Where do our worries come from? Do they come from our fear of not being able to satisfy our legitimate needs? Do they come from worrying about our loved ones?
After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, what he did reached even those in Jerusalem.
“Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, ‘What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.’” – John 11:45-48 (NABRE)
When I read the above Bible verses, what struck me most was that instead of being in awe at what Jesus did (raising someone from the dead!), the chief priests and the Pharisees were concerned about other matters.
“What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.”
Jesus has just brought a person back to life and all they could think about were the Romans!
Of course, the fear of being conquered by foreign invaders is a legitimate fear. But in this case, that fear has just overshadowed that one great miracle they should be thinking about.
“How could one man bring a person back to life? Who could He truly be? What should we do in response to this?”
Those should have been some of the questions they should have asked.
But instead, they worried only about the Romans. They took their eyes away from a wonderful, and great miracle from heaven only to focus on earthly matters.
Haven’t they considered that if Jesus could do this great thing, then maybe God is saying something very important to them at that moment? Haven’t they considered that no matter how terrible their earthly plight could be, they could overcome it if they got heaven by their side?
It is a sad thing when we ignore the most significant things and pretend we’re focused on something more important.
Even in our modern age, human beings seem to be concerned with many earthly matters. We take pride in being concerned about war and the environment. We focus on equality and earthly justice.
But along the way, we lose sight of our spiritual needs.
How many among those who busy themselves addressing earthly problems simply shrugged off the idea about the existence of God?
Haven’t it entered our minds that this earth we’re so concerned with would eventually pass away? That we’d all die in a matter of years?
And after death, what then? Shouldn’t we all be concerned if there is indeed a life after death? A heaven or a hell that comes after our earthly existence?
The clock is ticking and in a sense, we’re all dying. And if your loved one is dying, do you just busy yourself worrying about other things? No, you concern yourself first if you could do something to save the person that you love.
Jesus Christ already did something to save us from eternal death. Yet how many among us are actually grateful for that?
Are we also too worried about the wrong things?
You may also want to read “What Keeps Even Christians Worrying?”
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of the book Defending My Catholic Faith.
“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” – 1 Peter 3:15 (NABRE)
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