"Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father " John 5:45.

“How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope” John 5:44-45.

These are very powerful words spoken directly from Jesus to the religious leaders of the day. He is literally calling humanity out for its ego-centric focus: “you accept praise from one another”. How often do we do something because we think it will make other people like us? Or how many times do we go along with the crowd, even though in our gut it feels wrong, just so we don’t upset our friends or family? That seems to be what Jesus is criticizing  here: “you do not seek the praise that comes from the only God.”

There is a “still, small voice” that we can all hear if we slow down enough to listen. It is that small voice of God that will give us “praise” when we seek after it. What is that “praise”? It may just be a sense of complete peace from knowing that we followed our gut, and lived out our calling, even if only just for one day. Or we could receive some type of blessing or miracle that we weren’t expecting. This could be the “praise that comes from the only God,” rather than the empty false praise of our peers for which we so easily settle. 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day

were devout followers of the law of Moses.

They had a system of hierarchy that was essentially based on who could follow Moses’ law the best. They were judging, “accusing” each other with an exhaustive system. Jesus says, “do not think I will accuse you.” Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that he did not come to judge the world. Rather Jesus says, “Whoever believes in him [Jesus] will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned” (John 3:18). The ego-centric, judgmental ways in which humans relate to one another is like this condemnation. We judge ourselves and everyone around us as “unworthy” for one reason or another. That is not Jesus, as he says, “do not think that I will accuse you before the Father.” 

Thomas Merton brilliantly explained this in his book,  New Seeds of Contemplation (1961, p. 295):

“We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real and which lives by a shadowy autonomy for the brief moment of earthly existence; and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists. It is this inner self that is taken up into the mystery of Christ, by His love, by the Holy Spirit, so that in secret we live ‘in Christ’. Yet we must not deal in too negative a fashion even with the external self….as long as it does not isolate itself in a lie, it is blessed by the mercy and love of Christ.” 

What are we choosing this Advent? From whom are we seeking praise? Are we seeking to please the crowd, even if it is stressing us out and making us miserable? Or are we seeking the “praise that comes from the only God?” I hope for us all that we have the courage to choose the Truth, and live in the love and light of Christ.