Friday March 5 Lent 2
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Psalm 69
A desperate plea for help in the midst of betrayal, disaster and defeat. Some imagery is violent, which we can interpret as expressing a deep desire that there be no evil in the world. The references to gall and vinegar may have influenced the early Christians’ description of Jesus’ crucifixion. Often used on Fridays, the weekly anniversary of the crucifixion.
Friday is a day to ask what it means that God is willing to go through such an experience.
Jeremiah 5: 1-9
Jeremiah describes how deeply the rot has set in—he can find not a single person who still cares about God’s call to justice, and predicts that the consequences will be dire. The common people could be excused from their error due to ignorance, but the leaders have no such excuse. The consequences are inevitable and for them took the form of capture and enslavement by the Babylonians.
The disturbing implication is, that describes our world exactly. In Lent we are called to face those disturbing truths.
John 5: 30-47
John the gospel writer continues the complex conversation by which he explores the significance of Jesus. It may be that, sixty years after Jesus’ earthly life, Christians were having to respond to some difficult criticisms of Jesus, and this is what they understood Jesus would have said.
The criticism being levelled at Jesus’ followers likely was that Jesus was a self-promoting fraud because there was no objective third person to guarantee what he was claiming—you can’t rely on Jesus and some of his loyal followers because they are prejudiced. The response from the early Christians, which they remember Jesus explaining, is that Jesus’ isn’t promoting himself—God is the objective third person who guarantees that he’s telling the truth.
First, Jesus says, he’s not doing things to make himself look amazing, he’s doing things that God wants. Second, John the Baptist said he was from God, but even if you don’t trust John the Baptist, God guarantees that Jesus is who he says he is because the actions Jesus is taking could only originate in God. Finally, the scriptures and Moses predict him. But if the critics don’t take Moses seriously and if the critics believe imposters rather than seeking God’s purposes, then they won’t take him seriously anyway.
The challenge in our time is whether Jesus’ death and resurrection are likely to reflect the character of God. Could it really be that God loves us so much as to undergo execution for us? To take that claim seriously is as difficult now as ever, and as wonderful!
This week’s collect:
Almighty God, whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross,
give us faith to perceive his glory,
that being strengthened by his grace
we may be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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