(Source from 40 Days & 40 Ways Daily Meditation for Lent – Year A)

It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

On this third Sunday of Lent the cycle of Gospel readings from John begins about the great mysteries of Easter, Jesus’ gift of living water, of light and of life. Each of these is a vivid preparation for the climax of the Easter Vigil. They are commented elsewhere!

The Gospel of living water, the passage chosen is about Moses striking water from the rock and Paul, with a piece of Jewish allegorisation, tells us that the rock is Christ. Since the story comes twice during the Exodus wanderings, each time in a different geographical place, Paul sees Christ as the rock following them through the desert (1 Co 10:4). The desert wanderings form the beginning of the relationship, the stormy love affair between God and his Chosen People, Israel. Throughout the Bible these travels are seen in two different lights, either as the blissful honeymoon period when Israel, spouse of the Lord, bonded with God, or as the first desertions, when Israel defected from God and needed to be brought back in repentance. Hence the place names Massah and Meribah, which signify temptation and strife. On the second occasion, in Numbers 20:11-13, Moses earned his exclusion from the Holy Land, which he was never allowed to enter. He struck the rock twice, and this is understood as expressing disbelief. Some scholars think this punishment disproportionate to such a small offence and think that Moses did something so utterly terrible that the tradition could not mention it. Whatever the details, we may consider the wanderings through the desert as a mirror of our own relationship with God, heartfelt promises alternating with abject failures.

In his Letter to the Romans Paul reflects first on the human race sunk in sin and rotten in iniquity (chapters 1-3), and then on the saving faith of Abraham in the promise of God (chapter 4). In today’s reading he seems to be reflecting on the three great virtues of faith, hope and love. But by themselves they cannot earn salvation It is only “through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith that we are judged righteous and at peace with God” – by his death. Paul has many metaphors for this: redemption, reconciliation, ransom. But how does this work? Some have thought that Jesus himself suffered the pains of the damned on our behalf, or that his suffering paid to the devil a debt we should have paid, like a whipping boy who takes the punishment due to a princeling. This is the very paradigm of injustice – that the innocent should suffer for the guilty. And how can God rejoice in pain, especially the pain of his own Son? No, God is not punishing his Son. It is the moment of the most perfect union in loving obedience as Jesus accepts the agony of the cross imposed by his mission of proclaiming the Kingship of God.