Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Intention: For all who are standing up for justice, especially those who are being opposed or persecuted, that God will continue to strengthen them and that their courage may inspire greater integrity in all people.
Today’s Gospel | John 7:40-53
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Then each went to his own house.
A Lenten Reflection
As modern communications technology continues to shrink our globe by expanding our access to all parts of the world, it is becoming increasingly necessary for persons to be able to speak more than one language. This includes not only the spoken languages of nations or ethnicities, but also the symbolic ones of geopolitics and cultures. One of these is the language of power. This is the language that communicates what one has, what one wants, and what one is prepared to do in the interest of both. The question of how to use power has long been one of our world’s central moral issues, one that Jesus would ask through his teachings and, ultimately, answer with his life.
In John’s Gospel, we can see in the Temple establishment’s power a callous disregard for the Jewish people and their religious and social freedom and dignity. To Jesus, this was the worst kind of sin: rejecting God’s grace and attempting to keep it from others. Compare that use of power to how Jesus used his authority to preserve and promote human freedom and dignity. One represents the drive to control others by manipulating and exploiting them, the other the drive to serve others by accompanying and liberating them. For Jesus, the only legitimate use of power was that of advancing people’s opportunities and abilities to live as God intended.
The author James Baldwin wrote, “Ultimately, power without morality is no longer power.” Authority devoid of the desire for goodness will eventually do harm. The season of Lent invites us to contemplate the ways in which our actions affect others. This includes what we do to exercise whatever good influence we can when it comes to a person’s dignity and quality of life. Every day, we have the power of being able to either lift or crush people’s spirits, to choose to do what is right as an act of compassion and of justice.
Prayer
Eternal Father, you sent your son to bring your eternal truth to our world. Many did not accept the truth, just as many do not today. In this holy time of Lent, we pray that might simply open our hearts to you and your wisdom. As we make our way through each day, use every moment to help us see things as you do. Reveal to us the strengths and faults of our own thinking and fill us with no other desire than to accept and do your will. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.