THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, 5th week in Lent
March 26, 2021: Jeremiah 20:
10-13; John 10: 31-42
Jeremiah seems a perfect foreshadow of Jesus, but in one case! He was in distress too for the sake of the will of the One who called him; he was cornered for nothing and taken to task for his dedication to the Lord and the task handed to him by the Lord. It is just like today, how those who do good to the society in the name of Jesus are taken to task because they are doing it in that Name! And when such acts of atrocity happen, many of us Christians express sentiments of anger and call on the Lord to teach a lesson to the perpetrators of evil!
But
differing from Jeremiah, and from us all, Jesus does not wish vengeance, or to see
that the Lord would take on those who did not heed the call, those who were
persecuting him for wrong reasons, those who refused to see such an obvious
point made by Jesus' words and deeds. Jesus wishes that they turn to him,
believe in him, in his words and in his works and realise that he is in the
Father and the Father is in him.
To be in
distress for the Lord, is a call in itself. Both Jeremiah and Jesus, give us an
example of persons in distress for the Lord: Blessed are those who hunger for
justice and peace, for they shall be filled; Blessed are they who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Be happy
when they persecute you, revile you, call you by names and denounce you
unjustly, because they did the same to your Master – isn’t that the powerful
message we get in the Word today? How prepared and ready are we to be in
distress for the Lord!
Let us learn what it means in our day-to-day life, to be in distress for the
Lord!