How Will You Believe My Words?

In Lent we read John 5 when Jesus speaks about testifying to the truth. Jesus praises John the Baptist for his testimony, but says that his own testimony is “greater than John’s.”  Jesus claims that his works testify on his behalf. And, above all, God the Father testifies on his Son’s behalf. The context is the disbelief of the Jewish people who believed Moses, but did not believe what Moses wrote about Jesus. Jesus asks, perhaps with some exasperation, “But if you do not believe his (Moses’) writings, how will you believe my words?”

Some read the Bible as absolute historical or scientific fact and misuse Biblical quotations to prove points, but the Bible is not an answer book. The pages do not collect right doctrine which needs to be believed verbatim regardless of historical context or unfamiliar language. The Bible is proclamation, kerygma. It stands alone without need of any other frame of reference. It’s the book of God’s love for God’s People. It’s the message that from death comes life, because of Jesus who came to bring life in abundance. Jesus said: “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.”