＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Jeremiah 11:18-20

 Yahweh made it known to me and so I know!

And you let me see their scheming: “Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you and behind your back they freely criticize you. Do not trust them when they approach you in a friendly way.”

 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, “Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again.”

Yahweh, God of hosts, you who judge with justice and know everyone’s heart and intentions, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.

 

Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12

O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 7:40-53

Many who had been listening to these words began to say, “This is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some wondered, “Would the Christ come from Galilee? Doesn’t Scripture say that the Christ is a descendant of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David?”

The crowd was divided over him. Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.  The officers of the Temple went back to the chief priests who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man.”

The Pharisees then said, “So you, too, have been led astray! Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him? Only these cursed people, who have no knowledge of the Law!”

 Yet one of them, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, spoke out, “Does our law condemn people without first hearing them and knowing the facts?” They replied, “Do you, too, come from Galilee? Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to come from Galilee.”

 And they all went home.

 

Gospel Reflection：

People are divided in their opinion of Jesus. The Pharisees however are set in their desire to have Jesus eliminated. He is a pain in their neck. The sooner He is dispatched, the better it would be for their religious group.

However, people saw something in Jesus that not even the hate campaign of the Pharisees could cover. He seems like a prophet of old. He could even be the promised Messiah.

Some like Nicodemus tries to save Jesus from the wrath of the Pharisees. But the latter would have none of it. They want Jesus out of the picture the soonest. They even justified their persecution of Him with scriptural passage. Once the heart has decided what to do, even scriptures has to follow it. The word of God is weaponized by an angry heart.