Handle the Truth

Understanding the divine condescension

01/14/2023

Mk 2:13-17 Jesus went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed Jesus. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard this and said to them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Today I want to teach you a fancy theological term, and it is the divine condescension. That means that God’s ways are high above our ways as the sky is above the earth. And so we do not immediately understand what God wants to tell us. And so he has to lower himself and come down to our level. He has to humble himself and speak our language in a way that we can understand. Then he can slowly teach us and raise our thoughts above the earth to be more like his thoughts. But first he must come down and meet us where we are at.

And this is something parents do all the time with their children. Children cannot understand immediately how parents think and what they are trying to accomplish, and so the parents have to come down to the children’s level, and speak in such a way that their children can understand. I see this every time we celebrate a funeral Mass. A child cannot comprehend what it means for a person to die. For that matter, can an adult understand what it means for a person to die?

And so we try to help them understand at their level, at the child’s level, what has happened to this person in the casket. We have had quite a few funerals this past week, and I’ve watched parents speak to their little children and say so-and-so is just asleep. They are explaining things at the level of the child. And the child thinks happily: “Oh, okay, he’s just asleep. Maybe he’ll wake up soon.” And it’s okay because the child understands death as well as he can.

Well, we see Jesus in the gospel today practicing this divine condescension, coming down to the level of the scribes and Pharisees. Now you would think these folks would be at a much higher level. They are not the humble poor people, who don’t have any education or knowledge or understanding of the Scriptures. These are the scribes and the Pharisees after all! And yet Jesus has to come down to their level.

When they ask him, “Why do you eat with sinners and tax-collectors”, he answers in a way that they will understand, even though they do not yet understand. He says “I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners.” You see, that’s a way the Pharisees could understand. Why? Well, the Pharisees think like this: "We are righteous, we keep the law. But those people, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes, they are the sinners."

But let me ask you, did Jesus really think the Pharisees and the scribes were righteous and without any sins? Of course not, they too are sinners. We are all sinners. Oh, maybe not in some overt and obvious way, like prostitutes or dictators. But we have our own sins that we harbor in our hearts: jealousies, lack of forgiveness, grudges, greed, pride, lust and so forth. But Jesus is trying to help them by coming down to their level.

It is like Jesus is saying: "Let me explain this in a way that you (Pharisees) might understand: I have come to call the sinners, so it’s okay that I eat with prostitutes and tax-collectors." And the Pharisees can understand and agree to that. But Jesus is slowly trying to help them understand, gradually and gently, that he has come to call all sinners. And that not only tax-collectors and prostitutes, but even the self-righteous Pharisees, are sinners. We are all sinners.

My point is this. A lot of times, Jesus, and God, and the Scriptures, and the Church, have to come down to our level of understanding because we are not quite yet ready for the way things are in heaven. It is like that scene from the movie “A Few Good Men” where Jack Nicholson is on the stand and he is being tried, and he says very defiantly: “You cannot handle the truth.”

That’s very true for all of us, and that is what Jesus is saying to all of us, especially the Pharisees in the gospel: “You cannot handle the truth, that you, too, are sinners. You too need a savior.” That also makes me wonder about you and me, and how we speak to one another. We sometimes soften what we want to say, thinking: “He cannot handle what I have to say; she cannot handle what I have to say.”

We, too, exercise this divine condescension and we say things in a way that we hope the other person can get it. I wonder how often people do that with me. Poor Fr. John can’t quite get this, so let me explain it in a softer, gentler way, so he might catch on. I wonder how many times God does that with me. God might think: “John can’t quite get this, so I will come down to his level, so that maybe, little by little, one day, he will understand.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!