Hello,
Read Luke 23
I don’t know what you are experiencing as you read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion on the day before Christmas Eve, but it is almost surreal to me to read this passage this close to Christmas. To be so poignantly reminded of where Jesus’ story is headed as we prepare for his birth is a lot to hold.
As I read the account of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion I am struck by the anger and the misunderstandings, unmet expectations of people. Over and over, we hear Pilate say, he’s done nothing wrong I can’t kill him. Over and over, we hear the religious leaders shouting, and demanding, and their loud voices and persistence prevail. We see all kinds of people mocking and misunderstanding who the Messiah is and what he will do for the people of Israel, “Save yourself…are you not the Messiah…if you are the King of the Jews…”
It’s the temptation narrative all over again from Luke 4. It’s the misunderstandings of the disciples and others throughout the gospels of God’s Messiah riding in on a war horse and obliterating all foreign oppressors. It’s the other Herod in Matthew 2 slaughtering all the children in his fear of this child born King of the Jews.
It’s Jesus being born a king, as a baby. It’s Jesus being the Messiah riding in on a donkey. It’s Jesus the chosen one of God washing disciples’ feet, taking on the form of a slave and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
What happens when we misunderstand something, or someone, or God? Do we shout in anger, make demands, and persist until we get our way and silence the other?
Throughout this whole gospel Luke has been showing us Jesus, the Messiah, the way of God as something that is often misunderstood. What misunderstandings have you had revealed to you in your reading of Luke this Advent season? How is God continually surprising you as a baby in a manger, or as a suffering servant willing to die for his people, for all of humanity? Which of these images of who God is, is harder to wrap your mind around?
Ponder anew, reflect, meditate on the significance of what it means that God entered the world as a helpless baby, and that God also willingly went to the cross for each of us.
Grace and Peace,
Matt