“I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father has taught me.” Jesus has been driving this particular point home for a while because it is the main thing. People were still missing it and Jesus was running out of time. Yesterday at work one of my 20-year-old co-workers asked me, “Why don’t we kill the messenger?” He was trying to understand this colloquialism and so we had a discussion about how messengers were sent in between people to pass information usually in some sort of war or dispute and often times the message was not good news or the cause of more disturbance. The receivers of said bad news often times killed the messenger because they were the face behind the message and they simply needed a scapegoat. My co-worker’s opinion was that we should kill the messenger because they had the choice to deliver the message or not. I tried to explain that messengers really didn’t have the choice and were usually low ranking servants that were obedient and objective (and could probably run really fast!). They were “simply the messenger” and had nothing to do with the origination of the message, the content of the message, the meaning of the message, and were only to deliver the message. Messengers were typically “dispensable” because there was an expectation that they would be killed if delivering bad or threatening news. This all sounds so inhumane and ugly, but guess what, we still “kill the messenger” all the time! We use each other as scapegoats and we blame innocent bystanders for things that they have nothing to do with.
Today’s gospel seems like a “let’s kill the messenger” kind of scenario on the part of the Pharisees, and Jesus is trying to show them that he is not “simply the messenger”, but The Message itself! And the news is not bad news, but The Good News that will actually bring them eternal life if they just accept that The Messenger and The Message are one in the same, and the originator of The Message is the Creator of the universe, the Good Good Father, and the Author of Salvation. Killing The Message kills much more than mere words, it kills our own source of Life. The battlefield is our heart and there are indeed messengers delivering both good and bad news on a constant basis. Jesus tells us how to recognize the right messenger, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Lifting up the cross lifts up The Message, and lifting up The Message is what declares victory in the battlefield of our hearts. All other low ranking messengers and their lies need to be silenced if we are to thrive.
Today, The Messenger is not some low ranking, dispensable, objective bystander, but rather the Heart, the Soul, the Breath, the Life, the Way, and the Truth that is indeed The Message itself. To hear it and to receive it is to never die in our sin because The Messenger was already been killed in our place. Killing The Messenger only gives The Message more value, and when The Messenger rises from the dead, The Message becomes Life for all. May the Good Good News infiltrate the battlefield of our hearts today, and may all other messengers of bad news, lies, and this world be wiped out. And let’s not forget that The Message is Love itself. It is well with my soul.
Reading 1NM 21:4-9
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Responsorial Psalm PS 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21
R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Verse Before The Gospel
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;
all who come to him will live for ever.
all who come to him will live for ever.
Gospel JN 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
"I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come."
So the Jews said,
"He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
"When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him."
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
"I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come."
So the Jews said,
"He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
"When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him."
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
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