Day 36: Killing Jesus

In today’s Gospel (John 8:31-42), we read of an animated Jesus holding up a mirror to those “Jews who believed in him.”

Why would Jesus, on two occasions later in this discussion, reveal that he knows these believers are trying to kill him? Shouldn’t it be the opposite?

It is a surprising narrative as he isn’t talking to the religious leaders or Roman guards, he is speaking to those of his own Jewish faith who supposedly believed in him. This reading is preparing our own hearts for Palm Sunday and the days that follow.

Jesus says to his Jewish believers, “my word has no room among you.”

Today, you might want to ask yourself if this is true for you, too.

If you are a Christian, you will say you believe in Jesus, no different than those Jesus engages with in this Gospel passage.

Do you have room among you for his word?

The proof is in your thoughts, words, and actions.

• Are they divisive, judgmental, insensitive?

• Are they self-serving and self-righteous?

If you are quick to answer no, think again? Take some time to review your social media posts, your spoken statements at the dinner table, what you say before the open ears of your children?

A deeper question is: How might you be killing Jesus today?

• Is it in the migrant who was seeking asylum, the homeless losing access to food and shelter, or the communities in distant lands who now lack essential medicine and care?

• Is it in the false gods you follow, those with political power who influence your views away from the suffering by raising fear that only leads to hate.

• Is it in your indifference, your focus on your own rather than all.

This divisiveness killed Jesus then, and it kills Jesus now as the Holy Spirit lives in all of God’s creation. Remember Matthew 25, when Jesus tells us “You did it to me.”

Those who will wave the palms on Palm Sunday will a few days later be yelling “crucify him.” Be very careful these days.

The way of Jesus is counter-cultural, radical in fact. It requires a change of heart and action. You must stop and take stock of your life? Is there room for Jesus in your heart so you can truly believe in him so much that it transforms your perspective and behavior? Or, are you no different than so many before and now who take Christ as part of your identity only to hurt and kill him by your actions and inactions.