Gospel
Jesus cried out and said,
“Whoever believes in me believes not only in me
but also in the one who sent me,
and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.
I came into the world as light,
so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.
And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them,
I do not condemn him,
for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.
Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words
has something to judge him: the word that I spoke,
it will condemn him on the last day,
because I did not speak on my own,
but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”
Jesus came into this world as the light of God. A human form that shown so bright in the truth it could melt hardened hearts and men were compelled to drop what they were doing and follow. Men were ready to and die and give their very lives for him.
Such was the crisp and overwhelming light that Jesus shown into this world.
If you stood before him this light revealed your sins, and hearts repented and the truth of his words brought many to believe. But many heard his words of light and life and rejected it because their hearts were set on this world and they had placed their will above all others.
All heard the same words. All saw the same man. Those who allowed the words to sink into their hearts and touch their spirit were changed forever. Some started to believe but fell away when they were distracted by the world and were pulled away from the light and were encapsulated by the darkness.
They had held back and only appeared to believe.
Others would not allow his words into their hearts and so they had chosen the judgment of the nonbelievers.
Jesus came to show the light of God which is truth and love to mankind.
He was not opaque in his words. The light was not filtered to be diffused in this world. It was bright and so bright it drenched every pore of a man. It revealed all and nothing in their hearts were hidden. It in the same today.
He told us that we should love God with all our might and strength and soul and love others as much as we love ourselves.
His words were crisp and had given them the foundation that the Ten Commandments were built on.
He gave us the spirit of the words along with the Holy Spirit.
It is not Jesus that judges or condemns. It is our own hearts that either embrace his words or we reject them.
And in rejecting his words we choose death over life.
But he has come to bring light and truth to all men. Today we get to choose how to live our life and how to die.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
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