Put Yourself in the Story
AM Psalm 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13) • PM Psalm 33
1 Samuel 9:15-10:1 • Acts 7:30-43 • Luke 22:39-51
Today’s reading brings back many memories for me, especially the verses from the Gospel according to St. Luke. I grew up in another tradition and I can remember distinctly times where we sang a song in church or when I read about Jesus in the New Testament, and it made me feel a certain way. There was something special about Jesus. Being Christians, that seems obvious to us but nevertheless it is significant. I remember one experience vividly where I watched a movie about Jesus where He interacts with a blind man.
The scene begins with the blind character wishing to see Jesus (someone he’s waited for) but cannot because he’s had an accident that’s made him blind. He asks his son to describe Jesus for him as the Lord moves through the town. His son tells him all the details. He describes his appearance and Jesus’s every move. Heartbroken, the son wishes his father could see this person he’s waited so long for. The father tells his son that it’s enough to know his child can see. Then suddenly, you hear a voice off screen address the blind man by name. Being the Lord, Jesus knew that the blind man wanted to see him. The man immediately recognizes his voice even though they have never met. Jesus heals the man, and they embrace.
It’s a powerful piece of fiction meant to explore what it must have been like to live in Jesus’s time. It’s a little corny in parts and the production value may have not been all that, but it’s provoked a great deal of reflection for me. Would I know the Lord’s voice? When the Lord is calling, how do we know? How can we listen more carefully?
In today’s verses we read about our Lord’s passion in the Garden of Gethsemane. It begins with the words, “And He came out and went, as was His habit, to the Mount of Olives…” (Luke 22:39). As was His habit. The implication is that Jesus prayed there many times. The Lord prayed to His Father, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (42). Jesus prayed to His Father as was His habit. He prayed that the will of the Father—be done.
If we want to be close to God, if we want to know God, we have to develop a habit of speaking with God. We have to put ourselves into the story, so to speak, and follow Jesus into the Garden and ask God to align our wills with His. We’ll fail. Many times. But the miracle of the Gospel is that in that process Jesus transforms us into something we could never be on our own.
Thanks be to God.
Written by Jonathan Wright
Jonathan is a native of Atlanta, GA and a relatively new member of St. Paul’s. He moved to the parish from the Cathedral Church of Saint Mark in Salt Lake City, UT where he became an Episcopalian.