Saturday in the Fifth Week

Ezekiel 37:21-28; Psalm 85:1-7; John 11:45-53

This Gospel is so powerful, and so subtle.  Forgive me if I ruminate at length.

Caiaphas explains that it’s better for one to die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed (Jn. 11:50).  That can sound cynical, and probably was; it’s certainly easier to say about someone else than about oneself.  But John tells us that in fact Caiaphas was “prophesying,” that is, he was speaking an inspired word.  He was not “predicting,” but speaking God’s truth.  Nonetheless, he failed to grasp the full import of what he said.

Jesus came to save.  He saw that Israel, the people of the covenant, who were bound to God through the Torah, had fallen away from that relationship.  They were at a crucial point in their history: occupied by Rome, with a history of resistance, they were tempted to go along with Rome and settle for “peaceful” domination. It seemed that their only choices were to go along with the domination system or to violently resist it.  Either path seemed to mean the end of Israel as a faithful nation.

Jesus came to save, but that salvation meant letting go of what they - and we - think of as survival.  It meant dying to old identities and ways of being in order to be free and faithful.  Jesus talked about this path, but most couldn’t hear what he said.  Finally he showed us.  He failed his way to the cross.  He let go.

Caiaphas thinks that killing Jesus will save the nation by appeasing the Romans.  He’s wrong about that.  Killing Jesus doesn’t save anyone.  But Jesus choosing to die; that is saving grace.  Jesus showing us the path to new life, new possibility, new identity - that’s salvation.

It’s not a salvation we usually choose.

We can settle for survival.  It seems like common sense.  But there are no breakthroughs without breakdowns, and every breakdown is a little death.  Every time I let go, every time I break down, it leads to new and deeper life.  And yet I resist the next time.  I hang on until the pain is so great, the unworkability or un-sustainability of my situation is so clear, that I can’t go on.  I let something die in order for something greater to live.

Is there a part of you that you are selling out in order to keep things in place?

This is the week to notice it and let it go.