SLOW ON THE UPTAKE

To be honest, sometimes it takes me quite a while to get the message or get the point. After twelve years in seminary and fifty years as a priest, it somehow, and finally, dawned on me that the primary, and often only audience for Jesus during his public ministry was twelve people: the Apostles. Yes, he preached and healed and even took to task the leaders of the people whenever necessary. But he was almost totally focused on those twelve men.

Why? Because he had to convince them that his message on how to live in this world, how to make this world what God created it to be, was the one and only way to bring it about. You see, from time immemorial we have believed that in order to survive in this world, the way to succeed, was to have power over another or others. The Apostles followed Jesus because they believed he was the Messiah who would raise up a mighty military force to overthrow the Romans and make Israel what Rome was. And when that happened, they would be his right hand men and with that would come power and prestige and wealth.

Jesus had to disabuse them of that idea. No, he said, power only comes not through military might but from the might of love. Nothing else works. There is no other way to change the world or to live in this world. Like me, they, too, were slow on the uptake. They really didn’t get the message until Pentecost. Then they went out to try to get Jesus’ message across to the rest of the world. They did their best, but it seemed to be a fleeting message at best and a seemingly a false and unbelievable message at worst.

The world is still slow on the uptake. We still seem to believe that military power and prowess is the way to go. Might makes right or at least insures that the mightier we are militarily, the better off we will be. Taint necessarily so. In fact, it isn’t. Military might does not improve the lives of every citizen. In fact, it often makes it worse. Want to know how to provide health care for all? Cut military spending in half. If there is a next war, it will be over in a short time and no one will need health care. We’ll all be dead in short order from all the bombs.

But I digress, sort of. The point is still valid, I think, and I believe so would Jesus. Nothing really gets done and changes in the lives of people are not made unless it is through the power of love. That was and still is Jesus’ message – and always will be. We know that to be true because we have experienced that in our daily lives. We are who we have become because others have loved us into our being. We have done the same for them through the might of love for them, not the might of power over them.

In truth, just as it took me a long time to realize Jesus’ primary audience and why it took so long for them to get his message, so it takes a long time for us to get Jesus’ message. When we do, we begin to change at least our lives and the ones of those we love.