Scripture Reflection: Now Free to Grow in Love

Sunday Readings:
Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Psalm 27
1 Corinthians 1: 10-13, 17
Matthew 4: 12-23

The liturgical season of “ordinary time” that falls between the seasons of Christmas and Lent is relatively short this year. In this brief four week period our Sunday Gospel readings – starting on January thirteenth and ending on February third – take us on a crash-course in Christ's mission on earth. On each of the last two Sundays we have heard accounts of Jesus' baptism; first as told by the Gospel of Matthew and then by the Gospel of John. Through baptism Jesus identifies himself with our fallen humanity.

During the Christmas season we heard of the birth of Emmanuel, “God with us.” Then, for the last two Sundays, we have heard of Christ's own intentional step into our humanity. Though he was utterly without the sins that shackle each of us, he underwent baptism for the forgiveness of sins as a public act which initiated his public ministry. Through his public ministry Christ preached to the multitudes and ultimately died to redeem the whole world. In light of this, it is easy to forget that Christ's ministry was primarily about relationships. By the time Jesus was sentenced to death he had become a controversial public figure, but the heart of his ministry was still rooted deeply in personal relationships. To many Jesus was a friend, a relative, a son.

To see how Jesus' ministry centers on personal relationships we need only look at the Gospel readings of this Sunday and last. To summarize, Jesus goes to the Jordan River where he is baptized by his eccentric cousin John. John has been awaiting for the messiah ever since he moved to the wilderness and began his preaching which has centered on the need for repentance. When Jesus arrives on the banks of the Jordan River, John suddenly recognizes that the one he has been waiting for is his own cousin, and probably, an old childhood friend.  (Imagine the mischief these two boys may have gotten into together, one growing up to eat bugs, the other to walk on water.)

Following Jesus' baptism John is arrested and Jesus, disturbed by this news, packs up and leaves town. Jesus ends up in Capernaum, a village on the Sea of Galilee. This move happens to fulfill a prophecy of Isaiah. Shortly after moving in, Jesus goes to the beach and recruits a handful of home town fishermen to help him get his fledgling ministry going. These initial followers turn out to be some of the most well known of Jesus' apostles. Among them are Simon Peter, about whom we hear more in the gospels than any other apostle, and John, the apostle whom Jesus loved and who is ultimately given care of Jesus' own mother upon his death on the cross. It is important to recognize that Jesus didn't go to the center of town, begin preaching, and wait for followers to come to him. Instead Jesus went down to the beach and invited his followers from exactly where they were.

In the second reading this Sunday we hear Paul admonishing the congregation in Corinth. It appears that divisions and rivalries had developed and that people who apparently felt right with God, were not right with one another. The Corinthians had forgotten that their relationship with Christ and with one another was more important than their claims to have been baptized by a particular apostle.  Paul reminds them that Christ is not divided and that only through Christ's cross does their faith have any meaning. In the light of Christ there is no room for division. Christ unites, sin divides.

Paul's message to the Corinthians has lost none of its meaning to the present day. Christ came to redeem the world that we all may be united in him, and yet we live in conflict. We live with a divided church and often deal with division in nearly all other aspects of our daily lives. The message this Sunday is that this division matters greatly. When our relationships with other people suffer, our faith suffers as well. We cannot grow in our faith in Christ while harboring resentment for our neighbor. But Christ has taken on our sinful and divided humanity, he has met his followers where they are, and invited them into a deeper relationship with himself. Through the work that Christ has done on our behalf, we are now free to grow in love and unity with one another.

By Jake Kohlhaas

Jake is a Bernardin Scholar at Catholic Theological Union and is currently working as the youth minister for Edison Park Lutheran Church in Chicago.