We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God

Scripture for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent | USCCB

In today’s gospel from St. John we continue with the confrontation between the Jews and Jesus. In yesterday’s gospel, you will recall Jesus telling the Jews, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM." (John 8:56). This use of the phrase, “I AM”, by Jesus goes back to the phrase God used with Moses when God sent Moses to the Israelites with the phrase, “I AM”, thus referring to himself as God and creator. Jesus, by using this phrase in reference to himself, is putting himself as equal to God and teaching that he and the Father are One. The Jews saw only a man when they saw Jesus. So, they immediately thought he was committing blasphemy.

They were unable to see beyond the fact that Jesus was human. With all the good works, healings, and exorcisms that Jesus performed, it should have been obvious to those who saw him that he was indeed God. But they were unable to see beyond the physical person of Jesus and see the spiritual nature of Jesus: True God and True man.

As we enter the holiest time on the Church Calendar, Holy Week, let us see Jesus for who he truly is. We have come to believe and know that Jesus is indeed True God and True Man. Through Holy Scripture we have come to know that Jesus came into this world to bring us into relationship with God by dying on the cross for our sins, and then rising gloriously on Easter Sunday Morning.

As we pray this week the Stations of the Cross and see the cruel death Jesus went through for us on Good Friday, let us bring all our cares and concerns for ourselves and all those we love to the foot of the cross. Jesus will then take all our cares to the Father and grant us the healing, peace and forgiveness that can only come to us from the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.