Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 8, 2008 - Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent
[Jeremiah 11:18-20 and John 7:40-53]So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?" The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
The days building up to the final confrontation between Jesus and his adversaries are filled with tensions and plots. The Pharisees actually send temple guards to "arrest" Jesus but they come back empty-handed. Their statement is as simple as it is frustrating to the Pharisees. Jesus is unique. They have never heard anyone speak like him before! That is what makes him so threatening to the "powers that be." The only argument they can muster is that Jesus is from Galilee and there was a tradition that the Messiah had to come from Bethlehem! They assume he was born in Nazareth. The reason for their ignorance is not certain from the text. It's hard to determine. The plain fact (an ironic one) is that Jesus is from heaven! But the Pharisees will not hear any evidence of that, nor will they "see" (cf. the incident of the Man Born Blind in Chap 9). Their ignorance, blindness and fear lead them to seek a way to get rid of Jesus. The gospel passage today shows that their opinion is not a unanimous one because Nicodemus (who went to Jesus by night in Chap 3) tries to defend him, to no avail. It is easy to see this as a tragic and terrible event of the past. Yet, we are also part of it. When the passion accounts are read in Holy Week, we are part of the crowd swayed this way and that, yelling, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Are we so blind and ignorant and afraid as the Pharisees then were? What happens when our desires for particular goals conflict with what we know of Jesus' teachings? Do we find a way to make him disappear? Do we even give him a hearing? I remember my one thought upon leaving the theater after seeing the graphic movie, THE PASSION, was: "He did this for me." As the guards testify, he has spoken as no one else has ever spoken! This confronts me with whatever blindness, ignorance and fear I may have about faith. Making Jesus disappear would simply make that blindness, ignorance and fear deepen. AMEN
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