John 7:1-2,10,25-30

Today's gospel looks at the question who is Jesus?

To the authorities he is a threat - so he goes quietly to Jerusalem for the festival, not drawing attention to himself.

To some people he cannot be the messiah because they know him to be a man from Nazereth and the messiah is supposed to be a mysterious figure who suddenly appears,

Jesus, though comes not from Nazareth, but from God.

The gospel asks us - who do we believe Jesus to be?

People still struggle to see the truth of who Jesus is.

Some flatly deny he ever existed at all. Others see him as a good man - a teacher of morality. But for us, this is not who Jesus is. Jesus is the word made flesh. God himself walking the earth as a human.

Lent is chance for us all to reflect on who Jesus is and what that means to us.

It's easy to take Jesus for granted, and think we know who he is. But if we stop and reflect on this, things change. Jesus, despite being God himself, loved us enough to accept death on the cross, a terrible painful death that, even has he experienced it, continued to love us all. I find it a little scary sometimes to think about how much God loved me, and how much he suffered for me - what have I done that I am so important to the creator of all that he should sacrirfice his only son? That his son would willingly sacrifice himself?

How do I respond to such love?