Monday, April 15, 2019

Monday in Holy Week

From the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Omniscience is not one of our strong suits as people. Often times, we're far closer to being bricks than approaching anything close to omniscient, not being able to see the impending consequences of our own shortsightedness. This I suppose is a divine gift, given our fallen natures. Omniscience would probably drive us insane or make us suicidal. For instance, consider what it would be like after receiving a welcome fit for a king just yesterday, you knew that in four days you'd be betrayed, tortured to the point of death, and finally dying on a Roman cross in abject humiliation? 

 Consider further the omniscience of the Almighty in light of today's Gospel reading. In the passage we see Jesus at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus along with the apostolic band. We could infer that this may have been a feast, celebrating the return of their brother to the living, or not. What is fact is the fact that there was a deep friendship between Jesus and the three siblings. It was here that Mary, in an act of devotion broke open an alabaster jar of the finest perfume and anointed the feet of the Master. I'm confident that many in the room were stunned by Mary's action, knowing that the perfume flowing out and filling the room was in fact her old age pension. Judas became indignant, wrapping himself in faux-righteous indignation, rebuked Mary for her supposed waste of such a precious commodity. 

 Had it been you or I there and possessing the gift of omniscience, we'd have torn into Judas like a hot knife through butter in our otherwise faulty human nature. We'd have called him out for his hypocrisy and the fact that he was an embezzler. Or worse, we may have confronted him over what he would do in the next few days. But not Jesus. In his love, he only gently rebuked Judas and turned the attention to Mary's act of worship.

 The Master loved the traitor as much as he loved the tender-hearted Mary. This is incredible and our frail human minds can't comprehend the heights and depths of the pure agape love of the savior. We must however, apprehend own this truth.

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