As Jesus encounters more misunderstanding, opposition, false accusation and threat of harm, he returns to the place where he heard his Father say, “You are my beloved son. I am well pleased with you.” This place of the River Jordan where John baptized is steeped in significance. It is here, where God delivered the wandering Israelites. They witnessed the river stop flowing and crossed over on dry land to enter into the promised land – a land flowing with milk and honey. Here God’s people erected 12 stones as a remembrance of God’s faithfulness to the 12 tribes of Israel. Will you join Jesus in this place and remember what happened here? What was said here? God will bring each of us home where we hear again, “I am God’s beloved. I am well pleased with you.”
John 10:31-42 (ESV)
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
For Reflection and Prayer:
If something captured your attention – a word, a phrase, an image – let this simmer in you and allow the Spirit to expand its meaning for you.
Notice any place of consolation or desolation that you experienced as you listened to and allow the Father to minister to you there.
What touches you about Jesus in this word? Talk it over with him.