In session one of our parish’s Lenten study, The Rescue Project, Fr. John Riccardo says that we all inhabit some story, or narrative, and that the structure of our lives imitates the structure of our structuring narrative. Now, there are other inhabitants in the land of narratives and one of those occupants is called the news. We call the gospel of Christ the ‘Good News’, but the goodness of that news depends on your perspective, as news can be the nemesis of a narrative.

For Caiaphas, the high priest, Jesus riding into Jerusalem that Passover weekend was not the arrival of good news, but bad news! Paraphrasing Caiaphas, he says, “It is better for us that this man
[Jesus] should die than our narrative should perish!” Caiaphas was
not speaking falsely, for he knew the score, and Jesus knew this too, as he says in Matthew 10:34, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Jesus came to do battle against the false narrative that began when Adam and Eve bought into the myth of the serpent: that by our own efforts we could become like God. All the false narratives that we inhabit and that inhabit us are descendants from that original fall into sin.

In Hebrews 4:12 it says, “For the word [the Good News] of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Jesus, in wielding the Sword of the Lord, is not interested in inflicting mere flesh wounds on our narrative but, as the Great Physician, he is interested in doing some serious spiritual surgery on our lives. We become new creatures when Christ is finished working on us. It’s the ultimate make-over, a divine renovation.

Based on his diagnosis, Caiaphas’ treatment plan was that Jesus needed to be crucified. But did that ever backfire, as the mustard seed that Caiaphas caused to be planted on Golgotha has grown into the magnificent tree of the Church, where the Good News of Christ is preached daily!

What will be your diagnosis of and treatment plan for the Good News that will be riding into your life this Easter?