“And
his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon
blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for
the fall and rising of many in Israel (and a sword will pierce through your own
soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke
2:33-35)
We
pick up today at the point where I left off with Simeon a few blog posts ago. Here he
says some tough words to Jesus’ mother Mary. While many people think of Jesus
as a sweet child and a unifying public figure, Simeon here seems to indicate
that Jesus will rough up the social structure. Nothing is safe.
Is
this cruel of Simeon? Not at all. He at least lays out exactly what we can
expect from Jesus. Hard moments may lie ahead; dark journeys may follow. Even
Jesus would be no stranger to conflict. But this is what will be. And before we
start to complain and say, “This isn’t the kind of Jesus I envisioned!”, we
have to face this reality: Who are we to dictate terms to Jesus? Who are we to
say how he should conduct his ministry in our lives?
A
number of years ago, a professor in a graduate school in the Deep South[1] was besieged by complaints
from many students. You see, they were approaching the final exam in the
course, and the students couldn’t figure out how to get started on studying for
the test. So the professor, in a moment of academic tenderness and wondrous
compassion, went through the semester’s worth of material that night. The next
time the class met, the professor handed out a comprehensive study guide of
some eighty-five questions. And now the complaints erupted in earnest! Why?
Because the students griped there was too much information to study for the
final exam! Was the professor cruel? I think not.[2] The students now were at
least aware of what they needed to study. They had been brought face to face
with the honest truth. And who were they to dictate to the professor how the
exam should go?
That
is a little bit like following Jesus. We may read the Gospels and discover a
wildly unpredictable Savior,[3] or we may see how our
relationship with Christ creates more lurches and bumps than smooth paths. You
know what? The Bible at least is honest about what you can expect. We are not
designed to dictate how our spiritual journeys should go. But we can discover a Messiah whose grace and mercy run wild, crazy and free. And while living that
life may seem like being a kite in a hurricane, for me it certainly beats the alternative!
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