Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 10, 2024
Jn 3:14-21
Ah, John 3:16. It is one of the most well-known Bible verses. And, like a lot of familiar passages of Scripture, it tends to render the rest of the reading inaudible. Sure, sure, we think. We’ve known this since birth—nothing left to learn here.
So many brilliant authors, scholars, and saints have written about this passage of Scripture. Your parish priest likely gave an excellent homily, coaxing out of these verses a bit of wisdom you can carry with you through this fourth week of Lent.
But as I write these reflections, I ask you as I ask myself today: what is Jesus saying to me, personally, in these words? An exercise I occasionally do, loosely based on the Ignatian tradition of imaginative prayer, is to include myself or others in the Scripture and see where that takes me.
“For God so loved me that he gave his only Son so that I who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn me, but that I might be saved through him.”
Or: “For God so loved people I find challenging that he gave his only Son…
Or: “For God so loved the humans I don’t understand that he gave his only Son…
Or: “For God so loved the people who don’t care about him that he gave his only Son…
As we insert ourselves and others into the scriptural narrative, we uncover the profound truth that God’s love extends individually to each of us and “everyone else.” This exercise prompts us to reflect His love in our interactions with others, fostering understanding, compassion, and a shared journey toward eternal life.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 11, 2024
Jn 4:43-54
“I’ll believe it when I don’t see it.”
We are really programmed instead to say, “I’ll credit it when I can verify it,” “I’ll buy into it when I witness it firsthand,” or “I’ll be a believer when I can observe it.” We doubt; we need proof.
Today’s lesson in faith comes from a royal official who worked for Herod. He heard Jesus was back in Cana and walked the 20-plus miles from his home in Capernaum just to ask Jesus to come and heal his son, who had a life-threatening illness. I will take a guess that this man had already exhausted many other options, but when he heard that the man who had done a lot of “signs and wonders” was back in Galilee, well, it was worth a shot.
When the royal official asked Jesus to walk back with him to Capernaum to heal his son, Jesus didn’t say, “No,” instead, he told him, “You may go; your son will live.” And he left! He believed, and he left!
There was no immediate proof. Twenty-some miles away, his son was either alive or dying. But he took off for home, confident that Jesus did what he said. The story gives us that wonderful moment when the official’s servants met him on the road to tell him the good news that his son was alive. Then, his whole household believed that Jesus had authority over life and death, and their lives were changed forever.
If I had been in the man’s shoes, would I have been so sure? If I understood Jesus’ true identity, nothing but pure faith would be possible.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 12, 2024
Jn 5:1-16
“Do you want to be well?”
This complex reading feels very Lent-y to me. Some of the details of the story make me squirmy and uncomfortable. The temptation for me is to focus on the healing–which is, of course, remarkable in itself. But there is more to this story than that.
I’ll start with Jesus.
Jesus chose this particular invalid out of everyone at the pool of Bethesda. He could have healed someone else–or all of them, really–but he chose this man. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be well and didn’t get a straight answer. It didn’t appear that the healing itself was a tender scene; instead, Jesus just ordered the man to pick up his mat and walk. Later, Jesus found him, reminded him that he was now well, and told him to stop sinning. And he got turned in to the Jews.
Now, the healed man.
The invalid didn’t ask to be healed. He blamed others for still being ill. He didn’t express gratitude for his healing. He blamed Jesus for his carrying the mat. He was personally instructed/confronted by Jesus and was unrepentant. Instead, he turned Jesus in for breaking the Sabbath, likely to save his own skin.
And then there were the Jewish authorities.
They were very quick to call the healed man out engaging in an unlawful activity on the Sabbath. But they didn’t seem to care that this man–a fellow Jew who they may have known or recognized–could suddenly walk. When the healed man blamed it on “the man who made me well,” they demanded to know who he was. Once they were told, the persecution was on.
What is our takeaway here? A few thoughts.
The invalid in this story suffered from more than his physical condition. Jesus healed his body, which would have been life-changing in itself. But then Jesus went after him to tell him how to be healed entirely–spiritually–turning from sin. God’s limitless love for us means he is always seeking us out to tell us how to be made whole. How do we respond?
The religious authorities also had a condition. They were so focused on the law that they were blind to the miracle.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 13, 2024
JN 5:17-30
Today’s Gospel picks up from yesterday’s reading with Jesus’ response to the Jewish authorities, and he starts it off with a bang: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
The Jews would have understood him to be talking about God and that God continues to work on the Sabbath in life (babies are born) and death (judgment). So Jesus is outright saying that he had the authority to give life–to heal–on the Sabbath. I can only imagine the religious leaders’ reaction.
But Jesus goes on with several “amen, amen” statements to really drive the point home. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. He raises the dead and gives life. Whoever honors the Father honors the Son; whoever doesn’t honor the Son does not honor the Father. Whoever hears the words of the Son and believes in the Father who sent him has eternal life. The son was given the power of judgment by the Father. Their work is one and the same–inseparable.
To the men who charged Jesus with breaking the Sabbath (healing) and making himself equal to God, he has just revealed his identity and his authority. He is the Second Person of the Trinity, God, who made the Sabbath.
Do we recognize Jesus as having authority over our lives? How can we hear his word and pass from death to life–daily?
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 14, 2024
Jn 5:31-47
There is one phrase in today’s Gospel reading that takes my breath away. In the middle of addressing the Jewish authorities’ charges against him, he says:
“…but I say this so that you may be saved.”
These Jews were particularly nasty toward Jesus, looking for reasons to arrest him and kill him. He was the one they had been waiting for, but they refused him. In his answer to them in this reading, he calls them out. They didn’t believe John the Baptist when he testified for Jesus, and they didn’t believe the works he did on his mission from the Father. They studied the Scriptures extensively but didn’t see Jesus in the scrolls they knew so well.
These Jewish religious authorities had power and prestige, and they liked it. They enjoyed flattery and being in their own inner circle. This could have been another reason they refused to accept Jesus, even though they read about him in the prophecies–they would have to relinquish their stranglehold on the law.
You can almost hear the anguish in his words, “For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Jesus knew where his path led. But then, and now, he always wants to give us another chance to be saved.
Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 15, 2024
Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Following two days of readings in which Jesus made his identity known to people who didn’t accept it, we have today’s Gospel, where people think they know exactly who he was and where he came from. Mass confusion and mystery abound.
First, we see Jesus going to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles “as it were in secret,” but then we hear he’s speaking openly and, in fact, “crying out” in the temple area. This had people wondering: if this is the guy they are trying to kill, why is he doing that? Then, they wondered if the Jewish authorities believed Jesus was the Messiah. The heads start shaking: no, that can’t be right; we know where Jesus is from, and we know the Messiah doesn’t come from there. To quote Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi: “Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong.”
Jesus went over it again loudly, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” And he evaded their capture.
The storm is building in these readings. Jesus was bold, commanding, and sincere, but everyone around him had their own agenda. What is ours?
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 16, 2024
Jn 7:40-53
Today’s Gospel reading feels like the headlines from today. Tensions are mounting. People are divided. Accusations fly. But there’s one bit in this reading that makes me pause.
“Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
Of course, these guards were guilty of disobeying orders by not bringing Jesus in. And the Pharisees lambasted them: “Have you also been deceived?” Because to them, anyone who believed in Jesus was deceived. The guards had been surveilling Jesus for a while, so they heard him speak. They had undoubtedly heard many other teachers speak in the temple area. And they were right. This was different.
John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.” They had never heard a person speak like Jesus because there was no other like him. The Pharisees blasted Nicodemus for suggesting that they hear Jesus out–which would have given them another opportunity to hear and believe. But their minds were made up.
We can become so accustomed to hearing Scripture that we become dulled to Jesus’ teachings and promises. Let’s pray for our hearts to be open to hearing his voice this Lent–and to share it with those who are closed off from him.