The works of the Father: How Jesus teaches us to live

God has appointed us to bear fruit. In the spiritual life, it can be hard to judge whether we are blossoming or wilting, so often trapped in isolated thoughts and feelings. Jesus, however, stands as our model, and he let us know how we could evaluate his own life, coming to know him through his works:

If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father. (Jn 10:37–38)

Jesus can be recognized as the one who does the works of the Father. But what are these works?

As Jesus implies in this statement from John’s Gospel, his works manifest who he is through tangible expression. This is the very purpose of the Incarnation, that the Word of the Father could speak into this dark world in an embodied way that we could grasp:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. . . . No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. (Jn 1:14, 18)

In John 10, Jesus assumes we would already have seen his works unfolding in his ministry. Prior to that statement, we find him providing miraculous drink, purifying the Temple, teaching about the Father, healing a paralytic and a blind man, and feeding the crowds with bread, while also claiming that only his body could really sustain them. These works show him to be the Good Shepherd, who gives life to his flock. In the next chapter, we see this central thread even more clearly as he raises his friend Lazarus back to life. Giving life and nourishment characterize Jesus’s ministry, beginning at the Wedding at Cana and continuing into the dividing of the loaves and the offer of the living water that quenches our deepest thirst.

All of Jesus’s deeds narrated by the evangelists lead to one great work that makes the Father’s love known in supreme fashion. The Cross manifests a love so great that would not hold back a beloved Son:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (Jn 3:16-17)

All the works of the Father—to feed, heal, purify and teach—manifest his love and mercy, which the Son embodies in the sacrificial gift of his life.

Death is the only way to life. This is the logic of the Cross that turns the world’s thinking upside down. If we cling to our life for its own sake, we will lose it, refusing to direct our actions to their true end in God. Jesus models how we should live, not embracing death for its own sake but as a means of entering into the love that leads to true life: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again” (Jn 10:17). The Father does not delight in the death of Son. He delights in a love unto death that becomes a means of life for those who will accept the gift.

If we follow Jesus, we, too, will do the works of the Father: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (Jn 14:12). Reading the Gospels, we don’t have to guess what these works look like. If Jesus came that we might have abundant life, our task is to lead others into it. This means to become the servant of those God has placed in our lives, witnessing to the truth through actions that embody our faith. Jesus gives the perfect example in washing the feet of his disciples. He explained its meaning:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (Jn 13:34-35)

Lent invites us to engage the works of the Father with renewed vigor.

Just as Jesus did all things for the Father, so prayer must come first, reorienting our lives and all our actions to God. A dedicated time of prayer each day enables all our actions to become works done on behalf of the Father to honor him and make him known.

Through fasting, we fight against the pride and material comfort that lead to works focusing on oneself. By embracing asceticism and penance, we battle the idol of self that crowds out works performed for God and neighbor.

Finally, in almsgiving, we can feed those who hunger, not simply fulfilling a bodily need but manifesting the love of the Father to them. The works of mercy as a whole become tangible expressions of God’s presence to the suffering.

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving will help us to follow after Jesus, taking on the works he performed to make the Father known and to draw others to him.