Scripture: John 17:25-26
[Jesus said,] “Righteous Father, even the world didn’t know you, but I’ve known you, and these believers know that you sent me. I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them.”
Thought for the Day: Jesus is praying, and in his conversation with the Father (the Godhead in Trinitarian language), he suggests that the love he has experienced from the Father is the same love that is being given to us. In Roman mythology, the gods looked a lot like humans except powerful. The gods got mad, felt jealousy, made mistakes, got their feelings hurt, and a whole host of other things we humans experience. The love talked about among the gods was a love that looked no different than the imperfect expressions seen in everyday experiences of human beings. When Jesus steps on the scene, he demonstrates a radically different understanding of love. It shattered every limitation people attempted to place upon it, and even some not yet dreamed of. This is the love that holds together the Triune God as a wholly one, and this is the love Jesus is giving to us. He doesn’t put this love on a string and dangle it before us, or withhold part of it until we earn it. Jesus knows firsthand the capacity of such love, and he unleashes that power upon us. If it can hold the Triune God together, then don’t you think it can do something pretty special among us?
Prayer: May the love that resides within the complexity of your nature, O One True God, be the love that we continue to seek and embrace. Thank you for giving us this gift! Amen.
SEE YOU IN WORSHIP
Looking at John 17
