Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
The Pharisee in today’s Gospel (Luke 11:37-41) doesn’t seem like that bad of a guy. There are plenty of scenes in the Gospels where we see Pharisees reacting to Jesus with hostility, but this doesn’t feel like one of them. There’s no jeering, no murmuring to other Pharisees, and no sense of ill will towards Jesus. The Gospel just tells us that the Pharisee invited Jesus in for dinner and is “amazed” that He didn’t observe the prescribed washing (Luke 11:38).
Maybe there’s some context I’m missing here but being amazed or surprised feels a lot more like not understanding, as opposed to the hostile reactions we would expect from the Pharisees. Considering that Jesus was an observant Jew, it’s understandable that the Pharisee would expect Jesus to do what was expected of Jews, especially around meals. Imagine how strange it would be to invite your parish priest over for dinner, only to have him not begin with prayer over the meal. The amazement of the Pharisee doesn’t strike me as an angry amazement, but as an innocent confusion at Jesus not doing what the Law demanded.
We believe that prayer is conversation with God. Because Jesus is God, it follows that anything said to Jesus in the Gospels is prayer. This framework shapes a lot of how I read the Gospels – whenever something is said to Jesus (positive or negative!), it causes me to reflect on when, in my own life, I have said that same thing to Him.
Today, we are reminded that if we invite Jesus ‘over for dinner,’ He will amaze us. Jesus will do things that we will not understand. Let us invite Jesus into our lives and expect the unexpected. Let us be amazed.
- Marty Bagatti