HEAR HIM—THIS IS MY BELOVED SON
There is a simple thread running through Scripture that we can easily complicate: The Father points us to Jesus.
At the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter was still speaking when the Father interrupted him: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”—Matthew 17:5 Those two words deserve our attention: Hear Him. Not merely study about Him, admire Him, or begin with Him and then move on to something supposedly deeper.
Hear Him is the cry of the Father. The Father had already testified concerning Jesus at His baptism: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”—Matthew 3:17 Later, when Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify Your name,” the Father again answered from heaven: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”—John 12:28
The Father continually points humanity to the Son. Hebrews explains why: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son...”—Hebrews 1:1–2 God has spoken and decreed: Hear Him, My Son
This has enormous implications for the Christian life. Sometimes we can unconsciously treat Jesus as though He were simply the doorway into Christianity. We believe in Him, receive salvation, and then imagine that spiritual maturity means moving beyond Him into other things. But we must never move beyond Jesus. He is the center of Christianity. Jesus is not merely the door we entered. He is the One with whom we remain.
The Father does not introduce us to the Son so that we can leave the Son behind. He says: Hear Him. And Jesus Himself makes the seriousness of this unmistakable. In John 5, He explains that the Father has given judgment to the Son: “So that all will honor the Son in the same way as they honor the Father.”—John 5:23, GNT The Expanded Bible puts it this way: “All people will honor the Son as much as they honor the Father.” And the Amplified makes the implication explicit: “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, Who has sent Him.”
We cannot claim to honor the Father while diminishing the Son. We cannot push Jesus to the margins of our theology, our preaching, our churches, or our lives and then imagine that the Father is pleased. The Father Himself points to Jesus. To honor Jesus is to honor the Father who sent Him.
They Knew the Scriptures, But Would Not Come
Jesus gave one of His most sobering rebukes to deeply religious people. They studied Scripture, searched it, and investigated it diligently. Yet Jesus told them: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”—John 5:39–40
Think about that. They had the Scriptures in front of them. And they had Jesus standing in front of them. But they were so occupied with the Scriptures that they failed to come to the One the Scriptures revealed. The Bible points to Jesus.
They studied the signposts while refusing to go where the signs were pointing. That danger did not disappear in the first century. We can know doctrines about Jesus and still neglect Jesus. We can study theology and still fail to come to Him. We can defend Scripture while resisting the One Scripture reveals. We can become experts in Christianity while losing intimacy with Christ.
Yet the invitation remains: Come to Me that you may have life.
Jesus is Waiting For Us
Perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures of our relationship with Jesus Christ appears in Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”—Revelation 3:20
Notice the language. Jesus does not merely say, “Open the door so that I can give you something.” He says: I will come in. I will dine with you. You will dine with Me. This is relationship, fellowship, and communion.
Jesus is not a religious transaction completed sometime in our past. He is not merely the One who saved us years ago. He is the living Christ who still calls us to the table. We enter the door, we remain with Him, we sit with Him, we listen to Him, we receive from Him, we feed upon Him, and we fellowship with Him.
The Christian life is not leaving Jesus behind after salvation. It is learning to live continually with Jesus.
Come and Dine
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. They had been fishing and Jesus prepared food. And then came the invitation: “Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.”—John 21:12, KJV A perfect picture of Jesus: the risen Christ waiting for His disciples and preparing a meal. The invitation given: Come and dine. That invitation still captures something essential about Christianity. Jesus is the center and where the focus of humanity must rest.
The Father is Still Pointing to Jesus
If we could reduce all of this to one picture, perhaps it would be this: A table. Bread. The cup. The Scriptures. Jesus sitting there. An empty chair waiting for us. The Father pointing toward His Son: “This is My beloved Son . . . Hear Him!” And the Holy Spirit repeating the Words of the Father: “Hear Him!”
The Scriptures on the table testify about Him. The Father testifies about Him. And Jesus Himself invites us: Come. And the Father is still saying: Hear Him.
