Resisting Thrones

Gospel: John 6: 1-15

Jesus had been going about doing good to others.  Crowds hear about these good deeds, so they follow him wherever he goes.  Jesus looks to be apart from them, but they keep finding him.  They come in large numbers to a large field.  They are hungry, so Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to feed them, hoping that would lead them to go home.  Instead, they want to make him a king, so Jesus finds a way to escape from them, not wanting any part of such an enterprise.

In every age and place, whenever someone wants to use Jesus for their political ends, he flees from them.  For those who would have Jesus as king to bless their violence, wars, and animus toward the other, Jesus flees from their sight.  For those who would make Jesus into a community organizer, Jesus flees from their sight as well.  To reduce Jesus to a political program and agenda is to invite his swift and immediate departure from one's life.  

It is much easier to reduce Jesus to a political program than to accept him for who is really is - the presence of God's mercy and love in the world who invites us to extend that mercy and love to others.  We would much rather have the political program than actually extend mercy and love to others.  But the presence of Christ is in the bread offered and shared with others, not in the political agenda of the crowd more than willing to eat the bread, but not willing to be the bread. 

The Ones from Heaven

Gospel: John 3: 31-36

The ones of the earth speak of earthly things.  They are consumed with self-interest and insecurity.  They have many possessions and suspicious of others.  These possessions are not enough.  They need to be secured and expanded upon.  So the ones of the earth go about the world seizing the property of others, acting to secure their ill gotten property from others, causing wars, refugees and migration from lands where the wars of aggression are waged by the ones of the earth.

The ones from heaven speak of heavenly things.  They speak of peach and the common good of all.  They proclaim the need for dialogue and mutual cooperation, knowing that the goods of the earth belong to all and require equitable sharing.  The ones from heaven appear vulnerable to the violence of the ones of the earth, for the ones of heaven have no army and receive constant threats from the ones of the earth.  Yet, the ones of heaven have no fear of these threats.  They are at peace.

If we look to find the way of heaven, look to those who speak and live the heavenly way of peace, mercy, and loving kindness.  The way of earth will attempt to create false images of religiosity, claiming to be the way of heaven.  But their way is easily seen as false, for underneath lurks their violence and self-interest, their mistrust and lack of love for others.  The way of heaven is the way of Jesus, the way of mercy and peace, the way of life and death for the sake of others.

The Cave Dwellers

Gospel: John 3: 16-21

Audiences are shocked to hear Jesus say that people prefer darkness to light.  Surely this cannot be true.  Readers have the same reaction when they read Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  How could those people in the cave prefer their existence in darkness and chains to the world of freedom and light?  Jesus and Plato must be absolute pessimists about human beings to believe and assert that the majority of us prefer darkness and chains to light and freedom.

Yet, how do people accustomed to darkness react when they are brought outside into the light? Their entire body revolts at the experience.  The pain and length of time it takes to adjust is just too much.  We like our violence, our hatred of the foreigner and outsider.  We love those who hold us in captivity, giving them our money for sports stadiums and entertainment venues while we neglect the needs of the poor and uneducated and sick.  

We forget that the world executed both Socrates and Jesus, those who would hold up the light and lead us to freedom.  We forget how often the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt, how often they fell away from the commands of justice from God.  We create illusions on the cave wall to convince us we are good people who are heroes in the story, all while sitting in the darkness.  This Easter season, may we rise from our tombs and follow the Light of the World, the Prince of Peace.