CRL Podcast

Day 22 – Lenten Prayer and Reflection – 19th March 2021

Today is the feast of St. Joseph, so the readings we have taken from the ordinary day's readings. So today's readings won't be from the readings of the mass but from the normal readings of the day. In today's readings, the theme that flows in the readings is about the identity of Christ, the identity of the Messiah. When you take this word 'identity' it's a very powerful thing, for there have been wars, there have been nations that have fought wars regarding their identity. An identity is something that says who you are, where you have come from, and where you are going. Who your lineage is, who your father, your father's father, that's what identity means. If you look at the Jewish tradition, if you look at the bible, if you look at the names of the people, they always say their father's name. So they identify that person with where he is coming from. If you look at Joshua, it says Joshua son of Nun, because they are identified with their father. In today's reading, it's regarding the identity of the Messiah. Let's look at that.

John 7:25-26

Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, "Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?

We can see here, the identity that the world is giving, that Jesus is the Messiah, what is the identity? The identity is to be accepted by the authorities. So they are saying, "Here he is speaking out openly and they are not telling him anything. Could it be that they have accepted him as the Messiah? We can see, that the identity that world gives, power, authority, money, strength, these are the things that they identified with the Messiah because the Jewish nation, they were waiting for the Messiah to come and to rescue them from the Romans. That was the identity that they were having regarding the Messiah. I remember there was this debate that I was watching, there was a famous Jew and another Christian. And this Christian asks this Jew, "When you look at Jesus, He has fulfilled so many prophecies from the Old Testament, why can't you believe that He is the Messiah?" This Jewish leader says, "One thing, because He could not rescue them from the Romans." So their idea of who the Messiah was, a person who will come with strength and power and rescue them from the Roman empire. But look at this.

John 7:27

But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."

There was a prophecy that when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from. Why is that? Because when you take the nature of who God is, in the Old Testament the main thing they say who God is, is He is Holy. God is Holy. It means 'kadosh' and the meaning of 'kadosh' is 'cannot be compared to any other thing'. Which means God cannot have an identity. There is no reference point to God because there is no beginning to Him, He is the beginning. There is no end to Him, He is the end. God does not live, but He is life itself. He does not exist. We exist, we die. But He is existence itself. He had no reference point and because of that He could not be identified. That's why He told Moses, don't make an image because an image could not be identified with God. He was kadosh -- holy. When the Messiah comes, the Messiah will come in the identity of God. That's why no one will know from where he comes. Jesus explains this beautifully.

John 7:28

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him,

Jesus is saying, "Because you don't know Him, you don't know me. Because you don't know God, you cannot identify me, because I am coming in His identity." That's why everywhere we see in the Scriptures wherever Jesus is named it says, "Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God." Every other person in the Jewish tradition was identified with his father, but Jesus was identified as the Son of God. Because he came in the identity of God Himself. The Messiah, the Christ, salvation, his name is Yeshua. Yeshua means 'God who saves.' Salvation. When he was taken to the temple as a baby the prophet Simeon held the baby and said, "At last all powerful master, you give leave to your servant for my eyes have seen your salvation." Salvation was a person. Salvation was a child that he was holding in his hands. It was the person of Jesus, the Messiah. And he came in the identity of God himself. And they could not identify this, they could not understand this. For the Jew, this was blasphemy. The God who could not be compared to any other image, the God they did not even put a name to Him. When they wrote His name 'Yahweh', they took out the vowels so that His name could not be pronounced. Because they said He cannot be identified with a name. This God came to the world in the person of Jesus Christ. For them it was blasphemy, they could not understand. They could not fathom this. Even Mahatma Gandhi had said, "I can believe all the teachings of Christ, and it's amazing and wonderful, the teaching of love, forgiveness. But one thing I cannot believe. That God would become a man." And that is what these people were blind to. The identity of the Messiah was the identity of God Himself. This identity that Jesus brought to this world, did something.

1 John 3:8

He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

The identity that God sent, the Son of God, appeared, it came, why? To destroy the works of the devil. Because the devil had given an identity to humanity and that was sin. Humanity identified itself with sin. And the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. To destroy sin, and sin in its essence is to be separated from God. Is to be separated from your true identity as a son or a daughter of God. And how did it happen? When they encountered Jesus, the results of sin, sickness, death, darkness, people in bondage, they were being set free, when they encountered this identity of God. The weak, the tax collector Matthew, people despised him, people hated him. But when he saw the Son of God and he said, "Come," he left everything, stood up and followed him. Jesus said, "To be a part of me you must eat my body, eat my flesh and drink my blood" and for the Jew that was unimaginable, because in Exodus it says do not drink the blood of any animal for you will become one with him, and that's the very reason why he was saying, "You must drink my blood." To be one with him. For them it was unimaginable. So they all left and he asked St. Peter, "Aren't you also going to go?" And then St. Peter says, "Where do we go leaving you? You have the words of eternal life." They were sinful people, living in sin, but the moment they encountered the identity of the Messiah, the moment they encountered the identity of the Christ, their entire lives changed. Same with those who were sick, who were caught in bondage, demon possessed. They were liberated, set free the moment they encountered this identity. But also, as people were being set free, as people were being liberated by this identity of Christ, this identity of Christ was doing something else to another kind of people. And who were they? They were the Pharisees. They were also in sin, but their sin was not like the others. It was the sin of self-righteousness. Jesus said it clearly when

he explained the prayer of the Pharisee and the sinner. The Pharisee looks at the sinful man and says, "God, I thank you that I am not like this sinner." And he says, "I'm doing this, I'm keeping the commandments, I'm fasting, I'm praying." Those are all very good things. But Jesus says the prayer of the sinner, he wouldn't even look up because he knew he was a sinner. He couldn't even look at God, but he said, "Lord, forgive me, a sinner." And Jesus said that man was reconciled than the Pharisee. The same thing with the man who was hanging on his side. He said, "Lord, remember me when you enter your kingdom." Jesus said, "Today with me in paradise." One of the first people to go into heaven with the Lord himself. This identity was doing something to these people, and in today's reading it shows beautifully. Look at the book of Wisdom 2:12.

Wisdom 2:12

Let us lay traps for the upright man since he annoys us and opposed our way of life,

This identity of the Messiah, was an opposition to the way of life they were living. Here is the identity of God, the Messiah, and you can see the clash between the self-righteous sin of the zealots and the Pharisees they had.

Wisdom 2:12 continued

reproaches us of our sin against the Law, and accuses us of sin against our upbringing.

They were raised to be religious people, they were raised as righteous people, they were taught to read and write from reading the Torah. But they say the very law they could not keep, and his life was an opposition to everything that they stood for. Because he was the Messiah, the identity of God Himself, and they could not fathom that.

Wisdom 2:13

He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.

Here it is, the identity of the God, the Son of God, it was affecting them, their self-righteousness, their beliefs, the sin that they were living in. This was written hundreds of years even before Jesus was born, the Wisdom of Solomon. He wrote this revelation, the clash between the identity of the Messiah and the identity of a sinful world.

Wisdom 2:14

We see him as a reproof to our way of thinking, the very sight of him weighs our spirits down

The identity of God, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Wisdom 2:15-16

for his kind of life is not like other people's, and his ways are quite different. In his opinion we are counterfeit;

Can you see the counterfeit for the life of God? They were having the counterfeit, self-righteousness, showing the world your holiness, showing others your goodness and when they looked at him, they were being judged of their sinfulness. In his eyes, we are counterfeits to what God has planned.

Wisdom 2:16 continued

he avoids our ways as he would filth;

Here is the life of Christ, the life of the Messiah, the life of the Son of God is convicting or judging this life of self-righteousness.

Wisdom 2:16 continued

he proclaims the final end of the upright as blessed and boasts of having God for his father.

Here it is, the identity of the Son of God and they could not fathom it. They could not stand in that identity, it was affecting them.

Wisdom 2:17-20

Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have. For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies. Let us test him with cruelty and with torture and thus explore his gentleness and put his patience to the test. Let us condemn him to a shameful death since God will rescue him, or so he claims.

This was written hundreds of years before Jesus was even born. Here it is, this is what Satan wanted. He wanted to break his identity, he wanted him not to believe in who he truly is. That's why even in the desert, he said, "If you are the Son of God, do this. If you are the Son of God turn this into bread." Even at the cross the people said, "If you are the Son of God come down from the cross." They wanted him to let go of his identity, to let go of who he is. The identity of God, the identity of the Messiah. That's why they beat him, they tore his beard, they scourged him, and they put a crown on his head and a robe and said, "Behold the king of the Jews" for him to let go of that identity.

But what happened? Out of him flowed the forgiveness, the love of the God. Because he came in the identity of God. He came in the identity of the Messiah and out of him flowed forgiveness, love, patience, intercession for those who were killing him, and what happened as result?

Wisdom 2:21

This is the way they reasoned, but they are misled, since their malice makes them blind.

That's why St. Paul said if the rulers and the principalities of this world knew God's plan, they would have never crucified the King of Glory. If Satan knew what God has planned, he would never have crucified Jesus. He thought by destroying him, that he'll be able to break his identity, to make him fall into the identity of sin. But because he held on:

Wisdom 2:22

They do not know the hidden things of God, they do not hope for the reward of holiness, they do not believe in a reward for the blameless souls.

Even in the midst of him being killed, he remained holy. He remained blameless. And when he died, he identified himself with sin. St. Paul says, "For God made him who know no sin, become sin so that we would be the righteousness of God." And when he died, he descended into hell, but this was no ordinary person. This was the Son of God, the Son of the living God, the Messiah, the Christ. And in the book of

Psalms it says, "Open wide you everlasting gates for the King of Glory has come in." And it says, "Who is this King of Glory?" This was not heaven, heaven knew God, he knew Jesus. This is death, hell and the grave asking, "Who is this King of Glory?" who has descended into our realm. And it says, "It is the Lord God almighty." The Lord mighty in battle. He is the King of Glory, who has descended into darkness, into death. Because of that death died into his life. Darkness died into the light of his glory and sin broke in the power of his holiness, because it was the identity of the Messiah. The identity of God himself, who is holy, who cannot be compared to any other thing, and here when he identified himself with sin, sin lost its power over humanity. It broke before the Lord of Glory, the King of heaven.

And today, if we believe that same power is available for you and me. If we believe in what he has done. That's why if you look at the New Testament it says, "in Christ". Every promise of God is "Yes" and "Amen" but why? "In Christ." Because He is the one who is victorious, He is the one who is reigning, and when we go into Him, that's when that becomes a reality in our lives. Power over sin, power over death, power over addiction, becomes a reality when we live in Him. But for that, we need to surrender our lives. We need to die to ourselves, and the Holy Spirit does that. We love to read the verse "Nothing can separate us from the love of God." Can demons, can principalities, can anything, St. Paul says, separate us from the love of God? And he continues to say, "The love of God which is in Christ," and the next part he continues, "because for your sake we are led as lamps to be slaughtered." That's the experience of dying to yourself, it's when we die to ourselves that nothing can separate us from the love of God. While we are sinning, while the flesh is alive, we are doing whatever we want, then we can't say, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God" and continue doing what we want. But the moment we accept that truth, "Lord I am sinful, I am caught up, yes Lord, this is the truth of my heart" and we accept that, then the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and he will do that. He will destroy our flesh, he will stop that. That's why St. Paul says, "Walk in the spirit, and fulfill not the desires of the flesh." That's the only way you can fulfill not the desires of the flesh by walking in the spirit. By living in the spirit. Crucify the man through the spirit.

So today, we are stuck in that place, we'll ask the Lord to do that miracle in our lives.