Jesus had plenty of problems during the three years of his ministry. This was because he challenged the conventional wisdom of the people of his time. He, in other words, was disturbing the status quo. Jesus in his teaching and preaching provoked his listeners. Justifying his tendency to be provocative he said, “I came to bring fire to the earth” (Luke 12:49)! He came to provoke and disturb the comfortable people! Jesus was always a provocative disturber of the status quo. He was always pro-active in provoking his audience.
Often when Jesus spoke to people he hurt their pride, pricking their bloated ego, reducing the self-importance of the listeners, particularly those in the centre of the then society! Here, Jesus like his predecessors, the Hebrew prophets, “plucked, pulled down, uprooted and destroyed” - recurring words in the writings of Jeremiah - their sense of self-importance, something the prophets considered God’s doing before God made things new!
In the Hebrew Scriptures this is called the “prophetic inveighing”, a sport almost all the prophets practiced. And, of course, all prophets, even prior to Jesus, suffered much. They preached the Word of God through such provocation. And the Word of God, according to the Hebrew Prophetic Scriptures, frequently came not as sweet as honey as the psalmist often proclaimed. It was usually uncomfortable words, needing a lot of humility and a greater maturity on the part of the hearers. Reinhold Niebuhr about his own preaching, and all preaching said that preaching should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. Jesus precisely did that. He expected his followers also to do the same.
Earlier young Moses did the same. He too knew the consequences of disturbing the status quo. At one point, he even tried to plead with God to let him out of the hook and pick instead Aaron, the old bloke who is also a good orator! But, we know, that did not happen. Once God decides on someone, there is no escape! And there is also no freedom from pain in an authentic ministry! Bonhoffer said when God calls you he calls you to suffer and die! That did happen to Bonhoffer! It happened to Jeremiah. And it happened to Jesus. Jesus could not escape from the cross, though at the end he yelled at God – Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani? “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
God, in the Sacred Scriptures of the Christians, is not a sweet chocolate! God is not one who puts humans on a bed of roses! God does give to people chocolate and beautiful roses! But God gives above all a responsibility to become a prophet and a prophetic community to pluck up, to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow our prejudices, our narrowness, our smallness, our sense of self-importance, and so on before we build for God “the hymn of love”! Towards this, the same scriptures affirm, God gives God’s own Spirit!
Song writer James Manley boldly believed the Spirit of God is that which “breaks ancient schemes”, “stings with sand”, “calls us to live in an uncertain tomorrow”, “coaxes us to do what we do not like”, “wakes us from our slumber”, “gives us a new vision”, “stirs me from my placidness”, and much more.
Often when Jesus spoke to people he hurt their pride, pricking their bloated ego, reducing the self-importance of the listeners, particularly those in the centre of the then society! Here, Jesus like his predecessors, the Hebrew prophets, “plucked, pulled down, uprooted and destroyed” - recurring words in the writings of Jeremiah - their sense of self-importance, something the prophets considered God’s doing before God made things new!
In the Hebrew Scriptures this is called the “prophetic inveighing”, a sport almost all the prophets practiced. And, of course, all prophets, even prior to Jesus, suffered much. They preached the Word of God through such provocation. And the Word of God, according to the Hebrew Prophetic Scriptures, frequently came not as sweet as honey as the psalmist often proclaimed. It was usually uncomfortable words, needing a lot of humility and a greater maturity on the part of the hearers. Reinhold Niebuhr about his own preaching, and all preaching said that preaching should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. Jesus precisely did that. He expected his followers also to do the same.
Earlier young Moses did the same. He too knew the consequences of disturbing the status quo. At one point, he even tried to plead with God to let him out of the hook and pick instead Aaron, the old bloke who is also a good orator! But, we know, that did not happen. Once God decides on someone, there is no escape! And there is also no freedom from pain in an authentic ministry! Bonhoffer said when God calls you he calls you to suffer and die! That did happen to Bonhoffer! It happened to Jeremiah. And it happened to Jesus. Jesus could not escape from the cross, though at the end he yelled at God – Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani? “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
God, in the Sacred Scriptures of the Christians, is not a sweet chocolate! God is not one who puts humans on a bed of roses! God does give to people chocolate and beautiful roses! But God gives above all a responsibility to become a prophet and a prophetic community to pluck up, to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow our prejudices, our narrowness, our smallness, our sense of self-importance, and so on before we build for God “the hymn of love”! Towards this, the same scriptures affirm, God gives God’s own Spirit!
Song writer James Manley boldly believed the Spirit of God is that which “breaks ancient schemes”, “stings with sand”, “calls us to live in an uncertain tomorrow”, “coaxes us to do what we do not like”, “wakes us from our slumber”, “gives us a new vision”, “stirs me from my placidness”, and much more.
No comments:
Post a Comment