Working Through The Full Spectrum Of Human Emotion

One of the things I appreciate about our scriptural tradition is its honesty about human behavior. They don’t sugarcoat the realities.

For example in the first reading from Jeremiah 11, Jeremiah is reflecting on his journey and about being “like a trusting lamb led to slaughter [not knowing that others] were hatching plots against me.” He then praises God for being a just judge and says, “Let me witness the vengeance you take on them!”

Jeremiah, of course, is feeling the pain of his suffering. He is just trying to do God’s work in the world and be faithful to his call. But it has a cost. Of course, he wouldn’t mind seeing a little “divine justice” come about on those who would seek to do him harm.

I have to confess that sometimes I, too, want to see someone get their comeuppance. Maybe you can relate. There’s just a sweet satisfaction – that we know we shouldn’t enjoy…but we do – when someone who harmed us somehow gets their “just desserts.” I guess I only want it in one direction, however!

In the gospel from John 7 the Roman guards have not arrested Jesus yet because they heard his teaching and thought, “that sounds pretty good to me!” But the Pharisees retort, “Have you also been deceived?” and chastise the crowd for being so gullible. Nicodemus, a Pharisee who had secretly been following Jesus, tries to offer a solution to avoid the conflict and says, “Does our law condemn someone before it first hears them and finds out what they are doing?” He’s trying to get his peers to back off and protect Jesus from their wrath. But they challenge him (and subtly threaten him) and say to him, “Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” In other words, they have read and interpreted the scriptures and there is no need to hear Jesus or see what he is doing. Jesus is already guilty!

What we see here is something deeply familiar in our time: people filtering truth through their assumptions and the “truth” being determined by those who hold power (and then bullying others to go along with it).

The pharisees have closed themselves off from transformation and have decided to protect the systems of power and privilege rather than the people.

So what might these readings mean for our Lenten journey?

First off, it is no secret that as we strive to do God’s work in the world, we WILL meet with rejection, persecution, misunderstanding, hardship and resistance in various forms. This hurts because it often comes from people who are close to us. Sometimes it comes from the people we are trying to help or be with. And it will generate some feelings in us.

And like Jeremiah, we all need to work through our feelings because these, too, can become a stumbling block for us on our journey. While it might be secretly tempting to hope that our naysayers get what’s coming to them, this can easily become a distraction to our remaining centered on God. 

From the gospels, we might pause and think about how the Pharisees resisted truth without much examination. Do we dismiss some people, ideas or voices too quickly because they challenge our assumptions or what we think is right? To what extent do we take Nicodemus’ counsel to hear people out or see what they are doing before casting judgement? To what extent are we willing to be like Jesus who engaged Nicodemus (a Pharisee) and so many others whom he could have easily dismissed?

Finally, these readings reinforce that our discipleship requires courage (literally heart). We need courage to speak up and speak out – in spite of resistance. We need courage to examine our own processes, feelings and reactions – especially when they aren’t pretty or well packaged. We need courage to stay open to the voices and experience of others. And we need courage to stay as tuned in as we can to God’s voice in a world that seems to easily drown it out.

For today, just breathe. Settle into your humanity with all its complexity and all its promise. Know that God loves you and is inviting you into a deeper relationship – with God, with yourself and with our community.