Signposts On The Way

Today’s Gospel reading (Lk 11:29-32) is hard to swallow for the listeners of Jesus, who consider themselves fellow devout Jews. They would know the references that Jesus is making: the Queen of Sheba was a pagan and the Ninevites were a population renown for sinfulness. Yet both responded well to the gifts they recognized in Solomon and in Jonah. By his listeners’ rejection of Jesus, they are making these other two look very good indeed!

If we are reading this, we are not like those Jesus is talking to. Instead, we are more like the models he holds up to them. We have recognized the truth that Jesus represents. We understand the uniqueness of the event that he is to the world, the “something greater”. We have responded to him and have made him central to our lives.

Yet, for this same reason, we often grieve what seems like the refusal of the next generation to understand or accept this gift. What would make them blind to its value that we have seen so clearly and held so dearly? Perhaps what they have rejected is not Jesus himself, but the way in which they have seen previous generations—including our own—misunderstand, distort, or even manipulate Jesus for their own purposes. We can learn much about ourselves by honestly inquiring among the next generation about the image of Jesus that they may not experience as the revelation of God’s truth that would cause them to leave behind lesser goods and that would transform their lives. In inquiring, we must be courageous enough to face the judgement of the Queen of Sheba or the men of Nineveh. But if the opposite is true and the next generation has, partly through our witness, recognized what Jesus represents, then let us give joyful thanks to God!