Our Prejudices Shut Jesus Out

by FLL Editorial Team
2014-04-05


那時候,群眾中有些人聽了耶穌的話,便說:「這人真是那位先知。」另有些人說:「這人是默西亞。」但也有人說:「難道默西亞能來自加里肋亞嗎?經上不是說:默西亞要出自達味的後裔,來自達味出生的村莊白冷嗎?」因此,為了耶穌的緣故,在群眾中起了紛爭。他們中有些人願捉拿他,但誰也沒有向他下手。差役回到司祭長和法利塞人那裏;司祭長和法利塞人問他們說:「為什麼你們沒有把他帶來?」差役回答說:「從來沒有一個人如此講話,像這人講話一樣。」法利塞人遂向他們說:「難道你們也受了煽惑嗎?首長中或法利塞人中,難道有人信仰了他嗎?但是,這些不明白法律的群眾,是可詛咒的!」他們中有一個,即先前曾來到耶穌那裏的尼苛德摩,遂向他們說:「如果不先聽取人的口供,和查明他所作的事,難道我們的法律就許定他的罪麼?」他們回答他說:「難道你也是出自加里肋亞麼?你去查考,你就能知道:從加里肋亞不會出先知的。」然後,他們就各自回家去了。
若望福音 7:40-53


By sharyn morrow via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

By sharyn morrow via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)


在這兩天的福音中,我們都讀到群眾為耶穌的身份起了紛爭。有人憑耶穌的言行認定祂是默西亞,而另一些人一口斷定耶穌不可能是默西亞,因為祂來自加里肋亞,他們認為耶穌不可能是經上所載,那位出自達味的默西亞。

曾來到過耶穌那裏的法利塞人尼苛德摩提出該先聽聽耶穌的話,和查明祂做過的事。他的提議聽起來十分合理,但司祭長和法利塞人完全聽不進去,他們的耳目早被自以為是和偏見封閉了。

如果我們誠實的面對自己,就會發現我們對某些人和事都有很多偏見。耶穌本可以透過很多人去跟我們溝通。當我們埋怨天主為何不回應我們的禱告時,也許我們應該先反省:我的偏見有否把耶穌關在門外?

這篇默想由生命恩泉文摘編輯小組撰寫,內容以下列文章為根據: Saturday of week 4 of Lent – Gospel


Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Then each went to his own house.
John 7:40-53


In today's and yesterday's Gospel readings, we read that the crowd was in dispute over Jesus' identity. Some said that Jesus must be the Messiah, whereas others said he could not possibly be the Messiah since He came from Galilee. They thought that He could not be of David's family.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee who had visited Jesus before, suggested that they should first hear Jesus, and find out what He did. This sounds very reasonable. However, the chief priests and Pharisees would not take it. Their vision and hearing had been completely blocked by their prejudices.

If we are honest with ourselves, we would find that we, too, are full of prejudices. Jesus could have spoken to us through many different people. When we complain to God about unanswered prayers, perhaps we should first ask ourselves: have our prejudices shut the door, thus keeping Jesus from coming in?

This reflection is prepared by the FLL Inspire editorial team as a digest of the following article: Saturday of week 4 of Lent – Gospel

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