There is a certain tension in this Gospel that feels very familiar, even today. Jesus is speaking clearly, but the people around Him do not understand. Not because His words are complicated, but because their hearts are not ready to receive what He is saying.
He tells them, “You are from below, I am from above… you are of this world, I am not of this world.” That is not meant to push people away but to wake them up. Jesus is trying to help them see that they are thinking only in human terms, while He is speaking from a deeper, divine truth.
And if we are honest, we often live the same way.
We get caught up in what we can see, what we can control, what makes sense right now, money, success, reputation, comfort. We measure life by worldly standards. We worry about how we appear, how we compare, how we get ahead. In doing so, we sometimes miss what God is doing right in front of us.
That is exactly what was happening here. They were looking at Jesus, questioning Him, analyzing Him, but they were not truly seeing Him.
Then He says something that would only make sense later:
“When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he.”
He is speaking about the Cross.
At that moment, the Cross looked like failure. It looked like defeat, rejection, and humiliation. But in reality, it would become the greatest revelation of who Jesus is. The Son of God, who gives His life out of love for the world.
This is where this Gospel meets us during this fifth week of Lent. We are getting closer to that moment. The Church is slowly turning our eyes toward the Cross, not as a symbol of suffering alone, but as the place where truth is revealed.
In today’s world, we struggle with the same misunderstanding. We often see suffering as meaningless. We avoid sacrifice. We run from anything that feels like loss or weakness. Even in our faith, we sometimes want quick solutions, instant answers, visible miracles.
But Jesus shows us a different way.
He shows us that God works even through what looks like loss.
He shows us that obedience to the Father matters more than approval from people.
He shows us that truth is not always popular, but it is always right.
He says, “I do nothing on my own… I always do what is pleasing to Him.”
That is a powerful line. It speaks of complete trust, complete surrender.
And that challenges us.
Because today, many people especially the younger generations are searching for identity, purpose, and truth. At the same time, there is so much noise, so many voices telling us what to believe, how to live, what matters. It becomes easy to drift, to follow trends instead of truth, to build a life that looks good on the outside but feels empty inside.
Older generations, on the other hand, sometimes carry the weight of experience, responsibility, and even disappointment. There can be a struggle to keep faith alive in a world that seems to be changing so fast.
This Gospel speaks to both.
To the young, it says: truth is not something you create, it is someone you encounter.
To the older, it says: God has not left you; He is still working, still guiding, still present.
Jesus reminds us that we are not meant to belong only to “this world.” We live in it, yes, but our identity is deeper than it.
Lent is a time to realign that identity.
To step back and ask:
- Am I living only for what is temporary?
- Or am I living for what is eternal?
- Am I seeking God’s will, or just my own comfort?
- Am I listening to His voice, or just the noise around me?
The beautiful thing is that even in the middle of misunderstanding, the Gospel ends with hope:
“As he spoke thus, many believed in him.”
Not everyone rejected Him. Some listened. Some allowed their hearts to open. Some chose to believe.
And that is still happening today.
Even in a complicated world, even with all the challenges we face there are still people searching, still people listening, still people finding their way back to God.
This Gospel invites us to be among them.
To look beyond the surface.
To recognize Jesus not just in words, but in the Cross.
And to trust that even when life does not make sense, God is still at work.
Because in the end, it is at the Cross when everything seems lost that we finally begin to see clearly who He truly is.