We should be amazed at the deeds of Jesus in our midst. Our lives without him don't have any meaning. It is so hard to keep moving when there is no purpose to any of it. When Jesus comes we perceive that at last there might be something bigger than what we are living for.
The trouble is that we are so busy losing ourselves in the day to day grind that we don't want to see this big picture. We want an easier life day to day. We don't want a new perspective. We don't want "wisdom of heart."
“Pay attention to what I am telling you.
The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.”
But they did not understand this saying;
its meaning was hidden from them
so that they should not understand it,
and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
We are afraid to ask Jesus about this. We want to make him the king today so that he can multiply bread and fishes on demand. We want suffering eliminated rather than "merely" transformed. We don't want to know that his path is headed to the cross, much less our own.
This morning God wants to "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart." He wants to teach us to remember our creator even in the glad days of youth. He is teaching us that we have no lasting city here (cf. Heb. 13:14). He is teaching the obedience that will let the day to day be subordinated to the eternal by the power of the cross. He is teaching us to "pay attention" to what he is telling us so that we stop trying to lose ourselves in those things which can never satisfy us.
We distract ourselves with vanities. When Jesus amazes us we try to place him alongside these other vanities. Perhaps for us he is the greatest entertainment and distraction. But he insists on being more. He wants to be the LORD of our whole lives. He wants us to be his people and he our God. And so the vanities must be subjugated. They must often be sacrificed to Jesus.
I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship (cf. Rom. 12:1)
If God does not eliminate all suffering immediately we must trust that it is because he has even better plans. We must learn to meet this suffering with trust and not to deny and flee from it so much as to lose site of the eternal. Accepting this truth, Jesus is truly first in our lives. When he is first everything else assumes its proper value. It can be enjoyed in proportion to its goodness. We don't try to make it an idol which cannot deliver the happiness it promises. Our joy moment to moment, day to day, is now in the LORD.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
The cross of Christ can even give meaning to the wilting and fading of the evening, to the breaking of the golden bowl and the shattering of the pitcher. For if the life breath truly returns to God who gave it we find ourselves in good hands. We find ourselves embraced in the arms of mercy. We can't learn this lesson when we are distracted. Let us hear Jesus tell us now, "pay attention to what I am telling you". Give us ears, O LORD, to listen.
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
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