Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Knowng that Jesus is producing some pretty impressive miracles without actually admitting his divinity is requiring some pretty deft acrobatics from his critics. He’s certainly not making things any easier by criticizing them, but the people around him need to see the difference between his Kingdom and the fear-based clutching of the Pharisees.

Has anyone ever been interrogated so much for being made better? This poor man had been blind, and instead of celebrating with him, the religious leaders interrogate him mercilessly. That’s losing some pretty important perspective: making others whole is always the business of Jesus, and it should be the most important thing.

Today's verses lined up pretty well again. In the New Testament reading, we see Peter showing belief in Jesus, confessing him as the Son of God. In Genesis, we have Sarah laughing at the thought of God's absurd promise. While neither was a perfect person and both certainly had their failures, this moment for each of them is very different, and that difference is our coming to terms with God keeping his promises. Of course, God was faithful to both people, so it's not all about us!

What an interesting pairing of verses between the Old and New Testaments today! Abraham receives God's covenant, and the circumcision for him wasn't just for himself, but for anyone in his household. That included people who weren't blood relatives. The blessing God wanted to pour out on Abraham was broad enough to be shared. Of course, the blessing itself wasn't the whole point. It wasn't intended to be some badge of exclusion. In Jesus's day, it appears that the religious leaders were more focused on the fact that they were God's special people than the blessing they were made to pass along. Good thing Jesus came to set them straight!

Jesus is being pretty plain about who who is, but it remains difficult for those in power to believe him. Where is he going that they cannot come? Into the Kingdom that he had inaugurated at his coming. It was not a place for those who didn’t believe in him, but those do should feel secure in knowing that our judge is a loving Savior.

Do you get the feeling that those around Jesus were unimpressed with him? It even seems that the seemed to think that knowing who he was made him too plain. Still, in the midst of this, there are still those who believed him. The miracles he had performed pointed to a world that was not their own, and the Kingdom was breaking through without Jesus being a showman.

As Jesus begins to fulfill the purpose for which he became God incarnate, he realizes that timing is important. He has been no stranger to controversy, and he sees how his brand of strange Kingdom is disruptive to the religious leaders. He will unveil everything at the appropriate time, but nothing can happen outside God's arrangement. All that was happening was prophesied before and the plan was playing out as God intended.

Jesus saying he was the bread of life really caused a stir, so he doubled down. He was God, and what he said was God speaking. What choice could we have but to consume it so deeply that we are consuming Jesus himself, God in flesh? It was too much for some, because they deserted him.

Jesus producing bread for people to eat may have seemed like a parallel to the manna God provided his people in the wilderness, but that's not quite true: it's Jesus himself. Those who got distracted by the miracles Jesus performed were missing the point, that the miracles point to the giving of abundant life from the God of plenty.

Jesus is about making a Kingdom in an unusual way. When he is about to be thrust into power, he disappears. When people are in need, he is there again. He doesn’t come to promote himself, but to unveil the God who has been present with his people since the beginning of time.