Word to the Wise
Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 4th Week of Lent - Sat
[Jer 11:18-20 and John 7:40-53]Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" [John]
The ever-dramatic Gospel of John is beginning to turn up the dramatic heat, as it were! Jesus is becoming a very controversial figure. It turns out that some of "the crowd" echoes the sentiment of Nathanael from the very first chapter: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" [1:46] But others are paying more attention to what they are seeing and hearing. As the guards say to the chief priests and Pharisees: "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
The problem revolves around expectations! The adversaries do not seem to know about Jesus' birthplace, Bethlehem. They only know that he came from Nazareth in Galilee, a region suspect in its Jewish-ness because of the presence of non-Jewish religious influences! Their interpretation of scripture requires them to look for a different person than Jesus of Nazareth! When Nicodemus [the secret admirer from chapter 3] timidly challenges them, he gets a very angry reaction.
The crowd, the guards, the chief priests and Pharisees and even Nicodemus are all either unsure about or openly hostile to Jesus. From our "perch" all these centuries later, how can we "second guess" them? We need to read the Gospel of John and put ourselves in their sandals. Will we say, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man?" Or will we say, "Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee?" AMEN