16th Week, Monday, July 24
Exodus 14:5-18 / Matthew 12:36-42
The people complain to Moses: "We were better off in Egypt!"
Several years ago, Time magazine carried a cover story called "Rocky Mountain High." It was a tribute to the beauty and majesty of this popular vacationland. Sandwiched into the story was a remark made about this same region by Secretary of State Daniel Webster in 1852: "What do we want with this worthless area, this region of savages and wild beasts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts and these endless mountain ranges?" Moses put up with similar criticism from the people of his day.
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How positive are we in our view of life? Lord, help us always to focus on the roses amid the thorns rather than the thorns amid the roses.
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There is a story of a man who fell off a cliff in the dark but he managed to catch on to a branch and was left dangling there. So he cried out "O God, help me! Help me!". And then a voice came from heaven "Do you really want me to help you?" And the man said, "Yes, Lord, yes!" And the voice from heaven said, "Then you must do what I tell you. Now let go off the branch!" And the man thought for a while and then he said in a softer voice, "Is there anybody else up there?" Whenever we are faced with desperate situations and God is giving us difficult solutions, we tend to look for other options. In those kind of situations, we don't trust God enough to believe that the difficult solution is the solution.
Such was the situation of the Israelites in the 1st reading. Faced with the sea before them and the Egyptians coming up behind them, they were terrified and they cried out to the Lord. They were so desperate that they spoke against Moses and they even said this "Better to work for the Egyptians than die in the wilderness!" For them the only other option was to go back to slavery.
Because they were told to march on into the sea, which was as good as death by drowning. The parting of the sea and the Israelites crossing dry-footed and the subsequent drowning of the Egyptian army was the greatest act of salvation that God worked for the Israelites. But we have to admit that it was difficult to trust in the Lord God especially when the situation is desperate and our minds do not accept the Lord's ways. Anyway the earlier story did not end there. The next morning the rescuers came across a strange sight. The man was frozen to death with his arms still hanging on the branch and his feet was only six inches from the ground! In desperate situations we need to let go of ourselves because we will fall none other than into the arms of God our Saviour.
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As soon as their faith makes demands on them, as soon as they don’t see clear, the Hebrews complain and would choose slavery in Egypt rather than a difficult march through the desert to freedom. They don’t trust yet in God. They want signs of God’s might.
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St Paul says, "While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, we are preaching a crucified Christ" (1 Corinthians 1-22). The Jews have to make sure that he who claims to be the Messiah, speaks the truth. Do not believe my words, believe because of my deeds, Jesus told them. They have had a chance to witness many miracles. There is no such thing as miracles by demand. Jesus is not a puppet where they just have to pull a string. Three days and three nights is a fixed way of speaking. It was not a sign that Jesus died and was buried and rose on the third day. The Pharisees did not realise this. It was a refusal of the miracle they demanded. The people of Nineveh repented because Jonah's sermon convinced them of their sinfulness and made them desire the holier life. The Queen of Sheba had made a long journey to hear the wisdom of Solomon. One greater than Jonah and Solomon is here. Jesus came not only to preach redemption, but to take away sins. Solomon 's was only human wisdom. He is divine wisdom.
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The scribes and the Pharisees demand signs. The Hebrews had failed to see the sign of God in the fact that he had quietly led them to freedom and made them into a people. The scribes fail to recognize God in the message and person of Jesus, in his service, loyalty, and love. God is not a God of publicity. His presence is discreet. The sign of Jonas was that the Ninivites believed his preaching; the three days in the belly of the fish as a reference to the three days of Jesus in the tomb may be a later addition.
