Morning Devotion for the Season of Eastertide
May 6, 2022
Invitatory
On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Alleluia. The Lord is risen indeed: Come let us adore him.
Reading: Matthew 4:12-17
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Meditation – Peter Vanderveen
What do you do if you have fallen “far from help?”
The phrase is attributed to the playwright Samuel Beckett. It captures a certain kind of dread and helplessness, when troubles descend and nothing – no amount of effort – makes any difference. All that is left is flailing or resignation. And neither achieves anything.
Sometimes we can suffer this acutely. Our falling is explicit and describable. Others can watch, knowingly, from a distance. And we, watching them watch us without response, are even more wounded by the isolation and aloneness that comes from their inaction. What we experience as our own mistakes become failures in the eyes of others – and thus we are doubly judged. And only very rarely will others step in to share this space with us.
More commonly, however, we can suffer this in a vague and haunting way. In our digitally connected world, there is never a time when the problems of the world are not evident and persistent in their prodding. It’s almost impossible not to be aware of them; and in like proportion, it’s almost impossible to trust that anything we can do will provide effective relief. We have no choice but to witness events from a distance, and no imaginable response seems at all adequate or satisfying. We are far “from being able to help.” This is a tragic aspect of our human condition, which we can variously name with words like racism, poverty, greed, and the galling brutality of fratricide. And this is our news every minute of every day.
A simple interpretation of the Gospel reading appointed for today would consider this text a succession story. John the Baptist is silenced by imprisonment, so Jesus takes up John’s function as a prophet, preaching as John did. One follows the other. There’s not much to notice here.
But there is much to notice – if Beckett’s words ring in your ears. And the text itself points in this direction. John’s arrest will lead to John’s murder. The greatest of all the prophets will be expunged, without much notice; and Jesus will watch from afar as darkness falls and the shadow of death descends. Something has ended with John. Permanently. And no efforts of any kind can change this “coming to nothing.” No reparations can repair this loss.
Jesus, however, uses this moment to call for repentance – not, as we usually misinterpret it, as an act of apology or making amends, referring back to the tragedy. This only keeps us mired, looking backward. Jesus urges repentance of a different kind, as an act of turning to look in another direction in order to see the world through a different lens. The order that John sought is no more. And something completely new has come in his stead. Something wholly unexpected.
God alone is capable of delivering this newness to us, and it has come in the person and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ exclamation is brazen; he challenges everything we simply take as unchangeable. As if we can never escape the old. But his word is that there is a newness that can break in even where we feel most resigned. Which is the real impetus to the prayer that we speak so breezily even as we give it the Lord’s name. Allow it a shocking newness. That’s true repentance.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
