25 July 2019 - refined desires

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus said in reply,
"You do not know what you are asking.

We often ask without realizing the full implications of our request. Often there is a part of our requests that is simply not good and which we must ultimately relinquish.

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.

Part of why we want to be near Jesus, on his right and on his left, is because we desire greatness. Our pride wants us to be seen as correct. We want our effort vindicated. Yet there is something deeper and true about our desire to be near him.

Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?"
They said to him, "We can."
He replied,
"My chalice you will indeed drink

Jesus helps us to purify our desires. To drink the chalice of the Father isn't what we would have initially asked. But Jesus leads us to a place where we do want to drink it because it is the same chalice that Jesus drinks. The more refined our desire and intention the more effective we can be.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? (see Luke 14:28)

To simply sit and be well regarded is easy enough. Anyone could do that if they were given the opportunity. But Jesus calls us to something deeper. Our own desires call us, if we listen well, to something which is entirely beyond us. We count the cost and find that we ourselves do not have enough. Yet we still desire it in the deepest part of our hearts.

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.

As we begin to drink from the chalice of the LORD we do not find ourselves the subjects of praise and adulation at the right and the left of Christ. When we focus on ourselves we feel perplexed, experience persecutions, and are often struck down as we advance. But when we focus on the surpassing power we realize that we are not abandoned or destroyed and so we don't have to give up or despair. This isn't the position we initially asked for. We just wanted to be famous or popular. But what we are given instead actually does for us and for others is greater than anything we would have even imagined.

so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

It is OK to follow our desires so long as we are willing to bring them to Jesus and let him purify them, revealing the core truths that will actually bring us nearer to him.

Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.