During the season of Lent, we are encouraged to contemplate Jesus's journey leading to the cross. It is 40 days long, helping us think about his time of temptation in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. We also recall his suffering as encountered all kinds of opposition.
As Richard Rohr notes in Falling Upward, Jesus did seem to find the most pushback from the rich and the religious. The rich could not reach a place of actually needing God's help, and the religious believed that they were doing just fine, thank you, without Jesus's rocking the boat.
Lent is a good time to look in the mirror and see if I am like the rich or religious. They were the ones for whom the system was working. They had all their material needs taken care of, and they had their spiritual needs covered with their religious practices. Yet they were the ones who often resented Jesus.
Jesus reached out to the poor and the non-religious. Jesus found that they were more receptive to his message. They could see their need. The system was not working for them. They were desperate. They were poor in spirit and marginalized.
So during this season, I need to recognize my own complacency, my own satisfaction with the status quo. I need to see that I am surely missing out on something deeper. I need to recognize my reluctance to enter the kingdom of God, my reluctance to love my enemies and restore relationships and make peace.
This is a time to go deeper. I need it.
