Jesus’ teachings, they not only receive Him, but God who sent Him. And if they reject His teachings, that will be counted as a firm rejection of God as well.
Father, so many people today turn away from Jesus’ glaring, uncompromising truth, choosing instead to walk in the darkness of their sin and ignorance. Others sift through Jesus’ words, picking and choosing which truths they are willing to believe and rejecting the rest. But ALL of Jesus’ words are Your absolute truth and trying to use our sin-darkened minds to determine for ourselves what is truth is the way to death and eternal condemnation. Lord, help us to receive ALL of Jesus’ words as truth, even those that are hard and difficult to understand, even those that require a quantum reorganization of our lives and priorities, so that we can walk in the way of life, now and forever. Amen.
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