The Hesitant Messiah

Thursday, March 30th, 2017

In one of the more interesting facts in Biblical interpretation, the shortest verse in the entire Bible, “Jesus wept,” belongs in one of the most nuanced and detailed stories featured in all the Gospels: the story of Jesus’ greatest miracle — raising Lazarus from the dead.

What strikes me in praying over the story is Jesus’ moments of what I feel is simply a wrong decision or even a mistake.  Making a wrong decision isn’t always a sin.  So, too, being unsure of ourselves isn’t a sin. Jesus did not sin.  He was perfect, but that doesn’t insulate him from the everyday stumbles of life.

This passage tells of such human moments in Jesus’ mission on Earth. Yes, the tears he weeps for the death of his friend is a palpable and real sign of his humanity, but so is his false prediction, his uncertainty.

We tend to place our heroes on pedestals, as we ought to, especially in the case of our Lord, but while that is the right instinct, it can also lead to us seeing our mentors, saints and teachers as glow in the dark and unimaginably impossible to imitate. In her brilliant film “Selma,” Ava DuVernay portrays the events on “Turnaround Tuesday,” the day Martin Luther King decided not to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge and back away from what would have inevitably been a bloody confrontation with local law enforcement. I really loved the way Ms. DuVernay chose to show King’s decision in the film. Some of King’s followers were upset and most thought it the wrong decision at the time.  We’ve since painted King a saint (and I think he is one), but that he was somehow perfect isn’t true.  I don’t see the moment as troubling.  I see it as such a relief!

So, this week as we wait for the warming of evenings and smell of grass, in our moments of uncertainty or indecision or hesitation, let us think of our own Savior who knows all too well the anxiety of those moments, but let us also pray to the same Savior who rolled away the stone.  Happy Lenting.

I’ll be seeing you,

Elliot

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