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My Father and your Father

 

“Go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17b)

Jesus says, go to my brothers. What a word of encouragement for them to hear! Having abandoned Jesus—Peter, having denied Jesus—they are fully embraced. Embraced not as servants, not even as just friends, but brothers. They are elevated to the family of God, made brothers with the Son of God! And so are we by faith in Jesus. 

Jesus says he ascends to his God and Father, and to our God and Father. In other words, we are in a similar relationship with God the Father as is the Son. Jesus transforms us by faith in him. For we are adopted sons and daughters of God. 

Certainly, they had little or no idea at the moment what the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus meant. They were barely weaned from the idea of a political savior. What a low aspiration that was compared to this. The God of the universe is now also our Father. And we may call him, “Dad.”

They expected so little from Jesus, merely a political deliverance, a temporal deliverance. How often do we look to Jesus as they did, clinging to him for help with this or that temporary worldly problem, when he gives us the best help of all, an eternal help, for we are made into God’s children. We are like the child of a billionaire who asks only for 50 cents and thinks he has done well. 

Is this new status, with this new Father, everything is changed for us. We face every challenge now with God Almighty as our Father. John Calvin writes: “It is, unquestionably, an invaluable blessing, that believers can safely and firmly believe, that He who is the God of Christ is their God, and that He who is the Father of Christ is their Father.”

Easter assures us of this, no matter what comes our way in this world, the God of the universe is our Father. Let us rest, rely, and rejoice in this.