What Must Happen

Gospel: Luke 9: 43-45

It is relatively early in the public ministry of Jesus.  In the eyes of the disciples everything is going very well.  Jesus and his followers have been going from town to town healing people, feeding them at table, freeing them from their demons.  Large crowds are following them wherever they go.  Surely Jesus is the Messiah.  In no time at all Israel will be restored and they will be in power in the restored kingdom.  How could it be otherwise?

But Jesus continually tells them that he will be handed over to the authorities and be executed?  How could this be true? Sure, here and there they have had disputes with Pharisees and other religious authorities, but look at all the good that is being done!  Look at the crowds and how popular Jesus is with them!  Surely the religious and political leaders see the good, see the popularity.  They would not dare execute Jesus!

Yet, Jesus will be right.  The authorities will indeed arrest him and execute him.  Jesus realized what should be obvious to us all by now: those in authority do not care about the good done for people or popularity based on this good.  They care only about their own power, privilege, and influence.  Jesus' good deeds and popularity threatened those things.  So Jesus must die.  We struggle to accept it, but this is the way of the world, the way of the cross, the way to the empty tomb. 

Looking for Answers

Gospel: Luke 9: 18-22

Yesterday's Gospel portion saw Herod musing about Jesus.  Today Jesus asks his disciples what people are saying about him.  They reply with the same answers Herod had in his musings - John the Baptist, Elijah, an ancient prophet.  These are the answers from the palace - our mental palaces or ideological ones.  Now Jesus asks his disciples what they think - who do you say I am?  Peter gives the reply:  You are the Messiah, the Son of God.

This answer is fraught with danger and Jesus warns them to tell these answers to no one.  The title Messiah will lead to trouble with the religious leaders of the day, prompting them to seek the death of Jesus.  The title Son of God is a virtual death sentence from the Roman authorities who see in that title a direct challenge to the authority of the emperor.  For this reason Jesus tells his disciples that he must suffer and be put to death.

This answer proved a challenge for Luke's audience who lived in a time when they were being expelled from synagogues and threatened by Roman authorities.  If we take these titles seriously we will find trouble from religious and political leaders who have their own Messiah complexes and claims to absolute authority in the world.  For the way of the Messiah is one of service and mercy to others, not domination and control over people.   

Musings about Jesus

Gospel: Luke 9: 7-9

Herod is curious about Jesus.  He has heard a lot of things from various places about Jesus.  Herod considers a variety of theories.  He hears from some that John has been raised from the dead.  Others say Jesus is Elijah or one of the prophets.  Herod keeps trying to see Jesus, but from behind the walls of his palace, not out in villages where Jesus is.  When Herod finally does see him, Jesus is under arrest and will say nothing at all to Herod.  

How similar we are to Herod!  We have proposed all sorts of theories and theologies about Jesus.  We have reconstructed and re-created his life - all of which carefully crafted to suit our preconceptions and biases.  We have spun all these webs from within the safety of our own palace walls.  We say that we are eager to encounter Jesus, as long as it is in a warm fuzzy experience or in the tabernacle where we have placed God in a box.  

Jesus is found in the villages outside our palace.  He is healing sick people, liberating people from their demons, feeding people at table.  Jesus is the sick person, the prisoner, the poor and marginalized, the immigrant and refugee, the average person on the street - all people we seek to avoid.  Today is a day for us to leave our palaces both physical and mental in order to find Jesus in the same places we found him in the Gospels.