Their confusion over expectations of the Messiah isn’t Jesus’s fault. They didn’t really want to understand what God was telling them.
Why can’t they hear his voice? They don’t want to.
Easter 4C | John 10:22-30
“How long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
At the time some people ask Jesus this question, he has just compared himself to the Good Shepherd. One who collects sheep who aren’t from the herd. One who brings them all in and they will listen to his voice.
And then it says that the people “were divided because of these words.” Some thought he was possessed! Others argued that a demon-possessed person couldn’t give sight to the blind!
That’s when Jesus takes this conversation to the Temple and continues it there. But the people want the matter settled. They’re angry, frustrated, conflicted.
So they expect Jesus to settle the matter for them.
“How long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
This isn’t a thoughtful question by an introspective person of faith. It’s the frustrated projection of hostile imaginations.
There’s a famous line a snarkier version of Jesus might have employed. OK, fine. It’s the line I would have responded with.
Your urgency isn’t my emergency.
The people are mad at him. And in a moment, they’ll take up stones and threaten to kill him.
They really want to throw those stones.
These people are mad. They think he’s blaspheming and calling himself God. Jesus sets them straight. But after their heresy detectors have already gone off and they’ve already militarized the populace. If they had Twitter, you know who would be calling for the pitchforks.
These aren’t the people asking Jesus an honest question. Not when they’ve already got their stones ready.
You and I might think Jesus has divine patience enough to handle an internet troll on the rampage, but that doesn’t mean he should trust him! And it doesn’t mean they have a right to demand he answer their bad faith question.
“How long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
But the problem is not with whether or not Jesus has spoken plainly.
And Jesus all but says haven’t you been listening?
The problem is that Jesus keeps redefining the word “Messiah” and they refuse to hear his voice.
What’s a Messiah? What’s a Jesus?
Messiah means “anointed one.” Which, of course, brings with it some serious baggage for the Hebrews at the time.
While it is quite debatable whether or not the Jewish people were actively anticipating the coming of a messiah, there is no question that the idea of a messiah itself had cachet. Particularly in the tradition of King David.
It is pretty safe to say that those who followed Jesus expected big things from him. Tradition has long argued that they thought one would come like a general to lead a revolution.
Of course, this shows how confused the disciples were by who Jesus is really supposed to be. He’s a rabbi and they are disciples. So how many teachers at ISU are leading the revolution? Not many, I’d guess.
He’s a healer. He gives sight to the blind, speech to the mute, the ability to walk to the disabled. And that’s before he goes to raise Lazarus from the dead right after this. I’m just saying: he’s got hands for healing rather than killing.
He’s a prophet. So he shares the Good News of God and confronts the authorities. He brings comfort to the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. And he proclaims how even faithful people support oppressors.
But this doesn’t lead to an honest assessment from his opponents. They’ve been hate-watching the news coverage and taking his words out of context.
Even if he said the words “down with the patriarchy!” someone would turn that phrase into “I’m down with the patriarchy.”
This is their general? The one they fear? No. He’s not. But they’re afraid of him anyway. They’re afraid of who he actually is.
They can’t hear his voice. Not because God is preventing them. They don’t want to hear him. They asked for a king and God gave them a shepherd. And they’re like, “Nah.”
On Their Side?
“The answer is that as Messiah, Jesus does the same kind of work that God does,” writes Osvaldo Vena. And this really cheeses them off. Because they don’t want God to be their shepherd, calling and gathering and protecting. They want a warrior, a judge/jury/executioner, a king who will destroy their enemies.
The fact that they accuse him of heresy, grab the nearest stones, and threaten to do the dirty work themselves is not a serious sign of Jesus’s guilt! Nor does it prove that he has inadequately described the mission of God.
We should NOT take their refusal to listen or their acts of aggression as a justified response. Nor is it representative of a judgmental God, dividing us up into who is in and who is out.
They’ve divided themselves because Jesus had the audacity to bring the love of God into their midst and they expected it to be different. They are trying to kill Jesus because they can’t hear him!
To them, the Anointed One is supposed to be mighty, violent, commanding, and more than anything, on their side.
But what Jesus presents is an entirely different picture. They just don’t want to listen!
God sides with the oppressed
The kind of Messiah Jesus embodies is not only a reflection of God but one which is present, material, and very much in the moment.
The oppressor Messiah is supernatural and spiritual. He offers a future promise of liberation. Just not now. For now, it’s never-arriving hope and metaphor. But then in death, oh, blessed freedom.
That’s what we told the slaves, of course. Americans kidnapped people, tortured them, forced them into labor. Then after winning our freedom materially, we told them to look for their freedom through metaphor. Just not in the material world.
Osvaldo Vena writes:
“In Latin America, land of extreme poverty, the poor and the underprivileged have been told the same thing. That is until Liberation Theology came along with the revolutionary insight that God was on their side, something very obvious when you read scripture, but which was obscured by what we call bourgeois hermeneutics.“
But of course, we can’t have that kind of freedom. So for the last few decades, Europeans demonized liberation theologians and fed the people the old food of spiritualism and escapism. Shackling their bodies and spirits and stealing the freedom the shepherd offers his sheep.
He speaks of freedom
This is what Jesus says throughout the gospels. Feed my sheep. Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid. The father and I are one. Go; your faith has made you well. Love your enemies.
“Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’”
Mark 9:36-37
‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
Matthew 5:38-41
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5:9
Jesus uses his voice to draw the sheep to him, not command them into line. He is a good shepherd. A humble shepherd. A shepherd who lays his life on the line for the sheep.
In the material body.
So that we could see how God loves. How God gives us a vibrant life, gives us freedom, and gives us the means of being the kin-dom come. Hearing his voice is hearing this message through all the other frequencies. Like there are all these other stations promising a different way of living in the world.
But the sheep hear his voice anyway.
Tuned in, you’ll surely hear it. It’s on most stations. And not only in analog. They use digital too. Podcasts, for sure. Now, there’s a lot of junk on YouTube, so you really have to look to find it there. Same with cable news or peddlers of conspiracy theories. In those places, you really have to work to hear the voice.
Your better bet is to talk to children. Shorter line, less lag-time, and clearer reception. Sit with them and listen.
Find God in our children and we’ll never think God sends any of them to war.
[NOTE: The original Mother’s Day was founded by Julia Ward Howe as a call to the mothers of the world to come together for peace. In this material world for the love of God.]