Friday, March 29
(Good Friday)
Waiting for…Revenge
Luke 23:33-43
“Jesus did not come to prove himself.”
– Henri Nouwen
“We may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find, when we get to the top, that our ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.”
– Thomas Merton
The criminal mocking Jesus on the cross, as well as the onlookers and soldiers, are just more people in a long list who are disappointed in the kind of leadership Jesus displayed. Jesus was supposed to be the one to get back the promised land, return Israel to its former glory, and lead God’s people into a new era of prosperity. Imagine the disappointment when instead the people heard that it’s actually the meek who will inherit the earth (and the promised land), the poor who should get glory, and that our enemies should be forgiven and not defeated. What a letdown. Jesus lived his teachings too. He had no place to lay his head, never ran for office, and in the text above – forgave his enemies. It is this last teaching that is most difficult to accept. It is so inefficient, but its inefficiency is its strength. I am 42 years old and am still learning “lessons” that my youth minister “taught” me many years ago; lessons on patience, forgiveness, and kindness. When my youth minister forgave and accepted me as a teenager who would do anything for attention I did not appreciate it then, but I appreciate it when I experience it with youth and children who express their unmet needs in similarly unhelpful ways now. I’m sure my youth minister was given unsolicited advice to be more strict and disciplinary with me as a kid, but he was secure in the long game. Jesus was often given the advice to flex his divine muscles and strike down his enemies, as he is in the above text, but he knew that mercy is a teacher whose effectiveness is measured in years. What lessons would our martyrs have left us if they had shown force instead of forgiveness? How have you avoided the patent big picture in faith? How can our church take the longview?
Danny Steis