Day 35, Tuesday, 23 March Believe that I am He

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 35, Tuesday, 23 March

Believe that I am He

Everything now, as we approach Holy Week, is charged with this sense of ‘crunch time’. It is like the last minutes of the World Cup when the outcome is still in the balance. Will they or will they not believe? Jesus longed for the Jewish people to believe that he was the one – ‘I am He’ – sent by the Father to reveal the fullness of the revelation – ‘life to the full’ - God had prepared for his people.

They might reject him, he knew they would, but if they did, he would himself carry the consequences. He did not say, ‘OK. You have rejected me so now I will reject you and you can face the catastrophe creeping up on you alone.’ No, despite their rejection of him he went through the consequences himself – he ‘carried our burdens’ (Isaiah 53:4) - and so ‘saved’ us from them. Many would understand later and believe.

It is important to understand what it means when we say, ‘Jesus died for us.’ We need to think about it. We may not come to a full answer. We have one image from the Hebrew scriptures today (Numbers 21:4-9) to help us and the same image is repeated three times in John’s gospel. The one today comes from 8:21-30.  It is the image of Jesus ‘lifted up’. This refers to his crucifixion which we will remember especially on Good Friday. But it also means his being lifted up to heaven, in other words, his final triumph over sin and death.

This is the mystery we live in and we need to think it out, to understand it as best we can, so as to nourish our prayer.