Have you ever heard something you simply could not believe? I recall a time when I was about seven years old. My parents, siblings and I were driving to Washington, D.C. to see my Great Grandmother and her sister, our Great Great Aunt Elma. I had never met Aunt Elma and, upon hearing this, my older brother took it upon himself at one point during our eight-hour drive to describe her for me. The sum of his description was that Aunt Elma was so small she could fit in a Hot Wheel toy car. I just knew this was impossible and wasn’t going to believe it!

In today’s gospel from John, we hear (we know not from whose mouth) words concerning the truth of the Son’s nature and the nature of his relationship with the Father. We hear that He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. When faced with unbelievable things through life, how do we know whose testimony to accept and whose to reject? Some things in life that we find truly un-believable are thus because they are so preposterous, like the absurdity of my Aunt Elma fitting inside a Hot Wheel. It just would not happen. Other things, however, we find un-believable because they are so beyond our scope of understanding. They are not preposterous but, rather, unfathomable. It is not that they are not true; rather, they are so weighty they cannot be totally grasped. Such are the references today in John. Earlier in this third chapter of John, Jesus leaves Nicodemus confounded by his testimony. John the Baptist also addresses his followers with abstract statements of Jesus’ nature. 

In this Easter season, we rejoice in Jesus’ rising from the dead. Talk about unfathomable… and Jesus knows this would be especially hard for you and for me to believe. Two thousand years ago, Jesus was thinking of us when he told Thomas, You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me… blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe! Such is the nature of the transcendent. We, the created, cannot completely comprehend our Creator. Still, let us accept Jesus’ testimony with the eyes of faith and, in his words, be among the blessed.