Twenty-First Day of Lent

Twenty-First Day of Lent

Friday, March 24, 2017

I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the One who sent me.
John 7:33

We usually think of Jesus’ suffering as being confined to that awful twenty-four-hour period when he was beaten and crucified. Surely that is his most severe suffering, but I also hear suffering in his voice in other places – such as here when he tells his disciples that he will soon leave.

He knew the kind of opposition that he faced. Aware of the rising storm of rejection that surrounded him, he avoided with great agility their schemes to seize him. It would happen. It was almost over. Very soon he’d let them have their way, give himself over to them, and give up his life to atone for the lost world that his Father loved.

John gives us no hint that even the twelve heard his heart’s cry in this statement, and John would surely have told us if any one of them had recognized what Jesus was saying. He sadly announces that soon time will hold him no longer! There was just not one minute to waste! Listen! He seems to say.

I’d like to be critical of their lack of understanding, their lack of compassion for the Lord’s pain. But I cannot. Jesus’ same concern about how short time is also applies to me. Very soon our lives will end, and he has left us with a huge task to reach the world that his Father and ours loves. Some still don’t know that Jesus has reconciled them to the God who created them. Jesus told us to go and tell. Time is short.

Prayer: Father, give us that sense of the urgency that Jesus felt as his own life neared its earthly end. Cause us to recognize that we have a huge job to do and little time. Help us not to waste it.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator