5 April 2014 - no one has ever spoken like this
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.
They didn't lay a hand on him because, as at an earlier time when "they tried to seize him" they could not "because his hour had not yet come."
Nothing can happen to Jesus except as part of God's plan for him. In these circumstances he can say:
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
God specifically shields him from these people trying to arrest him, trying to seize him, when they try to throw him from a cliff (cf. Luk 4:29-30) and when they tried to stone him (cf. Joh. 8:59). It is not yet his time, not yet his hour.
Which is not to say that he is destined for a life of ease and comfort, as we know. The point is that God will not let any circumstances deter us from fulfilling his purpose for our lives. Yet we can turn aside into these circumstances. We don't have to "pass through their midst", instead choosing to be entangled by them.
How do we know if God is shielding us from a circumstance and calling us to pass through unencumbered? We listen to him. We need not over-complicate things as do the crowd with their debates about where Jesus is from. This is what we often do with our thoughts, which may be from ourselves, may be from other sources, and which may be from Jesus. Yet "Never before has anyone spoken like this man." His words within us are not like our own words. We experience them as effects with no natural cause. We have to be attentive, but when we are we hear these words coming, as it were, from nowhere, just as it is said that no one will know where the messiah is from.
Jesus telling us to pass through the midst of our circumstances feels very different from our flesh telling us to take an easy way out. It does not feel like sloth, but instead like protection and love. The words do not come from ourselves. Even when we try to turn our minds from words like these they persist in our hearts.
God really wants to give us direction.
I knew their plot because the LORD informed me;
at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.
But again, it isn't always hugs and puppies.
Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
“Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more.”
We are all called to lay down our lives. When the LORD shields us and protects us he is helping us on the trajectory which he has for us. We don't spend our lives wrongly so that we can use them for the kingdom. But as we see him faithfully guide us in smaller things we will trust him to bring us even from death to life.
But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
4 April 2014 - challenge accepted
4 April 2014 - challenge accepted
To the degree that we aren't living kingdom lives the presence of Jesus can be a challenge to us. If we are attached to sin, and we are all attached to sin, the attitude described below is to some extent our reality:
“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
And it's true. We have been trained better than this. Our thoughts betray selfish and prideful motives and so "To us he is the censure of our thoughts". If we don't let these go then "merely to see him is a hardship for us". Just by the virtue of their purity the just make us uneasy. When someone chooses not to engage in a sin which we practice it is hard for us to watch because we take it as an implicit judgment on ourselves even when that isn't the intention which the just one has in mind.
It shouldn't come to the point where, to justify our pet sins, we need to "put him to the test that we may have proof his gentleness and try his patience." In a way, this describes mortal sin. We imagine most of our sin to be isolated, affecting only ourselves. But we don't exist in vacuum. Sin always breaks relationships. Part of all sin is defiance toward God. Mortal sin is the point where we so choose our own way instead of God's way that we implicitly "condemn him to a shameful death." We say, 'I am the arbiter of good and evil for myself. Anyone who says otherwise may as well be dead. I'm going to do this anyway so let God prove his claim on me if he has one.' This violent defiance is implicit in all mortal sin, and to a lesser extent, all sin generally.
During Lent it is important to understand how serious sin is. It is important to understand what we say to God, even in our venial sins. It is important because on a deeper level we know that we don't want to say this to God. We want to love him and make him loved. And Lent is a time to stop living divided lives and to love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength.
Even in the parts of our lives where we are unwilling to welcome him, Jesus does not abandon us. He is rich is mercy. He loves us more than we can imagine even while we are yet sinners. He comes to us "as it were in secret." He does what he can to sneak by our defenses so that he can reveal himself to us. He sneaks past our assumptions. We think that "we know where he is from." Such assumptions mitigate his claim on our hearts. Yet then, here he is before us. These thoughts we were thinking about who he is and how he doesn't have a claim on us don't even come to mind. We just see him standing before us. We can't recall our assumptions. He sneaks past them and now we hear:
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
He reveals himself to us and gives us a new and deeper freedom to choose him. Let us not try "to arrest him" and thereby negate and neutralize his activity in our lives. Let us welcome him, not partially, but with all that we are.
To the degree that we aren't living kingdom lives the presence of Jesus can be a challenge to us. If we are attached to sin, and we are all attached to sin, the attitude described below is to some extent our reality:
“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
And it's true. We have been trained better than this. Our thoughts betray selfish and prideful motives and so "To us he is the censure of our thoughts". If we don't let these go then "merely to see him is a hardship for us". Just by the virtue of their purity the just make us uneasy. When someone chooses not to engage in a sin which we practice it is hard for us to watch because we take it as an implicit judgment on ourselves even when that isn't the intention which the just one has in mind.
It shouldn't come to the point where, to justify our pet sins, we need to "put him to the test that we may have proof his gentleness and try his patience." In a way, this describes mortal sin. We imagine most of our sin to be isolated, affecting only ourselves. But we don't exist in vacuum. Sin always breaks relationships. Part of all sin is defiance toward God. Mortal sin is the point where we so choose our own way instead of God's way that we implicitly "condemn him to a shameful death." We say, 'I am the arbiter of good and evil for myself. Anyone who says otherwise may as well be dead. I'm going to do this anyway so let God prove his claim on me if he has one.' This violent defiance is implicit in all mortal sin, and to a lesser extent, all sin generally.
During Lent it is important to understand how serious sin is. It is important to understand what we say to God, even in our venial sins. It is important because on a deeper level we know that we don't want to say this to God. We want to love him and make him loved. And Lent is a time to stop living divided lives and to love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength.
Even in the parts of our lives where we are unwilling to welcome him, Jesus does not abandon us. He is rich is mercy. He loves us more than we can imagine even while we are yet sinners. He comes to us "as it were in secret." He does what he can to sneak by our defenses so that he can reveal himself to us. He sneaks past our assumptions. We think that "we know where he is from." Such assumptions mitigate his claim on our hearts. Yet then, here he is before us. These thoughts we were thinking about who he is and how he doesn't have a claim on us don't even come to mind. We just see him standing before us. We can't recall our assumptions. He sneaks past them and now we hear:
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
He reveals himself to us and gives us a new and deeper freedom to choose him. Let us not try "to arrest him" and thereby negate and neutralize his activity in our lives. Let us welcome him, not partially, but with all that we are.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
3 April 2014 - distracted
3 April 2014 - distracted
“Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But we do the same thing! We receive some blessing from God and for a while we want to spend more time with him in prayer, in the sacraments, in scripture, anywhere we can find him. But before long we forget where the blessing came from. We are back to searching our entertainments, our hobbies, our work, and pretty much everything else but God for fulfillment and joy. It is like a man who goes on a weekend retreat and really encounters the LORD. He comes back resolved to spend more time in prayer so the encounter can fill more of his life. A prayer time or two goes by without significant consolation and before long he is spending that time on the couch watching TV. We hear him say to the himself about the TV, "This is your God, O israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" Golden calves no longer sound quite so absurd.
Fortunately the LORD does not exterminate us from the face of the earth as he might justly do. He reveals the severity of our offenses precisely so that we can turn from them. He threatens punishment precisely so that people like Moses will stand "in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath." We know that the LORD takes no delight in the death of a sinner. All of this is because God remembers and favors his people, as the psalmist asks.
The Pharisees are willing to look anywhere but to Jesus. They reveal to us that we can see God at work and miss him. We can see him at work and quickly forget.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
We can even search the Scriptures and miss him if our priorities aren't right.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.
We are content for short times to rejoice in light like that of John the Baptist as long as it seems like something flashy, something new. But when he decreases and Jesus increases we tend to seek the next novelty to entertain ourselves.
Why do we have this tendancy to look away from God? Self-gratification! We don't like placing our happiness and joy outside of our control, our sphere of influence. We'd rather seek human praise, praise which we can manufacture, happiness that we can, or so we imagine, count on.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
But really, the fulfillment these things can offer is much more fickle. It provides a joy that is shallow and transitory. Let's get over ourselves. He is better at being God than we are. The fulfillment which comes from the only God is that for which we are created. Everything else points toward Jesus. Let us lift up our eyes to him from whom comes our salvation.
“Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But we do the same thing! We receive some blessing from God and for a while we want to spend more time with him in prayer, in the sacraments, in scripture, anywhere we can find him. But before long we forget where the blessing came from. We are back to searching our entertainments, our hobbies, our work, and pretty much everything else but God for fulfillment and joy. It is like a man who goes on a weekend retreat and really encounters the LORD. He comes back resolved to spend more time in prayer so the encounter can fill more of his life. A prayer time or two goes by without significant consolation and before long he is spending that time on the couch watching TV. We hear him say to the himself about the TV, "This is your God, O israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" Golden calves no longer sound quite so absurd.
Fortunately the LORD does not exterminate us from the face of the earth as he might justly do. He reveals the severity of our offenses precisely so that we can turn from them. He threatens punishment precisely so that people like Moses will stand "in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath." We know that the LORD takes no delight in the death of a sinner. All of this is because God remembers and favors his people, as the psalmist asks.
The Pharisees are willing to look anywhere but to Jesus. They reveal to us that we can see God at work and miss him. We can see him at work and quickly forget.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
We can even search the Scriptures and miss him if our priorities aren't right.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.
We are content for short times to rejoice in light like that of John the Baptist as long as it seems like something flashy, something new. But when he decreases and Jesus increases we tend to seek the next novelty to entertain ourselves.
Why do we have this tendancy to look away from God? Self-gratification! We don't like placing our happiness and joy outside of our control, our sphere of influence. We'd rather seek human praise, praise which we can manufacture, happiness that we can, or so we imagine, count on.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
But really, the fulfillment these things can offer is much more fickle. It provides a joy that is shallow and transitory. Let's get over ourselves. He is better at being God than we are. The fulfillment which comes from the only God is that for which we are created. Everything else points toward Jesus. Let us lift up our eyes to him from whom comes our salvation.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
2 April 2014 - from the father
2 April 2014 - from the father
he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
What Jesus says about his father is shocking to its original audience. The whole history of the Jewish people is one which resists the temptation of their neighbors to pagan anthropomorphism of deity or to pantheism. God is wholly other, the Holy other. We must resist the tenancy to imagine or project human characteristics upon him. Yet Jesus talks about learning from God as a son who watches his father plying his trade. He "cannot do anything on his own but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also."
Isn't this projecting something which is all too human onto the lofty LORD of all who can't be contained by the whole universe? No! In this era of science we tend to think of lifeless abstracts as higher than persons and relationships. But it is not so. The highest reality is personal, is relational! The Jews know God as a personal God but are still forced to imagine him as a solitude. There is no danger this way that we project our human failings onto him. But if he is solitude it means that love, relationship, and community are lesser truths.
God's relationship with his people always hints that these are more than mere accidental properties. He always shows his people the tenderness of a parent.
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
Jesus reveals that this love and tenderness is not just something God does but is rooted in the very truth of who he is.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
Jesus reveals the love of God for us. He does this not so much by explaining concepts as by opening the way for us to share in that love. God is love. The Father's love is the very life of Jesus. This is the love in which we are called to share, the divine life in which we are called to partake.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
As we are filled more and more with love ourselves we come to recognize more and more the fact that love is the central truth of God himself. We come to see him more and more as he truly is. And seeing this, we can't help but love him. We can't help but be transformed.
"The Lord is gracious and merciful." He wants to show us his favor and give us salvation today, not later. Paul reminds us that the acceptable time is now and that the day of salvation is today (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2) because he knows we'll assume it is tomorrow, the next day, or eventually, but never right now. Yet it is now that the LORD wants to free prisoners and to shine a light on those in darkness. He is a shepherd who can't stand to see his sheep hunger or thirst. His heart aches when he sees us suffering in the scorching wind or the blazing sun. He doesn't want to wait. He wants to comfort us right now. So, "Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted."
We experience passing from death to life here. We experience it now. Only if this life is within us will it carry us beyond death. No more putting it off until later!
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
It is true that on the last day Jesus will speak and the dead will rise. But we do not need to wait for this to be filled with the very fullness of God. So let us hear the word of Jesus. Let us believe in the one who sent him. It's worth everything we have and are!
he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
What Jesus says about his father is shocking to its original audience. The whole history of the Jewish people is one which resists the temptation of their neighbors to pagan anthropomorphism of deity or to pantheism. God is wholly other, the Holy other. We must resist the tenancy to imagine or project human characteristics upon him. Yet Jesus talks about learning from God as a son who watches his father plying his trade. He "cannot do anything on his own but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also."
Isn't this projecting something which is all too human onto the lofty LORD of all who can't be contained by the whole universe? No! In this era of science we tend to think of lifeless abstracts as higher than persons and relationships. But it is not so. The highest reality is personal, is relational! The Jews know God as a personal God but are still forced to imagine him as a solitude. There is no danger this way that we project our human failings onto him. But if he is solitude it means that love, relationship, and community are lesser truths.
God's relationship with his people always hints that these are more than mere accidental properties. He always shows his people the tenderness of a parent.
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
Jesus reveals that this love and tenderness is not just something God does but is rooted in the very truth of who he is.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
Jesus reveals the love of God for us. He does this not so much by explaining concepts as by opening the way for us to share in that love. God is love. The Father's love is the very life of Jesus. This is the love in which we are called to share, the divine life in which we are called to partake.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
As we are filled more and more with love ourselves we come to recognize more and more the fact that love is the central truth of God himself. We come to see him more and more as he truly is. And seeing this, we can't help but love him. We can't help but be transformed.
"The Lord is gracious and merciful." He wants to show us his favor and give us salvation today, not later. Paul reminds us that the acceptable time is now and that the day of salvation is today (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2) because he knows we'll assume it is tomorrow, the next day, or eventually, but never right now. Yet it is now that the LORD wants to free prisoners and to shine a light on those in darkness. He is a shepherd who can't stand to see his sheep hunger or thirst. His heart aches when he sees us suffering in the scorching wind or the blazing sun. He doesn't want to wait. He wants to comfort us right now. So, "Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted."
We experience passing from death to life here. We experience it now. Only if this life is within us will it carry us beyond death. No more putting it off until later!
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
It is true that on the last day Jesus will speak and the dead will rise. But we do not need to wait for this to be filled with the very fullness of God. So let us hear the word of Jesus. Let us believe in the one who sent him. It's worth everything we have and are!
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
1 April 2014 - waterworks
1 April 2014 - waterworks
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
The stream is the grace that flows from the side of Jesus, pierced for us in the cross. This is stream is the water of baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on all who believe.
This water allows life to flourish where there is no life.
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
The life that we receive in baptism is abundant. It overflows and cannot be contained. This water empowers evangelism. The fish in these waters multiply and become abundant.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
The water from the side of Jesus can't help but bear fruit in our own individual lives, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, wherever it flows. It gives "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (cf. Gal. 5:22-23). No longer are we dependent for our virtue on whether or not we feel up to it, whether or not we had a good day. This fruit shall not fail.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
We are freed from circumstances and empowered to live our purpose. We are therefore set free from all fear that can hold us captive.
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
Jesus offers us this water freely. But many of us sympathize with the crippled man who "had been ill for thirty-eight years." We all have areas of our lives where what we do isn't working. It seems to be working for everyone else so we assume that we are terminally unique. We tend to give up. After all, thirty-eight years of seeing other people healed and not us? It's easy to give up in situations like that. Jesus knows how we feel and he has compassion on us.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time,
He wants to reignite hope in our hearts.
“Do you want to be well?”
Let us hear Jesus ask us this as well. Do we want him to heal the areas of our lives on which we give up? Are there physical ailments that won't go away? Jesus asks, "Do you want to be well?" Are there sins with which we cease to struggle because it seems like a losing battle? Jesus asks, "Do you want to be well?" We are after all, both physical and spiritual people. Healing of one aspect of our lives can feed into healing us entirely:
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
But it begins with hope. Perhaps the pool in which everyone else is cured isn't what Jesus has for us. Maybe he himself wants to come to us and tell us to "Rise" and begin to walk with him. This sort of healing is a beginning where we go from people who "did not know who it was" who healed us to people who tell others just as the man "went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who made him well" after a second encounter with the savior.
It begins with hope. This hope is kindled by the voice of Jesus. Let us hear him today.
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
The stream is the grace that flows from the side of Jesus, pierced for us in the cross. This is stream is the water of baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on all who believe.
This water allows life to flourish where there is no life.
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
The life that we receive in baptism is abundant. It overflows and cannot be contained. This water empowers evangelism. The fish in these waters multiply and become abundant.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
The water from the side of Jesus can't help but bear fruit in our own individual lives, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, wherever it flows. It gives "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (cf. Gal. 5:22-23). No longer are we dependent for our virtue on whether or not we feel up to it, whether or not we had a good day. This fruit shall not fail.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
We are freed from circumstances and empowered to live our purpose. We are therefore set free from all fear that can hold us captive.
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
Jesus offers us this water freely. But many of us sympathize with the crippled man who "had been ill for thirty-eight years." We all have areas of our lives where what we do isn't working. It seems to be working for everyone else so we assume that we are terminally unique. We tend to give up. After all, thirty-eight years of seeing other people healed and not us? It's easy to give up in situations like that. Jesus knows how we feel and he has compassion on us.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time,
He wants to reignite hope in our hearts.
“Do you want to be well?”
Let us hear Jesus ask us this as well. Do we want him to heal the areas of our lives on which we give up? Are there physical ailments that won't go away? Jesus asks, "Do you want to be well?" Are there sins with which we cease to struggle because it seems like a losing battle? Jesus asks, "Do you want to be well?" We are after all, both physical and spiritual people. Healing of one aspect of our lives can feed into healing us entirely:
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
But it begins with hope. Perhaps the pool in which everyone else is cured isn't what Jesus has for us. Maybe he himself wants to come to us and tell us to "Rise" and begin to walk with him. This sort of healing is a beginning where we go from people who "did not know who it was" who healed us to people who tell others just as the man "went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who made him well" after a second encounter with the savior.
It begins with hope. This hope is kindled by the voice of Jesus. Let us hear him today.
Monday, March 31, 2014
31 March 2014 - unlimited faith
31 March 2014 - unlimited faith
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
It doesn't seem like the official is particularly interested in signs and wonders for their own sake. Yet Jesus lays the accusation, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
The official is desperate. He hears that Jesus has some power to help him and he believes it enough to ask, and then to ask again when his first request isn't enough.
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
We can see his faith and his doubt intermixed. He believes that Jesus has power. But he does not yet know that he is the Son of God. He is in a rush to get Jesus physically to his son before the constraints of the situation make it too late. Yet if he really understood who Jesus is, if I really believed in him, he would realize that, as God, it he can heal anyone from anywhere at any time. He can wake children from death as easily as their parents wake them from sleep.
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
The official comes to understand a little bit more deeply the truth of who Jesus is. Jesus does not begrudge him the explanation. He does not begrudge him the sign that he needs. And the belief that comes from it doesn't stop at the official but fills his family as well.
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Jesus isn't just someone who can patch things up if he gets there in time. He is the one who is "about to create new heavens and a new earth" so completely that the "things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness".
The official had to realize that Jesus isn't a stopgap solution to temporal problems. He is the one who makes all things new. Signs and wonders in themselves aren't necessarily enough to lead to this faith because they can, in theory, just patch up temporal problems.
Jesus is doing a greater thing than we can ask or imagine. He is ultimately not treating symptoms but the cause: sin and death. He is doing something so significant that when it is done "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away" (cf. Rev 21:4).
This is how he wants us to understand who he is. He isn't a button that we press to release painkiller when we hurt. He is the one who "will wipe every tear from their eyes" forever.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.”
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
It doesn't seem like the official is particularly interested in signs and wonders for their own sake. Yet Jesus lays the accusation, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
The official is desperate. He hears that Jesus has some power to help him and he believes it enough to ask, and then to ask again when his first request isn't enough.
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
We can see his faith and his doubt intermixed. He believes that Jesus has power. But he does not yet know that he is the Son of God. He is in a rush to get Jesus physically to his son before the constraints of the situation make it too late. Yet if he really understood who Jesus is, if I really believed in him, he would realize that, as God, it he can heal anyone from anywhere at any time. He can wake children from death as easily as their parents wake them from sleep.
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
The official comes to understand a little bit more deeply the truth of who Jesus is. Jesus does not begrudge him the explanation. He does not begrudge him the sign that he needs. And the belief that comes from it doesn't stop at the official but fills his family as well.
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Jesus isn't just someone who can patch things up if he gets there in time. He is the one who is "about to create new heavens and a new earth" so completely that the "things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness".
The official had to realize that Jesus isn't a stopgap solution to temporal problems. He is the one who makes all things new. Signs and wonders in themselves aren't necessarily enough to lead to this faith because they can, in theory, just patch up temporal problems.
Jesus is doing a greater thing than we can ask or imagine. He is ultimately not treating symptoms but the cause: sin and death. He is doing something so significant that when it is done "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away" (cf. Rev 21:4).
This is how he wants us to understand who he is. He isn't a button that we press to release painkiller when we hurt. He is the one who "will wipe every tear from their eyes" forever.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.”
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
30 March 2014 - rejoice in the light
30 March 2014 - rejoice in the light
“Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.
It is hard to admit when we are wrong. Jesus is the light of the world but to one degree or another we all "were once darkness". Praise him that we are now "light in the Lord." Yet Paul still has to exhort us, "Live as children of the light". The works of darkness still tempt us all in one way or another. We have to make a conscious choice to avoid them. We are often tempted to accept society's darkened worldview in small ways. A darkened worldview takes the light of focus off of our sinfulness so that we don't have to confront it. But this is a temporary solution. Let us reject it.
Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness;
rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention
the things done by them in secret;
but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
for everything that becomes visible is light.
Jesus himself is the only solution. He is the only source of light. He tells us, "Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going" (cf. Joh. 12:35). Without him we stumble in darkness. The very wisest are blind guides apart from him, no more able to lead us to our destiny than anyone else.
John cites what may be a baptismal hymn. Baptism is the sacrament of enlightenment wherein our eyes are first opened.
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”
He is reminding us to walk in the power of our baptism. At our baptism we are made a new creation. Just as the blind man is made new with clay from the earth mixing with the annointing of the Holy Spirit symbolized by Christ's saliva so too are we made new. His point is not that we have been baptized and are therefore free to do things on our own apart from Jesus. His point is we must live the gift we have been given. We read again, "Live as children of light".
We are to be near to him like sheep stay near to their shepherd. When we do he gives us repose and refreshes us. When we do the dark valley of death cannot frighten us. The banquet of the Eucharist is ever before our eyes because communion with him is our greatest good.
Just as he anoints David for the kingdom...
Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed David in the presence of his brothers;
and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.
...so to does he anoint us:
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
He raises us from the darkened world to a dignity which is purely a gift from him.
“And you have made them a Kingdom, Priests and Kings to our God, and they shall reign over The Earth" (cf. Rev. 5:10).
What does it mean for us to reign over the Earth? It is not some abusive tyrannical power as the world often understands power. It is the power to spread the light of Jesus to the world that remains in darkness. It is the power to rejoice even when the world insists that we ought to mourn!
“Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.
It is hard to admit when we are wrong. Jesus is the light of the world but to one degree or another we all "were once darkness". Praise him that we are now "light in the Lord." Yet Paul still has to exhort us, "Live as children of the light". The works of darkness still tempt us all in one way or another. We have to make a conscious choice to avoid them. We are often tempted to accept society's darkened worldview in small ways. A darkened worldview takes the light of focus off of our sinfulness so that we don't have to confront it. But this is a temporary solution. Let us reject it.
Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness;
rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention
the things done by them in secret;
but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
for everything that becomes visible is light.
Jesus himself is the only solution. He is the only source of light. He tells us, "Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going" (cf. Joh. 12:35). Without him we stumble in darkness. The very wisest are blind guides apart from him, no more able to lead us to our destiny than anyone else.
John cites what may be a baptismal hymn. Baptism is the sacrament of enlightenment wherein our eyes are first opened.
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”
He is reminding us to walk in the power of our baptism. At our baptism we are made a new creation. Just as the blind man is made new with clay from the earth mixing with the annointing of the Holy Spirit symbolized by Christ's saliva so too are we made new. His point is not that we have been baptized and are therefore free to do things on our own apart from Jesus. His point is we must live the gift we have been given. We read again, "Live as children of light".
We are to be near to him like sheep stay near to their shepherd. When we do he gives us repose and refreshes us. When we do the dark valley of death cannot frighten us. The banquet of the Eucharist is ever before our eyes because communion with him is our greatest good.
Just as he anoints David for the kingdom...
Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed David in the presence of his brothers;
and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.
...so to does he anoint us:
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
He raises us from the darkened world to a dignity which is purely a gift from him.
“And you have made them a Kingdom, Priests and Kings to our God, and they shall reign over The Earth" (cf. Rev. 5:10).
What does it mean for us to reign over the Earth? It is not some abusive tyrannical power as the world often understands power. It is the power to spread the light of Jesus to the world that remains in darkness. It is the power to rejoice even when the world insists that we ought to mourn!
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