Lent 2016 (C) 2016-03-16: Reading the Lectionary with my family
(I encourage you to read the full text. Hold me accountable if you feel it has not been handled well. It is what Scripture means when it says to wrestle with the Bible and mentally struggle with it and inwardly digest it.)
Today we read two accounts of God reclaiming His people. One spoken through the imagery of God's awesome authority and command of creation. The other is Jesus speaking. In reading Habakkuk perhaps we can understand the "blindness" of the apostles - it is so easy to hear their error, bias, and presumption of a wrathful vengeful warrior God in the prophet's prayer. Habakkuk gives voice to what Israel wants. Standing against this, are the words of Jesus who gives voice to what we need.
The Messiah will suffer human wrath and will be hated and will be abandoned. The Messiah will bear the worst of human invective and physical abuse, yet from this on the third day, God will claim His mighty victory by His right hand. God will come forth to save His people, to save His anointed. Jesus tells us that this bloodied and beaten and cursed Messiah alone is the foundation, the very cornerstone of God's victory and the hope of our salvation.
Through Christ alone we become God's people. God gives us the freedom to accept Jesus as the unique Way of salvation. Is it yes or is it no?
For today's full-text click here
