Reminiscere Mid-week – Wednesday 28 February A✠D 2024
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 25:1–2a, 7–8, 11; antiphon: vv. 6, 2b, 22;Psalm 25:17–18;Psalm 106:1–4
✠ Lection: Esther 13:8-11, 15-17 (Apocryphal); St. Matthew 20:17-28
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Faith not only peers into the unseen with hope, but it endures, yea, it embraces the seen as part of Christ’s work; not the wickedness of this evil age, but the Lord’s use of it, especially in service to one another. Only He can take what is meant for evil and make it for good. He makes it for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. It means much to be called by Christ; to follow Him, for in calling Him Lord, we acknowledge His suffering and our own. The flesh rebels against all such thoughts, for it will always desire to have God, and especially all of God’s goodies, on its terms. In a sense, it desires to build its own kingdom in which to reign, or at least to sit at the right hand or on the left of the one in charge.
We see with eyes opened by the grace of God that He lives and reigns to all eternity and say this is most certainly true. We believe that the full measure of this eternal kingdom is yet to come and will be ushered in by our Returning King on the Last Day. We also believe that this eternal kingdom has already come though, which forces us to believe in what is unseen about the kingdom, how Christ reigns in this very second, and how He desires those who belong to it to live out this life where it appears so unlike what we think the kingdom should look like.
The Lord Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road to prepare them with His third Passion prediction. Though they continued to grossly misunderstand what this meant for Him and for them, the Lord’s Word does not return to Him void. Though their fleshly minds failed them in seeing the plain truth of Christ’s sacrifice-to-come, the Holy Spirit still used those words of God to work on them even in the midst of their abandonment of their Lord in the Garden. Our flesh and the devil would have us despise the Spirit’s work in us. They would provoke us to throwing our hands up, giving up, and completely forget about pondering the blessed Holy Word just because we feel like we can’t understand it on a single reading or hearing of it. The Scripture is too rich for us to gain and learn all that is poured into it by our gracious Lord even after reading it 10,000 times over. This is not a fault but a feature. His Word is an aromatic, splendid garden given for more than our use. It is a verdant pasture in which we may graze, and graze, and graze under the watchful eye of our Shepherd, satisfied with what He feeds us and yet never too full from it.
He desires us to know Him better through His provided feast of Holy Word, which means there will be plenty of clashes between our flesh’s desire and the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Such clash happened with the mother of Zebedee’s sons as she came to Jesus with them, kneeling down to ask something from the Lord; Who had just described in cruciform detail how the kingdom of heaven was coming.
Being that we’re in over our heads in this clown world of sin and death, especially in that of our own daily doing, there is no wonder that even two of Jesus’ closest disciples interpreted His kingdom coming by the reflection of how man rules each other instead of peering through the clear window of revelation of our Lord Jesus and the example that He has set that reveals the very nature of the kingdom of heaven. In our governments, in our societies, in our communities, in our families, one of our highly sought after idols is that of power, rule, and control; first and foremost, of ourselves and our surroundings, but also to make sure that others know that we are not ones to be messed with. If we cannot flex our might in a widespread measure, we are tempted to show all too willingly to those few who are truly near to us that we have power, might, and ferocity that we aren’t scared to use.
The kingdom to which we belong, the King to Whom we belong, operates differently, just as He does. Most certainly with the devious He will show Himself tortuous, for the devious reject His mercy, His identity, His truth, His forgiveness. But the King models the character of the Kingdom that He establishes when He serves those in need, ultimately so when He goes up to Jerusalem. Our King’s servant character isn’t one that clamors for nor depends upon power, rule, control, and ferocity toward one another as is the practice among unbelieving rulers who lord it over those near them. The Lord Jesus teaches by His words and shows by His actions that the heart of His kingdom in this life that is seen is one of service to those whom we can see, for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, the very opposite of what this world and our flesh desire.
The desire of the brothers to sit one at Jesus’ right and the other on His life, in His kingdom, stands out of sync with the prediction that He just spoke to them. In the cup of Christ, in the baptism of Christ, we have eternal reason to celebrate and be of good courage. Yet, like our two brothers, it means that we must deny ourselves, our unrighteous lust for control, our ungodly fury unleashed on others, and take up our cross and follow Christ. We must follow Him into daily death of self that is carried out mightily when we instead serve one another. Such is the true desire to become great; great in the unseen things, storing up treasures in heaven where we desire our hearts to be. Greatness by service is the only measure of greatness that Christ recognizes. It is a blessed identity given to those brought into Christ’s kingdom by grace; to live as He has lived in contrast to a wicked world that is now but a little while. In the midst of it, Christ’s Church shines through those belonging to it in our service, our good slavery to one another. Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not, so also shall you as His disciples must not, come to be served, but to serve. For, since He has come to do this and to give His life a ransom for many in going up to Jerusalem, He has established a kingdom that is contrary to this one and its twisted ways, hard as such, yet good in all the everlasting ways, both unseen yonder, and seen here among those we are able to serve.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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