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John was the Hearld of the Messiah. His role was simple, increase the awareness of the people of the coming Messiah. In the Gospel of John 3:30, John the Baptist says, "He must increase, but I must decrease," referring to Jesus Christ. This expresses John's understanding that his own role and influence were meant to diminish as Jesus' ministry and prominence grew. John’s statement reflects humility and the acknowledgment that Jesus must be exalted above all else. I am curious why Jesus had a herald, someone to prepare for him. Did Jesus need someone to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. The people had been waiting for centuries. I suspect that many prophets played an important role in supporting Jesus.

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I focus on information from the Scriptures and try to figure out what likely was the back story. I will attempt to explain more in detail as we unpack the life of John the Baptist. I am very careful in using tradition and historical context to gain insight into biblical times. Often tradition may have a political agenda and may not always be factual. For example, Christian tradition holds that Herodias, fearing John might come back to life if body and head were together, had John’s head buried in Herod’s palace in Jerusalem. Islamic tradition believes the head of John the Baptist is buried under a specific pillar in Damascus, Syria, which was once the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist. Some traditions also claim the head was buried on the Mount of Olives by Joanna, the wife of Chuza, where it remained hidden for centuries. Various relics purported to be of John have been claimed in several other places, including France, specifically Amiens Cathedral, Turkey, and other parts of the Middle East. I think you can see why I will not be commenting on where John the Baptist is buried.

The good news is we can get more reliable insight to what the world was like from historians who lived and wrote at the time or shortly after the life of Jesus.

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I recognize that staying alert can be exhausting at times and there may be times when taking a break would be appropriate. I highly recommend developing skills to reflect on our lives when we might not have been as alert as we needed to be. Retreats, Devotions such as the Daily Examination of conscience, a prayerful reflection developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola may be helpful. Other examples are spiritual direction, contemplative prayer, Lectio Divina which is a meditative reading and contemplation of Scripture that draws attention to God's word through slow, reflective reading and prayerful response. These spiritual exercises help us compensate when we are not alert and need extra help to focus. Developing a reflective stance is worth the cost. Finding time and space in your life will not be easy for some.

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This Gospel describes some of the last moments of the life of Jesus on Earth. The Gospel seems more appropriate for Lent and Easter. Jesus says very little. He is dying on the cross, he is dismissed by the leaders who are responsible for his death. The most interesting conversation is between the two condemned men who are being crucified with Jesus. We do not know what their crimes were. In those days it did not take much to be condemned to death. We know nothing about the criminals. The two criminals take very different positions with Jesus. The first one taunts Jesus but is rebuked by the second who seems to have an amazing understanding of who Jesus is. It is ironic that the Pharisees with all their training in Scripture fail in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah yet here we have this criminal who is being executed but he is able to recognize who Jesus is. The criminal is rewarded for his faith. I suspect that the other criminal was pardoned too. There is no limit in the willingness of Jesus to forgive.

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Jesus warns us that we will be betrayed not just by anyone but by people who are close to us, family members. Experiencing betrayal is unfortunately more common than we would like. Being betrayed by those who are close to us is especially hurtful. Betrayal undermines our ability to trust. Have you ever experienced betrayal?

Betrayal is a prevalent theme in the Gospels. From the moment Jesus was born there was betrayal. I direct you to Matthew 2: 1-12 where the wisemen who have tracked the star to Bethlehem ask King Herod where the infant king of the Jews is. After consulting with his advisors, he tells the wisemen to go find the child and report back to him so can go and give homage. The scheme almost worked but the wisemen are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. King Herod lied to the wisemen to get information from them so he could kill the child. He betrayed the wisemen who had made it clear to Herod that their intention was to pay homage to the child not set him up to be killed.

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Todays Gospel is quite different from most others. In this Gospel we have Jesus aggressively driving the money changes and sellers out of the temple. At first glance it is quite different from Jesus’ usual way. There are no immediate teachings, healings or witty dialogue. It is clear that Jesus is passionate about his faith, and he is not willing to compromise. Professor David Landry of the University of St. Thomas and many other biblical scholars suggest that "the importance of the episode is signalled by the fact that within a week of this incident, Jesus is dead”. This event likely functioned as the 'trigger' for Jesus' death. The Scribes and Pharisees tolerated Jesus. They did not like the fact that Jesus was popular with the people, his insightful teachings and the fact that Jesus won every debate with them. It was not until Jesus attacked their financial interests did, they escalate their intentions to stop him. Before I go any further, should you wish to follow up on this theory, I invite you to check out David Landry’s article "God in the Details: The Cleansing of the Temple in Four Jesus Films". published in 2009 in the Journal of Religion & Film.

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There are three stories in the Gospels where Jesus raises someone from the dead. We have the story of Lazarus being raised (John 11:38-44), Jarius’ 12-year-old daughter being raised as recorded in (Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40 and Matthew 9:18-26) and now in today’s Gospel we hear about Jesus raising the son of a widow in a town called Nain. What is interesting in this Gospel is how few facts we have about the story. In the two previous resurrection stories we have names, and we are made aware of some background information, and we are provided teachings but not here. It’s clear that this resurrection was not planned. If Jesus had arrived an hour earlier or the funeral was an hour later there would have been no miracle.

What does this mean?

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So, we overhear the prayers of two very different men. One man, the Pharisees has done a lot and includes what he has done in a list expecting I guess to impress God. He was doing okay until he compared himself to the tax collector. The second man, the Tax collector has said little but admits to his wrongdoing and is truly sorry. It must have come as a shock to the first listeners to this parable. There are several points to this story. Appearances can be deceiving. It’s important not to rush to judgement. Also, despite the tax collector’s past he did have one thing the Pharisee lacked and that is the awareness of who he was. I wonder if being aware of where we need to grow and change in our lives is important for the development of our spirituality. I am not talking about being self deprecating but choosing rather to seek self awareness and humility that might be critical in the development of our spirituality. Likely the Pharisee was not aware that he had completely missed the values of the practice of his faith. Because of his lack of self-awareness, it is likely that he will not see the need for personal growth or recognize opportunities in his life to grow.

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