Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

There is something almost contemporary about the scenario in today’s Gospel lesson from John. Here we discover that Jesus’ brothers (likely his stepbrothers or cousins) don’t believe he is who he says he is. They seem to suggest: if you are who you say you are, you should get out there and show everyone what you’re doing, for “no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret.” It’s festival time (the Feast of Tabernacles), and they are prodding Jesus to go to Judea, to the big city. Instead, Jesus waits until everyone has gone to the festival and then he follows secretly. “My time has not yet come,” he says.

In fact, Jesus already did go to Jerusalem at this festival time last year. He taught publicly in the temple a stirred up a mixed reaction—some believing him to be the Messiah, others a madman.

Here’s the point of contemporaneity, for Jesus says quite clearly that the world “hates” him, “because I testify of it that its works are evil.” Later, he tells the disciples that the world will also hate them too, because he chose them “out of the world.”

Debates about Christian founding or future of America aside, what seems clear at this moment is that serious attempts to follow Christ in the present will put one at odds with the prevailing secularized culture. This is probably true on a range of subjects from money to food, clothing to technology, energy to childbearing: the Church traditionally teaches an approach to life that differs significantly from many present cultural norms. Admittedly, this reality can be overwhelming to consider!

Here is a question worth contemplating deeply. How do we live as followers of Christ in a cultural milieu that values rather different things than the Christian basics: love of God, love for neighbor, and the injunction to keep Christ’s commandments?

Yours in Christ,

—Justin