Plot to Condemn Jesus Becomes Evident in Jerusalem - Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Today’s Scripture Readings (Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22; John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30) are about accusing and persecuting an innocent person, who is right and just.  Why some people attack the righteous and just ones?

This excerpt from today’s First Reading (Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22) gives a clue.

Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is annoying to us; he opposes our actions, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training (Wisdom 2:12).

To those who assault the righteous and just, they are nuisance and even threats.

Those who accuse and persecute the righteous and just ones are, of course, evil doers. Therefore, they are made feel guilty by the righteous and just.

Stung by awakened conscience, acknowledging guilt, some evil doers repent and convert. However, others refuse to be face their guilt and try to eliminate those who make them feel guilty inside, namely, the righteous and just.

The righteous one targeted to be condemned in the First Reading (Wisdom2:1a, 12-22) points to Jesus, as reflected in the Gospel Reading (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30), especially in vv. 25-30.

In Wisdom 2:13-18, evil doers wonder if the righteous and just one, whom they want to condemn, is of God, the Son of God.  They wonder about him but are annoyed by him, especially when he speaks of his relationship with God – when he speak to have knowledge of God.  

Thus, they decide to put the righteous one to test with violence and torture to see if he is the Son of God (v.19).

So, they decide to condemn him:

Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him (Wisdom 2:20).

Of course, the accusers are in grave error for thinking and coming to this conclusion (vv. 21-22).  They are blind to God’s counsel in the righteous and just one, as well as how God may reward innocent souls (v.22).

Now the Gospel Reading (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30) indicates that Jesus is heading to the fate of the righteous reflected in the First Reading (Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22).

Jesus is back in Jerusalem for his observance of the Feast of Tabernacle, known as Sukkot, lasting a week (Leviticus 23:33-44) (John 7:1-2). Because of healing a paralytic man on Sabbath and his justification of it as an extension of God’s work, Jesus began to be accused and persecuted for blasphemy, as addressed in the Gospel Reading of the last 3 days (John 5:1-16;17-30 ;31-47). Thus, by the time that he was back in Jerusalem for Sukkot, Jesus’s reputation as a blasphemer to speak of himself as the Son of God to do His work was already spread in Jerusalem. Thus, he was reluctant to go to Jerusalem at first, knowing of attacks against him. However, he decided to go and celebrate Sukkot and face his accusers without public visibility (John 7:1-2, 10).

In Jerusalem, Jesus really could not be invisible to the public. He was recognized by some of the residents of this holy city, who said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill?”(John 7:25).

Obviously, they knew what Jesus did and his exchange with them – his accusers, written in John 5.

And, the residents continued on:

And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Messiah? But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from (John 7:26-27).

As the accusers of the righteous one wonder if he is of God (Wisdom 2:13-18), these residents of Jerusalem also wondered if Jesus, whom they found there, is the Messiah.

To them, then, Jesus spoke of himself in these words:

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. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me (John 7:28-29).

These words of Jesus above reflect his self-identification to his accusers in John 5:17-47.

In response, they tried to arrest him but nobody actually put a hand on him, because it was not a time for him to enter his Passion (John 7:30). And, this corresponds to Wisdom 2:20.

Both the First Reading and the Gospel Reading address the accusation of the righteous and just one, Jesus, leads to his condemnation to his shameful death. Thus, today’s readings point to Jesus during the Holy Week, especially, after the Last Supper, entering his intense passion in Gethsemane, being arrested, tortured, tried by Pilate, and  condemned to shameful death on the Cross.

It is shameful death to those whom God has not revealed wisdom, as wisdom from God is necessary to understand and appreciate the paradox of the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).

Why do some people decide to persecute the righteous and just one? Why was Jesus persecuted and put to what his accusers say, “shameful death”?

It is because they cannot cope with their guilt over their evil doing. That is why they decide to silence the one who wakes their conscience and make them feel guilt by condemning him to death.

Do we have a tendency to feel like attacking and silencing a person, who puts us in guilt trip, invoking God and His righteousness?