RETREAT IN LENT 2021
Day 30,
Thursday, 18 March
Growing tension with the Jews
If we allow the force of Jesus words to the Jews in John
5:31-47 to reach us we sense the growing conflict that has now become
unavoidable. Jesus is speaking plainly about his mission from the Father ‘but
his words find no home in you.’
‘You study
the scriptures’ but you want them to tell you what you want to hear! You want
them to approve of what you are doing and how you are living. You are not open
to the message I bring you from the Father. ‘You place your hopes in Moses’ and
use Moses to support your narrow view of the law. But you don’t accept that
Moses was speaking about me.
This passage
evokes the memory of the Jews in the desert in the time of Moses (Exodus
32:7-14) and how the people could not stand the waiting. They wanted
immediate results. The made a golden calf and worshipped it. God threatens to destroy
the people but Moses pleads on their behalf.
The Jews of
Jesus’ time also have made a ‘calf’ in that they have fashioned the law
according to their own wills and have abandoned the destiny God has in store
for them. They too can’t bear the waiting.
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