I am writing this reflection at the end of the academic semester and on graduation morning.  The image of Jesus as teacher stood out to me in today’s Gospel.  During his life on earth Jesus often conveyed his meaning in stories and parables.  I am a professor, and one of my favorite teaching tools is using case examples – or in other words – stories.  Through humanized stories, I hope to help students understand difficult and abstract concepts.  However, at the end of the semester, my time with my students is over, and I feel an urgency to summarize our time together by clearly restating the most important information in cut and dry key points.

As Jesus prepared to leave his disciples and return to the Father, He wrapped up his teachings.  He gave his final lecture.  Jesus removed the figures of speech and summarized his key point one last time before leaving earth.  I see today’s Gospel as John’s notes from Jesus’s final lecture – Jesus tells his disciples – this is important, here is the take home message – don’t forget…

Jesus tells his disciples without veils – I am divine. 

We tend to humanize Jesus in many ways.  We think of Jesus as a teacher, carpenter, son, fisherman, and friend.  In his final lesson – Jesus tells his disciples clearly of his divinity.  He tells them he existed in heaven, he came down to earth, and now he returns to heaven.  The take home lesson, the lesson we are supposed to be sure we understand and remember is that Jesus is truly God who for a time became man.