Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent - March 24, 2012
John 7:40 - 43 On hearing his words, some of the people said, Surely this man is the Prophet. Others said, He is the Christ. Still others asked, How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived? Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. There was a division among the people because of Jesus. I wonder why Christianity, from its beginnings, has been so beset by divisions, by splinterings? I imagine there are some folks who would say, in response, that Jesus was a polarizing figure. They might say that with Jesus, you are either in or you are out , that you are with him or against him, and that by his very nature, Jesus sets up this division. I know some of these mental impulses, some of these arguments. I've advocated for them at times in my past. The history of institutional Christianity has largely been about deciding what the boundaries are or fig...