“Exasperated”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, October 19, 2024
Luke 9: 37-50 (Forward, p. 82) CEV p. 1071
What we find here in Jesus is not at all unusual for Him, namely His being exasperated, frustrated, with His disciples. They simply don’t ‘get it’. In today’s passage we find numerous examples of this:
a) There is their lack of faith, which Jesus attributes to stubbornness.
This presents a different, and possibly unthought of, angle to it. How
often is it that we simply decide not to have faith, not to trust in Jesus and His love and power? It is an excellent question.
b) There are their fears, prompted by an uncertainty and an unwillingness to face the difficult issues and ask the necessary questions. How often this is just like us. We would rather avoid these issues rather than deal with them up front.
c) There are their selfish motivations, their questionable inner agendas. They were essentially in it for themselves, not for Christ and not for others. This too must constitute something of a wake-up call, even for strong and earnest Christians, because even for us who follow Christ, there can be a sense of ‘how can I get my way’ or ‘will this further what I want’ or ‘what do I get out of this’.
d) And there was their questionable sense of loyalty, with its misplaced sense of who was in and who was out. A despised or overlooked one, like a child, was ‘in’, and so too was another who was willing to come alongside them and work with them, even if they didn’t actually belong to ‘the group’. And so, out the window goes any sense of partisanship or party or denominational labels or expectations. We should be willing to work together with anyone, and everyone, who is of the same mind as Christ. (Notice what I said: the ‘same mind as Christ’, not the ‘same mind as us’, which means that we need to take the time to try to understand what Christ might want.)
I sense that Jesus might well be exasperated with us as well at times, so let us heed what He has said in today’s passage and do a bit better in the future. Thanks be to God for His ‘correcting word’ as found here.
Forward notes: ”And all were astounded at the greatness of God” (verse 43a).
“When was the last time you were astounded by the greatness of God? The thing about our liturgy is that, while it can be beautiful, if we don’t put intention behind it, the words and actions become rote—no longer life-giving but simply routine.
“I find it funny that Moses didn’t expect to encounter God at Mount Horeb—even though it was known as the Mountain of God [see Exodus 3:1-3]. Then, I think about how many Christians (including myself) go to church (often known as the House of God) without expecting to encounter God.
“The truth is we will always find what we are looking for. And I wonder if some of us forget to look for God—not just during our liturgy but in our daily lives as well. Perhaps the next time we go to church, we commit ourselves to experience the presence of God throughout the liturgy, to put intention and meaning behind the words we hear and say together. Better yet, maybe today, we dare ourselves to be astounded by the greatness of God.”
Moving Forward: “Where will you encounter God today?”