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February 22, 2023
How must it have felt—knowing he had the power to heal—to have to walk past children suffering with leprosy? What would it have been like—knowing that his conception was miraculous—to be unable to defend his mother when others whispered about her past? And how agonizing would it be—when his Word could one day raise the dead to life again—to stand by while those he loved (perhaps even Joseph his father) died?1
We are duly thankful, challenged, and inspired by Jesus’ forty-day fast from food in the Judean wilderness. Perhaps we should likewise be grateful, awed, and humbled by His thirty-year fast from praise, power, and potential in Nazareth. It takes a great deal of strength to choose weakness.
“The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to ‘soften’ our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the hidden ‘thirst and hunger’ for communion with God.”3 Let such softening begin!
Lent, in kind, is less about well-mannered denials and more about thinning our lives in order to thicken our communion with God.
And that distance between what John thought Jesus would do and what Jesus actually did was straining John’s certainty of who Jesus was.
Miracles, evidently, had not adequately prepared them to welcome crucifixion. The problem, of course, is not with the miracles themselves but rather with our perception of the miracles. We tend to view a miracle as a divine deposit on more miracles. We like our miracles to be perpetual, thank you. Once raised, we want Lazarus to live forever. But he cannot. So we are bewildered when the recipient of the miracle still dies. It seems to me that miracles are less of a promise for tomorrow and more of a manifestation of God’s love and power for today. Today, God provides bread. Today, God calms
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The church in general panics when miracles miscarry. We scurry clumsily about to prop up God’s sagging reputation. There must have been a problem, we offer. God must have something even better around the corner, we propose. Must He? Here, then is my Lenten plea for the day: let the mourning mourn. Grant those who grieve the dignity to ask questions. Bestow upon the bewildered permission to not edit their honesty. Crucifixion is, after all, serious work.
“Individuals who have been hurt by lost hopes tend to protect themselves against future disappointment by lowering their sights and dimming their aspirations.”2 The same is true in our relationship with God. Uncertain that God will protect us, we proactively protect ourselves.
The fact that Jesus witnessed injustice in the temple courts years before His protest affirms that timing matters.8
The motivational root of revisionism seems to be either the fear of losing power or the compulsion to avoid pain.
