Epistle. Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel. John 8:46-59
The Gospel is building on a sequence of dialogue that begins several paragraphs prior. Jesus has presented a series of experiential and philosophical arguments that attest to his identity as a God man. Our reading picks up with an argument based on his public character, “Can any of you convict me of sin?” This is a fairly clever reversal of the question he is said to have posed in the pericope adulterae that begins the 8th chapter in our Bibles. Then, Jesus asked if any of the scribes and Pharisees were without sin, and the first one to fulfill the criteria could throw the first stone at the adulteress. Now, he asks them if he is a known sinner.
As always, their reply is dodgy and doesn't even address the question he had asked. In effect, they are refusing to give his question a hearing – it is too ridiculous. Instead, they respond with what amounts to a racial slur and tell him he is possessed by a demon. Of course, this is not a new accusation. You may recall the famous line, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25) That was a response to the same accusation of demonic possession. That discussion had already taken place.
Notice, he had already told them they did not belong to God. Now, he elaborates on that point: they cannot belong to God because they do not recognize God's Son standing in their midst. Moreover, he presses his case to accuse them of not being true worshipers (a theme John has already worked with more than once by this point): “It is because I reverence my Father that you have no reverence for me.” In effect, he is telling them they cannot even recognize true worship! Who better to emulate in worship than God's own Son? But they will not, they will cling rabidly to their own traditions.
The discourse of this Gospel is a series of escalations of the argument. Jesus then reminds them that he has the bread of Life (as we read last week), the living water, the cup of salvation – too combine a number of John's theological touchstones. After this barrage, the Jews tell him, “Now we are certain that thou art possessed.” They give him their appraisal of him, less than Abraham and the Prophets, for they have all died though they were the pillars of Judaism. “What dost thou claim to be?”
Jesus uses their own tactic and ignores the heart of the question. He has already answered this numerous times. They are obstinate and unrepentant in their refusal to hear. Here it is well that we return to an earlier paragraph:
Now, he thrusts the sword of truth in deep: “Honour must come to me from my Father, from him who you claim as your God; although you cannot recognize him.” And isn't that what the Gospel story is all about? God honouring his son, his work, his inherent nature as divine yet human? He is the epitome of creation: the flawless man, but he is also divine. It is he that can reunite two worlds that have grown apart.
And here he gives them a last reminder of who and what he is; “As for your father Abraham, his heart was proud to see the day of my coming. . .” He is the fulfillment of the promise! And he is the superior figure, as the book of Hebrews works out in detail. Abraham paid homage to Melchizedek of Salem; it should have been no great thing to the Jews that he would also honour the Christ. But he pushes one step further, not only has he know placed himself above Abraham, he equates himself to the great I AM! This places him above Moses as well! Both are a bridge too far. He might have had a chance if he had only claimed to be a prophet, but this is blasphemy. And so they take up stones to stone him.
We are finally told that Jesus 'hid himself.' John is mostly finished with discussing Jesus' ministry; he has recounted relevant case studies in miracles and a fair amount of teaching to the masses. His chronology is hard to synchronize with the Synoptics – if that is even a worthwhile project. He is less concerned with the history and more with the meaning. His next few chapters will focus on teaching given to the inner circle. And then, he devotes about half of his Gospel to the Passion narrative.
This time of relative obscurity is a time of preparation for Jesus and the disciples. He tries to prepare them for what must happen: his agony and death. He knows they will be confused and not understand because they are still brain-washed by Jewish expectations for a restoration of the Davidic kingdom of old; or something of the sort. John is masterful at subtly hinting at his own weakness in this regard as he concludes his writing. He gives many tell-tale signs that he did not at first understand but later came to recognize the symbolism being enacted in real life before him, as the Old covenant story was brought to a close and the New begun.
But not only is Jesus preparing the disciples, he is preparing himself. It is hard to say what the actual timeline looked like those many centuries ago, but Jesus knows what is to come and is steadily walking toward the cross. And so our Lent is built to begin, on this Passion Sunday, to point us to the cross. The readings of today focus on the worthiness of Jesus to be the sacrificial lamb.
How does one prepare to die? This question is counter-intuitive to many of our peers. I suspect the present American context is closer to a crusader mindset than that of a martyr. I encounter many people who rant and rave about arming themselves and joining a militia movement or something of the sort. Dying the martyrs death is something that happens in backward far off places like Nigeria or China. And we red-blooded American heroes, as the world's police force, should probably do something about that.
I've thought about this mentality at length and realized it is nothing more than the mindset of the Jews in Jesus' day, even of St. Peter in the garden. It is a fundamental lack of belief or perhaps patience. This is a mentality that God needs a helping hand to enact his kingdom. In fact, we read about this mindset last week when the epistle discussed Abraham and Hagar. But the message of the Gospel is that God has already won the cosmic war and the kingdom is at hand. He is just waiting for the harvest of souls to be full and ripe.
Let me leave you with this reflection of St. Ignatius of Antioch on the passion of Christ as he faced his own martyrdom:
Gospel. John 8:46-59
The Gospel is building on a sequence of dialogue that begins several paragraphs prior. Jesus has presented a series of experiential and philosophical arguments that attest to his identity as a God man. Our reading picks up with an argument based on his public character, “Can any of you convict me of sin?” This is a fairly clever reversal of the question he is said to have posed in the pericope adulterae that begins the 8th chapter in our Bibles. Then, Jesus asked if any of the scribes and Pharisees were without sin, and the first one to fulfill the criteria could throw the first stone at the adulteress. Now, he asks them if he is a known sinner.
As always, their reply is dodgy and doesn't even address the question he had asked. In effect, they are refusing to give his question a hearing – it is too ridiculous. Instead, they respond with what amounts to a racial slur and tell him he is possessed by a demon. Of course, this is not a new accusation. You may recall the famous line, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25) That was a response to the same accusation of demonic possession. That discussion had already taken place.
Notice, he had already told them they did not belong to God. Now, he elaborates on that point: they cannot belong to God because they do not recognize God's Son standing in their midst. Moreover, he presses his case to accuse them of not being true worshipers (a theme John has already worked with more than once by this point): “It is because I reverence my Father that you have no reverence for me.” In effect, he is telling them they cannot even recognize true worship! Who better to emulate in worship than God's own Son? But they will not, they will cling rabidly to their own traditions.
The discourse of this Gospel is a series of escalations of the argument. Jesus then reminds them that he has the bread of Life (as we read last week), the living water, the cup of salvation – too combine a number of John's theological touchstones. After this barrage, the Jews tell him, “Now we are certain that thou art possessed.” They give him their appraisal of him, less than Abraham and the Prophets, for they have all died though they were the pillars of Judaism. “What dost thou claim to be?”
Jesus uses their own tactic and ignores the heart of the question. He has already answered this numerous times. They are obstinate and unrepentant in their refusal to hear. Here it is well that we return to an earlier paragraph:
Whereupon the Pharisees told him, Thou art testifying on thy own behalf, thy testimony is worth nothing. Jesus answered them, My testimony is trustworthy, even when I testify on my own behalf; I know whence I have come, and where I am going; you do not know whence I have come, you do not know where I am going. You set yourselves up to judge, after your earthly fashion; I do not set myself up to judge anybody. And what if I should judge? My judgement is judgement indeed; it is not I alone, my Father who sent me is with me. Just so it is prescribed in your law, The testimony of two men is trustworthy; well, one is myself, testifying in my own behalf, and my Father who sent me testifies in my behalf too. Hereupon they said to him, Where is this Father of thine? And Jesus answered, You have no knowledge, either of me or of my Father; had you knowledge of me, you would have knowledge of my Father as well. (John 8:13-19)
Now, he thrusts the sword of truth in deep: “Honour must come to me from my Father, from him who you claim as your God; although you cannot recognize him.” And isn't that what the Gospel story is all about? God honouring his son, his work, his inherent nature as divine yet human? He is the epitome of creation: the flawless man, but he is also divine. It is he that can reunite two worlds that have grown apart.
And here he gives them a last reminder of who and what he is; “As for your father Abraham, his heart was proud to see the day of my coming. . .” He is the fulfillment of the promise! And he is the superior figure, as the book of Hebrews works out in detail. Abraham paid homage to Melchizedek of Salem; it should have been no great thing to the Jews that he would also honour the Christ. But he pushes one step further, not only has he know placed himself above Abraham, he equates himself to the great I AM! This places him above Moses as well! Both are a bridge too far. He might have had a chance if he had only claimed to be a prophet, but this is blasphemy. And so they take up stones to stone him.
We are finally told that Jesus 'hid himself.' John is mostly finished with discussing Jesus' ministry; he has recounted relevant case studies in miracles and a fair amount of teaching to the masses. His chronology is hard to synchronize with the Synoptics – if that is even a worthwhile project. He is less concerned with the history and more with the meaning. His next few chapters will focus on teaching given to the inner circle. And then, he devotes about half of his Gospel to the Passion narrative.
This time of relative obscurity is a time of preparation for Jesus and the disciples. He tries to prepare them for what must happen: his agony and death. He knows they will be confused and not understand because they are still brain-washed by Jewish expectations for a restoration of the Davidic kingdom of old; or something of the sort. John is masterful at subtly hinting at his own weakness in this regard as he concludes his writing. He gives many tell-tale signs that he did not at first understand but later came to recognize the symbolism being enacted in real life before him, as the Old covenant story was brought to a close and the New begun.
But not only is Jesus preparing the disciples, he is preparing himself. It is hard to say what the actual timeline looked like those many centuries ago, but Jesus knows what is to come and is steadily walking toward the cross. And so our Lent is built to begin, on this Passion Sunday, to point us to the cross. The readings of today focus on the worthiness of Jesus to be the sacrificial lamb.
How does one prepare to die? This question is counter-intuitive to many of our peers. I suspect the present American context is closer to a crusader mindset than that of a martyr. I encounter many people who rant and rave about arming themselves and joining a militia movement or something of the sort. Dying the martyrs death is something that happens in backward far off places like Nigeria or China. And we red-blooded American heroes, as the world's police force, should probably do something about that.
I've thought about this mentality at length and realized it is nothing more than the mindset of the Jews in Jesus' day, even of St. Peter in the garden. It is a fundamental lack of belief or perhaps patience. This is a mentality that God needs a helping hand to enact his kingdom. In fact, we read about this mindset last week when the epistle discussed Abraham and Hagar. But the message of the Gospel is that God has already won the cosmic war and the kingdom is at hand. He is just waiting for the harvest of souls to be full and ripe.
Let me leave you with this reflection of St. Ignatius of Antioch on the passion of Christ as he faced his own martyrdom:
"Him I seek who dies on our behalf; Him I desire who rose again for our sake. The pangs of a new birth are upon me. Suffer me to receive the pure light. When I am come thither then shall I be a man. Permit me to be an imitator of the Passion of my God. If any man hath Him within himself, let him understand what I desire, and let him have fellow-feeling with me, for he knoweth the things which straiten me." (Letter to the Romans)
