DIVINE INTERRUPTION FOR
INTERVENTION
(Contemplata aliis tradere)
THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR A, IS 8:23-9:3; 1 COR 1:10-13, 17; MT 4:1223
Prayer
Heavenly Father, in whom is the fullness of light
and wisdom, enlighten our minds by your Holy
Spirit, and give us grace to receive your word with
reverence and humility, without which no one can
understand your truth. Amen.
From my knowledge of scriptures, especially my knowledge about those the Lord has
called for the fulfilment of His divine plan, such men or women were first interrupted
in what they were doing before they answered their call. We will go through the
scriptures from the Old to the New Testaments to see such people and learn from them
the ability to let go, which opens the way for a divine encounter. Some were called
and they immediately answered the call, for some, it was difficult to be interrupted.
They struggled with the call for a very long time until they finally yielded. God does
not call people who are idle; He calls people who have something doing already, and
this is why most people find it difficult to respond.
When men and women fail to answer the divine call, the power of God is hardly
experienced. Remember, in the book of Genesis (2:4-7), when there was no one to till
the ground, God held the rain from falling. It was only after God had created man that
He now allowed the rain to fall upon the earth. When there was no man in existence,
rather than release the rain, God caused a midst to fall upon the earth. As long as there
is no vessel to contain and transmit the blessings of God, He does not send the rain. St
Paul reminds us that „we are earthen vessels that hold this treasure to show that the
supreme power belongs to God‟.
Before God can intervene in human situations, He needs to work through some one.
Scripture says, “The heavens belong to the Lord but the earth he has given to men”
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(115:16). He has to interrupt someone so that there would be a divine intervention.
When a man was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, the scripture says that he was
attacked by thieves and was beaten. A priest came and passed by without helping
because he refused to be interrupted, and because he refused to interrupted, the man
beaten remained in pains. The Levite who passed by also refused to be interrupted.
But when the Good Samaritan allowed himself to be interrupted, the man beaten by
brigands found hope and healing. Divine interruption begets divine intervention. In
human understanding, it is interruption but before God it is the appropriate time. The
moment when God steps out of eternity to save mankind is called the Kairos time.
God has His time distinct from human time. The human understanding of time is
called the Chronos time: that is the time when I wake up in the morning, when I go to
school, when I go to the shop, when I return home, when I go to bed, this is done
according to human time. In eternity the human understanding of time loses its place.
And because there is difference between the kairos time and the chronos time, man
fails to understand why God should call them at a particular time outside their wish.
We are hardly aware that God‟s time is the best.
The interruption of Moses
At a particular time in history, God stepped out of eternity into time to save His
people Israel. He said to Moses,
I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard
them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their
sufferings, and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and
to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land... (Exo 3:7-8).
It was not as if Moses was idle at the time he was called by God. He was fully
engaged. The scripture is clear on this,
Now Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Median,
and he led the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain
of God (Heb 3:1).
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Moses was a shepherd, and shepherding was one of the primary jobs of the time. As a
shepherd what mattered to him was how to lead the sheep to greener pasture; he
studied the sheep to know which ones were weak and so gave them special attention,
which ones were pregnant and so gave them special meal and care. He was moving
towards the direction where there were green grasses and God used the burning bush
to catch his attention. Certainly, Moses was not happy that the grasses were burning.
No shepherd would be happy that green grasses are wasting in the fire. More catching
was the fact that the fire was burning but never got burnt. And so he went to know
why. As he drew nearer to the burning bush, God called him,
Moses! Moses! And he answered, „here I am.‟ God said to him, „Do not
come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on a holy
ground‟ (Exo 3:4-5).
When God called Moses, he was not told to report work tomorrow or the next week.
He was to report immediately. He did not have to wait until his contract with Jethro
was completed. Usually shepherd had contract with their master, and once the
stipulated time in the contract was fulfilled, the shepherd had his pay. But Moses had
to leave immediately. His work was terminated without notice and therefore without
benefits. The scripture says,
And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said unto
him, let me go I pray you and return to my brethren who are in Egypt and
see whether they are alive. And Jethro said to Moses, „Go in peace‟.
Moses was interrupted that God may intervene in the situation of the people of Israel
in Egypt. If Moses had refused to be interrupted, God wouldn‟t have intervened in the
situation of the people of Israel. God works with human beings to mankind.
The interruption of Elisha
When Elijah was completing his mission, God sent him to go and anoint someone
who would take after him. The scripture tells us,
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So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat who was
ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen... (1 Kgs 19:19).
The word that was used is very significant in our understanding of the calling of
Elisha. The word ploughing is in the present continuous tense. It implies that Elisha
was busy ploughing the field. He was not idle. One who ploughed a field that time
with twelve yoke of oxen could be compared to someone who farms with twelve
tractors. This was certainly a big business that Elisha was running. At the time he was
ploughing the field, he was already calculating what the income of his efforts would
look like. He was thinking big and already planning on what to do with his income. It
was at this point that Elijah took off his cloak and put it on Elisha. That was the end of
his business, he did not have to wait for the next season, he did not begin to calculate
the amount of money he had already put into ploughing. He said to Elijah,
Let me kiss my Father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you (1
Kgs 19:20).
Elisha‟s company folded immediately because the scripture tells us that he slaughtered
the oxen he used for farming and cooked them and gave to the people who were
present. Possibly, when Elisha came back and told his people. They must have asked
him how he intends to leave his job and go about as a beggar. They must have tried to
discourage him. But he insisted to go ahead.
The interruption of Peter and Andrew, James and John
In today‟s gospel, the scripture says,
As he was walking by the lake of Galilee he saw two brothers, who were
called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast into the lake
with their net, for they were fisher men. And he said to them, „come after
me and I will make you fishers of men‟. And at once, they left their nets
and followed him. Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers,
James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in the boat with their
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father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. And at once,
leaving their boat and their father, they followed him.
The scripture says, „they were making a cast into the lake with their net, for they were
fisher men‟. The words used are in the present continuous tense. It is not in the past
tense, for if it were it would have been put this way, „they had made a cast into the
lake with their nets‟. This would have meant that they were done with their work and
were, may be, sitting idle, but they were engaged. It is not in the future tense, for it
would have been, „they were about to make a cast into the lake with their nets‟. This
would have also meant that they were not engaged at the particular moment when
Jesus called them. They were casting their net, and the net had not yet taken the
appropriate position in the lake when Jesus called out to them, „Come follow me‟. The
scripture says, „And at once, they left their nets and followed him‟.
There is something we need to understand about Peter. He was a married man and had
a family. We know this because the scripture tells us how Jesus went and healed his
mother-in-law of her sickness (Mk 1:29-39). The scripture does not tell us that he went
home to settle with her, he rather followed Jesus immediately. Who knows, it might
have been those who were around when Jesus called Peter that went home to tell the
wife how it happened. She must have waited and waited to no avail. He and his brother
left everything and followed Jesus. Seeing them leave their boats and net behind, the
people around must have asked them about their boat and net, and probably they must
have responded, „He called us and he will provide for all our needs‟. This was also the
experience of James and John who were mending their nets with their father when
Jesus called them. They left everything and followed Jesus.
The glory of divine interruption
God does not interrupt people and abandon them without a blessing. At the end, He
does not just tell you, „Thank you, and bye‟. Once you have given your life to Jesus as
a platform or a vessel to reach out to souls, He certainly will reward you. When Jesus
came to the lake of Gennesaret and Peter offered Him his boat to sit on as a platform
to preach the Word to people, Jesus rewarded Peter with a great catch of fish that
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amazed him. To Peter‟s colleagues, it looked like Peter was foolish; he had to wait for
Jesus; he was seated in one place, it was clear that he was not making any progress in
the eyes of the world. In the same way, when you give your life as a platform for Jesus
to seat on and operate from, he will not leave you unrewarded (Lk 5:1-7).
The story of Elisha is everywhere today because he allowed himself to be interrupted.
There are many business men and women who existed in the past; great farmers had
also passed the road of this world, but none of them is remembered as Elisha is
remembered. No one would have talked about him if not that he allowed himself to be
interrupted by God. Whenever God interrupts you, he rewards you with greater
benefits. This is different from the way the devil interrupts; when he interrupts you, he
does so to destroy you. Scripture says, „A thief comes only to steal, to kill and to
destroy‟ (Jn 10:10).
Once again, the treasure box has been opened and the beauty of Christ has been
revealed.
Grace, peace and love be with you all. Amen.
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