From the Daily Lectionary for Thursday in the Third Week of Lent
John 8:21-32
Again he said to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Though Jesus is speaking to the “crowds,” his pointed criticism is directed toward the Pharisees who have sided with the arguments against Jesus by the elite powers that be. Jesus is calling for a renewed commitment to the “word of God” which has been abandoned by the Temple authorities in deference to their self-interest and their privileged sphere of influence.
What then is the “word of God?” For John the word of God is the practice of “befriending.” In Greek philosophy, which is a powerful influence on John’s theology, befriending is, as Jesus will put it, “laying down one’s life.” Befriending is living one’s life for the good of the other. For Plato and Aristotle it was a social ideal. The other, for Jesus, is the poor, the outcast, the sick, the prisoner, the immigrant… even our enemies. The Temple leadership have turned their backs on these the least of us. The prophets of old testified that how we treat the least of us is the measure of a sustainable and just society. So, I want to say, that God’s word is, in short justice. Reinhold Niebuhr argued that God’s dream for the world is love, and the means of love is justice.
The truth hurts. Jesus will suffer the consequences of his calling out the corruption of the powerful. Brothers and sisters, truth is our calling card. God’s word is the unvarnished truth. We will be opposed, even disliked, in our practice of God’s word…. But hear the words of Jesus: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
A Prayer for Mission (BCP p. 100)
O God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly serve you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
