(Isaiah 11, Luke 10)
The fact that secular historians at the time virtually ignored Jesus Christ causes a bit of embarrassment to Christians. After all, we must ask, how could people not take interest in such an extraordinary event as the resurrection?
However, beyond the first centuries of Christianity, the world did take notice. Historians began to measure time in two great epochs: before Christ (B.C.) and in his time (A.D., anno domini, in the year of the Lord). True, many writers today, out of deference to non-Christians, use B.C.E. (before the common era) and C.E. But no thinking person would leave unasked the question of what determines the “common era.”
In the gospel today Jesus openly expresses his relationship with God. He is the son of the One who lives outside His own creation but maintains a supreme role in it. The learned, he adds, cannot see this, perhaps because the tender care of a father sending his son to be crucified for the world is beyond their imagination. Simple people, however, will overlook the breach of human logic and accept gratefully the presence of God’s anointed one in their midst.
As Christians lived at least two centuries without the world taking much notice of Christ, we must give daily testimony to him by our actions. Isaiah predicted the coming of Christ by a remarkable peace among adversaries – wolves and lambs, lions and calves, cobras and babies. Our lives need to be marked by speaking to the troubled and welcoming the stranger. When we do so and encourage others to do likewise, once again the whole world will take notice of Christ’s presence.
