Outside the Temple

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Gospel: John 10:31-42
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041125.cfm

Jesus says in today’s gospel that the people in Jerusalem don’t need to believe him, but they need to believe in his actions. Jesus was not acting on his own accord but for the Father. He went beyond his own personal ego to give himself fully over to the Father’s will. The presence of God was made known through his actions. 

The temple was the center of the religious power dynamic that struggled with Jesus. Jesus had a lot of conflict in the temple area, but as he went further away from there, he was his followers. Those that followed John the Baptist found truth in Jesus. God’s presence was seen as being in the Temple, but Jesus showed that God’s presence is within us and that our actions should reflect that presence. No place or institution can fully house God. God goes beyond it.  

Those in positions of power couldn’t see Jesus’s divinity. When someone gives their will over to God as Jesus did, they become a threat to authority as the authority has no power over them. Their will is with God, not with any institution or person. Those that use God for their own power or falsely claim that God is giving them authority are going to struggle with true believers. Power strives to have others subservient to their will. A follower of God is only subservient to God, not their own will or the will of others, but the will of God alone.

While Jes continued to experience adversity from them, he still witnessed to power. His message was not only limited to those who would receive it, but he gave it to all. With Jesus, there is always the hope and means for conversion. Jesus gives the opportunity to all, we just need to take it.