Sermon for Judica, the Fifth Sunday in Lent

It’s hard to consider that people may not like us. We generally want to be liked. We assume that if someone doesn’t like us it’s a misunderstanding on their part, or maybe a bad impression. If they really knew me, they would like me. Well, this was not the case with Jesus. The more the Jews knew him, the less they liked him. Once he fully told him who he was, they wanted to kill him. Sometimes in the gospels, Jesus speaks in a hidden way so the people will not understand what he is saying. Not in our gospel reading today. Here, Jesus speaks in a very direct way. Without faith, Jews who hear Jesus’ words find them very disturbing. The words of Jesus divide, they force people to make a choice, and that can make things very uncomfortable.