Passing Along

Luke 4:14-31
As we read scripture, we are apt to think of Jesus in a lot of ways: as a teacher, a preacher, and a healer; as the Son of God and the word of God incarnate; as the Messiah and the chosen one. All of these titles, and so many more, lead us to think of Jesus as interacting with the people of his day, meeting needs and sharing God’s love. Even when he was filled with righteous anger, it was for the purpose of leading people to God’s will. But do we say when Jesus simply walks away from a situation? Our gospel reading for today offers an example of Jesus doing just that. “They got up,” Luke tells us of the crowd in the synagogue, “drove [Jesus] out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way” (Luke 4:29-30). Faced with the prospect of being killed, Jesus merely excused himself and took his leave.

On the one hand, this part of the story points to the God-given charisma that Jesus possessed. When he decided that things had gone far enough, Jesus was able to stare down the mob that threatened him and to “pass through the midst” of them. He could never have done that were he not filled with holy authority. But more importantly, we should recognize that this account points ahead to Jesus’ passion and crucifixion. He might have been killed by the crowd in Nazareth that day except that it wasn’t his time to die. Then again, he clearly could have avoided death in Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans had it not been God’s will for him to die. Jesus was never merely a victim of the events going on around him, nor was he ever swept up in what was happening. He had a role to play in the work that God was doing, and he accepted that role, and he lived it to perfection.

The crowds at the synagogue in Nazareth that day were unaware of the events that would later unfold for Jesus. But if, in hindsight, they associated what they had witnessed with the crucifixion of Jesus, then they may have wondered how the same man who had walked away from his encounter with them could have been put to death later. The answer lies in the love of God who sent a Son to die, not in a capricious way, but according to the divine will and at the right time. This is why we can also refer to Jesus as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and know that when Jesus suffered it was not by accident.

Prayer: Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners and in whose name we offer our prayers of gratitude. Amen.

It’s Not About Us

Romans 6:1-11
Paul offers us words of great hope this morning in his letter to the Romans. “For if we have been united with [Christ Jesus] in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.…The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:5, 10-11). In the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we have been freed from the power of sin that once overshadowed our present and our future and are now able to live toward the will of God and what God is doing in the world. When we embrace this truth, when we accept it as reality, we find it to be a colossal shift in the meaning of life. No longer is it all about us. Our failings, our shortcomings, our faults are not what define us. We are now defined by the will of God and what God is doing in and through us. We are freed to move beyond our fears and regrets and to walk in the light of a new hope and a new future.

It isn’t easy, of course. We still feel the tug of our former lives clutching at us to draw us back to what we once were. But now, since we have new life in Christ, we also have ample reason to make the effort and to face the challenges. There is reason to hope; it is the certain knowledge that we live by the grace of God who claims us as God’s own and who experienced death for our sake and for the sake of the world. If we have a share in the death of Christ Jesus (and Paul assures us we do), then we most certainly have a share in his resurrection from the dead. So not only does life have renewed meaning—freed as it is from the darkness of sin—but death is no longer to be feared, for with it comes our final restoration in the life eternal, when, by grace, it still won’t be about us, but about God and God’s majestic glory. Our lives, then, belong to God, now and forever.

Prayer: God of all time and space, by your grace you have freed us from the power of sin and death and allowed us to live in and through your will. Bless us today in all that we do, that we may serve you with joy and be a blessing to others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prepare For Action

1 Peter 1:10-20

“Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13). These words are particularly apt for Good Friday. As we remember the passion of Jesus, his crucifixion and burial, we may find ourselves asking now what? Where do we go from here, how do we live in a world such as ours with the darkness of evil pressing so close and the pain of sin and death always ready to strike?

The author of 1 Peter says we should get ready, preparing “our minds for action” and placing our hope in Jesus Christ. Even in the events of Good Friday God remains at work, and in due time the light of Easter morning will make all things visible. We need to be ready. Like a sprinter in his stance we must be poised to spring ahead at the appointed time. Like emergency personnel we must be ready to move quickly at the first sound of the alarm bell. Like those who carry important messages we must be set to go at a moments notice. Why? Because Good Friday does not end the story. It heightens the tension to be sure, and it adds emotion to the events that swirl around us, but it does not draw God’s work to a close. We know this because the story of Easter is our story. And so we prepare ourselves to respond when the time is right, when the light finally dawns, when our Savior is raised, when death and sin are defeated.

In 1965 Curtis Mayfield wrote the song “People Get Ready,” widely consider one of the great rock songs of all time.

People get ready, there’s a train a comin’,

You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board.

All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’,

Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.

On this Good Friday the words of 1 Peter and of Curtis Mayfield fit well together. People get ready…prepare your minds for action. It may be dark today, but Easter is coming.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be ready when the time is right. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A New Commandment for Christmas

John 13:20-35

A quick trip to the mall yesterday turned out much better than I thought it would. It was the day after Christmas and there were hundreds of shoppers everywhere, but the stores were prepared and we were able to make our gift exchanges and buy our missing components and with little trouble. In some ways it seemed easier to shop the day after Christmas than it had been any day leading up to Christmas. Not only are we are still in the midst of the Christmas shopping season, we are still in the liturgical season of Christmastide. Yet our reading from John today puts us smack in the middle of Holy Week. Jesus is speaking to his disciples moments after Judas has left the room. “I give you a new commandment,” he says, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

These words are the reason we call the fifth day of Holy Week “Maundy Thursday”. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for commandment. But this is the second day after Christmas. Is this really an appropriate time to consider the days leading up to the crucifixion? Frankly, yes. On the one hand it is always appropriate to consider the crucifixion. As Christians we live our lives with the truth of Jesus’ sacrifice every day. But there is also an inherent connection between Christmas and Easter, between the birth and the death/resurrection that shapes the Christian life and experience. Without Christmas, the gift of “God with us,” there is no Easter, no demonstration of God’s love on the cross and at the empty tomb. In the same way, without Easter there is no significance to Christmas.

But finally, both Christmas and Easter give us ample reason and opportunity to “love one another” as Christ commands. Indeed there is never a season in which love is not God’s wish for us. So while we begin to pack away the decorations and take down the tree, it is already time to look ahead to the events of Holy Week and to focus on the love of God among us.

Prayer: Lord, help us to love one another as you command, that the light of your coming reign may be bright at all times in our world. Amen.