The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

April 26, 2026 – Fourth Sunday of Easter  - John 10:1-10

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The gospels are filled with many noteworthy and important passages. In today’s gospel, it concludes with a verse that should make most top-ten lists of great sayings of Jesus. Here it is. “I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” What might this mean?

First, it underscores the truth that the incarnation of God among us in Jesus is not some self-serving gesture on God’s part. Creation does not serve to fulfil some divine need. God does not need anything to contribute to God’s own fulfilment or pleasure. Inherent in God’s nature is absolute fullness of existence, power and sufficiency.

As St. Thomas Aquinas (perhaps the greatest of all theologians) taught, God is Being Itself. I know that it is difficult concept for us to grasp, or fully understand, but we can at least clarify our thinking by understanding what God is not. God simply exists and all else exists because of God. God is not lonely or needy in any way. God never was. Nor does God have a beginning nor does God have any end. God is eternal.  

All else that exists in creation is outside of God. It becomes real through God’s creative power. Creation (including you and me) does not exist to fulfil some divine need or give God anything that God does not already possess. Too often people imagine God as needy or incomplete – like we are. This is a mistake. It turns creation upside down. It reverses the reality into serving (perhaps) a human need to feel superior or fully self-sufficient.

This sort of reasoning helps us to not mistake the role of God in creation. Or God’s intent. We are not created to serve God or to give God something God needs. It helps to bring forth another description of God that simply affirms that God is love! It is God’s nature to love and God does this in part by creating you and me and everyone else. And that does not just include we who have lived and are presently living here on Earth. (Of course, there may be millions of other places where loving is possible, but we can only guess about that.) Maybe some day communication between Earthlings and others may occur and that if so will lead to a further understanding of the divine creator of all that is.

Back to the passage from today’s gospel about what pre-exists and is the reason for our existence. Jesus embodies God’s love for us. For all of us. Jesus came to exemplify the depth and reality of God’s love. Are we seeking to embody that same abundant love in our lives with those also loved into life by God?

David M. Thomas, PhD