16 March 2014 - living memory

16 March 2014 - living memory

Bear your share of hardship for the gospel

We are ready to hear this but we often forget the second half.  We are too ready to roll up our sleeves and endure.  We are too ready to grit our teeth and suffer in a purely natural way.  We want to bear our share of hardship for the gospel like we would bear any other chore with which we are tasked.  But the Scriptures continue:

with the strength that comes from God.

And reading this we can breath easy and be at peace.  We don't have to match our weakness against the hardship of the gospel.  We don't have to match it with our fading and vacuous strength.  We are called to embrace it with God's strength and not our own.

Jesus calls Peter, James, and John to endure much hardship for the gospel.  They are the ones he calls to keep watch with him in the Garden of Gethsemane.  They see him at his weakest.  They see him sweating blood, arrested, tortured, and killed.  This sort of thing cannot be endured with human strength.  But Jesus knows his plans for them and provides them strength in advance by revealing to them more of just who he is.

And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.

Remembering him like this and remembering the voice of the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him" is a source of strength when they are called to follow Jesus on the way to the cross. 

We know that Peter lets his human weakness prevail.  But Peter has this treasured vision in his heart.  Even when he fails and denies Jesus he cannot give up completely.  He remembers that Jesus discusses this very moment with Moses and Elijah.  This "hardship" is not unforeseen.  It is somehow a part of the plan.  Realizing this, Peter is unable to believe that the cross can be the end of this one whom he sees shining so gloriously.  His hope in Jesus is stronger than his disappointment in himself at his own denial.

God is calling us as he does Abram, "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk".  He is calling us to leave our comfort zones for the sake of the kingdom.  In a sense he calls Abram to bear his share of the hardships for the gospel.  Abram too must do this with the strength which comes from God.  He must cling to God's promise:

I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you.”

He must cling to it even when all earthly circumstances suggest that it cannot be.  He must cling to it when he thinks himself too old for children.  He must trust even when the very promise fulfilled, Isaac, is demanded of him by the LORD.  His trust transcends this apparent contradiction to the hope of the resurrection.  He "reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death" (cf. Heb. 11:19).

Peter, James, and John are called to remember the word of the Father about Jesus even when all seems lost.  We realize that this trust, this faith, this ability to hold on to what God reveals, this ability to bear hardship for his sake is a supernatural gift. But it is not rare or elusive.  He delights to pour it out.  We must simply follow the example of Mary our mother who treasures God's revelation to her in her heart.  The enemy wants to snatch all such memories from us.  If we follow Mary he will not be able to do so.

Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.