Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
I love today's passage from Paul's letter to the Romans (7:18-25a). It is just such a down-to-earth real picture of the way that human life works, at least mine. Hasn't everyone encountered some situation where they've done the evil they do not want, and not done the good they know they wanted? Paul knows that we have minds and can think through consequences of actions and make reasonable observations about what will be the better thing to do at any one moment. But that does not mean we will do it. I can plan ahead for a friend's party, for example, and think to myself that I will only eat two appetizers, because otherwise I'll be eating more calories than is good for me. But having thought through it does not guarantee that I will get to the party and find the miniature quiches so tasty that I eat five or ten of them! Likewise, I know what the hot button topics are for my friends and family members - and I know that oftentimes it is better just not to engage in that fight. Sometimes it is just so tempting, though - perhaps on the way toward "winning" an argument" - to slip in a comment I wish I hadn't made, and then my day and their day takes a turn for the worse.
What is the remedy for this? People have had varying answers over the centuries. Some have said that if only we have enough self-control, we would not do these things. Some have said that if only we concentrated on our reason and let it rule us, we would not do these things. Some have suggested that if we just come up with enough laws prohibiting bad actions, and enough incentives permitting good ones, we would not do these things. Paul's answer is entirely different: he suggests that our bodies are just not always going to act like we want them too, no matter what we do. The remedy, for Paul, is only in Jesus Christ, who can heal our bodies.
How does Jesus do this? I suggest that today's gospel (Luke 12: 54-59) mentions that all four of the "answers" I name above are necessary together - reason, self-control, law, and most of all, Jesus. Jesus is admonishing people to use their reason (when you see a cloud rising in the west, you say it is going to rain, and so it does), their self-control (why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?) and the law (the example of being brought before a magistrate). But notice, none of these things by themselves is going to be entirely sufficient, for Jesus is asking people to go beyond what the law requires, in a way. Going beyond requires more than simple self-control and reason in relation to laws - it requires a kind of common sense and wisdom gained from experience, to know that instead of going to court, the right thing to do is to try to negotiate and settle out of court as Jesus suggests. Laws are just, rules get you somewhere - but they do not necessarily get to the root of the problem Paul mentions in his letter. Christians are asked to go beyond laws, to follow Christ, in a way of showing the world how new things are possible. Jesus indeed redeems the body and makes it possible for us to do things we never would have imagined.
How can Christians gain the wisdom and experience necessary to make decisions that "go beyond"? It is no accident that in several places in the Old Testament the idea of wisdom and God are linked. And indeed, today's psalm (119:66, 68, 76, 77, 93, 94) is a prayer to God asking for God to give us wisdom and kindness, and to teach us God's own laws that may well go beyond what human law requires.
- Jana M. Bennett