Day 28: Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent
John 20:21
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
It is hard to overstate the significance of this simple sentence. It carries all the weight of Jesus’ relationship with God and transfers it to us. Jesus is the ‘son’ in a culture where the word of the son is the word of the father – and vice versa. If the father sends his eldest on any mission, that word is received as if from the father himself. To whatever the son agrees, the father will be bound. To say that we are sent as the father sent Jesus, is to make an extraordinary claim about our mission. God will stand by our word. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:23)
The son, of course, is fully aware he represents the father and must say only what the father would say. He would not even consider something that goes against the will of the father: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38)
We are given an incredible honor: We are members of the divine household with the authority to speak for God. Yet this is also a profound responsibility. We cannot speak from our fears, passions, pride or privileges. We must speak according to the Father’s will. We must know the Father’s will.
“This is the will of him who sent me,” says Jesus, “that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” (John 6:39) The will of God is life – both now and in the age to come. It is grace and freedom from every bondage. It is the beating of swords into plowshares, the gathering of every nation to the heavenly banquet, the healing of the rupture that divides us from one another and heaven from earth.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” It is a great and high honor, and an awesome but wondrous responsibility. It asks us to think as God thinks, feel as heaven feels, breathe the spirit Jesus breathes. It asks us to learn the songs of heaven and dance with the angels over every word and work of grace.
Gracious and ever-present God,
whose mercy knows no bounds,
and whose arms are ever open to your world:
Grant us courage to spread your light
And make us joyful in your service.
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Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Father_And_Son_(129576973).jpeg Robert Broeke / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Father_%26_Son_Sharing_Music_Skills.jpg K15photos / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Holy Seasons 
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