Saturday
of the 4th Week of Lent
April 5, 2014 8:30am
What I see in today’s gospel is
an issue, in fact a problem of control.
Some of the religious leaders had
developed certain expectations and understandings of what the Messiah would be
like.
Over time, they became very
closed to anything new – any additional or new understanding of who God is or
how God would act on their behalf.
And, by the way, it so happened
that their religious expectations and understandings were very self-affirming
and made them very comfortable.
They would not let in anything
that challenged them to change or grow in the least.
So, they boxed God into a nice,
neat, controlled package.
And in truth, they boxed
themselves in and cut themselves off from so very much about God.
And all of this led them to
reject Jesus, to be closed to anything new or challenging or unsettling.
That kind of control or effort at
control always remains a human possibility.
We can slide into this rather
easily.
It is an especially cunning
temptation.
Why?
Because we might think that in
being closed off we are actually being strong and holding on to what we think
is right or true.
This approach can lead us
probably not to reject Jesus directly as the people in today’s gospel are
doing, but it can lead us to reject or look down upon others who may in some
way be challenging to us.
The solution, it seems to me, is
to stay glued to Jesus, to see our relationship with him as paramount, and to
see him and our relationship as always alive and growing and expanding.
But, of course, to do that, we
have to let go of control.
