Word to the Wise
Friday, April 15, 2011 - 5th Week of Lent - Fri
[Jer 20:10-13 and John 10:31-42]"If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.
Jesus appeals to what I might call an "imperfect faith" in this incident. He challenges his opponents to at least pay attention to what he DOES even if they have trouble believing what he SAYS. The opponents claim that his teaching seems to place him on a par with God! Our faith and two thousand years of Christian reflection say, "Well, of course!" But if we're in that crowd, and we are Jewish or a Roman (who considers Caesar to be divine and not some Jewish rabbi), Jesus WORDS are very troubling. Jesus challenges them all to pay attention to the WORKS of the Father that he has been doing so that they may come to believe in HIM.
The Gospel of John is not the only place in the gospels where "imperfect faith" appears. Jesus regularly complains in the other gospels about people putting their faith only in "signs and wonders" and not in the one who performs them (or at least only when he is performing them). It's as if this kind of faith dares God to be God! In the famous musical JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, Herod sings a song to Jesus which contains the line, "Prove to me that you're no fool! Walk across my swimming pool!" We may not find it very comforting to be included in the same company with Herod, but if our faith rests entirely on the miraculous and spectacular, we fall within Jesus' frustration at imperfect faith.
THE one sign that Jesus directs our attention to in the Gospel of John is not the changing of water into wine or healing the man born blind or raising Lazarus from the dead. It is the CROSS with his body on it! If we fail to see that "sign" then we are missing the point of his life and ministry altogether. Our principal liturgical encounter with that sign will occur on Good Friday! Don't miss it! AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
70 ms
4
