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Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 27, 2008
J.A. Loftus, S.J.
There are three questions I would like us to ask today. First: what drives Jesus? What energizes and motivates Jesus to take the life-paths he does? He is fully human, just like us, and must have some human drive just to get up in the morning. What is it?
Second question: what is it that attracts so many others to follow him and to want to be with him? We just heard the story of four men, two sets of brothers, who drop everything (home, business, family) and wander off behind him. What makes people do that? What was it about Jesus that made him seem so contagious?
Third question: do you ever get the notion that maybe you are missing out on something by not feeling that same contagion, missing out on a bigger picture here? That maybe you aren’t really “getting it”? I get that feeling often about myself. Let’s explore the questions.
First question: what drives Jesus? It is clear from today’s gospel that something important does drive him. When he hears of his friend, John the
Baptist, being thrown in prison, Jesus sets out after him to the region of
Galilee, the most dangerous place he could possibly go. This is Herod’s

Galilee. Far from “withdrawing into Galilee, Jesus actually advances into the most dangerous territory he could. And when he gets there he is not quiet about it. He moves throughout all of Galilee, the gospel tells us, preaching, teaching, and healing all who come near him. He is making a spectacle of himself. He seems almost driven.
So what drives him? What gives him that courage? The answer is here in today’s gospel too. He seems totally preoccupied by only one thing: the message he feels sent to announce. God’s kingdom is very near; it is here and now; it is in this very hearing. The kingdom of God is at hand–and in himself!
That matters more than anything else–including life itself. That kingdom is so liberating, so freeing, so healing, it just has to be preached–no matter what the cost. That is what drives Jesus.
Second question: what, then, is so attractive about him? What is it so many others see in him that shakes them to their roots? Do you suppose it might be found somewhere in the very same answer to question number one?
How many people have you ever met who were so totally and calmly dedicated to a single life purpose and just pursued it despite all the costs? Those people are far and few between. But when we encounter one of them (and most of us have at some point in our lives), they are fascinating, infinitely fascinating.
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They are so unusual that they really do attract others just because of their single-heartedness. That’s what Jesus was like. Whatever else one says about him, he was (and is) fascinating. Shimmering with hope, light, promise.
Could he be the one, really? The question his contemporaries asked–and the question we continue to ask in our own fascination.
Third question: do you sometimes feel like you might be missing something here? I do often enough. Remember the old expression: fiddling while Rome burns? St. Paul offers a perfect example today. While the drive, and the energy, and the fascination of this Jesus of Nazareth is on full display after his resurrection, reports keep coming from the churches back to Paul that the good Christians are still fighting, still bickering with each other. I love the way Paul says that Chloe’s people “tattle-tailed” on them. Does that sound familiar in our own church? They are consumed in Corinth (and not in
Boston?) about who has the correct theology, about who is the better leader, about who should have what job in the church, who should wear what. And the list goes on. As it has for centuries. Can you hear that fiddle? Can you see those flames burning in Rome?
Paul’s list is as contemporary as last week’s Boston Pilot or National
Catholic Reporter. We are still nit-picking each other to death while the
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contagious Jesus waits for us. Sebastian Moore’s latest book (just published on his 90 th
birthday) is entitled: The Contagion of Jesus: Doing Theology as if
it Mattered. Does the big picture matter? Does Jesus? Does God’s kingdom?
It does matter. And Jesus still waits for us to see that bigger picture, to become fascinated by that big picture, and to follow it, and him. Three questions to ponder. And he is still saying to you and to me: come, follow me and I will offer you life beyond your wildest imagination!
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