Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 28, 2009 - 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 issues of gospel authorship are many and complex, but I have my own theory about the gospel of John. I'm convinced that whoever put the work together had to have been a dramatist, a closet playwright or at least a very dramatic story teller. The buildup of dramatic tension is really palpable and the characters are so vivid! Each scene appears to be carefully thought out, using dramatic techniques such as misunderstanding leading to to revelation and to opposition that grows in its own intensity! Today's gospel shows that the religious authorities and Pharisees (they were not the same thing) tried at least once to arrest Jesus but failed when the guards were entranced by Jesus' preaching! They represent the dual tragedy that unfolds and is illustrated so well in the story of the Man Born Blind (John 9). There the blind man recovers physical sight and gains the "sight" that is faith. The Pharisees become blinder and blinder! Jesus would become a tragic victim of that blindness ("Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee!") and they become tragic victims of their own blindness because they fail to recognize the Messiah! The genius of good drama is that it draws the spectator into the action in such a way that the spectator "identifies" with the characters as well as with the dramatic action! Which voice is ours? "This is truly the Prophet?" or "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?" Are we one of the courageous guards who go back to report that the reason they didn't arrest Jesus is that they are becoming believers? I have just returned from preaching a parish mission at a parish in Boerne, TX. One evening, before beginning one of the mission services, the Youth Group was in the church practicing a "Passion Mime" that they would present during the Holy Week. Apparently this has become a regular feature of the Holy Week observance in this parish. Several of the adults who were present noted to me that they were deeply moved each time they saw this. In San Antonio each year there is a "reenactment" of the Passion downtown outside the cathedral! Perhaps we will not have the opportunity to be part of such an observance, but we can at least read the Passion (any of the four, but especially John's gospel) and let our imagination place us in the scene. This is not just historical reenactment, this is an acknowledgment in faith that Christ dies for us everyday. AMEN
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