Epiphany IV

Epiphany IV The truth is

The truth sets us free. The truth also hurts.

Jesus not only speaks the truth he is the truth. He not only proclaims the Good News of God’s love he is the love of God in human flesh.

When Jesus preached Good News in the synagogue in Nazareth the people heard the news gladly and with amazement. In only a few minutes their amazement turned to anger and hate. What happened? How did they make such a dramatic transition in their attitude towards Jesus?
I believe the key lies in the comment of the crowd: is this not Joseph’s son?

Jesus not only proclaimed the Good News of God, he declared the truth that he is the fulfillment of the Good News. Jesus is the truth and could only proclaim the truth. He was not just a teacher, preacher or even a prophet. Had he allowed people to believe that he would have been safe. But, he would not have been fulfilling the Father’s Plan and Purpose for his incarnation.
At the moment of his baptism in the river Jordan, Jesus heard the words of his heavenly Father: this is my son. The beloved.

There is a one word answer to the crowd’s rhetorical question: is this not Joseph’s son? The one word answer is no. Jesus is the Son of God. His message of love is validated and made real by the truth that he is the co-eternal Beloved of the Father.

The transition in the story begins when Jesus clarifies who he is. At that point, all who had spoken well of him as a preacher began to find fault with him

What happens next is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ arrest and condemnation by the religious court. For a human being to claim to be God is blasphemy. It is also a challenge to the human desire to create God in our own image.

Jesus never gave people the option to accept him on their terms. He was very clear about his identity as the Son of God.

He initiated a discussion that clarified the passage from the prophet Isaiah that he had just read. He reminded the people of Nazareth that God’s love is universal. God sent Elijah to help a Sidonian woman. God commanded the prophet Elisha to heal a Syrian general.
It is at this point that the crowds become enraged. Good News for Israel brought praise. Good news for the pagan gentile world brought rage. The reality of God’ universal love in the person of Jesus Christ was too much for the crowd. They had been educated in fear and trained to hate.

The crowd was poised to throw Jesus off of a cliff. Then, mysteriously, Jesus just walked through the midst of the crowd and left the city. It was not the time, the place or the method of his death.
Why would Jesus do this? Why didn’t he just bask in the praise for awhile?

The answer is simple but not easy. The answer is love. That love is eternal. That love is the pattern of truth. There can be no love apart from truth. The truth is that Jesus is the love of God reaching out to a lost and broken people. Jesus came to set people free from separation and sin. He had to reveal to humanity our condition and our need in order to present himself as the solution to that need.

Jesus is the perfect mirror to the human soul. When we truly look into that mirror we see our self will, fear and pride. Jesus’ real presence in our midst allows us only two options: love or separation. The way of love is the way of faith. The way of faith says: Heavenly Father not my will but your will be done. The way of separation is the way of the human will to power. The will to power always says: my will be done.

As it was then so it is now. We need to be very clear about who Jesus is. We need to be very careful in what we say about Jesus.

Jesus is God the Father’s only begotten Son. Jesus is God the Father’s Plan of Salvation for the entire human race.

Jesus is the love of God in human flesh. That love is universal. That love is also truth. There can be no love apart from truth.

Jesus invites all people everywhere to receive the gifts he brings: forgiveness of sin, reunification with God the Father, a new life of transformation in the Holy Spirit, eternal life in the resurrection of the body. This is the gift of salvation.

Jesus offers himself to everyone but imposes himself on no one.

Jesus is the truth that sets us free. That truth is the love and compassion of God. It is also the fulness of divine revelation to humanity. Jesus is God up front and personal. For many people, perhaps all of us at times, the reality that God is his own person is an affront to the human will to power.

As Jesus revealed the fulness of God in his own person the people of Nazareth reacted with murderous rage. The truth is that human beings want God but we want God on our own terms. Humans reserve the right to define God according to our own needs and desires. God in person is just too much God. God in person reminds us of the pain of our choice to separate.

God in person is also the solution to that pain.

The truth is that there is only one God.

The truth is that the one God has not only revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ but continually offers himself to us in Jesus Christ.

The question for all of us is: how will we receive Jesus? Will we receive him as the true love of God in human flesh?

The truth is Jesus Christ.