Jesus is not who we think he is
I would wager to bet that almost every American feels confident that they know who Jesus is. However, if you surveyed Americans about his characteristics, I’d also be willing to bet that the image of Jesus most commonly held would look little like the Jesus presented in the Gospels. The American Jesus would be a tolerant, meek, slightly-effeminate preacher who only said nice things to everyone except those mean nasty religious leaders. He never said anything offensive and surely never said anything threatening.
I thought of this when I read the Gospel reading for today. Or, more precisely, when I read what was NOT included in today’s Gospel. The reading is Matthew 21,24-27, which says:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
However, whenever a reading skips verses I like to go ahead and read them on my own so that I get the full context of the passage. In this case the skipped verses are 22-23, in which Jesus states:
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’
Not exactly a tolerant meek nonthreatening Jesus, is it?
I understand that perhaps those who chose the readings for today did not think verses 22-23 fit the season of Advent. But I think it is problematic when we take out the “hard” sayings of Jesus from our readings. We already tend to downplay the difficult statements of Christ in order to live more comfortably (how often do we try to ignore the fact that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than a camel to fit through the eye of a needle?), so I think it would be useful to us all if we had to hear these passages during the Mass – to remind us that Jesus is not who we think he is.
