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Gospel: Mt. 21: 23-27
When Jesus had come into the temple area,
the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him
as he was teaching and said,
“By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me,
then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.
Where was John’s baptism from?
Was it of heavenly or of human origin?”
They discussed this among themselves and said,
“If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us,
‘Then why did you not believe him?’
But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd,
for they all regard John as a prophet.”
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”
He himself said to them,
“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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There’s often tension between God’s timing and our timing. While we want things now, sometimes God makes us wait.
Even Jesus had to wait.
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For example, in today’s Gospel the religious authorities are pressuring him to answer, “By whose authority are you doing these things?”
Jesus has been turning over tables in the temple area and telling his followers, “Blessed are you when they persecute you because of me.”
Understandably, the authorities want to know, “Who are you to say and do these things?”
While Jesus may have wanted to reveal his identity as the Son of God, he knew that once he did, the authorities would charge him with blasphemy, an offense punishable by death.
Now is not the time for him to speak. There are other things that his Father wants him to accomplish in his public ministry before being handed over.
So, Jesus must wait.
He buys time by answering their question with a question of his own.
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So, what does this mean for us?
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There are times when we want God to act. We ask the Lord to remove a grudge, to uproot a habit from our lives, to bring our children back to church, to answer a lingering prayer.
But sometimes we must wait. Our timing isn’t God’s timing.
May the Lord give us the faith and patience we need to trust in his Providential care.
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Image credits: (1) #morningmemo (2) Christ Among the Doctor’s, Paolo Veronese (3) Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope