Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: April 11, 2025

Friday of the 5th Week in Lent

Scripture Text: John 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true." And many there began to believe in him.

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

In today’s gospel reading, we see the theme of Jesus as Son of God once more emphasized. The relationship of Jesus to the Father who sent Him is stressed frequently in the gospel of John and the readings for this week have also focused on this relationship. As we near Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, and the celebration of the Triduum, this relationship is highlighted because of its centrality to Jesus’ selfless gift to us upon the cross given in love of the Father and according to the will of the Father.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

Do I fully acknowledge Jesus as Son of God? Do I see the Father in Jesus’ life, mission, teachings, and death and resurrection?

Praying:

LORD, Jesus Christ, Son of God, You revealed the love of the Father for us through your teachings and through your miracles but most especially through your death upon the cross of Calvary for our redemption. Send the Spirit to more fully inform our minds, conform our hearts and transform our souls so that we might follow You as your disciples for You are “the Way and the Truth and the Life”, and we know that following in your footsteps will lead us home to the Father. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever will be, world without end. Amen.