English Standard Version
I receive emails from a group called Renovare, and one from Friday stood out, because it said that 'Jesus is always full of compassion but never overwhelmed by human suffering'.
That's a good place to be. It's easy to get overwhelmed -- there's great suffering in Haiti, in Afghanistan, and 1,000 places in between, some of it caused by natural disaster, others by humans treating one another like we're less than fellow creatures made in the image of God. I look at the loaves and fish that I carry, and I think there's no way that I'll be able to feed such a crowd. In fact, I grow fearful and withdraw, for surely I'll be overwhelmed if I venture too far into the suffering. What happens if I, too, become vulnerable, and lose what little security I've been desperately trying to gather?
Jesus, full of compassion for me as well, comes and tries to show me the authority of God. This centurion gets it -- he recognizes the divine power of Jesus. He knows that to be under the authority of Jesus is the only safe place to be. No one is isolated from suffering -- it just touches us in different ways and in different times, but we all experience it.
Let it be done for us as we have believed, that when we gather, people from north and south and east and west, we will gather with our brothers and sisters from Haiti and Afghanistan and Syria and Cameroon and we will sit at the table and feast, one with another, knowing that our suffering has past and our joys are here to stay.
No comments:
Post a Comment