Today’s Lenten Word Meditation comes from John 8:21-31 The Message Bible:
21 Then he went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me.”
22 The Jews said, “So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by ‘You can’t come with me’?”
23-24 Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”
25-26 They said to him, “Just who are you anyway?”
Jesus said, “What I’ve said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don’t accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning—not me but the One who sent me.”
27-29 They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”
30 When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.
31-32 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”Today’s word, dead (apothnesko in Greek) is defined as perish, die, natural death, violent death. Jesus is at the Temple and just helped free a woman accused of adultery by the Jewish religious leaders. In this passage, he is arguing with them about who he is and warning them about who they are.
I sit, hold, and pray with the word, dead. Yesterday, my family celebrated with tears and words the life of my aunt. It was a rare rainy day, and it was perfect for her funeral. The funeral and passage today reminds me to truly live life now…be alive with joy and love and purpose….and not like a zombie who goes through the mundane machinations of life. I wonder when Jesus knew he was going to die in Jerusalem. Maybe it was when he spent time in the desert or maybe when he got baptized. Maybe Jesus knowing he would die spurred him to do his ministry instead of running away from his life goals. Perhaps, he learned not to take his own precious life for granted.
Pastor Sam
