In the whole New Testament we find expressed the truth of the
sending of the Son by the Father, which is made concrete in the messianic
mission of Jesus Christ.
Examples: "I proceeded and came forth from God; I came
not of my own accord, but he sent me" (Jn 8,16). "I bear witness to
myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me" (Jn 18,18).
"He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him for I came
from him, and he sent me" (Jn 7,28-29). "For the works which the
Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me
witness that the Father has sent me" (Jn 5,36). "My food is to do the
will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (Jn 4,34).
The same truth will emerge, in a special way, in the priestly
prayer, where Jesus, recommending his disciples to the Father: "They...
know in truth that I have come from thee " (Jn 17,8). As though referring
directly to the priestly prayer, the first words addressed to the disciples on
the evening of the day of the resurrection are, "As the Father has sent me,
even so I send you" (Jn 20,21).
"I must preach the kingdom to the other cities also; for
I was sent for this purpose" (Lk 4,43). Jesus recalls what was about the
stone rejected by the builders, it was this very stone that, became the head of
the corner (that is, the cornerstone cf. Ps 117,22).
The parable of the son sent to the tenants of the vineyard is
emphasizes rather graphically the sacrificial and redemptive character of the
mission.
John also speaks in a particularly moving way, "For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3,16).
Therefore he adds that in accepting Jesus, his Gospel, his
death and resurrection, "we know and believe the love God has for us. God
is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him"
(cf. 1 Jn 4,8-16).
Paul expresses the same truth: "He (God) who did not
spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all
things with him?" (Rom 8,32). Christ was "given" for us, as we
read in John 3,16; he was "given" in sacrifice "for us all"
(Rom 8,32).
The truth about Jesus Christ, as the Son sent by the Father
for the redemption of the world, for the salvation and liberation of those who
were prisoners of sin (and therefore of the powers of darkness) constitutes the
essential kernel of the Good News.
Jesus Christ is the "only Son" (Jn 1,18), who, to
carry out his messianic mission, "did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in
the likeness of men... became obedient unto death" (Phil 2,6-8).
This very obedience to the Father, freely accepted, this
submission to the Father, in opposition to the "disobedience" of the
first Adam, remains the expression of the most profound union between Father and
Son, a reflection of the Trinitarian unity, "I do as the Father has
commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father" (Jn
14,31).
Indeed, this union of will for the salvation of man reveals
definitively the truth about God in his intimate Essence, Love. At the same time
it reveals the original source of the salvation of the world and mankind, the
"Life which is the light of men" (Jn 1,4).
