Surprised by God

Do you like surprises?  Some people do; others don’t.  No matter which way we come down on the issue, we all have to admit that sometimes God has surprises in store for us; some have even defined God by the element of surprise.

Jesus was certainly one of the surprises that God had in store for the Chosen People.  Every member of the children of Israel had been schooled in what to look for in the promised Messiah.  Yet even in that schooling, there were different expectations.  Some were expecting a man who would reclaim the throne of David.  Others were waiting for a great military leader who would cast out the occupying force of their captors.  There were those who were looking for a new high priest, one who would return Israel to the ritual purity expected in the Torah or Law.  When thinking about a Messiah, the prophets came to mind; and there were people who were expected a great prophet.  Rather than any or all of these, God sent us Jesus, the very incarnation of God, God in the flesh.  Rather than a mediator, someone who would stand between the patron, God, and the client, God’s creatures, God decided to come among us as one like us. 

For those of us who are gathered here today, this does not come as a surprise.  Ever since Jesus returned to the throne of heaven, those who have placed their faith in Jesus have looked upon him as the anointed one, the Messiah, the promised one of whom Moses wrote, the very Son of God.  Each Sunday, we profess our faith in Our Lord Jesus: “the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.  God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”  The words fall from our lips with ease.  Perhaps we don’t even think about them much as we say them.  However, let us be clear about one thing.  This definition of Jesus would have been a huge surprise for the people who formed the early Church.

The Scriptures for today’s liturgy bear witness to that surprise.  Peter stands before the Jewish people who had gathered to celebrate Pentecost – the Jewish Feast which recalled the day that God gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai.  Jews from around the world had gathered in Jerusalem to keep the feast.  Because it came fifty days after the Feast of Passover, there are some historians who tell us that it was the more popular of the two feasts because by Pentecost, the weather had moderated and made travel a little easier. 

Peter addresses them with surprising words: King David “foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption.  God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.  Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured him forth, as you see and hear."  That Jesus who had suffered the most shameful death anyone could think of should be proclaimed the Christ, the Messiah, was by far the greatest surprise imaginable to these people.  Yet, Peter’s words show us that in the beginning even the apostles had not come to understand fully who Jesus was.  He speaks of God raising Jesus.  Theologians refer to this as low Christology.  We now accept that Jesus rose; he was not raised.  Jesus, God in the flesh, rose from the dead.  No one raised him.

The words we hear from the First Letter of Peter today speak of Jesus in the same way: “God raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”  Even here we see that the early Church had not yet come to understand exactly who Jesus was.

Finally, the Gospel also records the surprise that changed life forever.  Two disillusioned disciples of Jesus, Cleopas and, in all probability, his wife have decided to leave Jerusalem after hearing the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead.  The evangelist employs great skill in telling this story of how the early Christian community came to know Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God.  These two are walking home to Emmaus which lay to the east of Jerusalem.  They are, therefore, walking into the darkness as the day is coming to an end and the sun is setting in the west.  On their way, they meet Jesus whom they do not recognize.  After a little initial conversation, Jesus begins to reveal the surprise.  God’s plan all along was for the Messiah to suffer and die, nothing short of inconceivable for these people.  These people believed that God rewarded the just and punished the righteous.  This principal was almost as much a part of their faith as the commandments themselves.  However, Jesus reveals through their own Scriptures that God is not a God of reciprocity at all.  Suffering and death are part of life, a life the God chose to live out just as every human being must.  However, death is not the end as is demonstrated through the Resurrection.  Their hearts glowed, burned inside them as they listened.  When Jesus broke bread with them, they realized that it was Jesus.

The Gospel clearly shows that the faith of the early Christian community developed slowly after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.  As they reflected on the Scriptures, as they continued to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they gradually came to realize that God was indeed a God of surprises.  Their expectations were laid aside as they gradually came to realize that Jesus was God in the flesh, a God who took on human flesh in the person of Jesus so great was God’s love for us. 

We have heard the stories so often and listened to the words of Peter so often that this doesn’t come as a surprise to us anymore.  However, God continues to surprise us by challenging our preconceived notions of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  Just in the past week, God surprised us as Pope Francis rode in an open vehicle even though he had been warned of the dangers of doing so.  God further surprised us as the Holy Father embraced Sheikh Ahmed Tayeb, the grand imam of Al Azhar mosque, and called him a brother.  When the rest of the world is building bigger and better weapons of war and rattling their sabers, God continues to surprise us with calls to live as brothers and sisters.

Truth be told, we should probably not be surprised by this, for the stories surrounding the Resurrection also remind us that when Jesus appeared to his disciples, his first words were “Peace be with you.”  These words are used each and every time we celebrate the Eucharist as we greet each other before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.  The God of surprises continues to embrace us each day through the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Sacrament of Peace.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator