November 20, 2022
Gospel – March 31, 2020 – John 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
Imagine being a person of the streets and hearing Jesus speak to the Pharisees like he does. The Pharisees believed they were chosen and they knew more than anyone because they were chosen. They were arrogant and narcissistic treating everyone else with disdain. And it worked before Jesus showed up.
But the people on the streets had been waiting for so long to hear the message Jesus brought. How everyone was equal. Jesus knew what needed to be said and wanted everyone to know he had God with him always. Because he knew what God wanted of him for the people, if you didn’t HEAR the message of inclusion, you wouldn’t be in heaven but hell at death.
At least that’s what I heard Him say…
What I Heard Him Say 