Posted on: May 11th, 2025 by St. Stephens Downsview

Hello everyone,

It was a special time together this past Sunday, especially as we commemorated Mother’s Day. A very happy Mother’s Day indeed to all mothers and those who have served as mother figures in the lives of others. You are most welcome.

During our gathering, I shared a piece of advice that I’ve found incredibly helpful, particularly when engaging with those who are new to the faith or who may not yet have faith. I can’t quite recall if I read it somewhere or if a friend told me, but the advice is this: If you ever have the opportunity to share the gospel with an unbeliever or someone new to the faith, the best place to begin is with the Gospel of John.

The main reason for this recommendation is that unlike the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, or Luke, which often provide a general survey or overview of Jesus’ life, the Gospel of John is written with a very specific teaching purpose. Its goal is to help readers become rooted and grounded in their faith and to be able to grow in that faith. John doesn’t offer a strict, chronological synopsis of Jesus’ life from beginning to end. Instead, he is very clear about his objective, stating it explicitly at the end of his account:

John writes, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” He then adds, “But these are written so that you may come to believe, or may continue to believe, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing, you will have life in his name.”

So, John wrote his gospel with the specific intention that the eyes of the unbeliever would be opened. And, having been opened, that they might then place their faith and trust in Jesus and continue to believe in him, so they could receive the fullness and abundance of the life that he freely gives.

In setting out his gospel, John selects what I refer to as seven signs. He calls them signs, and he chooses these specific seven with the intent of pointing his readers to the truth of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. These signs help us understand who he is as we read through the account.

By the point we were reading in the Gospel of John, John has already described six of these seven signs. He has held up for us:

Jesus performed these deeds, signs, and many other wonders. They were for those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. These actions echoed the activity of God in Israel’s history and among them. They pointed, like signposts, to the fact that this Jesus was none other than the Messiah. We understand what a signpost is, right? If you’re going down the road, trying to reach a particular destination, especially somewhere unfamiliar, the signpost directs you. These miracles, these signs, point right to Jesus, saying, “If you want to find the Messiah, this is the way.”

And so Jesus’ whole life and the works he did in his father’s name were like visible words. They were like actions which spoke, and which spoke loudly, proclaiming clearly to all who would see and all who would hear that he was, in fact, the Messiah.

But in the passage we were looking at, the Jewish leaders surrounded Jesus in the temple. They were among those who refused to see or hear the testimony provided through Jesus’ own words and his actions. They wanted Jesus to speak plainly, to say outright, that he was the Son of God. However, their intention was not that they might believe, but that they might find grounds to condemn him and therefore put him to death.

They said to Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus’ response is insightful. He says, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me.” He then adds, “But you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.” He continues, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

Friends, Jesus explained that his sheep hear his voice. That is, they hear God’s voice speaking to them through the words and actions of Jesus’ life. Jesus’ words and his actions – turning water into wine, healing the sick, feeding the five thousand, walking on water – these works spoke with a voice of their own, proclaiming and testifying to his identity as the Messiah. But because the religious leaders refused to humble themselves and come to him (unlike Nicodemus, who came under the cover of darkness, but still came), they could not hear the testimony. They couldn’t hear the voice speaking through his actions.

And friends, let me tell you, this still happens today. There are some who will pick up the scriptures and they’ll ask, “Okay, tell me where it says, ‘Here, Jesus said, I am God.'” Now, in a few places, you might be hard-pressed to find that exact phrasing. But my response has always been, “Tell me where it *doesn’t* say that Jesus is God!” Anyone who acts and speaks in the way that Jesus did, is *not* God? Then you have to give me a better explanation for how I might understand him. As C.S. Lewis argued, if he isn’t who he claimed, you’re left with other explanations like he was a lunatic or a liar.

But the reality is, as I sometimes see, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see. And by refusing to see, they are therefore easy to condemn because they are already hardened. And they do have a very sad place to be in this world when we put up these walls because we refuse to hear or see.

Jesus’ sheep hear his voice. That is, they hear God’s voice speaking to them through the words and indeed, the actions of Jesus’ life. And Jesus says, “I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; because no one will snatch them out of my hand.” What a wonderful promise to give us!

So, the first issue is seeing. This gospel story suggests to me that there are so many in this world for whom hearing God’s voice is made difficult because they refuse to see. That is, they have prematurely or indeed prejudicially rejected Jesus as God. And so they cannot hear the testimony that comes through the actions of his life. These actions will always mean something else to them; they will never point to the Messiah.

Now on another level, God’s work or his signs are not just gone cold and it didn’t happen back then right before our eyes. No, God, as he has made known to us in Jesus Christ, is as always and will always be at work in his creation, at work among his human creatures, proclaiming the truth of his presence in visible words that they can see and hear. As Romans says, his glory, who he is, has been made known so that we are all without excuse when it comes to the reality of God’s presence among us.

Within the Anglican tradition, we are situated in a space where those visible words are perhaps more readily perceived in our sacramental actions and things like Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, and sharing the Communion in the solemnization of Holy Past the moment. But we see and hear them also from God’s activity in the prayers for the sick, the ministry of healing, and for those who are dying. God is at work. Visible words, like Jesus in his whole life, are proclaimed in those sacramental moments.

And so before we give way to the temptation to criticize the religious leaders of Jesus’ day in a negative way, I believe we always ought to ask ourselves first whether we have responded or are responding appropriately.

Are you hearing his voice speaking to you through the visible words of God’s activity among us? Are you following him as he leads? This means embracing the means God has provided for us to nourish us, to sustain us along this journey of faith. You know, sometimes we separate ourselves from these means, these visible words, and then we say, “Well, we don’t see them.”

So maybe we don’t gather for sacramental worship. Maybe we don’t pick up the scriptures to read. Maybe we don’t place ourselves where we can hear the word proclaimed. You can’t shut your eyes and then say, “Oh, I don’t see anything. There’s nothing else there.” It is easy to sit back and demand some clear sign and back and forth before we might decide to come and follow him and truly believe. But I think denying those kinds of signs is perhaps another way of mirroring their hardness of heart. And what God is not going to do and what God will do for us is what we will allow him to do for us.

Jesus grounds his grace in our paying attention to the visible words of God’s actions. So will you then come and continue in the promise of the Son of the Living God?