To Infinity and Beyond

“As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, ‘How do the scribes claim that Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: “The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.’” David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?”  (Mark 12:35-37)

In today’s gospel, Jesus questions the claim of the scribes not to deny what they are saying but to indicate that he is more than this. Christ, the son of David, is simultaneously Lord and Son. And this is a problem for the scribes. What the scribes, and many other people in the time of Christ, were looking for was a Messiah that would have political power and arrive as a warrior, destroying all his adversaries. They were unable to recognize Jesus, the Messiah, in their midst because he wasn’t what they wanted him to be. Jesus’ mission was to restore our relationship with God the Father. Just as the scribes didn’t recognize Jesus in their midst, we at times do not recognize him in our life. Sometimes we want a warrior to come and put an end to the persecution or abuse that we are being subjected to. We want God to heal our loved ones just as Christ did so often in scripture. We want God to raise our loved ones from the dead so that we can have more time with them and maybe during that time we will love them more, appreciate the things they have done for us, forgive the hurts they inflicted on us and ask for forgiveness for the wrongs we have done to them.

To limit God in ways that meet our desires prevents us from seeing how God is working in our lives. We don’t see the greatness of God. To step out in faith is to allow God to be God and accept things that are beyond our understanding. To live a life of faith we must accept that we will be persecuted, that we will suffer, and be mocked at. But to live a life of faith also means that we trust that God is with us, that no matter how difficult life gets, God is there with us in the darkness. Living a life of faith requires us to live beyond our potential, our perceptions, our understanding and our fears. To live a life of faith requires us to live boldly and to trust in God’s infinite love that is beyond our understanding.