Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 29, 2007 - Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent
[Genesis 17:3-9 and John 8:51-59]Your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of Nations.
Three major religious families claim descent from Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. When God promised to make Abraham's progeny as numerous as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore, that was no poetic boast! (Gen 22:17) The question of Abrahamic descent and its significance play a part in today's gospel scripture. Scripture scholars tell us that the Gospel of John reflects the experience of the community in which it was written. That community was experiencing considerable conflict with other Jewish communities who, by that time anywhere from 60 to 80 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, were expelling from the synagogue those who believed in Jesus. The debates must have been ferocious if the gospel text is any indication. Jesus is quoted as telling his adversaries that their father was not Abraham but the devil because they were trying to kill the very one for whom the covenant with Abraham was created! This debate about Abraham follows Jesus' statement: You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Jesus' adversaries do not like the implication that they are slaves. As far as Jesus (and the later community) is concerned, the adversaries are slaves to their blindness (read the story of the healing of the man born blind in chap. 9). How can they make Abraham and God their ultimate ancestors when they reject the one whom God has sent to be the fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham! The basic situation is a "take it or leave it" one for both parties. The Jewish synagogues are saying, "Give up your preaching about Jesus as messiah or else!" The Christian believers are saying, "Accept Jesus' or else!" From our perspective - an American individualist option-loving perspective - there may be a negative reaction to a "take it or leave it" proposition about Jesus' identity. We may want to "fudge" it a bit. Needless to say, our Jewish and Moslem friends aren't going to "fudge it." The divinity of Christ is unacceptable to them - period! Why, then, are we tempted to "relativize" the identity and mission of Jesus by making him just one great man among many like Mohammed or Buddha? We must tell the truth as we know it if we wish to be Jesus' disciples and experience the freedom he has promised. AMEN
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