It has to be true, that when we hear the words of Jesus, they are first, an invitation to know that we belong.  To know that we are more at home in his company than we are anywhere else.  

Hearing His words, and making them our own, inspires us to follow Him wherever He is going.  And as we follow Him, we begin to realise that He is taking us, step by step, into the boundless, fathomless depths of His Abbas Heart.  He reminds the so called authorities on  religion that all their threats and poses and postures will not take His disciples back to where He found them.  What they have discovered in His presence is too beautiful to let go.

The 'Sheep' that belong to Jesus listen to His voice.  This is true.  And as they do, they begin to find their own voice, and begin to speak and move through the world like He does.  

When it comes to speaking in our own voice, there is a beautiful spiritual teaching from the Jewish Tradition.

When Rabbi Zusya grew old and knew that his time on earth was nearing a close, his students gathered round him.  One of them asked him if he was afraid of dying.  The Rabbi answered, " I am afraid of what God will ask me." 
"What will he ask you?"   The Rabbi answered, " He will not ask me, ' Zusya, why were you not like Moses?" "He will ask me, " Zusya, why were you not Zusya?"

Believer or not, sister death seems to have the impressive power to sever ties. When we are in the land of loss, and all we have is our broken hearts to guide us, we often look for signs that the one that we love is doing okay. The person is definitely not with us in the same way that they always were, but we want to know that they are somewhere and that they are happy. It seems that we will more easily accept the loss if we know the person is at peace in another reality. We might look for signs that this is so.

When it comes to our own time to die, we imagine that those we have loved will be waiting for us. We've all heard stories of people who are close to death, gazing contentedly into a place we cannot see. It is assumed they are catching a first glimpse of a welcoming committee, guiding them safely to the other side. Death is about reconnecting with those we have loved and lost.

St. John is not at all impressed by the separating power of death. Jesus is returning to his Abba, but that does not mean he is leaving His loved ones on earth. The opposite is true. His death creates the conditions for us to touch and see His boundless love clearly. He speaks words of peace to the broken hearted. He offers clear evidence that the wounds of love are wellsprings of Grace. He celebrates the joy this understanding brings, and then, in an extraordinary flow of word and action, elevates forgiveness to the heartbeat and life blood of the new community - our church.

One Apostle, Thomas, needs more time to see and understand these things, and Jesus gives it to him. When the penny finally drops and Thomas utters the best prayer he ever prayed, Jesus drops a new Beatitude, straight into the hearts of those who are still trying to see and who risk their hearts anyway.

​And the point of all this? To confirm what we have always known in the inmost and most innocent places of our hearts, that Jesus, The Christ, The Beloved Son of God, has Risen not for Himself, but for us. This is why His Name is so precious to us, and why we speak it only with reverence and love.