Today (John 7:40-53) we see very mixed responses to Jesus’ message. Some people grumble that the Messiah is supposed to come from Bethlehem, yet this Jesus is speaking to us in Galilee. Is he, then, just a prophet? Or is he a con man, a deceiver? The Pharisees think that anyone gullible enough to believe that Jesus is the Messiah are an ignorant mob, “crowds who do not know the law.” They were probably expecting a righteous and avenging Messiah, one who would reveal the kind of God that Jeremiah (Jeremiah 11:18-20) and the psalmist (Psalm 7) thought they knew.
But Jesus reveals that God is not what they expected. God loves us all and his salvation is for all. But the catch is, salvation is not imposed on us. It is lovingly offered to us, but we must choose it and accept it. It is only after we experience our own poverty, our own sinfulness, our own ignorance that we will be free of our preconceptions and able to accept God’s loving mercy and salvation. The logical conclusion is that if we think, as did the Pharisees, that we ARE righteous, then we do not need God and we will not “thirst” for his salvation. How did the Pharisees react to this message? They send guards out to arrest Jesus. But even the guards have ears, even the guards have hearts open to hearing the words of Jesus. They were so impressed that they could not arrest him. So, we get a clear picture that Jesus is indeed a controversial figure.
The Jewish people of Jesus’s time are not that much different than what we are today. Each one of us makes, throughout our lives, an image of God, a God that fits in with our own experiences, our own human definition of the law and of justice, just as Jeremiah, the Psalmist, and the Pharisees did. But Jesus reveals to us a God who is different. This God seeks out the poor (like the shepherds in Bethlehem), the sinners (prostitutes and tax collectors), the ignorant crowds (as in our Scripture readings today). For those of us who often feel righteous and deserving of God’s salvation, it can be difficult to be open to a revelation of a God who is Love and loves all His creatures, a revelation that often does not fit our preconceptions.
I think that the invitation today is to strip ourselves of all those preconceived ideas that we have about God and let ourselves be completely open to the God Jesus reveals: a God who, in Jesus, walks our same paths and tells us that God’s invitation is not contingent upon where we have been, or what we have done, or who we have been with. The only important thing is to come to Jesus and to believe in him and he will give us his Spirit.
The division that occurs among the people who hear Jesus reminds us to ask ourselves how we are affected by Jesus. We must ask this because for us, too, Jesus’ words and actions are critical, by which I mean that his words (and actions) demand a response. If we are to be women and men of faith, our response to Jesus and to his challenges in the gospel is indeed critical.
When Jesus asks his disciples, in another place in the gospels, “who do you say that I am?”, the response they give is crucial for their growing understanding of and affection for Jesus. We, too, as contemporary followers of Jesus, must continue to formulate an answer to the question of who Jesus is for us. The answer we give is crucial to our growth as women and men of growing faith.
As we continue our journey through Lent, we need continuously to be open to the Word of God. As we make this yearly and important journey, we pray to open ourselves to the ever-deeper entrance of Christ into our minds and hearts.
Lord, help me to grow in my understanding of who you are and how you continue to call me. Let me continue to be open to you and to respond to your voice amidst the din of clamoring voices that call me away from you, away from others, and away from my best self. Be the source of my growing in faith, in hope, and in love.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!