What do you think of that story? Not much, I suspect. For those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, this might make us wonder what we have done. After all, at first blush, this lesson makes the Lord sound like something of a jerk. My first reaction is to want to "rescue" Jesus, find some way of explaining away this conversation that will put him in a bit more flattering light.

The commentators are all over the lot on this one. Some have said that Jesus was just having a bad day - he and the twelve had gone north, out of Galilee (the only time the Gospels have Jesus leaving his native land). He had been having trouble escaping the demanding crowds; things were dangerous politically (King Herod had recently beheaded his cousin, John the Baptist); he was frustrated in his efforts to mak…