A Sign That Will Be Spoken Against

Soon after he was born in Bethlehem, Saint Joseph and Our Most Blessed Mother took the newborn Jesus to the Temple in accordance with the Law of Moses.  In the Temple that day were the prophets Simeon and Anna.  Both praised and thanked God for enabling them to witness the long-promised Messiah – the baby Jesus.  This episode is recounted by Saint Luke in the second chapter of his Gospel.  

At one point in this epic meeting, Simeon said to Mary, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too”  (Luke 2:34-5 New International Version).  

As Simeon so correctly predicted, Jesus was most certainly a sign that was spoken against when he engaged in his public ministry some thirty years later.  

Jesus was rebuked, criticized, condemned, castigated and harassed by opponents of the truth. When he first preached in his hometown of Nazareth, an angry crowd tried to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:14-28).   He was denounced by Jewish leaders.  The Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees set theological traps for him which he skillfully avoided (see Luke 11:37-54; Luke 20:20-25; and Matthew 22:15-40).  Some of the Jews attacked him for healing people on the Sabbath (John 5:1-18 and Mark 3:1-6).  When he drove out demons, people charged that he did so by the power of Beelzebul or the devil (Luke 11:15 and Mark 3:22).  They said “He is out of his mind” and “He is possessed by Beelzebul”  (Mark 3:21-2).    

Jewish leaders ultimately arrested Jesus and handed him over to Roman civil authorities for execution.   Before the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, these Jewish leaders charged, ““We found this man misleading our people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Messiah, a king”  (Luke 23:2).

When Jesus was brought before the crowd by Pilate, the crowd denounced him and called for his crucifixion.  When Pilate tried to release him, the crowd attacked Pilate saying, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar”  (John 19:1-16). 

As Jesus hung in agony nailed to the Cross for humanity’s sins, people continued to speak against him.  The Chief Priests and scribes mocked him, saying “He saved others; he cannot save himself.  Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:31-2).

Despite the public opposition, Jesus’s message, his Good News, resonated with a great many of those who heard him.  They included his Apostles, Saint Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Saint Martha, and Saint Lazarus, and of course, his Most Blessed Mother.

A Roman centurion at Calvary recognized who Jesus was.  As Saint Mark tells us in his Gospel, “When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (15:39).

Jesus was indeed a sign that was spoken against and he continues to be a sign spoken against to this day.  But as Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper (and tells us today) “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).