Becoming Our True Selves

“Becoming our true selves” (Gospel of John) – February 1st, 2026

“‘What is REAL?’ asked the Rabbit one day …

‘When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It doesn’t happen all at once … You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’”

It turns out that the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit’s theme that “love makes you real” is right in line with the Gospel of John!

John 1:9-14 (The Message) – “The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”

John wants us to know that Jesus came so we can become our true selves, just like Jesus. As we talked about last week, anyone who wants to can become a God-begotten member of this new family that Jesus started. Russian-American theologian Georges Florovsky points out that “Christianity entered history as … a new social dimension.  From the very beginning Christianity was not primarily a ‘doctrine,’ but exactly a ‘community.’” Let’s drop in one encounter when Jesus was calling his first disciples.

John 1:45-51 – “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you get to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”

It’s interesting that Jesus did most of his miracles in the Galilee region, which is about 50 miles north-to-south and 30 miles wide, about 1/5 the area of the 29 counties that we call “metro Atlanta.” Two of the many towns in Galilee, Cana and Nazareth, were less than five miles apart. Nathanael, who is from Cana, can’t believe that anything good could come out of Nazareth! We humans love taking sides, don’t we? Whether we’re talking about friendly, festive, good-natured gatherings, like next week’s Super Bowl Sunday, or village rivalries, or that group or person we do not like, we just don’t wanna believe the best about them.

Nathanael is having a private conversation with his friend Philip when he makes this comment. And yet, when Jesus sees him coming, he says something that makes Nathanael realize that Jesus really sees him, beyond what human eyes can see. Nathanael is so startled by that that he bursts out with, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Pay attention to Jesus’ response: “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these … Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” John includes that last part to help us understand that when you’re with Jesus, you’re in the very Temple where God’s own presence dwells and where angels are coming and going.

Jesus devoted a large portion of his ministry to performing miracles. But right at the beginning of John’s gospel we see the most significant and central of all God’s miracles, in John 1:14 – “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” God the Word became flesh, God the human, Jesus.

N. T. Wright describes John’s gospel as a kind of intricately planned “treasure hunt, with careful and sometimes cryptic clues laid for us to follow.” This description immediately made me think of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The Camino, the Way of St. James, is a network of Christian pilgrimage routes that was established in the early 800s and later declared one of the three great pilgrimages of Christendom, along with Jerusalem and Rome. I can’t believe that it has already been almost 10 years since members of our Sculley family first experienced the Camino. Cascade was the first – she walked the entire 800km on the Camino Frances, a 33-day journey; I walked with her for 460km; and Karis & Esther joined us for the last 110km. The Camino is marked with thousands of signs containing a blue scallop shell on a yellow background and a yellow arrow. These helpful markers are usually visible at every turn, as the route passes through remote areas as well as crowded city streets, to help pilgrims to find their way. Notice I said “usually.”

On one of our final days there, I missed one of the signposts. It is unusual for pilgrims to walk side by side with anyone all day long, because the journey is largely contemplative, and everyone has their own pace. Because Karis and Esther were only 16, we pre-arranged meeting places each day. Even with the best planning, though, we didn’t know until we arrived in a town where we would stay, since Camino hostels are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. On that particular day, Cascade set out quite early. Her sisters and I were a couple of hours behind, walked separately, met up for snack and lunch breaks, and kept in touch via cell phones. Meanwhile, I lost my way, inadvertently walking 5km past the town where I had planned to meet my girls. Having already walked 34km that day, I had no more energy to walk all that way back through the forest. Thankfully I found a way out of the woods, and eventually flagged down a passing car, whose driver kindly offered to take me to the hostel at which Cascade had already arrived. Thank God for the hospitality of strangers! Meanwhile, it had been three hours since either of us had heard from Karis or Esther, which meant their phone batteries had both died. We had no idea how on earth we would find them before sunset. SOS prayer requests went out all over the world. The town we were in had ten Camino hostels, spread out over quite a large area.

Long story short, a few weeks earlier, before Karis & Esther arrived on the Camino, Cascade and I had befriended a young pilgrim, Martha. Cascade had shown her some family photos, and Martha was really good with names and faces. I had not seen Martha for days, but on this day, Martha ended up staying at the same hostel, which was set far below street level. She happened to be standing outside the hostel when she recognized Karis and Esther, whom she had never met, as they walked right past her. She remembered and called out their names! Much to our collective relief, our missed signpost adventure was over, all glory to God!

John does not want us to miss any of Jesus’ signs on this pilgrimage of life. N. T. Wright says these signs are “moments when heaven is opened, when the transforming power of God’s love bursts into the present world … moments when heaven and earth intersect with each other.” The most important thing about these signs is that, as great as they are, their purpose is to point ahead to the ultimate moment when Jesus would die on the cross, when heaven and earth would fully meet. We don’t want to miss the signs. And, even more importantly, we don’t want to miss what the signs are pointing to: Jesus came to bring heaven and earth together, so that whoever believes that Jesus is God-in-the-flesh will be transformed into their true selves, their child-of-God selves.

In Christian scholarship, in the Gospel of John, the whole section from John 1:19 to the end of John 12 is known as the Book of Signs, named for seven notable events, seven miracles, that it records. We are going to look at the first two of these miracles, these signs, today.

Let’s take a look at Jesus’ first sign:

John 2:1-11 –“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

There are many insights to be drawn from this miracle. Here are a few that I notice:

• Even when we approach Jesus as a miracle worker, as his mother Mary did, Jesus reminds us that he is our Lord.
• We exercise faith, as Mary did, when we place our confidence in Jesus’ authority and expect that he is going to do something to change the situation.
• We submit ourselves to Jesus’ Lordship, as the servants did, when we become willing to do whatever he tells us.
• Jesus is able to provide more than enough both materially (abundant wine) and spiritually (abundant life).
• Not everyone involved in a miracle story (e.g. the chief steward) is necessarily aware that a miracle has taken place.
• When Jesus did this sign, it revealed his glory.
• When Jesus did this sign, it resulted in faith – his disciples believed in him.

When Jesus is present, transformation happens. In Cana that day, Jesus responded to a potential social disaster and disgrace in a very unexpected way, by turning water into wine. Throughout the Gospel of John, as in all four gospels, Jesus responds to all kinds of other problems with compassion and creativity. Jesus still meets people today in the middle of messes, catalyzing life-changing transformation, surrender, and faith.

Now let’s turn to the second sign, in John 4:46-54 – “Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.”

By this time, Jesus had done a bunch of other miracles, and the news had gotten around. This royal official came to Jesus begging for a miracle. Jesus is concerned that people are starting to seek the signs, and they’re missing who Jesus is. They wanted a Messiah who does miracles. But Jesus’ desire was for them to believe in him, the Word made flesh. So, Jesus challenges this official. The official pleads for a miracle again. Jesus then compassionately tells him to “go,” promising him that his son would live. New Testament scholar Mary L. Coloe points out that “usually miracle workers interact directly with the person to be healed through touch, spittle, or breath … Jesus’ word is enough to ensure life for this child; his physical presence is not necessary. The official trusts this word and returns home.” This man’s faith is astounding, and it came, not from seeing a miracle, but by hearing and believing Jesus’ word. Later, after Jesus’ word was confirmed by the actual healing and the timing of Jesus’ words, the official and his whole household believed! Coloe summarizes this short episode as “the whole gospel in a nutshell: ‘that you may come to believe (or continue to believe) that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name.’”

John strategically chooses to tell his narrative in such a way that we can see how this royal official is transformed through his encounter with Jesus. He is first introduced in terms of his role as an official. After Jesus’ rebuke, he shifts from his position as one with authority over another to one recognizing the authority of the other: he calls Jesus “Sir.” Next, he pleads for mercy for “my little boy.” Jesus then responds with the words, “Go; your son lives.” We might expect the next line to say, “the official believed,” but it says, “the person (anthropos) believed.” He is now simply a human being standing in the presence of the Word made flesh, the Creator and Sustainer of life. When he returns home and realizes what Jesus has done for him and his family, John now refers to him as “the father.” Coloe notes that “a child in this household of faith has found life, and a father has found his humanity.”

John, in both of these accounts, shows us what faith looks like. The good news of Jesus Christ does not invite us to believe in ideas, feelings, or experiences. Genuine faith does not seek signs, what Jesus can do for us, his miracles. John 20:30-31 – “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Genuine faith always seeks the Word who is hidden in the flesh for his own sake. We are invited to believe in the Word become flesh. We are invited, through believing, to have life in Jesus’ name. What does that life look like? The answer lies in John 1:12, reading this again in The Message translation: “But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.” Believe in the Word become flesh. Have life in Jesus’ name. Be your true selves, your child-of-God selves.

This verse assures us that when we believe that Jesus is the Word become flesh, God makes us to be our true selves. And, we also have work to do, because we are still flesh and blood and in need of all kinds of transformation. Becoming our true selves is a life-long process and one involving personal and community transformation. How does this transformation occur? Let’s close with two beautiful reflections on that question, one from a contemplative, one from an intellectual.

Theologian, monk, and mystic Thomas Merton observes, “Contemplation is the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life … It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life … It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source … The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God … Therefore I cannot hope to find myself anywhere except in [God].”

C. S. Lewis urges us, at the close of Mere Christianity, “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

What is God’s invitation to you, to us, in our journey of becoming our true selves?