Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

The Gospel according to Saint John is a gospel of crisis; which, as you must know if you follow the news at all, is an opportunity.

But the opportunity may be difficult to recognize. Crisis has a language all its own and it often refuses to speak in friendly or familiar terms. It demands an immediate response and we don’t know what that response is. “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste;” but how are we supposed to respond to this crisis? How can we be sure our response is the correct one? If we dither too long, the opportunity may shut down. Or, if we dither long enough, we may discover it was never a real crisis in the first place. What should we do?

In the Gospel of John, the crisis concerns Jesus’ authority. Who is this guy? Where does he come from? Where is he going? On whose authority does he say these things?

When I first came to the Gospel I felt sympathy for Jesus’ opponents. If he would just settle down for a moment, speak more plainly and more slowly, and be less confrontational, they might accept him. Doesn’t a good teacher have to come down to the level of his students to bring them up to his level?

But human acceptance – popularity, fame, success, whatever you call it -- is the one thing Jesus does not want. He cannot fit into the rigid structures of human thought. Rather, he demands that we rise to his level.

In today’s gospel he comes down as far as possible. He reminds his opponents of John the Baptist’s testimony, and of the works they have seen which certainly come from the Father. He tells them the Father testifies on his behalf, though they have not heard the Father’s word. The scriptures and Moses also testify for Jesus.

But ”How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?” Their approach to reality is fundamentally flawed. They rely on one another for their truth instead of God. They are like the speculators who buy and sell from one another, driving the price of ordinary merchandise beyond all reasonable worth. When reality checks in, the prices fall back to earth. The speculator, who buys a hundred thousand dollar house for five hundred thousand, thinking he can sell it for a million, and borrows two million dollars using the house for collateral, will lose a fortune when its real worth reappears. He has built his fortune on what others believe, rather than reality.

Jesus’ opponents cannot recognize him because the Truth cannot fit their religious thinking. He urges them to abandon their delusional world of shadows and step into the bright sunshine of his truth.

The Gospel of Saint John is an old story, "ever ancient ever new." As long as human beings live on this earth we will struggle to see the truth through the vagaries of our fears, ambitions, needs, beliefs and distortions. And the truth will always plead with us, “Come to me and have life.”