From the Daily Lectionary for Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent
John 10:31–42
The Jews took up stones again to stone Jesus. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ —and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.
He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.
So here is the crux of my argument about John’s enigmatic Gospel. Jesus claims to be divine, which for the Judean priestly class, the Pharisees, and the scribes, is blasphemy, punishable by arrest and even death. Remember, this is theology, not history; so John is laying out the heart of his argument as to the identity of Jesus, and as to the identity of those who follow Jesus. Here is the counter-balance: a high Christology on the one hand, that is to say, a decided emphasis on Jesus’ divinity; and then a high anthropology on the other… an emphasis on the divine nature of the human community. Again, this flies in the face of the mainstream tradition over the centuries, which has chosen, at the behest of Augustine of Hippo, and Later John Calvin, to consider humanity as fallen, depraved…. Hence the doctrine of substitutionary atonement: that God orchestrated the torture and execution of God’s Son to atone for the profound wretchedness of human sin. John’s theology counters this paradigm.
Jesus quotes verse 8 in Psalm 82: “have I not said you are gods?” In particular Jesus argues that it is our works of Love that call forth our divinity, our true nature. It is our practice of the faith that renders the human community godlike… made in the image of God, who is Love. The point I want to make is that this is not “super-nature.” We are made for Love. It is our ‘nature.’ We are predisposed to take care of our neighbor, to sacrifice for the good of the whole. We’re seeing that in our own time, are we not? Nurses, doctors, first responders, grocery store clerks, philanthropists, truck drivers, risking their lives for the common good. A counter phenomenon to the Corona Virus is that the crisis has evoked in great numbers the true nature of our humanity. It is a marvel; a reason for hope, and perhaps a revelation as to the mysterious contingency among the human community. Perhaps this may be a transforming learning experience for our world.
I heard a news story on NPR just yesterday reporting that the warring factions in Yemen have begun practicing ‘social distancing’, and have therefore postponed the war. Think on that! Maybe the leadership of these factions will wake up and decide to just call it off. Maybe we in the United States will recognize that healthcare is indeed a right, not a privilege; maybe it’s time to rethink the governing ethos of Capitalism in our economy. Surely this crisis will be a profound learning experience. I am hopeful that we choose to make it so.
I’ll say it again, we, good people, are made for times like these. When Love is needed most, we are the ones sent. So take courage. We know that “all manner of thing will be well.”
Jesus’ Prayer for his Disciples on the Eve of his Death (John 17: 9-11)
It is for my disciples I pray, because they belong to you.
All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified.
I am no longer in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.
