“When things get rough”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, December 14, 2024
Luke 22: 31-38 (Forward, p. 46) CEV p. 1093
Someone once said, ‘If life is a bed of roses, is that why there are so many thorns?’ Indeed, for most of us, there are far too many thorns, thorns in life.
Certainly, today’s passage picks up on this—in a couple of ways. Firstly, there is the matter of how we are tested by adversity, tested to see what kind of people we are, and tested to see how we will react under pressure. Jesus said here that Satan had demanded the right to test all of those present, all the disciples. And fail they did, each of them in greater or lesser ways. Judas failed most blatantly, most disastrously, in betraying Jesus. Peter failed, in denying Jesus, and the rest of them failed in turning tail and deserting Jesus at His hour of greatest need. But, in a sense, such responses were only natural, only human, and Jesus knew it, and thus He made provision for their forgiveness and their return. He knew how weak and fickle we can be.
But Jesus also mentions the need for preparedness, preparedness for whatever might happen down the road. (Here His suggestions about a moneybag, a travelling bag and a sword are such things that people would take if embarking on a dangerous journey). He wants them to be prepared for any eventuality.
(This latter portion of Scripture eloquently points out the fallacy of taking just one Scripture passage at face value and applying it generally as a guide to action. When Jesus sent out the Twelve or the Seventy-Two (Luke 9:3 and Luke 10:4 respectively), He was stressing the urgency of the task, its urgency in terms of the task and the time remaining. Here, however, it is a different story, a different situation: here the urgency, presumably, has to do with their very lives and survival.)
So, what is the point of all this, the point of this to us today? Firstly, I would think, to recognize our fallenness and our need for forgiveness and a new start. All of us will fail our Lord at some point or other, and so it is good to know that we can always return.
And secondly, to be prepared. But to be prepared in what way? I can think of two possibilities: Firstly, to always be prepared for His return, to be living in a way that pleases Him and to be faithfully carrying out whatever task He has assigned for us to do. And secondly, to always be prepared to give an answer, an explanation, of the hope that is in us to those who would ask (see 1 Peter 3:15).
Hopefully, we will never be tested quite like those first disciples or have to face the uncertainty and danger they did but know this: Christ is with us through it all, and can help us.
Forward notes: “He replied, ‘It is enough’” (verse 38b).
“An old Kenyan proverb says, ‘f you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ There is sage wisdom in those words. We sometimes forget that we are made to go far together. We can easily succumb to the myth that we are self-made and self-reliant. Our society seems to glorify the ‘pulling yourself up by your bootstraps’ attitude. But we know, in truth, that we are all supported and encouraged by others along the way.
“We who follow Jesus find deep connectivity in walking together, even though it can sometimes be messy or difficult. As Christians, we take comfort in knowing that God is with us through every trial and triumph.
“Advent is a good reminder that God is revealed in the fellowship of broken people we call the church, made manifest in the ordinary elements of bread and wine, and available to us in the seemingly small gestures of mercy we offer and are offered each and every day. It may not be where we expect God to show up, but it is just where we need God to be. Together, in the presence of God and each other, we will go far.”
Moving Forward: “how do you normally travel? Fast or far?”