Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Spending time with God is extremely important. Jesus is part of the Trinity, and even he needed to find time to get away and be with his Father. We are certainly no exception. In Jesus’ case, he is so focused on that experience that he goes back to have this time even after being prompted into a last-minute healing session. What was the outcome? He walked on the water. Even that didn’t seem to be intended for the disciples to see (“he intended to go past them”), so it wasn’t a parlor trick. When Jesus spent time with his Father, big things happened. We may not be walking on the water, but the importance of that time is still just as high.

Being a prophet is no picnic. Jesus was the greatest prophet, and couldn’t even get respect from the people in his own hometown. John the Baptist was as well, and not even the respect of the king could save him from shameful murder. Reading the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, you really have to wonder if any of them even had friends. What’s the point of being one? Because the people desperately need to see a different way of life. They need the alternative that God provides, and prophets are the ones who see it first. It’s a rough calling, but it is a high one as well.

There are several times in Jesus' ministry where it seems like he loses focus. This is one of those stories: someone important comes to him, and the situation is urgent. He starts off to help the man and his daughter, but then he encounters someone else, someone who wasn't part of the plan. The woman with the bleeding problem immediately becomes the center of his attention. That's all well and good, but while he talks to her, blesses her, and encourages her, the first man's daughter dies. It seems like that would have been a moment to cringe, to roll your eyes at Jesus and comment on his lack of understanding for what needed to get done. Yet he still heals the little girl. If this teaches us anything, it should be that the thing that seems urgent may not always be the place our attention should be. When it comes to God's timing, he has things in control. Sometimes we need to stop and see what he's doing, allow the interruptions, and learn to trust.

The disciples really had a wild life. First Jesus sleeps through a storm, then he wakes up and rebukes the storm. Then he rebukes them. When they reach land, he is greeted by a demon-possessed man and proceeds to drown and entire herd of pigs. To top if all off, the people who live in the area told them to get out. What a day. It should give us pause if we think following Jesus is always just about one thing, or that it’s not sometimes wild. Jesus was always right in the center of God’s will, but it wasn’t always convenient or tidy.

The act of listening seems like a simple thing, but should not be taken for granted. Jesus features it heavily in the parable of the seeds. Not just listening once, but listening in such a way that something additional happens. The best-case-scenario is someone who listens so deeply that God’s Word takes root in their hearts. The rest are only listening half-heartedly. Hearing but thinking about other things. Hearing but not letting the Word take root. Being present for the Word, but immediately losing it when the message ends. These are great lessons for us, because it makes clear (and Jesus clarified!) what our task is: to hear, and to take the Word to heart.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!

Today is the day that proved Jesus wasn’t wasting his time, and that he wasn’t a lunatic. Up to this point, his claims about being the Son of God could have fallen totally flat. He could have been forgotten, laughed off, dismissed as a blip in history. But not in light of the resurrection. This changes everything. Not only was Jesus proven as God, but he was, as 1 Corinthians says, “the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” What he has done, he will do for all of us when he returns. We are delivered, and Christ is king.

It is disturbing to think that all is exposed to God. All of us are pretty much sunk based on that fact. Luckily, Jesus is familiar with our struggle. Taking on flesh, walking our roads and feeling our pains, he is very familiar with the human struggle. Because of that, he is a high priest who sacrificed himself to both cleanse us and lead us. As we remember today that he laid in a tomb on Holy Saturday, remember that his death was real, his sacrifice was complete. But the story isn’t over yet.

This is a critical moment. Jesus is doing more than making the disciples' feet clean, he is preparing them for the days to come. Peter, true to his nature, asks for a full bath. Jesus uses this opportunity to unveil the full symbolism of the moment. They are not unclean, except for Judas. The doubter, the loudmouth, the former tax collector -- all of them -- are equipped and ready. The one thing they are missing? Learning to serve one another, learning to serve the church that is to come.