This week, we are offered another example of people looking to get Jesus. Both get him in the sense of wanting to understand him and also get him as to catch him in the act. I don’t think these are mutually exclusive ideas. In fact, we often bundle them together like cable services.

We see this all the time in politics, when we both want to understand someone and also want to defeat them. Why are they like that? And also, they’re dumb. But we also see this in academics, business, and many social situations. We like “winning” as much as understanding.

The eagerness to push back, even to the point of mockery, rather than understand or even try to understand reflects our own egos and fears far more than our strength. We so often lash out and reject before we consider what is happening or why.

The thing is, for followers of Jesus, all of this demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of our purpose. Ours is not to win. It is to serve. To love. To share.

Instead of playing gotcha, we are to listen, seek to understand, and make ourselves vulnerable. To the idea that we might be wrong. Or that the way of justice might cause injustice.

We then open ourselves up to actually get Jesus.