Is it my way that is unfair?
How far will we go to understand God’s way?
It’s so hard to let go of our own ways of being and try to see how God functions, how God’s love works! The prophet Ezekiel struggled to help the people of Israel in exile to understand that, even in this far and distant country, God was with them, though they had misunderstood God’s teachings: You say the Lord’s way is not fair! The people have come to believe that the sins of the parents are visited on their children. Instead, Ezekiel encourages them to take personal responsibility for their own actions, and for their relationship with the Lord. Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? Each individual has but to turn from the wickedness they might commit and do what is just and right, and they will have life. For, as Psalm 25 reminds us, the Lord is always merciful: Remember that your compassion, O Lord, and your love are from of old. The psalmist seeks to walk in God’s ways, and be guided in God’s truth, to see past his own limitations and to understand how God works.
In Matthew's gospel, Jesus faces a similar struggle with the Jewish leadership of his own time, who refuse to recognize Jesus and what he has to offer, which is the possibility of entering the kingdom of God. But to do so, they need to change, to take responsibility for their own past limitations and to let go of the authority they so ardently cling to. This is the father’s will for which Jesus offers the parable of the two sons asked to go out and work in their father’s vineyard. The one who does his father’s will is the one entering the kingdom of God before the chief priests and elders of the people. The chief priests and elders have to step past their own limitations and recognize the redemption Jesus offers them; after all, he says tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” In other words, you too can enter, as long as you believe.
This is what it means to be a community of faith, to embody that kingdom, as Paul tells the Philippians: be of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Through baptism, the Philippians have been bound into a community faith, a people who are one in Christ. This is precisely what Jesus is encouraging the Jewish leadership to join. He knows they are far from God because fear has driven them to hold close to human law. Jesus is inviting them – and us – to draw close to God, by humbly regarding others as more important than yourselves, as Paul notes Christ himself did: emptying himself, humbling himself, obedient to the point of death. We can only do so if we step past the limitations we impose on God and on love, and open to knowing and manifesting God’s ways. The journey is ours; will we choose to take it?
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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