Melvin decided to sneak into the opening game of the Cubs’ season. When he got to the gate he tried to fast-talk his way through. It didn’t work. Then he tried to push through the line. That didn’t work. Finally he conjured up a few lies about his connection with the Cubs’ system. Sorry, Melvin, your efforts failed. He never made it into the game, because he didn’t have a ticket.
For the rest of the week Melvin stomped around in anger complaining about the meanness of the Cubs’ management, and wondered what they had against him. He didn’t understand why he was under the “wrath of the Cubs.”
It wasn’t about the “wrath of the Cubs” as much as it was about his not having a ticket. During the previous week he had opportunities to purchase a ticket but was too cheap to buy one. The Cubs’ management would love to have had Melvin at the ballpark, but it had to be on their terms, not his.
Today’s gospel passage (John 3:31-36) talks about being under the “wrath of God.”
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.”
This is so common sense. Jesus has the tickets. If we try to get into God’s kingdom by another way, we won’t be allowed in. We’ll be mad of course and blame it on God. We don’t understand why he doesn’t play by our rules.
Jesus gives a simple explanation why he is THE ticket into God’s ballpark.
“(T)he one from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.”
It makes sense that the only one who knows about heaven and the mind of God is someone who has been there. Jesus is the only one who came from earth to heaven, so he, alone, saw and heard what goes on in heaven. Yet people prefer to listen to “mini-minded” humans than to the One who knows the truth. How many people do you know who came down from heaven?
“Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.”
It’s all about trusting in God. When we choose to believe what his Son says, we show that we trust God. When we believe that the words Jesus speaks and the truth he proclaims are directly from God, we are graced with a ticket into the kingdom. And we receive not just a ticket but the Holy Spirit whom God “does not ration.”
During this year of Divine Mercy, God is passing out free “tickets” to the opening game at his stadium. The tickets are abundant and they are free. Why is it that we tend to think we don’t need a ticket, that we can use our own ingenuity and efforts to sneak into the park?
What appears as God’s “wrath” might be the transference of our own wrath, that God holds the line when it comes to playing by his rules. From the beginning Adam and Eve decided to play by their own rules, and there’s not a day that we don’t realize where that led. We all are tempted as they were to try to be equal to God and set our own rules for salvation. Jesus, the new Adam, played by God’s rules and now has a front row seat in the park. Which “Adam” will we follow?
Did those who resisted Jesus rise from the dead? We follow the only One who did. We need no further proof.
“The Lord confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth” (Ps 34:17).
