Faith

Checkmate- Saturday, 8th week in ordinary time – Mk 11:27-33

The prime movers of the plot to trap Jesus consist of the chief priests, scribes and the elders. It is these three sets of Jewish leaders who will appear again at the passion narrative as the accusers of Jesus at his trial.  This is the third time Jesus has entered the temple since his entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He has cleansed the temple causing much anxiety among the Jewish rulers who fear Jesus because he has challenged their authority in the presence of the people but were helpless as the “whole crowd was spellbound by His teaching.” (11:18)

So the Jewish authorities decided to trap Him. The trap is set around His claim to authority; did it come from God or does He claim it of himself? If he admitted publically to such authority then the charge of blasphemy could be made against Jesus.  Jesus sees the trap and chooses not to walk into it. He simply asks a counter question which threw the ball right back into the court of the Jewish leaders. “Did the Baptism of John the Baptist come from heaven or from human origin?”

There were many followers of John at that time, that held that John the Baptist was a prophet from God. For the Jewish authorities to deny that such a holy man came from God would be suicidal for the people would turn against them. If they admitted that it did come from heaven then Jesus would simply ask them what their problem with his authority coming from God was and why they did not welcome Jesus?

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Faith

Discipleship in the shadow of the cross

We want to look at the portrait of a disciple. Is he a fan or a follower, is he faithful or fascinated?

Please read Luke 14: 25-33. Let us locate this text a bit. Jesus is in the home of a Pharisee who is a leader in the community (14:1). He is heading to Jerusalem; the cross is before him. The crowds think that Jesus is heading to an Empire. That is why discipleship must and can only be seen in the light of the cross.

It is the Sabbath and they wanted to trap Jesus and He heals a man with dropsy. The Lord is predictable in his compassion for others and the Pharisees knew that he would heal the man.

In 14:25 we are told that large crowds are following him and so his address on discipleship is to thousands and by extension to us.  They were impressed with His miracle for others He sounded like a revolutionary leader. Some liked Him for His story telling abilities or the way He tackled His opponents. Others like Him for the fact that He fed them or for his style of preaching. So in His life Jesus attracted many fans; the question is did they become followers and even more disciples?

In our culture we want to see multitudes in our Church programmes. Jesus Christ does not use gimmicks for people to come He challenged people. He did not use the methodology of the world to draw people to Himself. In this context what He does next is mindboggling. Most of us would be delighted to have large crowds following us. Jesus thins the crowd. He is not giddy with popularity for he knows that not everyone who is with Him is there for the right reason. So he places the challenge of discipleship before them because not everyone who follows Jesus is a disciple. Jesus wants people who are faithful to him and not fascinated by him. As a professor once said, “Not everyone who attends my lectures is my student”.

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High drama in the temple- Friday, 8th Week in ordinary time – Mk 11:11-26

Sandwiched between the triumphant entry into Jerusalem (chapter 11) and the last supper, (chapter 14) the passages of chapter 12 and 13 contain the last of Jesus’ interactions before His passion and death. The stage is the temple of Jerusalem, the protagonist is Jesus and the villains are played by the Jewish authorities. Up to the second week of June we will continue with reading from this section and then switch to the Gospel of Matthew.

After Jesus enters Jerusalem and the temple (11:11) He makes his way to the village of Bethany; where Martha and Mary lived. We are told that the next day (Monday of Holy Week) he heads back to the temple. The text of today encompasses the narratives spanning two days; Monday and Tuesday of Holy week. On Monday he curses the fig tree and cleanses the temple after which He departs from the city. On Tuesday he passes the fig tree on his way back to the temple of Jerusalem.

It is the third day of Passion Week which will feature sayings controversies, parables and an eschatological discourse of Jesus. The game plan of the Jewish leaders, seen in the readings of this week and next, is the same. Get Jesus by hook or by crook even if one has to play ‘good cop and bad cop’. That is exactly what they did. First they sent in the big guns (11:27) the chief priests, scribes and the elders. When that failed, they sent to Him the legal eagles in the guise of the Pharisees and Herodians (12:13), who ironically could never get along for they hated each other.

Then came the Sadducees, keepers of the law (12:18) who were sent scurrying to their legal holes with the words of Jesus, “is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures not the power of God?” Finally a scribe, (12:28) who saw goodness in Jesus’ answers, but in praising him Jesus also attacks his fraternity.

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What’s happening in your heart is what’s happening in your prayer- Prayer ( Part 3) Retreat talk to SVD brothers in Pune

So what do I do when I cannot pray?

To help us pray Jesus gave us another advocate. In John 14:15 he says “I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate. The word for another used in this context for ‘another’ is allos not heteros. Allos means another of the same kind unlike heteros which means another of a different kind. The Holy Spirit is of the ‘same kind’ as Jesus.

Jesus is the advocate and now at Pentecost he gives us ‘another’ advocate. The very word advocate – parakletos means one who is called to be besides us. The Holy Spirit is our helper and our advocate given to us by Jesus. On the day of Ascension, Jesus took his seat at the right hand of the father. He is no longer visible to us. But because Jesus is no longer visible to us it does not mean he is not present to us. Just because we don’t see Jesus physically it does not mean he is not present spiritually. He has given us the Holy Spirit (another advocate) to be with us.  Prayer is the gap that removes that distance. Romans 8:26-27 tells us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness when we know not how to pray.

Finally prayer is not opposed to good work (Luke 10:38-42)

The two must go hand in hand. We need to have a Mary’s heart in a Martha’s world . The question really is one of ordering priorities. Whose feet are you willing to sit at? Most of the time when you ask people for their time they say they are sooooo busy. This is a universal response. The question is what are you so busy with? Sometimes it’s just that we are bad with organizing our lives.

If you look at the Gospel pericope (meaning a slice of) , Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. The parable before this is that of the Good Samaritan. We are told that Martha and Mary welcomed Jesus into their home. The disciples of Jesus are there too and perhaps there were more than just twelve.  Mary sits with Jesus and Martha is in the kitchen for there are many mouths to feed and no fast food outlet to order from.  

The question that crosses most of our minds is which one is a priority? Sit with Jesus or serve Jesus? Each one of us has different priorities. Should we experience the presence of Jesus or should I perform for Jesus. Mary chose to experience Jesus and Martha chose to perform for him but make no mistake both loved him.

So let’s look at Martha in Luke 10:38; we are told that she welcomes Jesus into her home. She knows Jesus; he is not new to her. Then she goes to the kitchen to cook for she must have been a star at hospitality. So we can see that Martha is a doer and not a sitter. In a while Martha begins to realise that no one is helping her and Mary is sitting out with Jesus. This is when the problem begins.

Martha begins to get ‘distracted’ (verse 40). She is frustrated with all the work that she is doing. She is working for Jesus but getting angry because no (Christians, my modern day interpretation) one is helping her. So she lashes out at Jesus (like we do) and says. “do you not care?” Really Martha, did you seriously ask Jesus that question?

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 Prayer- are you asking or basking?  ( Part 2) Retreat talk to the SVD seminarians in Pune

What is the attitude we should have before God in prayer? Luke gives us another account of two people praying in 18:9-14. Who is he telling this parable to? To those who trusted in themselves, to those who were righteous and to those who regarded others with contempt.

So Jesus is not only narrating this parable about ‘a Pharisee’, he is narrating this to the present day audience especially when we behave like Pharisees. Jesus  is talking to ALL who fall in the above categories. So don’t be fooled by the example of the Pharisee and dismiss this as situational example lost in history. Jesus is talking about the Pharisee in all of us (Church people). Yet it is amazing that he even used a tax collector and a Pharisee in the same story for the Jews could not even imagine the two to be mentioned in the same breath. There was no doubt in the mind of the Jew that the Pharisee would be the hero of the narrative.

In Luke 5:32 Jesus said I have come not for the righteous. So it is clear that Jesus does not have some ‘gold star standard’ for those He has come or not come for. He has come to save all so all can petition him in prayer.

  What’s common between the tax collector and the Pharisee in the parable?

  1. Both went to pray

  2. Both went to temple (the same place)

  3. Both are sinners( even though the Pharisee things otherwise)

  4. Both address God

What’s different about them?

  1. One was an honest sinner. He looks to heaven, beats his breast and acknowledges the sin

  2. The other was a dishonest sinner – The Pharisee is not praying to God he is actually listing his religious achievements. Who is the centre of his prayer? It is himself! He is the object of his own worship. Four times in the parable he says “I”.

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