Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ John 2-4

If you do a quick scan of these three chapters, John covers a lot of ground.  We read that Jesus loves a good party changing water into wine and confronts the religious institutions in chapter 2.  We meet Nicodemus who under the shadows of night knocks on Jesus’ door in chapter 3, he curious but cautious (how often is that our prayer posture in worship?).  And in chapter 4, John introduces us to a Samarian woman at the well who is a quick study going from a disciple (meaning student) to an evangelist (meaning sharer of the good news) in the matter of a few verses.

 

Three questions to ponder: Are there tables in our religious institutions and church today Jesus might overturn?  What questions would I, like Nicodemus, ask Jesus if I stopped by his house for a visit?  How like the woman at the well would I be willing to share with others how my faith makes a difference?

 

A few thoughts about these chapters.  I love that the very first “miracle” in John is the changing of water into wine.  We make religion so serious and somber.  I picture Jesus having a good time at this wedding.  Too often we might be tempted to picture Jesus and the disciples off in some corner studying a scroll while the DJ plays the music at this wedding.  But what if, Jesus is on the dance floor doing the electric slide?  What if, Jesus is laughing and enjoying the wedding feast?  I know Jesus sounds somber/rude/disrespectful in his reply to his mother in John 2:4, but Mary doesn’t seem all that hurt.  We have no idea what Mary and Jesus’s relationship was like prior to this conversation, this is one glimpse.  Honestly, there have been times when every child has said something to a parent that if those words were the only thing others had to go on, it wouldn’t sound so great.  And note, that Jesus, in the end, does what his mother asked of him.  Not sure this resolves the tension fully, but does tension ever fully resolve anywhere in life, I mean, besides the movies?

 

I also love the juxtaposition of Nicodemus (man with stature and standing ~ position and power and some privileges) coming at night and then right away in the very next chapter, we meet a woman (with no position or power or even a name) who just happens to come across Jesus in the daytime.  Nicodemus came intentionally searching at night, the woman has a chance encounter in the day.  One of the truths in John to hold onto is notice the setting ~ the woman at the well is living the promise of being a child of light both in the literal sense of it being daytime but also that she gets Jesus’ words/wisdom/love.  She goes and shares the good news while Nicodemus fades into the shadows and out of sight (by the ways Nicodemus will reappear later in John’s gospel…stay tuned for that!).  The religious guy doesn’t get it, the woman on the fringe and fray does.  I hold that close to my heart.  As a person with the degree and diploma doesn’t mean I have it all figured out…I need to be open to others whose experience of God’s love might not be confined in a building or ritual.  I need to be open to the people I might meet at the wells of life together ~ in ordinary gatherings. 

 

May these words dwell in you and you in these words as we continue to let the good news of God’s love move/reside/rest into our hearts and reside there this Lent.  Amen.