A Fateful Choice

Gospel: John 11: 45-56

The religious authorities of Jesus' day are afraid that if everyone follows him that the Romans will come and destroy the nation.  It is unclear why they have this belief.  Certainly there were people calling for Jesus to be made king, but he rejected such a title at every turn and showed no indications of desiring political power or influence.  Jesus in his teachings offered no overt political message, showing no partiality in the people he cared for in his work of healing, liberating, and feeding.  

Yet, this fear of the religious leaders will lead to a fateful choice later this week at Jesus' trial.  They will decide between Jesus and Barabbas.  The choice is an ironic one for two reasons.  The first is that Barabbas means "son of the father" and he was in fact a political revolutionary.  In choosing Barabbas over Jesus, they choose the path of violence which leads to yet another irony in causing what they claimed to have feared - destruction of the nation at the hand of the Roman Empire.  

We too have this same choice to make.  We can choose the path of Barabbas with the excessive attention on politics and power, a path of violence that leads to destruction.  Or we can follow the path of Jesus which is the path of mercy and care for others, a path of providing healing for those ailing, liberation for those gripped by their demons, and nourishment for those hungry in body and spirit.  Set before us is life and death, a blessing and a curse.  May we choose life. 

Doing the Good

Gospel: John 10: 31-42

It is undeniable that Jesus performs many good deeds for people throughout Judea and Galilee.  People are healed, liberated from their sins, and fed in their hunger.  And yet the religious authorities want to put him to death.  Jesus appeals to the good deeds in defending himself against his detractors.  What they find more important than good deeds is their theology - they claim he blasphemes in calling himself God's son, even though Jesus rightly notes that the tradition states we are all children of God.

How often is it the case that we place theology over the practice of good deeds in the life of religion! We denigrate the good work of others because they do not belong to our tribe, attend the liturgy we attend, or subscribe to our theological school.  No matter that they are caring for the sick and poor better than we are! All of that is somehow negated by theology in our petty worlds.  We would rather see people suffer than for our theology to be crossed.  

And therein lies the rub.  It isn't really about theology either.  It is about our power, status, influence, and ego.  Jesus is a threat to the religious authorities of his day because he threatens these things, even though he is not seeking power at all and he does these good things to genuinely help others.  Following Jesus will always be a threat to religious leaders for the same reasons.  The world cannot understand people who do not want power and who only wish to do good for others.

Avoiding the Issue

Gospel: John 8: 51-59

Throughout the Gospels we find portions that begin with a certain question or issue, only to be entirely neglected in the remaining portion.  Today we have such a scenario where Jesus talks about keeping the word of God.  The religious leaders with whom he speaks changes the topic to Jesus' identity and origins.  How adept we human beings are at avoiding a topic we would rather not address and create an entirely new topic and issue that has no relevance to our lives!

We too avoid this topic of Jesus.  We would rather retreat into abstract theology rather than address the issue of keeping God's word.  When we do attempt to address this issue, we invent a host of things completely foreign to the Gospel: the recitation of some credal formula, membership in a particular group, allegiance to some liturgical form or political agenda.  These become our pat answers, none of which correspond with anything Jesus himself actually did or taught.  

We avoid the issue and create vicarious false answers because keeping God's word is to accept the invitation to follow him.  We would rather not.  Jesus puts us in uncomfortable situations encountering people in dire needs of illness, possession, and hunger.  He bids us to do as he did - to heal, liberate, and feed others - to be agents of mercy and love in the world in very uncomfortable places and situations.  Today let us not avoid the issue, let us not create false answers to it.  Let us follow the Lord Jesus in his example and mission.