We are used to having two readings in our liturgy where the first from the Hebrew Scriptures may be harsh or even violent, reflecting what we may think to be a more primitive or less developed understanding of God. Our Gospel readings, on the other hand, reflect a fuller awareness of God as revealed through the words and actions of Jesus.
Today that picture is reversed. The story we hear about Elisha visiting a well-to-do couple, who are rewarded for looking after him, is comforting (2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a). We can identify with those circumstances and hope that our good deeds will be similarly rewarded. Jesus however comes at us with harsh words, demanding, almost threatening, in his intensity (Matthew 10:37-42).
We may imagine that the human understanding of God developed from an earlier naive view in which God was angry and jealous and frequently involved in killing people or otherwise punishing them. We then got to a better place where we understood that God was kind and loving, a father not a judge. But this view is way too simple. The reality of a kind, loving God is found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, and harsh judgment is not lacking from the Gospels.
What changes is not like a story of growing up, where we come to appreciate the adult world better, and understand our parents in a way that children can not. What changes is that God has opened himself up completely to us. He held nothing back. He died for us. The change isn’t about us or our understanding, it’s about God and what he did in our human world.
That reality demands a complete reevaluation of everything that is important to us, our closest relationships, even our attachment to life itself. All those are insignificant compared to the God who hangs in front of us, bleeding.
Paul personally experienced this transition from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures to the message of the gospels, perhaps more deeply than anyone else. He converted from executioner to martyr. He obsessed about the death of Jesus – not observing it, but participating in it. He tried so hard to get those early Christians to appreciate the radical transformation that is called for, if they (and we) are to follow the path of death into life (Romans 6:3-4, 8-11).
Radical it may be, involving giving up everything we instinctively hold onto, but also so simple. A cup of water, a kind word, a gesture of welcome, that’s what it takes. That’s the new life we are called to.