Do We Know Him?

Gospel: John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

It is an irony of the Gospels that those who sought to put Jesus to death claimed to know all about him: his origins, his family, his acquaintances, and his teachings.  At the same time, those who did know him as his disciples will claim they did not know him, and they will sit idly by as Jesus is put to death in the most cruel and unjust way.  It may in fact be ironic were it not for the fact that this same pattern exists in every time and place.

Consider those who claim to know Jesus: they know their scripture and have paid for their pew, and yet we find them so actively seeking the death of others in the death penalty, endless wars, the neglect and mistreatment of immigrants, migrants, and refugees, and the deliberate exclusion of people from access to health care.  At the same time, we find disciples who sit idly by allowing these things to happen and claiming not to know him in the person of others.

To know Jesus is to imitate and follow his example in the world.  He went about healing, liberating, and feeding others without discrimination and excluding no one.  He never killed anyone and rebuked those who sought to do so, even putting himself between executioners and a woman they accused of adultery.  To know Jesus is to do these things in our world and for the people we encounter.  To know Jesus is to know him in the person of every human being we encounter.