The religious leaders urged him, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus insists he has been speaking plainly all along. As plain as the miracles before their eyes, as plain as the healing of lepers, as plain as the blind seeing and the lame walking. Each time a human life is restored, it speaks an unequivocal statement about who he is. Without needing to depend on words, Jesus has been speaking volumes.
Without words, what do our lives say? Mostly we tell our beliefs and speak our creeds and teach our lessons and espouse our evidence. Imagine being silenced. What would our actions alone speak on our behalf? Without words, would we be found guilty of possessing a lively faith, for having unrestrained love for the poor, for committing unprovoked acts of kindness?
Should righteousness go on a rampage, would we be the ones most apt to be blamed for the streams of mercy now overflowing in our streets? Are we the ones immediately under suspicion wherever justice is sought for the vulnerable, when the hungry are fed and the imprisoned set free?
If we hope ever to be thought of as followers of Jesus, doers of his word and not hearers only, then we must inventory not our words but our actions.
How plainly do our lives speak?
