Word to the Wise
Friday, March 27, 2015 - 5th Week of Lent - Fri
[Jer 20:10-13 and John 10:31-42]"We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God." [John]
I hope that the Beloved Congregation can read both scriptures today. Jeremiah reflects on and bemoans his fate as a prophet, but he is confident of ultimate vindication. However, in the meantime, he must say things that he knows will cause his listeners to react violently. Jesus says things that make people react violently. In the Gospel of John, the crowd will pick up stones to throw, but it never happens because his "hour" has not yet come, when he is fully revealed and vindicated.
What is Jesus saying that causes his adversaries to react that way? They cannot accept the possibility that the human being standing in front of them could be the "Son of God." We have to be careful not to read back into the gospel the results of centuries of Christological reflection and speculation. But it is clear that Jesus' statement is enough to cause violent rejection. When he says things like, "the Father is in me and I am in the Father," and "Before Abraham came to be, I AM.." the listeners reach for the rocks.
Can we accept what those listeners rejected? The history of Christianity shows that the identity of Jesus has been controversial for centuries after his death and resurrection. There were people who said, "He is God in a human costume." Others said, "He is a human being whom God "adopted" for God's purposes. One denies humanity and the other denies divinity. The Arian controversy tore the church apart for centuries, and versions of it are still around.
Each Sunday, we recite together the words of the Nicene Creed which dates from the 4th century. This creed contains the bare minimum of dogmatic belief about who Jesus is, but do we pay much attention to it? Has it become "non-controversial" to us. At Sunday Mass, I preface the creed with the words, "People have lived and died for these words!" Should we take Jesus for granted and not be moved by what he says about himself? It is not likely that we will reach for stones, but what does it say that we do not react at all? AMEN
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