Easter finished two weeks ago. Eventually we do have to come down the mountain, back to “ordinary” time. And what do we find when we get here? Ordinary life, with its ordinary challenges – relationships between men and women, relationships within families.
Our first reading (Gn 3:9-15) tells the famous (or infamous) story of how things went wrong for Adam and Eve, and how it was all Eve’s fault. Isn’t that how it goes?
Scripture is written at a particular time and for people of that time. Of course it may be relevant in other times, but we also need to be cautious about reading our own worldview into it. The image of the female temptress is so deeply embedded in our cultural consciousness that we cannot avoid it when reading Genesis. The culture of the authors of Genesis was clearly one in which women were subservient to men, and that has been true in the majority of human cultures, it seems. It has certainly been true in our Western Christian culture.
But maybe Genesis is more radical than we expect. God is generally not in the business of confirming our prejudices and stereotypes. In the story Eve is tempted by Satan, and succumbs to temptation. Adam is tempted by Eve, and succumbs to the temptation. Seems like Eve has a stronger case in her defense than Adam. But of course people are very good at deflecting the blame for their own bad decisions. That much has not changed. And it can apply equally to women as to men, but I suspect that men blaming women is perhaps more common than women blaming men.
Jesus is also caught up in family problems (Mk 3:20-35). In his case his “elders and betters” think he is crazy. In our age they would probably try to get him committed for mental health treatment. Jesus is having none of it. He points out his family doesn’t have ownership of him, and his relationships with people who really care about him are more important.
Along the way he also offers the passing comment about “the unforgivable sin” (which has caused much discussion over the centuries). Since he has just said all sins will be forgiven this seems a bit self-contradictory. But before we suspect Jesus of contradicting himself we should look carefully at what he actually says, and also be open to reconsidering what we think forgiveness actually is.
Our culture, based on centuries of Christian culture, thinks of forgiveness in legal terms. Again we cannot escape that. However the words of the Gospel are “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness”. Leaving aside for a moment the issue of what “blaspheming against the Holy Spirit” might mean, let’s focus on the word “have”. It says, not “receive forgiveness”, nor “be forgiven”, but “have forgiveness”. The impediment isn’t with the person forgiving, but with the recipient who refuses to accept what is offered. Jesus isn’t carving out some special unforgivable sin. He’s pointing out the obvious – if you refuse to be forgiven then you will not be forgiven. Just like if you refuse to drink then you will remain thirsty. It’s not a problem with the drink, or the person offering it, it is the stubbornness of the one who is thirsty and is going to stay thirsty.
Ordinary time is indeed ordinary. It may be easy to think our problems are due to other people – people who are different from us, because they are different in gender, or place of origin, or skin color, or education, or all the other reasons we have invented throughout the ages. If we want to be part of Jesus’s family we have to accept that none of that matters to him. And if it does matter to us then we have to get over it, or he can’t get to us, we can’t be in relationship with him.