Let’s get it straight: Living God’s way in the
world is not for the faint-hearted. Our readings in the next
few weeks challenge our discipleship, calling to its very
foundations. We are invited to face our prejudice, to analyze
our motives for doing good, to reflect on our seemingly
endless capacity for conflict, to observe our desire for
status, as well as our murmuring and moaning against God when
the least thing upsets our way of doing things. And as they
say in the movies, "We’re the good guys!"
Most of us suffer from spiritual blindness. Bartimaeus,
who was blind, called out to Jesus, but before Jesus could
restore his sight he had to find out if that is what
Bartimaeus wanted— "What do you want me to do for
you?" "That I may receive my sight," he
replied. Let’s get it straight: What do you want me to
do for you? is the same question Jesus asks of us.
October 12
It's God's Fault!
Psalm 22:1-15; Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Hebrews
4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
"God has undermined my courage....I am plunged back
into obscurity by him," complains Job (23:16-17). The
psalmist offers a prayer full of rage and complaints against
God, accusing God of forsaking, betraying, and failing to
help. Bereft, he reveals the physical impact of grief and
sense of despair, and finally accuses God of "laying me
down in the dust of death" (Psalm 22:15). Such a sense
of being lost to God is experienced by many, and one survivor
of Auschwitz recalls how he fasted in the camp in order to
shame God.
Most of us find such rage and anger against God hard to
express. It rarely, if ever, forms part of our worship,
except in the rather ersatz form of the repeated psalm. We
are scandalized by such boldness against God; we are often
too timid to tell it as it is, fearing some kind of divine
thunderbolt because we have dared to challenge God. We need
someone to interpret for us.
The writer of Hebrews exhorts readers, "We must hold
firm to our profession of faith" (Hebrews 4:14). Such
words fall on deaf ears unless they are connected to the
reality of suffering. We should hold on to our faith, with
all its rage, despair, and confusion; fear of mockery (Psalm
22:7); and sense of futility (Mark 10:28) because "Jesus
the Son of God...is not incapable of feeling our weakness
with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way
as we ourselves...apart from sin" (Hebrews 4:14-15).
Jesus is the interpreter of our pain, and challenges our
comforts. As the "Word made flesh" (John 1:14),
Jesus reveals our schizophrenia and "seeks out the place
where soul is divided from spirit or joints from marrow"
(Hebrews 4:12). Warning of the danger of riches, Jesus offers
the companionship of community (Mark 10:21-22). Jesus invites
us from the addictions of consumerism: to renounce the
security of home, relationships, and property. By offering a
new order of Jubilee, a time of re-distributive justice, he
makes possible a world where "first will be last, and
the last first" (Mark 10:31).
Reflection and Action
When have you experienced the despair of Job, or the anger
of the psalmist? How did you express it? Where have you
discovered Jesus as interpreter of your pain, offering the
solace of others and the challenge to live in the spirit of
Jubilee?
