Reflection
Exodus 14:5-18
Exodus 15:1-6
Matthew 12:38-42
Some people just don’t get it. In today’s gospel Jesus speaks to those people who, though they have the Son of God, the Christ, standing among them performing miracles, they just don’t get it. They don’t get it because they do not want to get it. Jonah had gone to the Ninevites and instructed them to repent before it was too late, and they listened. The reference Jesus makes to the Queen of the South is the Queen of Sheba in chapter 10 of 1 Kings. The Queen listened to the instruction of Solomon and turned her life around. Now Jonah and Solomon were certainly doing the will of the Father, however, neither of them were the Christ.
At this point in Matthew’s gospel Jesus had performed exorcisms and the scribes and Pharisees are claiming He was doing the exorcisms at the direction of Satan – complete foolishness and Jesus sees that. The scribes would make money from doing exorcisms so Jesus coming along and doing it instead of them meant they were losing income – thus, the challenge.
Just as the scribes and Pharisees were obstinate in accepting the authority and the teachings of Jesus, the Egyptians in our first reading were obstinate in accepting the will of the Father. In both cases, their obstinate behavior led to some not really good stuff. In fact, in does not turn out well for the Egyptians and it does not turn out well for us when we continue to resist the will of the Father.
What is the will of the Father? Look no further than the Our Father…declare that He is God and we are not, trust that He will give us our daily bread and the stuff we need to get us to heaven, and forgive others. So there you go…trust and forgive…how are you doing with that today?
Beautiful day! Go smile at God today!