Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's reading from Mark, Jesus is on trial before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate is willing to let Jesus go, but the priests stir up the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead. Now this passage has too often been used to "blame" the Jews for Jesus' death. But the fact that the people get what they want, freeing Barabbas rather than Jesus, doesn't strike me as a particularly Jewish issue. Rather, I think this a universal human problem. All too often, what we want turns out to be a poor guide for what is right, best, etc.

We Americans are especially partial to "the will of the people" being a good thing. And I agree that the American system of government is a stroke of true genius. (I should add that I believe the founding fathers were extremely wise in going with a democratic republic rather than a true democracy.) But the checks and balances that are a part of our government are there in large part because our founders realized that what people want is not always the best way to go. In fact, they had a lot less faith in the people that we tend to, as witnessed by the fact that our constitution did not originally allow for the direct election of US Senators. And they did not expect those in Congress simply to parrot the desires of their constituents. They hoped they would do what was best and right.

So how are we to know what it right and best? If we accept the notion that what we want may not be the most helpful guide, where do we turn? My tradition has always insisted that the Bible is our best help here. Is the course of action we desire consistent with the message of the Bible? And no proof-texting allowed. I'm talking about the overall message of the Bible.

But being led by Scripture is no small task. We are all prone to notice those parts that agree with us and conveniently ignore the parts that don't. This means that we would all do well to listen to the interpretation of the larger Christian community, not just folks who think just like us.

Whew! Being faithful ends up being a lot of work.

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