Scripture: Matthew 9:1-8
Journal: Where do you find yourself in today’s Scripture? How are you like the paralytic, or the
carriers, or the scoffers, or the crowd?
Place yourself in the shoes of each this morning and see what Jesus has
to say to you.
Reflection:
Unless we make the stories of Scripture our
own they do us little good. The Gospel
invites each of us to step inside its pages and encounter Jesus for ourselves,
face to face. That is the beauty of
it. It is alive. It is engaging. It is interactive. It beckons each of us to ask the question:
“Where am I in this story? And what is
God trying to say to me?” It offers us
numerous entry points into a deep and transforming conversation with
Jesus. Particularly this story.
For example, how are you and
I like the paralytic? How are we
paralyzed in our lives? How have we
settled for much less than the life God intended for us to live? Where do we feel stuck and powerless? Who is trying to carry us to the feet of
Jesus, and where are we on that journey?
What would it look like for us to “Rise, pick up our mat and go
home?” What are we holding onto that
must be left behind?
And how are we like the
carriers? Who are we trying to carry to
the feet of Jesus and how is that going?
How do we feel about that at the moment?
How long has the journey been so far?
Are we weary and discouraged? Are
we hopeful yet doubt-filled? Are we dutiful
and detached? Or are we faithful and
expectant? I’m sure each of the carriers
was a little different, but, regardless of what was really going on within each
of them, they kept going. And it was their
faith that Jesus saw. How are you?
Or do we tend to fall in
line with the scribes? I like to call
them the scoffers. Regardless of
what beautiful thing was happening right before their eyes, somehow they were
able to find something to criticize and scoff at. I don’t know about you, but sadly I recognize
myself in them much more than I would care to admit. For some reason, be it insecurity or
something else, we tend to have trouble celebrating the beauty and well-being
of others. Unfortunately, we look at the
world through the lenses of comparison and competition, which makes everyone
around us a threat to our personal worth rather than a brother and a
sister. So, in the case of the scribes,
I guess the question becomes: Where is a spirit of criticism and complaint
alive and active within us? And why?
Or finally, do we somehow find
ourselves, at this point in our journey, in the shoes of the crowd? Are we standing amazed at what we have just
witnessed right before our very eyes?
Are we awestruck and dumbfounded at what we have just seen God do within
us or around us? Are we overwhelmed by
his power and overcome by his beauty? If
not, why not?
The truth is that we are
most likely all of the above at any particular moment in our lives. So our job, each day, is to pay close enough
attention to God’s Spirit within us that we are be able to hear and discern
what each of them has to tell us. Or,
more accurately, what he has to tell us through each of them. What is it for you?
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Lord God, let your word continue to resound
within me throughout this day, that I might hear what you are trying to say to
me and live like you would have me to live.
Amen.
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