The people at the Temple in Jerusalem repeatedly set out to stone Him as He tries to explain who He is. Today's Gospel (Jn 10: 31- 42) starts with the Jews doing that-- picking up rocks to stone Jesus. That same thing had happened when He was last at the Temple, before He worked the miracle on the man blind from birth. As was the case previously, Jesus escapes from them, and avoids being stoned. This time, though, it seems like Jesus changes tactics. Rather than continuing to explain to the people at the Temple who He is, and risking getting stoned, Jesus leaves and goes back across the Jordan to where John first baptized, and remains there. Why? Is He afraid to risk His life? Or is He just tired of beating His head against a wall, so to speak? The answer to that last question might be "yes," but, in addition to probably feeling frustrated that He's not making progress, perhaps Jesus has come to realize that sometimes the best way to convert people is to let them come to you. People in business realize that sometimes. My colleagues who did transactional work at the law firm would say that "sometimes you need to let the deal come to you." The point was that if you keep pushing for a transaction, sometimes the result is the opposite of what you want. That same phenomenon exists in personal relationships. We all have had times where the more we pursue a relationship, the more the other person withdraws. Perhaps Jesus came to realize that He needed to let people come to Him. If so, that strategy seems to have worked. John tells us that, after Jesus went back across the Jordan, "many came to Him... and many there began to believe in Him." Something for us to think about as we work on spreading the good news of Christ. I have made the mistake of pushing too hard, or being so aggressive that I came across as a zealot. It doesn't work, much as you want to keep explaining to the person why he or she should believe. Sometimes the right approach is to step back, and just live the best Christian life that you can, and see what happens. Often the person will eventually come to you, and want to talk. Maybe they weren't ready for the conversation when you wanted to have it, but they are now. Maybe, like the people who came to Jesus when He was across the Jordan, they will come to believe. Patience can be a great ally.