Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 16, 2024 - 4th Week of Lent - Sat
[Jer 11:18-20 and John 7:40-53,323]I knew their plot because the Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings. Yet I, like a lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me. [Jeremiah] 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." [John]
The "dramatic tension" between Jesus and the Jewish leadership, especially in Jerusalem, builds sharply in chapter seven in the Gospel According to John. Guards are sent to arrest Jesus, but they return empty-handed. When questioned as to why they didn't bring Jesus in, they replied, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man." Nicodemus, who had earlier visited Jesus at night, timidly comes to light by suggesting that Jesus should be heard before being condemned. The Pharisees and chief priests shout him down. They reflect the earlier skepticism of the apostle Nathaniel when he first heard that Jesus was from Nazareth: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" [John 1:46]
The journey with Jesus into Holy Week can be very fruitful if we are able with the aid of the Gospel According to John to place ourselves in the dramatic scenes. Jesus is in charge of whatever takes place. We can try on various roles. Today we might share the puzzlement of the guards who are caught between the crowd and the Pharisees! Or we can share the various reactions of the crowd: "This is truly the Prophet." Or, "This is the Christ!" Or the ironically strange reaction: "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?" Well....yes! Or dare we speak in Jesus' defense like NIcodemus?
What we cannot afford is blind opposition based on religious elitism like that of the Pharisees and chief priests in Jerusalem. The story of Holy Week is the confrontation of Jesus, the one whom God has sent, with the darkness and blindness of unbelief. Pilate will say, "What is truth?" And the crowd will cry out: "Crucify him, crucify him!!" How will we react? AMEN