Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life. ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. ‘I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Those who want to kill Jesus are signing their own death warrant. They think they are sending him to death, but it is themselves they are sending to death, because they refuse to listen to the voice of Jesus. Those who listen to his voice, even the dead, are raised to life. But those who refuse to listen remain in the land of death forever.

The word of Jesus is a word of judgment, which doesn’t mean condemnation. Those who listen to him are judged ready for life, and those who refuse to listen are judged unready. In that sense, we judge ourselves by the decision we make to listen to him or not.

The prophetic voice we hear is Isaiah who prophesied during the period of the return from the Babylonian exile. The journey of return was hard, and many preferred to stay in Babylon where they had settled through the fifty years of exile. But the prophet urges the exiles to return, assuring them that God will be with them on their journey: “He who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water he will guide them” (Isaiah 49:10). The exiles have to listen to God’s voice and then come forth from the darkness of exile, trusting that God will lead them home into the light.