Between Disbelief and Certitude

After facing scrutiny for healing the sick on the Sabbath – thus violating the Law, Jesus confronts the certitude of his accusers. Because they know the Scriptures, they know the Law, and so it follows, they
know God’s will. However, Jesus takes issue with this certitude. He explains that his actions, these
miracles, are not born of his own will, they do not occur for his own sake. Instead, he says, they are for
God’s sake. Jesus instructs that the works done through him, are the work of the Father, and they stand as testimony that the Father has sent him. In fact, Jesus questions them: “You believed Moses, you
believed John…why do you not believe me? Even their work, he says, was a witness to me!”

Over the years, through success and failure, rising and falling, grace and sin, God’s people arrived at a
moment in time where they believed with great conviction, they were “getting it right”. The Law is good,
it is from God and it has guided them for generations. But here comes Jesus, versed in the Scriptures,
versed in the Law, testifying to God, yet his actions just didn’t conform to ways that the “experts” and
the “holy ones” thought one should live according to that Law.

Suddenly, we are shaken. Who, we ask, truly testifies to the Truth? Who, if anyone, has it? What if we,
what if I, am wrong? Oh, but how I want to be right!” Jesus offers a sobering point of reflection as he
pokes at the frailty of our disbelief and the rigidity of our certainty. In this Gospel passage, he calls us to
evaluate our relationship to the Truth (God’s Will). Where do we search for it? To whom are we
listening? In whom or what are we investing, making our deposit of faith? There are so many sources
out there in the world today, claiming to testify to some “truth”. To which should we bear witness?
What is the cost of doubt, or not knowing? What is the cost for our convictions, or lack thereof?
For many of us, these are visceral struggles of the faith journey. It seems that disbelief and doubt are
enough to struggle with on the one hand. Moreover, I suppose many of us feel that a (strong) faith life
helps to remedy that. But what if we should find ourselves at the other extreme – the extreme of
absolute certitude? What, then, is the cost of this knowing, this absoluteness? Is it, finally, comfort?

Alternatively, are we destined to experience division, conflict and confrontation – within secular society,
in our churches, in our homes? How do we resolve this, or how do we even live in this tension? If I place
myself in this Gospel passage, would Jesus point out my disbelief, or my certitude? What am I missing
about Christ’s Gospel and God’s Will? What does it cost me, and equally as important, what does it cost
others?

I may not know the answers to the questions at each end, but I am certain that I am consoled by a
Gospel that unites; and I despair in a Gospel that divides.

As we read in today’s Gospel, Jesus is the true revelation of God’s Will. He is the Sacrament of God.
During Lent, Jesus continues to call us closer to that Truth, and theirs is the Truth that we ought to
desire. As we find ourselves in a season that is open to occasions of grace, may we pray for the grace to
discern harmony in True Spirit and dispel the False Spirit, so that we might understand with increasing
clarity, the works of Christ before us.

Author: Patrick Parker, Theology Department