Who IS this guy?

"Naaman went away angry, saying, 'I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord, his God..."

2 Kings 5:11

 

I admit, I kind of agree with Naaman here.  After seeing movies like "The Ten Commandments" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" don't we come to expect God to produce a spectacular, Cecil B. DeMille miracle? Something showy and convincing? The people who jeered at Jesus to come down from the cross wanted a flashy miracle to show who he was.  But, while Jesus did some fabulous miracles of healing and feeding, Jesus wasn't one to perform on command.  The miracles Jesus did required the faith of the people, too.  And the people in Jesus' hometown couldn't get past Jesus, just the hometown carpenter.  How special could he be? It reminds me of a fabulous quote I read years ago in the biography of St. Edith Stein.  If you know about her, you know she was raised Jewish, but later converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite sister.  It was very difficult for her to tell her mother she was joining the Carmelites, not just to live there, but to JOIN and become a Carmelite sister herself.  Her mother was very upset when Edith told her and she said, "Why did you have to get to know him (Jesus)? He was a good man, I'm not saying anything against him. But why did he have to go and make himself God?" (from "Edith Stein-A Biography," by Waltraud Herbstrith).  I wonder if that is some of what the people of Nazareth thought of Jesus? "Oh, he was a nice guy, a good carpenter.  Why did he have to go and make himself God?"  Today, let's ask ourselves if we are guilty of wanting Jesus to prove who he is or can we believe on faith?  Love, heidi