Devotion for February 26 in Epiphany/Ordinary Time (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Unhappy Jesus

Job and John, Part XVIII:  Impatience

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2019

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Job 21:1-21

Psalm 33 (Morning)

Psalms 85 and 91 (Evening)

John 8:39-59

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Why should I not lose my patience?

–Job speaking in Job 21:46, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

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As I have written more than once already–including in this series of Job and John posts, anyone who speaks of “the patience of Job” as if Job were patient fails to understand the Book of Job correctly.  In fact, Job is quite impatient in Chapter 21.

Likewise, Jesus is far from the embodiment of patience in John 8:39-59.  People accuse him of being possessed.  He also states that his accusers are children of Satan, not of God.  And, at the end, he says,

In all truth I tell you,

before Abraham was,

I am.

–8:58, The New Jerusalem Bible

“I am” is the same in Greek as “I AM” in Hebrew.

I read this part of the Johannine Gospel and recognize that the strained relations between the community of “John” and their fellow Jews at the end of the first century CE shaped the narrative.  How could they not?  We humans tell the past in the context of the present and the recent past.  That is how historical memory works.  Yet I know that relations between Jesus and Palestinian Jewish leaders were frosty at best and hostile at worst.  His crucifixion attests to that reality.  And I take comfort in the fact that the concerted efforts to silence Jesus failed.  Who can kill I AM after he has refused to stay dead?

The portrayal of Jesus in much material intended for children is sanitized.  He almost always nice, at least according to the art in children’s Bibles I have examined.  And our Lord is usually patient and serene.  Why would anyone seek to execute such a nice man?  But read the Gospels.  Jesus was nice to many people yet confrontational toward others.  And he was sometimes impatient and even quite angry.  He made powerful enemies.  Jesus was much more interesting than the serene Savior presented to many children (and adults).  The real Jesus was–and is–a worthy Lord.  The serene Savior is a safe and sanitized fiction.  I am impatient with it.

Until the next segment of our journey….

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 26, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES

THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET

THE FEAST OF SAINT PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF ROBERT HUNT, FIRST ANGLICAN CHAPLAIN AT JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/job-and-john-part-xviii-impatience/

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