The power and danger of the Gospel message

by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA 2023 Teacher of Peace

As we move toward Holy Week, the Church makes a clear point about the causes for Jesus’ arrest, death sentence, torture and crucifixion. Practically every day, the Gospel readings center on growing conflicts between Jesus and his country’s religious leaders and their followers.

Actually, this situation had begun even before the start of Jesus’ public ministry. John the Baptist, who was sent to “prepare the way of the Lord,” calls out the Pharisees in the strongest terms for their pretentions to superior sanctity and the Sadducees for their unyielding conservatism. “You brood of vipers… produce good fruit as a sign of your repentance.” (Matthew 4:7-8)

Almost immediately as Jesus began his three years of proclaiming the Reign of God, his own people were taking exception to his “good news.” The powerful passage in the fourth chapter of Luke’s Gospel tells of Jesus’ town folks dragging him out of their synagogue and attempting to kill him for assigning to himself Isaiah’s prophecy of the Chosen One and declaring “that no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” These examples of increasingly heated confrontations between Jesus and his enemies fill our New Testament readings right up to Palm Sunday.

Here are some of them:

Fourth week in Lent

• Tuesday: [They] began to persecute Jesus because he cured [the cripple] on a sabbath. (John 5:16)
• Thursday: “You search the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life through them… But you do not want to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39)
• Friday: Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel to Judea because [some] were trying to kill him. (John 7:1)
• Saturday: The Pharisees asked some of the ordinary people: “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?” (John 7-47)

Fifth week in Lent

• Monday: Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”… And in response, they went away one by one… (John 8:7-8)
• Wednesday: They said to Jesus “We have one Father, God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me.” (John 8:42)
• Thursday: “Amen, amen I say to you before Abraham came to be I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him. (John 8:59)
• Friday: “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” (John 10:31-32)

Finally, on the Saturday before Palm Sunday we hear of a dramatic event that seals Jesus’ fate: “The chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said: ‘What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest for that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die… so that the nation may not perish…’ “So, from that day on they planned to kill him.” (John 11:47-50, 53)

There is a striking similarity between this trajectory of Jesus and that of both St. Archbishop Oscar Romero and of Pope Francis. They point to the power and danger of the Gospel’s prophetic message.

Saint Romero’s three years as archbishop of San Salvador found him increasingly at odds with the political/military power structure of his country. His famous Sunday homilies condemned the fratricidal war being waged there and its horrific toll on the impoverished population. And like the decision of the Sanhedrin, the Salvadoran authorities concluded that it was better for Romero to be killed rather than his cries for a just peace be allowed to continue.

We are currently witnessing a similar pharisaical-like opposition Pope Francis’ freeing, Spirit-filled ministry – even from within the highest echelons of the Catholic hierarchy. The parallel between these strident critics of Francis and the holier-than-thou rigid conservatism of the chief priests of Jesus time is startling.

Truly, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

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Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and the 2023 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.