Luke 22:66-71 | Job 38:1-24
Do the thing, Jesus! The miracle, the multiplication of food…do something. Don’t just stand there.
Would you have been frustrated standing in that court watching Jesus in chains?
Maybe not frustrated as much as confused or bewildered. Why wouldn’t he just settle it once-and-for-all with a display of power and might? He is the Messiah, the son of God.
But he didn’t show his power.
At least not yet. Or, not how we would expect or even want him to.
Does that ring a bell with your experience? Have you ever wanted Jesus to show up like he had previously in your life? …to give you the feels again? …to restore your confidence, faith, and trust?
But he didn’t? At least, not like you wanted him to?
Jesus is our friend. He is our brother. He is our savior, Messiah, and all that.
But he is not our monkey on a rope to do what we want at our beck and call.
He has an understanding of time and context beyond our own.
Luke 22:66-71
As morning came, the elders of the people, both chief priests and legal experts, came together, and Jesus was brought before their council.
They said, “If you are the Christ, tell us!”
He answered, “If I tell you, you won’t believe. And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer. But from now on, the Human One will be seated on the right side of the power of God.”
They all said, “Are you God’s Son, then?”
He replied, “You say that I am.”
Then they said, “Why do we need further testimony? We’ve heard it from his own lips.”
Job 38:1-24
Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
Who is this darkening counsel
with words lacking knowledge?
Prepare yourself like a man;
I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Tell me if you know.
Who set its measurements? Surely you know.
Who stretched a measuring tape on it?
On what were its footings sunk;
who laid its cornerstone,
while the morning stars sang in unison
and all the divine beings shouted?
Who enclosed the Sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment,
the dense clouds its wrap,
when I imposed my limit for it,
put on a bar and doors
and said, “You may come this far, no farther;
here your proud waves stop”?
In your lifetime have you commanded the morning,
informed the dawn of its place
so it would take hold of earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
Do you turn it over like clay for a seal,
so it stands out like a colorful garment?
Light is withheld from the wicked,
the uplifted arm broken.
Have you gone to the sea’s sources,
walked in the chamber of the deep?
Have death’s gates been revealed to you;
can you see the gates of deep darkness?
Have you surveyed earth’s expanses?
Tell me if you know everything about it.
Where’s the road to the place where light dwells;
darkness, where’s it located?
Can you take it to its territory;
do you know the paths to its house?
You know, for you were born then;
you have lived such a long time!
Have you gone to snow’s storehouses,
seen the storehouses of hail
that I have reserved for a time of distress,
for a day of battle and war?
What is the way to the place where light is divided up;
the east wind scattered over earth?
Prayer
God,
Thank you for yet another new day. You are consistent, if nothing else. A new day.
Would you give me breath for today? Help me breathe. And in my breathing, remind me of your spirit. With each breath in, fill me. With each breath out, help me let go of that which I cannot, do not, and will not control.
And keep me humble and loving.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Beautiful. Timely.
Give me the faith and patience to believe you know best, no matter what