Lord, may everything we do begin with your inspiration, continue with your help,
and reach perfection under your guidance. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, you Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Luke 9: 22-25
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”
The immediate point of Jesus’ image was this: Follow me, and you can expect to be targeted for some rejection and shaming. Identify with me, and some will reject you as they rejected me. Stand for life in the way I’m teaching you to understand life, and those elements of society who support deathly things (like ignoring the needs of the poor, or acting as if might makes right), and some people are sure to reject you. That’s the bad news. But, if you remain faithful to my way nonviolence and of love of enemies, you will gain the fullness of life—now and hereafter. It is in that sense that whoever loses his life for my sake will save it (Luke 9:24b).
Just three chapters before this scene, Jesus put the same thing in the form of a Beatitude: Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you and denounce your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way (Luke 6:22-23).
God has revealed himself in Christ. Let us praise his goodness, and ask him from our hearts:
Remember us, Lord, for we are your children.
No comments:
Post a Comment