Saturday, Fifth Week of Lent

So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim; and there he remained with his disciples. John 11:54

Jesus by now, has become unpopular for his miracles. These miracles should be turning these people around, bringing them to a belief in God's salvation, his truth. But Jesus needs to leave, the division is beyond what he expected.

We do this ourselves, we see it in the way we are, and in the many political systems around the world. When something is good, it is taken away, hidden from sight. We set out to destroy what is good, to put wrong in its place.

It is God's plan to remove sin so we may live, but we have not turned around. We still do as the Sanhedrin did. Plan to remove Jesus, because he reminds us to live in God, to follow a way that some believe would remove their pleasure. The pleasure to control, manipulate, destroy others by use of power, in other words to remove the Commandments that are from God. It ends up that we believe in God but we do not want to be reminded that we are to live a way that will give us life.

In this it's easy to understand why Jesus did not want to walk in public, he knew of their desire to end his life, their dislike of what he stands for, because it would mean change. That the way they live and teach would need to be conformed to the teaching that Jesus is all about God's love. They refused to see, just as we tend to do the same.

Father, I pray for your love to embrace the world, to help us not be as the Sanhedrin, but as your Son teaches, to love you.