Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 248

“Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

This question of Jesus’ origin is a constant theme in the Gospel of Saint John, as are the related issues of “Where do you stay?”; “Where are you going?” and “Abide with me.”

Saint John seems to wink at his Christian audience who knows he came from Nazareth -- or was it Bethlehem? His geography is very mysterious.

Woody Allen used a similar trope in The Purple Rose of Cairo when he placed a 1950’s movie hero in a real world brothel. The women are astonished at his naiveté and good heartedness; one asks, “Are there more like you where you come from?”

Jesus is the emissary from Truth. He comes to stay with us, a sojourner in our land of fabrications. His world is so much simpler since there is only one standard. Our “world” is infinitely more complicated because each of us creates a world of half-truths, assumptions, expectations, preferences and misplaced needs. We often misunderstand even our closest companions because we cannot fathom their mysterious, groundless beliefs. Intimacy among us is like trying to transfer passengers between airplanes in flight. It can be done but it’s dangerous.

With his understanding of Truth, it is easy to read, “The wicked said among themselves, thinking not aright…” Some people would not know the truth if it bit them on the leg; they are the wicked.

But it’s not hard to step over the line into their unreality. A single white lie can become a major embarrassment, and worsens as one tries to justify, explain, rationalize or deny it. Although it’s easier to say, “I have done wrong. I spoke an untruth.” that’s often the last option. More often, like Adam in the Garden of Eden who blamed Eve and God for his trouble, we dig ourselves deeper into a world of trouble.

The world around us is not entirely unfamiliar with the truth, as The Purple Rose of Cairo demonstrates. They know such a world exists. The news media’s fact checkers, for instance, are often quick to point out other people’s exaggerations, spins and untruths.

The Christian is one who loves the truth even when it’s as painful as the cross. We can see clearly the alternative world of fantasy but, following Jesus, we cannot be distracted. His is not an easier road, but it’s better.