Tuesday
Growing the Revolution through Parables & Controversies.
Matthew 21:23-24:51 | Mark 11:27-13:37 | Luke 20:1-21:36
After challenging the status quo, and pointing to a different possible way of living in overturning the temple tables and economic-centered Temple institution, Jesus returns there to teach a different way, to depict and describe a new way of living, pointing back to what God intended for and of us, reforming, rehabilitating and reinvigorating the people to truly live.
When Christ calls a (hu)man, he bids him (her) come and die.
-20th century German Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Cost of Discipleship
The teachings of Jesus have a cost and consequence. Following him, putting his words into practice, living as he did will cost us our lives. Bonhoeffer knew that cost, coming eventually to pay that price in actively speaking out against the tyranny, anti-Semitism and insanity of the Nazi Reich. We might not all be called to pay that radical of a price, yet we cheapen our own discipleship and life when we cheapen the cost that we will pay for being disciples. We live in a world that many theologians say is governed by the economy of death. We spend much of our time and money trying to stay eternally young. We accumulate things, wealth and comfort to stave off the discomfort, fear and emptiness that death brings to us all. In a sense, while we live we are resisting death. Jesus calls us to live for more than simply resisting and staving off death. He calls us to live for more than ourselves. He calls us to live.
Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.
-Jesus in Matthew 22:21
Questions for reflection:
- What do you find astounding in the teachings of Jesus, a word or gesture that invites you from death to life, from passivity to active living?
- How has the teaching of Jesus already changed your life and the way you live?
- How do you long for the teachings of Jesus to free you from the places in which you’re stuck, where the machinations of death may seem to be prevailing, keeping you (or our world, society, city, church community) from being fully alive?