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Morning Devotion for the Season of Easter
April 24, 2024
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.
Reading: Luke 12:35-40
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Meditation - Peter Vanderveen
Anomalies:
1) What would you do if you signed up to run a local road race and, when everyone lined up for the start, a race official announced that this wasn’t a 5K course, or 10K, or even a marathon. Instead, participants were expected to keep running “until all is accomplished.” What would that mean? “All” what? And if the starting gun was fired, how would you run? How fast? To where? For no route would be evident; no finish line would be identifiable. It would be impossible to know how to proceed.
2) The reality of the “law” both in the narrative of the Old Testament and as we experience it ourselves is that it is always changing. As soon as the Ten Commandments were delivered, as soon as people tried to live according to them, a flood of variations and exceptions were noted, filling hundreds of pages, engaging even more arguments, with legal scholars and lawyers offering inconsistent and contradictory opinions. To which laws, specifically, then, was Jesus referring. Established by whom? And how could any set of laws be considered absolutely unchangeable, “not one letter, not one stroke of a letter”? Even more problematic: how can laws “be fulfilled”?
3) And what did Jesus mean by the “righteousness” of the scribes and Pharisees. Most of the time he ruthlessly criticized their inflated piety and privilege. Their righteousness was no righteousness at all. It was false and oppressive. Outdoing them in righteousness would be no challenge. Or did Jesus intend his words, instead, as a caustic indictment of righteousness itself? Did he mean that no one can outdo anyone in righteousness?
These three short verses from the Sermon on the Mount are easily misread as Jesus’ warning that we are all simply called to BEHAVE. Sermons seem, as if inevitably, to carry this kind of ethical baggage: try harder! Or, stop sinning! But this simply doesn’t take into account the reality of our lives or the ambiguities and difficulties evident in the text. Nonetheless, this is the eddy within which we seem endlessly stuck.
But what if we read this text differently? Jesus began by referring to himself and his role, not ours.
- Maybe what he meant by “until all is accomplished” was revealed when, at the point of death he said, “It is finished.”
- Maybe by so hardening the law he knew that this would show the futility of the law.
- Maybe he was noting that the Kingdom of Heaven is not determined by our righteousness but by his. It has come to us; we do not attain it.
And maybe by reading these verses from Matthew’s gospel in light of the full story that is the gospel, the good news, its anomalies turn into gift, for which we give thanks.
Prayer
Risen Christ, in the midst of grief and despair, at the very point when all seemed lost, you stood in the midst of your friends in the fullness of your resurrection reality and proclaimed your peace; a peace that reorders and renews all things.
May the same peace find a home in us and, at the urging of your Spirit, may we be today and every day bearers of hope and enablers of peace in the power of your name.
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
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