Let Freedom Ring

If ever a person had reason to be bitter and unforgiving, it was Jesus during the last week of His life. Clearly, His intense agony in the Garden of Gethsemene was evoked by more than the knowledge that His physical death was imminent, though surely that was part of it. Is it not likely that He was actually struggling with the temptation to be bitter and unforgiving? Is it not likely that He was struggling with the terrible estrangement from God that comes with such bitterness.

The episode in today’s Gospel Lesson describes one of the early rejections of Jesus by His own people. It is the Sabbath and Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. Mark tells us that He was teaching in a way that kept his large audience amazed. But the mood of the audience soon changed to cynicism, and sarcastically they asked, “Where did He get all this? What kind of wisdom is He endowed with? How is it that such…