Who gets to come in? Who has the authority to teach and heal? Or where did you go to school? Or what are your credentials? Prove to us who you are!
Are there any words Jesus might say that will make those challenging his authority hear his message more clearly? Probably not!
It was a trick, it’s a trap. Folks around Jesus are looking for the ‘aha’, the ‘gotcha’ moment. Beloved, I guess you know there is no right answer. They are all right answers and none of them are correct. It’s not a mind trick. This game the authorities play doesn’t have one set of rules, it’s not Monopoly or Scrabble or Backgammon. The axis-turning human being standing on the threshold of change, says, look the answers are not as important as the questions, not as important as listening, not as important as vulnerability. Wait, what college did you go to?
Jesus goes on to say to those who listen, ‘proving myself to y’all is not going to make the message of love, kindness, generosity and peace any less important or necessary.’
Who among us can receive that message? The most vulnerable understand that message. As it was so shall it be. But that is not quite the way the world worked then or now.
That is one of the reasons when we are our most vulnerable, we can and often do, receive divine grace and a message of love and possibility. Our associations with those most unlike us can also propel us to grasp the expansive nature of the message of revolutionary love.
Listen to hear in this week’s gospel God’s message of acceptance and love in the midst of turmoil and division. Our relationship with those we ‘other’ is exactly where we practice empathic listening and acceptance.
This is a challenge we might rather write off, OR MAYBE it is something we might try on … like a beautiful coat or a desirable pair of shoes. Wear these ideas around for a while, practice thinking differently, maybe less realistically. Jesus keeps laying out the scenarios, inviting us to engage his words in our lives. Who is the boss of your life?
+Rev. Alison
