Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 246

Jesus answered the Jews:

"My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."

With the passage of Laetare Sunday the season of Lent grows more intense and our weekday readings plunge into Saint John's Gospel. Yesterday we heard the story of his healing a disabled man on the Sabbath. The healed man immediately told the authorities and, with that pretext, they began to persecute Jesus. He responded with a statement similar to that he spoke to Mary and Joseph many years before, when he said, "Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

In Saint Luke's Gospel the story serves as a transition from his infancy to his adult ministry, albeit comically premature. His word in today's gospel is brusque, "...I am at work." When adult laborers set about their work they need no excuse for what they do. They shouldn't have to explain it to anyone. The questioning of bystanders is only interference. A skilled artisan might say. "If you must understand what I do, stand out of the way and watch!"

But Jesus' opponents will not be brushed aside and, in fact, his work in this fifth chapter is to deal with them. The gospel, like a black walnut, must be broken open by the hammer of controversy. They are convinced they know God; they enjoy a particular relationship with God. But these hard-shelled Pharisees cannot imagine the Trinitarian relationship of Jesus to the Father, nor his insistence that we know the Father only through him. This revelation is beyond their ken; they can only fight against it.

The student of Saint John's Gospel must be enthrall of this fifth chapter. In the third chapter we heard his conversation with Nicodemus and his oft-cited declaration, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." His relationship of sonship with God is like no other. In the fourth chapter we heard Jesus whisper to the Samaritan woman, "I am he [the Messiah], the one who is speaking with you.”

This fifth chapter reveals the working relationship of Jesus and his Father:

...a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. for the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.

There are two specific works: first, the Father and Son raise the dead and give life; secondly, they judge. We will be convinced of Jesus' authority to raise the dead and give life when Lazarus stumbles out of his grave. His authority to judge will be seen during his Passion, when Pilate sat Jesus on the throne of judgement. Although Pilate and the mob seem to be making the terrible decision about Jesus, the faithful know what is really happening. They're judgement falls on their own heads.

We know that principle of judgement which falls upon the judge from the Gospel of Saint Luke, "For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” Mercy will be shown to the merciful, no mercy to the merciless.

The Just Judge does not hesitate to warn his opponents of their peril with words that are kind and true:

Whoever does not honor the Son

does not honor the Father who sent him.

This is the crisis of faith. It is, for the Christian, the deepest challenge of our faith. Human history is saturated with religions, each one celebrating the beliefs, wisdom, creativity, courage and generosity of its people; each one appropriate to its time and place. Only a few religions attempt to instruct and guide people beyond their limited cultural horizons. In fact, only Christianity claims authority to "make disciples of all nations." (Islam inherited and imitated this tradition.)

With divine authority born of faith, we invite, urge and insist that all human beings come to know the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For Jesus is the only Word of God that can "explain" human existence. Only Jesus can show us what it means to be fully human; and he does that by his life, death and resurrection.

However! Beware! Christians who claim to believe in Jesus, who accept his insistence that "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him." should expect mockery, rejection, refusal and disappointment. They must be prepared to give the testimony of blood. Without the sacrifice of one's life the testimony is idle, nothing more than a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

That testimony, meeting adversity, is patient and kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Stripped of Jesus' humility and profound respect for human dignity, Christianity is just another tiresome religion demanding attention. 

Empowered by his weakness the Christian witness will save the Earth.