Wednesday, June 17, 2020
James Tissot: Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees
Questions
I am always fascinated by the questions posed to Jesus . . . and the manner in which he answers these questions. The Pharisees and scribes whom he condemns as vipers are anxious to depose this man. They are jealous of his authenticity and his authority. They want him gone.
Last week we examined how to react and pray for the plotters and schemers who want to undermine us and even eradicate us. Today we watch Jesus as he combats his foes with the simplest of techniques . . . with questions.
Jesus so often answers his inquisitors’ demands with questions of his own. He also uses the parables with which we are familiar, stories with simple images like putting new wine into old skins. His words are plain and simple enough for the people of his day to understand . . . and they are also eternal so that we might understand his meaning two thousand years later. Jesus’ words are also universal. They create pictures that humans will comprehend. He invites. He calls. He brings the Old Testament scriptures to life as he describes the desperation of David’s plight when he and his men eat the bread of offering in 1 Samuel 21. Jesus makes a connection between himself and David by using a simple rabbinic method of mentioning a well-known scripture story to pertain to a present situation. Jesus was, in fact, a wonderful teacher.
The questioners described by Luke in today’s reading do not understand that God has come to live among us in human form. They do not see that Jesus fulfills their hopes and prophecies. Jesus is the Sabbath . . . and they do not revere him . . . they trump up charges against him . . . they became enraged and together discussed what they might do to Jesus.
Yesterday’s MAGNIFICAT reflection was from St. John of the Cross and it concerned why we undergo trial. He writes: The reason trials are necessary . . . is that highest union cannot be wrought in a soul that is not fortified by tribulations, darknesses, and distress, just as a superior quality liqueur is poured only into a sturdy flask which is prepared and purified . . . A man should hold in esteem the interior and exterior trials God sends him, realizing that there are few who merit to be brought to perfection through suffering and to undergo trials for the sake of so high a state. For God repays the interior and exterior trials very well with divine goods for the soul and body, so that there is not a trial which does not have a corresponding and considerable reward.
In today’s story we can feel the resentment building among Jesus’ enemies and, of course, we know the end of the story. We know that they win . . . but they lose. We know that they are in power . . . but have no power. We know that they are full of themselves . . . and empty of God. We see their opposite in Jesus who stands quietly to answer their questions . . . who calls them to unity, to hope and to love . . . who waits patiently, who replies calmly, who endures endlessly.
In today’s story, who are we? The Pharisees . . . or the expression of God among us? And how have we decided to question our own inquisitors?
Image from: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4550
Adapted from a reflection written on February 11, 2008.
Cameron, Peter John, ed. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 1.21 (2008). Print.
The Noontimes 