+Today Jesus is riled up—he’s fed up with the disciples, annoyed with his followers and really stressed about what he’ll face in Jerusalem. He’s on edge, he’s ticked off, he’s scared.
In other words, he’s being really human.
Jesus as God incarnate---God in the flesh---is a cornerstone of our faith. We embrace Jesus the man born to Mary and Joseph, AND Christ the Son of God as two sides of the same being. While this seeming contradiction----being fully human and fully divine----is fundamental to our faith… have you ever stopped to think about how it must have been for Jesus?
How did he balance being fully of God and fully of Mary----how’d he balance what he knew as divine and what he felt as human? Think about it---the human Jesus went through the same developmental milestones we all do--- he may have been colicky! He learned to crawl, to walk, to talk….growing up as we all do….through trial and error…. fits and starts.
While we know very little about Jesus’ childhood and adolescence we do get some glimpses that suggest Jesus was a fairly normal boy who, as he grew, began to test the limits of his parents. At times he drove them nuts and at times he was positive they didn’t understand him. Yes, my guess is Jesus went through the same growing pains we all do…but…….
how much did he know about who he really was?
In Luke’s Gospel it appears Jesus came to terms with his identity and his fate about three chapters earlier than what we’ve been reading this summer. It’s pretty safe to assume that after his transfiguration in chapter 9, after he famously, “set his face toward Jerusalem (9:51),” Jesus realizes that his message of peace and love was going to be met with fierce and violent opposition and that he would need to fall victim to that violence to fully complete his earthly task…
Such a realization would cause anyone to be a little on edge….
And Jesus, as we’ve read these past few weeks in Luke’s Gospel, is getting pretty edgy.
So today we encounter a Jesus who realizes that his time is short and his task is immense. Today we encounter a Jesus who’s finally come to grips with his identity and doesn’t understand why his followers don’t get it---today we encounter a man having a bit of an identity crisis.
He was anxious, he was stressed …..he was being very human…and if we really believe what we say we believe---that Jesus is the Son of God, born of a human woman, fully human and fully divine…. then we should embrace this Gospel, difficult as it is to hear---not because we want families to be torn apart, not because we support some reign of terror to accompany the end times---but because God so loved us, God came to walk among us, to grow among us and to die among us so that, once and for all we’d know---that we’re never alone.
That’s the purpose of the gospels---this collection of stories, parables and teachings--- proof that we are loved beyond all reason. And that’s good, because being a Christian, as outlined by these same Gospels, isn’t easy.
Discomfort is a big part of Christianity….it is uncomfortable to stand up for what is right when it isn’t popular, it’s uncomfortable to raise your pledge when money seems tight, it’s uncomfortable to pray for the people you don’t like, the people who wish us harm, the people it would be so much easier to hate.
Christianity, with it’s clear and non-negotiable message of peace and justice for all, demands that we challenge the status quo when that status quo impedes any human being from living life on an equal footing with everyone else, it demands that when we know of injustice we do something to stop it, it demands that when everyone shrugs their shoulders and says, “that’s the way it has always been” we say, “no that’s not acceptable, there’s another way.” Christianity demands that we be the pain in the patoot to the world. Christianity demands that we make ourselves and other people uncomfortable as long as inequality and injustice exists on earth.
Christianity demands much of us.
It’s not easy. And in today’s Gospel Jesus is telling us that being faithful can be very messy, very frustrating, very infuriating and at times pretty darn hard.
But, because we know that God came to live among us, as one of us in the person of Jesus Christ, we also know that, as we stand up for what is right and just, as we fight the good fight against violence and evil, degradation and despair, we’re not alone…
…no matter who might abandon us along the way, no matter who may disagree with what we believe, we’re never alone. We never have been and we never will be.
Because God has been where we are, and then some. Because God, given to us in the person of Jesus Christ knows how hard it is, because God’s felt the anger, the loneliness and the terror which is part of our human condition this Gospel today offers us Good News. Good News that although being a Christian may not be easy, and it may not be popular and it may not always feel good, it’s never ever lonely. And for that we can all say, Amen.
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