Do you know what the future holds for you? If you want to know, I can tell you for four easy payments of $19.95 plus shipping and handling!
Just kidding 🙂
For this Sunday, we come across a strange passage that is rather easy to gloss over with the response: “Sure, Jesus could say that, he was God.”
Let’s not stick to easy “answers.”
First, what are the Pharisees doing? They are warning Jesus. There’s a turnaround! Since when are they concerned for Jesus’ welfare? Also, Jesus answers them rather glibly by essentially saying that he was untouchable until he got to Jerusalem. Could there be less clairvoyance on Jesus’ part than interpretation of human behavior? Maybe, they just wanted him to leave, and he saw through them — rather than through time.
Second, what if Jesus is talking less of prediction and more of judgment? Jerusalem doesn’t fare too well in Jesus’ words. What a bitter pill to swallow for a city! Jerusalem isn’t the city of God or the city of the prophets; it is the city of murder and hate. That’s hard to live down…to this day, Jerusalem has an ambivalent legacy.
Third, what if Jesus is showing COURAGE rather than prescience? Have you ever fought a “battle” that you knew you would lose because it was the right thing to do?
That’s a special kind of courage.
Perhaps, this Sunday, our thoughts might turn to the right causes and people we should support, even if that means we lose. After all, didn’t Jesus prove that losing doesn’t have to be the last word?