Lenten Meditation: Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Matt. 20:17-28
Today, in the passage we read from Matthew, Jesus tells us that he knows that people are out to get him, but that’s not going to stop him from living his life: his truest, most authentic, most God-centric life.
What happens next in Matthew’s story is such a non-sequitur that it is almost comic. The mother of two of Jesus’ disciples, in response to Jesus’ prediction of his impending murder, asks Jesus to make her sons the two most important people in Israel when he becomes the king. She might have said, “You’re scaring me. Could we please change the subject?”
It’s instinctual, this habit we have of changing the subject when the truth frightens us, but it doesn’t make reality go away. It doesn’t make the truth any less true.
Jesus knew what was inevitable, not because of any super-human power, but because he always looked reality square in the face. So, when he was captured, tried, and executed, he was able to stand firm. He had been preparing for it all his life. Not most of the others! Only his mother, his female friends, and his unnamed “beloved disciple” stayed with him. All the others, who kept changing the subject, ran away.
Today, let’s see if there are things we are denying that we should face head on. Denying them won’t make them go away. Facing them, we will be in a position to deal with them in a productive way. Today, let’s embrace reality just as Jesus did.