Jesus: A Threat to one's Comfort Zone

“The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me’”  (John 10: 31)?  The people ready to stone Jesus are God-fearing Jews. These are good people who see Jesus as a threat to the way of life to which they have been faithful their entire lives.  They see Jesus not just as another Jew but as a rebel, a dangerous man, who must be put to death, as far as they are concerned. 

The good works of His Father that Jesus showed the people, all of us, would culminate on Calvary, where He would give His life for the salvation of the world.  Jesus saved many people from their illnesses and sinful ways when He walked the streets of Galilee and the surrounding cities. He would save the whole world from the tree of the cross.

Many times, you and I do good works, the works the Father gave us to do before we even entered this world.  The greatest  work that we will do is the work of our redemption, dying with Christ day by day.  That dying is not the death of our physical bodies, when we, too, will leave this world and enter into the glory of our Father but the death that Jesus refers to often in His spiritual teachings.  “…[U]nless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:24).  Or, his teaching to the apostles who were indignant toward James and John wanting first place in the kingdom:  “You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. Among you this is not to happen. No, anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant , and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of man himself came not be served to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10: 42-45).

What is our response when the Spirit asked this kind of dying from us? Are we ready to throw stones at those who threaten our egotistic plans to ursurp power, to lord it over others, to demand service instead of giving service? Are we ready to stone anyone who  makes us aware of that we are protecting the “wheat grain” from falling into the earth and dying”?  Do we abandon the challenges of our faith in Jesus when our way of thinking like “the gentiles” is threatened?