A Case for Ignorance

Christ the King Sunday C, November 24, 2013, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                O infinite Creator, who in the riches of Thy wisdom didst appoint three hierarchies of angels and didst set them in wondrous order over the highest heavens, and who didst apportion the elements of the world most wisely: do Thou, who art in truth the fountain of light and wisdom, deign to shed upon the darkness of my understanding the rays of Thine infinite brightness, and remove far from me the twofold darkness in which I was born, namely, sin and ignorance.  These are words of a prayer often prayed by St Thomas Aquinas. 

            Today is Christ the King Sunday, or in some traditions it is known as The Reign of Christ.  A number of people object to the assertion of Christ as King perhaps because of the legacy of numerous kings that reigned on earth that were probably best described as the exact opposite of what Jesus, in his earthly ministry stood for, did, taught and modeled.  It is not surprising that the shapers of the revised common lectionary which I and many others follow chose this Lucan text for the gospel lesson for this day.  Here we see the opposites juxtaposed; the mockery, scoffing, utter lack of respect for one who only did the will of God as he, in his wisdom saw it.  You really could make a case for ignorance.  Jesus failed in many ways to get his message across to the people.  The people were largely unable to grasp that this was God’s son before their very eyes.  It would take years to sink into God’s faithful Christians just who this Jesus was and is.  There are still many who are ignorant, including even us, who profess belief in him.  People have argued for centuries in many branches of Christendom as to whether it is sin, ignorance, or both that separate us from God and God’s love for us.  In fact, if we leave out the verse that appears to have been added to Luke at a later date, it is ignorance that is the focus of this text as well as it is in Luke 2:50, “But they did not understand what he said to them.”  Luke 9:45, “But they did not understand this saying.”  Finally, Luke 24:45, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”  The gospels of Mark and John are even fuller of the notion of not understanding or ignorance.  In Acts, the sequel to Luke, we recall a conversion story of an Ethiopian where he asks for guidance to understand the scriptures he is reading.  As I have stated before, Luke is a gospel of opposites.  In this case, the blind will see, but not in a physical sense, but rather, a spiritual sense.

            What is the blindness or ignorance that Luke would speak to today?  I would say hands down that it is self-sufficiency. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me has been replaced by I am able to do all things by myself.  I can and will do whatever I want because I know what is best for me.  We live in a culture that has the inability to see beyond the self.  There is no group cohesion or thinking that is brought about by a community of shared values. We are self-satisfied individuals in our world, chasing after other gods, thinking that in doing so; we will find happiness and even joy.  We wander here and there expectant, yet so many times we are disappointed, forgetting that our greatest joy is in the words we hear spoken, read and digested from the gospel. We are no different from the government leaders, the soldiers, and the others who witnessed the crucifixion. And yet, what Jesus says to the criminal whom we have a strong dislike for if not outright hate, is what we long for the most.  “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” All we have to do is put our trust, belief, and obedience in Jesus.  That’s it.

            As CS Lewis put it, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

            We are simply attached to the wrong things in life and we allow the little things to lure us down paths that don’t really matter in the long run, the larger vision of life.  When the people of the Old Testament asked God for a king, God did not understand. God said that they didn’t need a king because God was their king.  I Samuel chapter 8, verse 7 reads, “…and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”  Even back then, there was the concept of God as king.  But asking for a king to rule over the people of Israel was an act of rebellion against the commandment of God.

            However, the concept of a king was misinterpreted by the people.  It was about the people keeping the law.  As time continued, the various leaders of the Jewish people interpreted the law differently.  They could not allow the law to be ambiguous.  And we are the same today.  We want someone to set things straight for us.  We want the structure of what is right and what is wrong because we also do not like to live with ambiguity.  However, Jesus came along teaching us that we are not to set up a law, but to proclaim Christ because Jesus is both the fulfillment and the cancellation of the law.  It is not our self-achievement, but God’s alone.  To be a disciple is to share in Jesus’ suffering, his rejection, and crucifixion.  Only the person who is dead to one’s own will, can follow Christ.  We do not need to understand more than that.  God’s grace really is sufficient. It is proven over and over in the New Testament and it is proven in the exchange between Jesus and the criminal who said, “Jesus, remember me in your kingdom.”  That was a simple request made in pure faith.  It had nothing to do with sin or making a confession.  It was simply an act of humility before God, a trust in God’s mercy.  It is a parallel to the story of the prodigal son.  The father forgave the son even before the son said anything and the father embraced him and welcomed him home.  That is what the kingdom of God is like.  If in Jesus is the fulfillment and cancellation of the law, then there is no sin and therefore no judgment. We are simply called to be disciples of Jesus and to walk before God and all that God has created with the grace and the compassion given us to make this world a better place in the present.

            If we are to take Jesus at his word in Luke, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” means that Jesus’ fulfillment of the law occurred when here on earth before the crucifixion.  Today, it means we are living in that paradise as believers in him. The salvation of God is happening in the present.  It is happening each and every day that we take that leap of faith in him.  Eternal life begins before we die in this earthly frame and continues beyond our death.  We do not die.  We are all eligible for life with God when we place our trust in Jesus.  Today, Jesus offers salvation to us, all of us, as unlikely as that might seem.  Our sins are forgiven.  Our wounds are healed.  We may enter Paradise with Jesus.