Friday of the Second Week of Lent

Lectionary: 234

Therefore, I say to you,

the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you

and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,

they knew that he was speaking about them.

And although they were attempting to arrest him,

they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

The gospel is born in the world in the manner predicted by Genesis 3:16

I will intensify your labor in childbearing
in pain you shall bring forth children.

Yet your urge shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.

The husband of the Church is always God and the Holy Spirit urges us toward God. That sweet desire mitigates the pain as we bring forth new generations of baptized Christians. But it doesn't eliminate it. 

God stands with us as the faithful husband stands by his laboring wife; his presence may atone for her suffering. Their child heals the trauma she suffered as the infant nurses at her breast and sleeps on her bosom. (I knew one husband who still shuddered at the memory weeks later, even as she delighted in her little sumo wrestler.)

We should remember that pain when we consider the life of the Church and our relations with our Jewish forebears. The New Testament authors insist, and the Church believes, that Christians are the true heirs of the covenant. All the promises given to Abraham and his descendants are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Our separation from the Jews is regrettable and painful. Perhaps it was necessary. 

Christians respond in various ways. There is a long history in our fellowship of antisemitism, of frank hatred and contempt for Jewish people. In many cases the clergy tolerated this attitude; they occasionally promoted it. We have not rebuked it at every stage. 

Another, more recent response, has been a Protestant attempt to re-invent Christianity. It's a small effort among a very few; they would create a new religion comprising Jewish and Christian traditions and rituals. They would cancel the inspired decision of the first council of Jerusalem, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. 

A more realistic and faithful response is to feel the sadness of our separation. It is not unlike the painful labor of childbirth. 

In today's gospel we hear the judgment of doom pronounced, "the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

These are harsh words. Historically they apply to the situation in Jerusalem and to the resistance Jesus encountered. But they also stand as a warning to all Christians, individually and collectively, that we might forfeit the favor we have been given. Freedom is a jealous God and will not be taken for granted. Nor will it abide disrespect for the dignity of every person. 

We see all around us people choosing the wider gate of antisemitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, nationalism and so forth. They like to consider themselves blessed and others cursed. They refuse to enter through the narrow gate of sadness. They have their reward. 

There is no gospel without a cross and, if we would follow Jesus, we will accept his burden of staggering sorrow. Jesus wept for the sins of Jerusalem; we should weep for our sins and the sins of the whole world.