Psalms 25 * 9, 15; Jeremiah 44:1-14; 1 Corinthians 15:30-41; Matthew 11:1-24Somedays you just have to tell it like it is with no holding back. There are times when tact is called for, and other times when bluntness is the name of the game.
We have a very blunt Jesus in today's Gospel reading. He is on a tear because the followers of John have brought John's predicament, as well as the manner he had been treated/mistreated, to the forefront of Jesus' mind. He knows how John has been treated and has witnessed first hand how he has been received by the towns and villages he has visited: those towns where he has healed and cured and taught. Not that Jesus' teachings have been subtle in the past, but he is going for the blunt (and rather threatening) tactic today.
In life, there will always be people who doubt us, who criticize us, many times for their own personal (and perhaps selfish) reasons. Part of living in community together, of being part of this Body of Christ to which we are all called, is to accept each other on a deeper level, to see beyond the petty and open our eyes to God's work in the world. Those words make it sound easy, but it is anything but easy. We are called to live differently, think differently, model for the world a different way of interacting. There is no wonder that it has been over 2000 years and we are still working on understanding this. The struggle is worth the effort.
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Copyright 2009, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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