Christ Facing Progressive Wickedness of the World: Scripture Readings for Friday of the 4th Week of Lent (A)

The Scripture readings today, Friday of the 4^th week of Lent (A), Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22; John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30) reminds that the Holy Week, in which Lent ends on Holy Thursday and we commemorate the death of Christ on the Cross on the following day, Good Friday, during the Paschal Triduum. After the next week, the 5^th week of Lent, we will enter the Holy Week to wrap up our Lenten journey. The Scripture readings today reflect death of Christ.

In the first reading, we read:

Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training (Wisdom 2:12).

It is an evil voice of the wicked, who refuse to believe in Christ, expressing their desire to threat and attack Christ, because he is annoying to them. Christ is a nuisance to them because they feel threatened by him for their transgressions.

The wicked in the first reading today in Wisdom 2 are essentially the kind of people like the Pharisees, who called Jesus a sinful man (John 9:16) and,  whom Jesus called blind (John 9:41), as read in the Gospel reading on the 4^th Sunday of Lent (A) (John 9:1-41). They are also the kind of people, who decided to persecute Jesus, because of the healing miracle he made on a Sabbath day (John 5:16), as read in the Gospel reading on Tuesday of the 4^th week of Lent A (John 5:1-16). And, Jesus rebukes their wickedness in the Gospel readings on Wednesday (John 5:17-30) and Thursday (John 5:31-47) of the 4^th week of Lent. In fact, these wicked people are also the ones who desecrated the Temple into a house of market place, to whom Jesus was indignant (John 2:16).

In today’s Gospel reading (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30), Jesus is back in Jerusalem, dealing with basically the same wicked people. We learned that they already want to persecute Jesus (John 5:16) from the Gospel reading on Tuesday of this week. So, in today’s Gospel reading, they have made up their minds to kill Jesus (John 7:1, 25, 30).

The wicked, who turned the house of God into a market place to fatten themselves in John 2 began to be irritated and threatened by Jesus as he boldly challenged the evil in them, which manifested as their utter ignorance, which Jesus called “blindness” (John 9:41), and Jesus continued to rebuke their defilement in John 5 and 7, leading to their arrest and execution of Jesus, which we will reflect during the Paschal Triduum.

The problem of the evil in the world addressed in today’s first reading from Wisdom 2 was made in reality through the progressive persecution of Jesus, made evident in John 5, manifesting in John 7 on, as we not only read in today’s Gospel reading from John 7 but also in the Johannine Gospel readings for the remaining of Lent.

The verses of Wisdom 2:12-21 describe the wicked people who are eager to kill Jesus. Wisdom 2:22 reminds that it is because they are ignorant of Jesus because they are deaf and blind to God’s counsel through him and the importance of the innocent soul. And to the deafness and blindness, Jesus tells, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true”(John 7:28).  But, their reaction to this Christological statement has made them divided: those who begin to believe in Christ (John 7:31) and those who remain eager to kill Jesus by stubbornly remaining deaf and blind to the truth  (John 7:29-30).

Today’s set of readings invite us to reflect:

What in our own lives make us deaf and blind to a truth in Christ and his teaching? What makes it difficult and reluctant for us to accept the truth of Christ and his teaching? How can we resolve this problem by the time we complete our Lenten journey – so that we can stand at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday?