Every Sunday, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Click HERE for the readings.
I was recently at a restaurant seated near two gentlemen and I couldn’t help but hear part of their conversation. They were obviously not Christian believers. In fact, they were completely unaware of basic Christian teaching. This took place last Sunday, and they were trying to understand what they had heard about the feast of the Epiphany. I overheard one man say to the other, “Yes, Christians believe that Jesus is revealed as God.” To which his friend responded with some incredulity, “Really?”
Yes, it is a basic teaching for us who have been immersed in our Christian heritage that Jesus is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, but we can’t assume that all people know what we believe or, if they do know what we believe, that they also believe it.
I say this as a preface to the reading for this Sunday. It is the familiar story of John the Baptist who sees Jesus coming to him. John points to Jesus and says to the crowd, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” and he adds at the end, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”
The Son of God is God!
There are many who do not know much about Jesus, but we should not be ignorant of the one we follow as our revealed and incarnate God. There are many who may know about Jesus, but do not believe in his divinity. We are not among that group.
So, what to do? Let us use John the Baptist for some inspiration. We are asked to continually announce with our lives and say with our words that Jesus is Lord, Savior, Messiah, and our God and we hope that no one will be surprised to learn that God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ and pray that they come to believe it to be true. May we announce to our neighbors, to our children and grandchildren, to those we work and study with, and to those we meet — that we follow the living and true God who took on our humanity in Jesus, the one who takes away the sins of the world out of love for all of us. To put it succinctly, may we be able to say with John the Baptist, “I have seen and testified that (Jesus) is the Son of God.”
Have a blessed week everyone.