The Gospel for Thursday of the fourth week of Lent is taken from John 5, 31st to the 47th verse. Jesus said to the Jews, if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf. And I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony.

But I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s. The work that the Father gave me to accomplish these works that I perform. Testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.

You have never heard his voice nor seen his form. And you do not have his word remaining in you because you do not believe in the One whom He sent you. Search the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life through them. Even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to Me to have life. I do not accept human praise.

Moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of the Father, but you do not accept me. Yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from only God? Do you think that I will accuse you before My Father? The one who will accuse you is Moses, to whom you have placed your hope for if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me because he wrote about me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how you believe my words? Jesus in this passage is talking to the Jews, to all the people that are resisting Him. And he’s saying over and over again, look, I have a truth that I believe in. My belief is my testimony. And what I do is also a sign that there is something given to me by God that I can do that you cannot say that I’m creating it myself. But they’re so blinded by their own narrow view of what is happening.

It’s a reminder to all of us that if we’re not open to something that is unbelievably wonderful and maybe unbelievably dramatic in terms of what would happen to us if we believed in it. It’s just a reminder that we need to be open to everything that God might be wanting to reveal to us. And he is revealing things to us every single day. Closing prayer Father, open our imaginations. Jesus came into a system that rejected him. He longs to come into your life and my life.

We pray that we don’t find anything in us that wants to block the message or the presence or the beauty of who God is for us. Keep us open, Lord. And we ask this in Jesus name, amen.