At The Margins

Today’s text causes us to consider one of the real mysteries in the Gospel. Here was this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who loved people; healed people; told people how much God loved them; told them they could have wholeness of life just by saying “Yes” to God. Yet, why did the religious people, the educated people, the leading citizens of the time, reject Him instantly? Why did they murder Him? Why? What was at the root of their problem with Jesus? Why this fear, and then anger, and hatred? Some time ago, there was a national poll taken in America in which a large number of people were asked what they thought would happen if Jesus came back again. The majority of persons polled were honest enough to say, “I think we would kill Him again, only probably more quickly than before.” You may agree or disagree with that consensus, but the fact is that in every one of us there is something that resists…