What Goes Around...
A reading for Tuesday, June 23, 2015: Luke 21:37-22:13.
At the beginning of Luke's gospel, in chapter 2, Jesus is presented in the Temple. The old man Simeon sees the child and proclaims for all to hear who he is and what he has come to do. "For my eyes have seen salvation," he exclaims. There is also a story about the boy Jesus teaching in the Temple...
Then Jesus is tempted by the devil as he is driven out into the wilderness. "The devil led him up to a high place." Satan offers Jesus power and privilege, and authority over all things and all people. Jesus is alone, and no crowd is present...
Finally at the beginning of Luke's gospel, still in chapter 4, Jesus returns to Nazareth to teach in the Synagogue. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," he says "because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free." Jesus was the one who would bring justice and salvation to all people...
In our reading today, at the end of Luke's gospel in chapter 21, it seems that all things have again come full circle. There is teaching in the temple. Satan shows up to again work his evil. Finally, it is the passover when the lamb is to be sacrificed, an act of remembering when God delivered his people from the hands of slavery and oppression. Just as in the beginning, the same things are still happening...
Look at our world? Is there not teaching and worship in the church? Do we not still experience evil, prowling and lurking around in hopes of destroying goodness and life? Finally, is there not still hope in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, for justice and freedom and peace for all people?
What goes around surely comes around. Thanks be to God!
At the beginning of Luke's gospel, in chapter 2, Jesus is presented in the Temple. The old man Simeon sees the child and proclaims for all to hear who he is and what he has come to do. "For my eyes have seen salvation," he exclaims. There is also a story about the boy Jesus teaching in the Temple...
Then Jesus is tempted by the devil as he is driven out into the wilderness. "The devil led him up to a high place." Satan offers Jesus power and privilege, and authority over all things and all people. Jesus is alone, and no crowd is present...
Finally at the beginning of Luke's gospel, still in chapter 4, Jesus returns to Nazareth to teach in the Synagogue. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," he says "because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free." Jesus was the one who would bring justice and salvation to all people...
In our reading today, at the end of Luke's gospel in chapter 21, it seems that all things have again come full circle. There is teaching in the temple. Satan shows up to again work his evil. Finally, it is the passover when the lamb is to be sacrificed, an act of remembering when God delivered his people from the hands of slavery and oppression. Just as in the beginning, the same things are still happening...
Look at our world? Is there not teaching and worship in the church? Do we not still experience evil, prowling and lurking around in hopes of destroying goodness and life? Finally, is there not still hope in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, for justice and freedom and peace for all people?
What goes around surely comes around. Thanks be to God!
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