22 March 2013 - stone deaf

22 March 2013 - stone deaf

“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”

Because he is God his works are perfect and therefore the standard by which all works judged.  Human works can be dismissed fairly easily.  Circumstances and cause and effect can explain most of it.  People are fortunate or unfortunate based on the lives they've had thus far.  And we know that no matter what the appearance of perfection everyone struggles in his or her own way.  It prevents anything from being too lofty and therefore calling us onward and upward.  And it prevents anything from being too grotesque and revealing rebellion within.  But God does not afford us these options.  He acts with goodness because he is goodness and therefore wills goodness.  In every perfect action he reveals the standard of judgment.  Hence he says, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (cf Mat 5:48). And that is why works which should inspire joy and hope instead move the Pharisees to stone him.  

But let's be honest with ourselves.  Jesus isn't always so easy for us to accept either.  Stoning him is done to attempt to silence him and we ourselves aren't always quick to listen.  We make judgments about others.  We entertain anger.  We focus more on our needs than the needs of others, thereby using them as means instead of treating them as ends.  God asks us to love in our daily circumstances and yet we withdraw to an imagined neutrality like Pontius Pilate.  Yes, I'm afraid that we're guilty too.  And we're somewhat shielded from knowing our guilt because it isn't as direct as stoning.  But that can make it even harder to change and find repentance.  Find repentance we must, for the fate of those who pursue the path of silencing goodness is clear.

In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

The only way to respond to Jesus other than this is by surrender.  A human effort to respond to him inevitably fails.  The very grace he gives us allows us to hear and answer his invitation.  Without it we find ourselves not much better than the Pharisees.  Trusting in him by the grace he gives us we stand fast and the enemies of sin will not overtake us (and since we are not overtaken they will not use us to attempt to silence Jesus).

My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.

Let us take consolation in the disposition of Jesus toward those who would stone him.

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

He doesn't give up on them.  Even though they are closed to the truth of his words he is willing to go to extremes to get their attention.  He wants them to recognize that there is something here from outside their experience.  There is something here which defies their attempts at classification.  No worldly expectations are applicable.  Just understand, he pleads, that this is something new and unheard of.  Let it hit us with that revelation full force.  And when it does, the true gravity of the whole situation will be made manifest.  Seeing the invitation and its full implications we will be in the best position to respond fully to the grace he offers.  Then, with the Psalmist we will be able to say.

In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.