Job sees his situation as one where God is at war with him
for no reason. He has no hope, how could
he? If God has chosen war with Job there
is no way out but death. He cannot fight
against the Almighty. He excuses his
words because of the pain and the hopelessness of his situation. We know though that this isn't the case at
all but Job doesn't have this information.
Pain and suffering are part of this life, we can't draw easy conclusions
as to why they occur or what can make them stop. There are no easy answers because we live in
a complex world. It is complex because of
sin. If we had only the knowledge of
good in the world, we would have a perfect world but because we chose that
other tree, the one other than the tree of life, we now have a complicated
mess. What we need is what Job didn't
have, friends who will Gospel us in our pain, remind us we live in a fallen and
broken world, that Jesus came and shared in pain and suffering. There is no justice in this world, it is
unjust on its face. In pain we need that
truth to point us to that other world, to remind us God is not our enemy but
our redeemer.
Jesus has offered His body and blood as life, true food and
true drink, and many now turn away, because the saying is difficult. It was certainly difficult to hear and
understand. He has offered them life and
they have determined that He has lost His mind.
He makes no effort to clear up the matter by explaining He was speaking
in metaphor, which begs the question, "is He?" I think we have to come to grips with what He
is saying and why does He not explain Himself.
We use this language in our liturgy and when we have visitors it
sometimes makes me uncomfortable, I want to explain to them we don't believe in
transubstantiation, but Jesus wouldn't do that.
He allowed them to walk away who couldn’t receive it. He is the Abel whose blood cries out for us,
not against us, even though we have played the role of Cain. His blood calls for mercy for His
murderers. Mercy, not justice. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
receive mercy.
Paul heals the sick, Aeneas, and Peter raises the dead,
Dorcas. The kingdom of God is breaking
into the world through the ministry of these apostles. Hope is being revived along with people. Sickness and death are being dealt with by
the power of God. He is not the enemy,
He is the healer. Doesn't this make you long
for the kingdom to come?
No comments:
Post a Comment