Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Isaiah 49:8-15; John 5:17-30)

The title, “& Son,” in a business listing reassures clients.  The owner obviously has a family which roots him in the community and suggests trustworthiness.  If the son comes to do the job, the client perhaps thinks “like father, like son” and expects the true value for what she pays.  A similar father-son relationship forms the heart of today’s gospel.

The Jews have criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.  He, in turn, tells them that he is permitted to heal on the Sabbath because God, his Father, heals on the Sabbath.  This claim, of course, infuriates the Jews.  They find the idea of Jesus being God blasphemous.  But Jesus is not deterred.  He goes on to say that like his Father he also raises the dead to new life.  In fact, he claims that to be raised from the dead one has to believe the doctrine that he is teaching.

Jesus’ promise of resurrection from the dead should astound us.  It is not merely the ongoing life of the soul when we die.  Rather it is the retrieval of our bodies and their unification with our souls at the end of time.  We cannot help but ask how this can happen.   Certainly all adults have seen in their lifetimes things that they never before had dreamed.  God, who also is beyond our imagining, has infinite power and can do much more marvelous things.  Ours is to imitate God’s goodness, not His power.  Doing so, we show belief in Jesus’ doctrine and can hope to be called from death to life.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Isaiah 49:8-15; John 5:17-30)

The title, “& Son,” in a business listing reassures clients.  The owner obviously has a family which roots him in the community and suggests trustworthiness.  If the son comes to do the job, the client perhaps thinks “like father, like son” and expects the true value for what she pays.  An analogous father-son relationship forms the heart of today’s gospel.

The Jews become upset that Jesus keeps calling God his father.  They correctly see -- although they do not believe -- that if God is his father, then he has all God’s characteristics.  In other words, Jesus is God.  He too is able to bring people out of captivity as the reading from Isaiah proclaims of God.  Jesus will perform a greater wonder.  Empowered by the Father, he will call the dead to life.  But he will not do this arbitrarily.  He will call only those who already have known his voice to eternal life.  Others may be called, but to condemnation.

The Easter promise will always astound us.  We cannot help but ask, how can the dead be raised to life?  But certainly all adults have seen in their lifetimes things that they never before had dreamed.  God, who also is beyond our imagining, has infinite power.  When we try to imitate not His power but His goodness, we attend to Jesus’ voice and can hope to be called from death to life.