Daily Liturgy and Scripture

While Jesus’s birth was humble, it still required messenger whose first words must be, “don’t be afraid.” While Jesus absolutely came to show us what life can be, and to live that life in front of us, his God-ness is still central to who he is. The angels showed up to make sure that balance was struck.

The birth of John seems uncomfortable for everyone. His father unable to speak, his mother ignored when she tries to name him and the people who are there with her arguing that she can't name her child what she has chosen to. John would bring the prophet's voice to disrupt lives in the future, and God's purpose for him started even from the beginning.

God is extending his unfolding plan to people, and John the Baptist will be among the first. You almost get the sense that Jesus and John are working together even before birth, and they certainly pick up that connection in adulthood. What Jesus would complete, John would begin.

The birth of John was important as an introduction to God's unfolding plan. Once again, God does something that doesn't seem to make sense: this is unfolded to a man who is immediately unable to speak of this grand unfolding. Maybe God has a sense of humor, or maybe God is content to allow things to unfold slowing, coming together in small revelations. Whatever the case, Zechariah had plenty of time to think about it as he was silent for a few months!

Even in his resurrection, Jesus doesn't do things the way that a worldly victor would do them. Did he rise and melt away his enemies? Did he even make a big deal about it? No, on both counts. Nobody is even there when he rises from the tomb, and the first witnesses are women who were doing the work of preparing the dead. He tells them to pass the word along, and then he later appears to the hapless disciples. This was the inauguration of the new Kingdom, the first signs of a new Heaven and new earth to come, and Jesus keeps the work in the hands of the unlikely.

Remembering Mark is remembering someone who wrote much of others but not himself. He apparently came from a family of believers (as Peter went to their house when he was freed from prison), and later joined the Apostles on their journeys. Later in Acts 15, Mark's failure would become a point of argument between Paul and Barnabas, so much so that the two parted company and Mark and Barnabas resumed in another direction. Certainly, no follower of Jesus is perfect, but it is sometimes our imperfections that make the most interesting parts of our faith journey.

One of the reasons the story of Jesus is so believable is because it tells of so many failures. Jesus didn't come to destroy his enemies and establish an army that couldn't be stopped. He rode into town on a donkey and recruited faulty, fallible people to take up the cause after his own shameful death. Peter was no exception. His betrayal was poignant because this is the same Peter who Jesus praised for believing that Jesus was the Son of God, and now that belief is falling apart. There's some hope in that part of the story for those of us who sometimes struggle in our own faith.

The way Jesus handles his final hours before the arrest is important. Of course, he doesn’t run away and hide. He moves forward with purpose, connected to the Father, knowing the fulfillment of Scripture. He also makes sure to confirm that he is not leading an armed rebellion, both because this is not the heart of God and because his followers might have been killed. Violence is the work of the cross, not the work of Christians.

This scene is not only the prelude to the crucifixion, but also the resurrection. Jesus talks about the perfume preparing him for death, but he also talks about drinking new wine in the Kingdom. You cannot have one without the other, because this is God's whole plan. The redemption of mankind is critical in the crucifixion, but not just so we will have eternal insurance. It is also important because the new Kingdom where Jesus will once again drink with us is the final plan of God.

Jesus talking about his return is an idea that has been interpreted in many different ways, but the fact that he asks his followers to believe that he will return and that they should be expectant of this event is fairly universal. This is more than a neat trick, it is the fulfillment of the Kingdom in its completeness. As Jesus was resurrected, so will all things be made new in him, a new Heaven and a new earth with Jesus properly its king.