Come Out March 29

Prayer

Dear Jesus, you never stop seeking our friendship even when we get too pre-occupied doing other things. Open our ears so we hear you calling us. You never stop trying to make it easy for us to find close moments with you. Open our eyes so we can see how you have cleared the path to your friendship with unending and unrequited grace. You never stop encouraging us to support a consistent ethic to respect life at all stages. Open our mouths to speak up for you. You never stopped being a friend by loving us and sending signs even when we turned away from you in your darkest hour. Open our hearts so we come out and join you in your mission. Amen.

Study

God offers to us sacred scriptures for today to read, to study and to hear.
You are invited to study and reflect on today’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/032906.shtml

What does it say? Today’s reading pick up right where yesterday’s left off. Jesus is defending and defining his work on the Sabbath with the crippled man at Bethesda. With the phrase “Just as my Father is at work,” Jesus justifies his holy mission and gives his critics further fuel for his prosecution.

Jesus tries to convince them and us that despite the Sabbath rules, there was still birth and death occurring on the Sabbath. People were still breathing, their hearts were beating. Likewise, God was giving life through birth and judging those who died on the Sabbath.

What gets Jesus in more trouble here than just telling the crippled man to take up his mat and walk is assuming this divine work for himself among people who do not yet believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Giving life and giving judgment are divine prerogatives that echoed throughout the Hebrew Bible (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7; Tobit 13:2; Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2).[1]

What does it mean? We also start to get some overt allusions to the resurrection in today’s readings in the phrase “Come out.”

In Isaiah, we hear him “Saying to the prisoners: Come out!” In John, we learn that “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out.”

“Come out” is the phrase that we will hear again later in John when Jesus performs his last sign and raises Lazarus from the dead. This is one of the three “commandments” Jesus utters at the tomb.

What does it matter? Where are you hiding? From where is Jesus summoning you? Are you at your workplace or school? Are you in your car? Are you in your bedroom or den? Perhaps you are at a bar…or maybe at a soccer or baseball or lacrosse field. In whatever work you are engaged, Jesus wants us to come out to meet him. Jesus is seeking a close moment with us.

If you are not convinced, then check out those passages in Isaiah again. He gives us pastures everywhere we turn. He gives us food and water for the journey. He gives us shade and protects us from the wind. He even cuts a road through the mountains and make our path to him level, not up a steep hill.

Along the ways they shall find pasture,on every bare height shall their pastures be.They shall not hunger or thirst,nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;For he who pities them leads themand guides them beside springs of water.I will cut a road through all my mountains,and make my highways level.

Jesus just wants us to come out and be with him and bring others to him as well. Jesus wants us to be with him when he is performing signs. Jesus wants us to be with him and be a friend when he is turning water into the finest wine. Jesus wants us to be with him when he is teaching Nicodemus and those who don’t yet know the truth. But we also shall see in Holy Week that Jesus wants his friends to be with him when he prays in the Garden, when he faces his accusers, when he is convicted and when he is crucified. Jesus also wants us to be with him when he “comes out” of the tomb and is resurrected.

Action

Where does Jesus want you to act today? Today’s Gospel focuses on the relationship between Jesus and God as that of a parent and child. So, maybe Jesus is asking us to work right in your own family.

When was the last time your mother or father heard from you? Or a sibling? Or maybe even a cousin or aunt or uncle in your extended family. Isn’t today a good day to reach out and contact someone with whom you have not been in touch for a long time? Maybe its time to make plans to get together for a special feast with them.

[1] http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john5.htm#foot9