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But if an individual has ever listened to my words and decided not to keep them, I am not judging that person. Because I did not come to judge the world. No, I came to save the world. The person setting me aside and not welcoming my words, however, has a reality that is judging that individual: the Word that I have spoken will judge that person on the last day. You see, I have not spoken on my own accord. No, the Father Who Sent Me has given me a command as to what I should say and as to how I should say it. And I know very well that his command means deep, lasting Life. Therefore, please know this [in the end]: The things I am saying, I am saying exactly as the Father told me to say them.\u2019 (John 12:47-50, Frederick Dale Bruner\u2019s translation from The Gospel of John: A Commentary).

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These words come at the close of Jesus\u2019 public ministry in John\u2019s Gospel.\xa0 The very next verse begins into Jesus\u2019 final evening with his disciples in the Upper Room before his arrest and crucifixion.\xa0

These words form a book end then, with the very first words of John\u2019s gospel, which will be familiar to many.\xa0 John starts like this: \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God\u2026 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life\u2026\u201d (selections from John 1:1-4).\xa0

Jesus, the very Word of God was already there before the world began.\xa0 All the richness of life that we have come to know in this world: the sunflowers and the corn stalks, the oriels and the deer, the best of human relationship, sprang forth from him as God spoke the world into being, through his Word.\xa0

Then came God\u2019s word written and given to Moses at Mt. Saini.\xa0 That\u2019s the word Moses was speaking out to the people again on the plains of Moab in Deuteronomy.\xa0 Pastor Michael talked about it yesterday.\xa0 There too, the Word was not to be a dead word, or a word of judgement leading to death.\xa0 But rather, a Word of life, a word that created the conditions in which a humane, faithful, loving human life could be lived in community with God and one another.\xa0

And then, God\u2019s Word came in the flesh.\xa0 We came to know him as Jesus.\xa0 And at the very end of his public ministry he utters these words that we heard at the beginning of this devotion.\xa0 It Is in keeping and living out the Word that Jesus has spoken and embodied that we find life.\xa0 These Words of Command, Words of Promise, the Word itself made flesh: all of these iterations of God\u2019s Word are one and the same, and they are Words of life: deep, lasting life.

So today if you search, or hunger, or are restless for meaning, purpose, identity, action, or belonging.\xa0 In short, if you are looking for life: look no further.\xa0 Jesus is that Word that speaks deep, lasting life into your life.\xa0 For he did not come to judge the world, but to save it.\xa0 And even as Creation was spoken into life and being out of nothing, so Jesus\u2019 words continue to speak life into our lives today.\xa0 Listen to them, keep them, and live.

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