JOHN 10:22-30
‘If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’
I have such a lot of sympathy with the Jews of John’s Gospel when they say this. Jesus answers them in riddles and leaves them with more questions than answers. The more I sit with the Gospel texts, the more I realise that what I see plainly from my monastery vantage point was anything but clear to those who saw and heard Jesus.
Jesus makes claims about himself that shook centuries of tradition. We can list his claims and they have no such effect on us:
I am the Bread of Life
I am the Good Shepherd
I am the Light of the World
We find these on posters and prayer cards and they give us comfort. For the Jews who heard and questioned Jesus they had to go back to their source texts and see if they could make some sense. These were Messianic claims and they were challenged at their core.
A good deal of our life of faith involves doing the best we can in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. When we have to discern a new way forward we naturally look for signs and confirmations that we are on the right track. I have friends who are very good at reading the signs. I’ve always been a bit slower myself. But what I have discovered is that these friends share one thing in common: they assume the good and are expecting God to speak.
Is there any area in your life where you long for Christ to speak plainly to you?