Thursday 11 April

Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 105; John 8:51-59

Glory conferred by the Father

It is an enormous waste of energy worrying about what others think about us. We receive our deepest identity not from others, but from the intimate relationship we have with God. Jesus is strong and free. He lets his critics know that he knows he is, I AM. In other words, as he does often in the gospel of John, he claims the divine name. His entire way of being is so against what is expected, that it transforms his listeners into a lynch mob. They pick up stones lying around the Temple, intending to do away with him there and then. Jesus walks away. Can we learn the art of walking away from what doesn’t matter, or what is really an enormous waste of energy? Can we fast from false expectations and illusions?