English Standard Version
Jesus came into a world filled with authoritarian leaders who sought to dominate the common individuals. There was great division between rich and poor. People wanted a military leader to come and deliver them from their oppressors.
What they received, however, was different than their expectations. Jesus came to serve. He spent time with the outcasts of society. Jesus never shrank back from confronting the Pharisees, but he largely spent his time with people who needed to hear an alternative way of living.
Friends, this passage from Colossians is beautiful and inspiring. We all want to reach for compassion and kindness, to find a way to let meekness and patience rule in our hearts. We want to forgive first, to put on love and celebrate with gratitude the way we are being knit together. We long for the word of Christ to dwell in us richly.
I'll speak for myself and wonder if that is enough in the modern world. It feels small, given the volume and adversity in the surrounding world. Are meekness and patience the right answers?
One reminder is that Jesus' Kingdom is a much longer view than the current worldly one. Jesus is aiming for eternity, and directing our hearts there, too. That's what allows Jesus to ascend Golgotha and die on a cross, meekly and patiently approaching death, because Jesus knows the ferocity of love will prevail over the binding of death. Jesus goes as a lamb to the cross, because Jesus knows that the triumphant victory is inevitable, even if it travels a path the world doesn't fully understand.
May we endeavor to grasp the reality of God's Kingdom. May the Word dwell in us richly, and in doing so, may it transform our hearts to align with God's, that we may be encouraged to serve one another and to go out into the world with the confidence that comes from knowing that God's Kingdom cannot be defeated and will not be stopped. There are times it may look like the world is winning. But Easter Sunday is on the other side of Good Friday, and the God who redeems and resurrects is still at work in our hearts and the world. The crucifixions and disappointments in the world begin to lose their ultimate powers of despair when we fixate on Easter and the fulfillment of God's promises of life. When we cling with confidence to the truth of resurrection and the eternal hope that comes from God alone, we begin to see how only God can give us the peace our hearts are longing for. Only God's Kingdom lasts forever, and that is our true home.
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