Lent - Life Lived in Minor Key
Adult Devotional | By Pastor Walter "Lucky" ArnoldThe story of Jesus and His Church is a story of the rescue of God’s chosen people from a dead and dying world through the deadly influence of sin. The Creator has committed himself without reservation to redeem and set free a world that is perishing, a world that is under God’s wrath and curse. Jesus enters the world to raise it to new and everlasting life, through His life, death, resurrection, ascension and reign.
In Lent, we journey with Jesus to the Cross--knowing that His suffering and humiliation are not random or meaningless, but they are necessary for our salvation. We also are reminded that Jesus’ path to glory through suffering and the cross will be ours as well (Matthew 16:21-28). Like Jesus we are called to walk the path, to carry the cross, to endure, to persevere, to remain faithful in the face of obstacles, opposition, and even persecution.
We are called to bear our cross as He bore His because God has promised that our suffering will be meaningful too. There is a strange brand of Christian faith a foot in the world today that implies that if one becomes a Christian, life will become a series of victories and triumphs. There is some truth in what is said, but if the cross of grief and pain is omitted, another Gospel is preached from the one Jesus and His apostles preached.
Lent is that odd season of the Christian year which is played in the minor keys. Having been united with Christ, our victorious Lord and King, we often struggle when we are called upon to suffer. Like John the Baptist, we wonder in our pain, if the Age to Come has really come, why am I in this mess? Jesus’ answer is that the evidence that the Age to Come has come, is all around us, but it is not yet here in its fullness. And because that is true, suffering and sorrow will continue to be the experience of Christians and the Church until Jesus returns. Lent is the season when our focus is on the cross . . . His . . . and Ours!
Copyright 2011 - Pastor Walter "Lucky" Arnold
First Presbyterian N.P.B. FL
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