Strength of Your People

I feel like today’s readings are very different in their essence. In the first reading, we have God as this incredible power depicted as “a mighty champion” rescuing the life of the poor from the power of the wicked. It is just covered with symbolism of the old testament version of God, while the Gospel is a much calmer and more controlled new testament version of God through Jesus and his words in a tense moment as people are preparing to stone him.

I personally feel more comfortable with and relate more to the Gospel than I do to the first reading, but I think it is important to look at both of them.

The power that God has in the first reading isn’t something we see very often, and it is something that we focus on a lot when talking about God. People who only understand the basics of our beliefs think of our God through this lens. This idea of a “all-powerful God watching over us and waiting to show his power and smite us” is laughable to me, but is a serious way that people view him. I like knowing that God is powerful enough to handle anything happening in my life because sometimes it is hard to feel like I am strong enough to handle what is happening in my life. Knowing that I have someone so powerful who wants nothing but to support me is a very reassuring feeling especially in times like these where it is easy to feel beaten down from all the external stressors in life. I take comfort in the fact that God wants nothing more than to keep me safe and that he is powerful enough to help me through it.

In the Gospel, it would be really easy for God though Jesus to stop all the rocks mid-air matrix style (see image) and flex his muscles being as powerful as he is, but he doesn’t. Why? If God is this all powerful being, why doesn’t he? He uses moments like the Gospel to show that power isn’t all there is in people. Jesus was faced with an opportunity to show off his power, but instead decided to talk and spread wisdom. Moments like these are sometimes stronger than those moments of pure power. This is why I personally connect more with this reading. Jesus doesn’t feel the need for instant reward, in fact, he doesn’t even convert the people who were going to stone him into believers, but he has no wasted efforts or hiding his true self and just shows pure honesty in hopes they accept him. They don’t, and that is okay, because he has his “crew” waiting for him and they support him and follow him despite others not liking him. We shouldn’t compromise who we are to try to fit in with a group, we should be who God is calling us to be even if it ruffles some feathers, because the people you should be surrounded with, and the people that will come to you will follow you and support you for who you are.

Have you been accepting of other people for who they are? Think of one example where you have and one example where you feel like you could have done better.

What would Jesus have done if he were in that same situation?

Author: Griffin Miller, Advancement Dept.