Testing Jesus
1st (Actually 2nd) in series on the Good Samaritan
We enter the story of the Good Samaritan with the beginning of the dialogue of Jesus and the lawyer. This was a well-educated man, steeped in Jewish law and faith. Into his world has come this rabbi who has drawn crowds and alienated many in the religious establishment. He cannot resist. He wants to know who this man is. But it is not as a profile that he wants; no, he wants to test this man and see what he is made of.
Last week I described Jesus as the world’s most successful cash cow. That is probably not the way he wishes to be remembered, in spite of the commercial voices we hear this month. He deserves a wider platform. I hope I give that in the following article.
Most tests that I have taken present a list of questions and asks for comments. That is the format that I wish to follow. Through these we may not find conclusions to our questions, but we will find more about the man we are asking.
First questions: What do we want to ask about? We are asked to pray to him. That means he has power to do something with our prayers. OK, then what about these questions?
1. Can’t he stop the killing in Gaza? This is complex but also senseless. All the grief, all the families. Isn’t displacement enough, why also deaths in so many families on both sides?
2. Why do some people die young and others die old? The young can be infants or teen-agers who come down with cancer. And the elderly – so often with a dementia that separates them from reality and from friends and families.
3. What about disasters like tornadoes and floods. Why does he allow them to happen. These bring tragedy.
4. Where was he when awful things happened? I thought he favored the Jews. How does the holocaust fit in? Why?
5. And then there is the long list of atrocities by his followers, Christians, …towards each other, towards the Jews, towards the poor and downtrodden. So many times they just don’t seem to be bothered.
6. And finally, what difference does he make? And how would I recognize it? Otherwise I’m doing quite well, thank you very much.
Next, he deserves a look at what happened to him. What we learn might help find answers to the above.
1. His birth put him in the contemporary categories of homeless, refugee, and fugitive.
2. He taught magnificently, but not original, mainly from the best of Jewish teaching
3. He made his grand entrance to Jerusalem riding not in a but on a lowly donkey.
4. He discipled twelve friends, but all of them abandoned him when he was arrested.
5. He has then whipped with a cat-o’-nine tails and had thorns pushed into his scalp. (Any representation of him on the cross what does not show on his naked body these scars and blood is inaccurate.)
6. While near death he forgave those whose corruption and lies caused his execution.
7. The pain of crucifixion is considered the most extreme form of execution, reserved for the worst offenders.
8. Evidence is overwhelming that on the third day the visitors to his tomb found it empty, and those gathered elsewhere saw him alive.
The last group of questions – what did he promise?
1. In this world you will have afflictions.
2. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.
3. Those who lose their soul for his sake will gain it.
4. If you want to be great, then be a servant.
5. I came as a ransom for many.
6. No one sinned to explain why a man was born blind.
7. To follow him is to find rest, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
8. Light – what enables us to see and make sense of the world – comes from learning from him.
9. Bread – what feeds our hope for happiness – comes from depending on him.
10. That road, the one what follows him and learns from him – is narrow and hard.
The final question puts us back at the beginning and those blunt and brutal questions we all have. Like the lawyer, we look at Jesus and events in his life, and pondering his promises. Then we go back to our questions and ask for answers.
Last week there seemed to be no connection between the itinerant rabbi and Christmas. OK, our society has gotten carried away by consumerism. We understand that. But this test puches all that to the side, lets brutal questions arise, looks at the life and promises of Jesus and then waits for connections, answers to the questions.
An honest response is there does not seem to be one. If there are connections between our questions and his promises, they are faint.
And yet, if we look elsewhere for answers, if we allow other sources, what do we find?
1. A woman who took her most expensive perfume to anoint him for burial;
2. A revolutionary and a conservative who lived together united by his love for them
3. A zealot for Jewish exclusiveness who became his most ardent for non-Jews.
4. A woman rejected by friends who brought them to him
5. A woman who had been tossed aside by society who was the first witness to his resurrection.
6. A public cheat who met him and repaid fouir-fold what he had scammed.
True, these do not give cogent and sensible answers to our questions. They did find something – a peace that satisfied, that was better than any thing they could buy at Christmas.
The best promise, and the one we will follow next week, is, Anyone who comes searchihnng for me and my kingdom, I will not ever turn away.
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