Today's gospel reading takes place shortly before Jesus' arrest, and it states with clarity that to see Jesus is to see the Father. This is a fundamental claim of John's gospel. It is there in the opening verses about the Word made flesh. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."In the very early years of the Church, Christians argued over the nature of Jesus and his divinity. But those issues were settled long ago. Most Christians don't give Jesus' divinity a second thought. We assume it. At least we do until it comes to our actions.
With scarcely a thought we say, "Jesus is God in the flesh." But when it comes to doing what Jesus says, that is another matter. In today's reading Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." But the notion of "turning the other cheek" is not all that appealing to me. And I have enough trouble loving my family. I'm not sure I can love all believers, precisely what Jesus commands we he says, "Love one another." And loving my enemies just seems like a bad idea.
Sometimes we Protestants have so focused on faith that we act like it doesn't matter what we do, only what we believe. But the Bible clearly says that faith without works is dead. And Jesus says that if we love him, we will obey him. Obedience doesn't always sit well with our cultural notions of self-fulfillment and happiness. We are loathe to give anyone that sort of control over our lives. We want freedom. Freedom from God?
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