Reflection, June 29:

“And Jesus asked His disciples ‘Who do people say the son of man is?’….He then said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’”.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus again questions the disciples in order to hear what they know to be true.  The disciples answer the Lord’s first question based on what people have said, on how others not directly influenced by Christ attempt to explain who this man who does these things in the name of God must be.  The disciples answer the second question; “But who do you say that I am” based off of their own experience.  This concept for some reason caught my attention this morning. 

Let’s think of the experiences which the disciples had in order to conclude that Jesus was in fact “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Each of them was asked to give up everything they had; all of their possessions, their families, their lifestyle, everything they ever knew to follow Christ.  After that, they were for all intents and purposes – homeless – living from town to town, following Jesus as he taught Gospel, healed the sick, cast out demons, etc.  The disciples were mocked, ridiculed, hungry, dirty and often times, confused while constantly being quizzed by Christ.  Honestly, this doesn’t sound like a vacation full of blessings does it?  I’m sure there must have been thoughts of “what are we doing?” by the disciples throughout Jesus’s ministry on earth.  How many of us would have so willingly chose the same path?  There must have been an easier way right? 

Today’s Gospel made me think about how we view God, or, more importantly, how we want God to be.  I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked why God was so harsh in the Old Testament but seemed so loving in the New Testament.  I’ve been asked why if Jesus was love, why did he seem so disenchanted with His disciples so often, why was he so condescending at times with the elders of the church and of people?  Why wasn’t it all just a “feel-good” story?  Perhaps it’s because rather than what people wanted to happen, it’s what needed to happen.  At some point, we –God’s People – need to realize that we are not the ones writing this story.

Pride wants God to tell us what we want to hear.  We prefer the God of the New Testament vs. the God of the Old Testament as if they are two separate Gods.  Pride wants Jesus to be nice to us when we do something stupid.  We are a society that desires to hear what we want, not always what we need to.  We have become a people who want to be the one in control as if God perhaps doesn’t know what He’s doing anymore….”we will handle this issue so that it feels good for everyone, God, you just take care of the forgiveness part okay, thanks.”  The fact is, we are people whose own arrogance, whose own righteousness is going to pull us further away from God not bring us closer, and whose own ideology will blame God for when this ultimately happens.  You don’t believe me, go back and read Exodus again. 

The truth is this, God has a plan and whether or not that plan conforms to our desired lifestyle or choices, it is still His plan.  It is time that we as a Church start listening to what we need to hear, not complaining for what we want to hear because it makes us “feel better”.  We need to accept challenge, not rest comfortably in complacency.  If we cannot listen to God’s call in our lives as His Church, how can we possibly expect anyone outside of the Church to do so? 

Mr. Swann