The Feast of the Tabernacles
MORNING PRAISE
March 27, 2020
Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent
The Feast of the Tabernacles | John 7:1-2,10,25-30
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Sometimes I wonder if
Jesus had someone who would check on Him from time to time – someone who knew
Him enough to sense if something was wrong with Him; if there is something more
to His silence; and recognize even the subtlest tinge of pain behind His smile.
I would wonder if this person knew Jesus well enough to detect if He was still
okay in the midst of His tiring ministry. I would wonder if this person would
readily know when to offer Jesus a pat on the back, and when instead to offer a
shoulder for Jesus to rest His head upon when things got particularly rough and
draining.
I wonder because I imagine
that by human standards, Jesus’ life was one that was tiring, frustrating, stressful,
and anxiety-inducing. I can only imagine how it must have felt like to devote
yourself to healing people and yet be called all sorts of things for it. I can
only imagine how it must have felt to offer people salvation and God’s message
of love, and be rejected for it. In today’s reading, I can only imagine how
frustrating it must have been for Jesus to hear people doubt His identity as
messiah, no matter how he tried to make them believe. As if that were not
enough, Jesus knew that eventually, He will have to suffer and die, not when He
wanted to or when He was ready, but at God’s appointed time.
Our human lives nowadays are
so much like Jesus’ experience in this respect. We live at a time of
frustration, stress, and anxiety as we wait powerlessly for God’s appointed
time for the end of this pandemic. In the meantime we helplessly witness
unsatisfactory interventions being taken by the government, which highlights
not just the incompetence of our elected officials, but more so their utter
disrespect for the dignity of the lives of their constituents. We cry “foul” at
the injustice and double standards, and try to awaken those who are
disadvantaged, only to be rejected and shamed by their blind submission to
those who are preying on their naiveté. And so we find comfort in each other’s
company – we try to cut down the toxicity: we unfollow and unfriend; choosing
only to stick to those whose sentiments echoes our own.
There’s something to be
learned in how Jesus handled his ordeal. He stuck to His ministry to the very
end. He was not disheartened. He did not sever ties. He kept at it, no matter
how difficult His ministry became and even if God’s appointed time for His
suffering and death seemed uncertain.
And so the grace I would
like to beg for today is this: that I may be like Jesus who remained devoted to
His ministry no matter how difficult and unsettling the circumstances were: to
stay in the moment and persevere in trusting the Lord even if the tides are
against us. And in these times when Jesus seems to be too quiet, I pray that I
may understand His silence well enough so that if needed, I may be the one to ask
Him: “You’re so quiet, are you okay? Here, rest Your head on my shoulder. I
have rested mine on Your shoulder long enough.”
Amen.
Thought for the Day
“The spiritual rest, which
God particularly intends in this Commandment, is this: that we not only cease
from our labor and trade, but much more, that we let God alone work in us and
that we do nothing of our own with all our powers.” – Martin Luther
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