Lent Study Week 5
Hello Friends. I'd say this is the last week but I may have a follow-up for next week, maybe a few questions I'll throw out there. We'll see. For now ...
I loved the question about how risk-averse we are. After listing out the various categories of life where risk might factor in, I discovered I'm a pretty big pansy in most areas ... but in my marriage, faith and parenting, not so much. I think that's because I feel so secure in those areas that "risk" doesn't really feel risky. This doesn't make me brave, though! Just secure. And security reframes everything.
Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that these women, Jesus's faithful, quiet ministry team, who were able, maybe by very virtue of their unobtrusiveness, to be present where the disciples couldn't or wouldn't - right there at His death. And this enabled them to later see where He had been buried. Such a crucial thing to know! I'm reminded of the phrase from ... Ezekiel? Do not despise the day of small things. Quiet, unnoticed faithfulness is never without weight or purpose.
And finally, I thought a lot about the Good Friday "message," the question at the end. I thought about how there are gifts, and then there are gifts like this one, that go deeper. Gifts that represent sacrifice and cost, "a kernel of wheat being buried to make more" kind of gifts. Gifts that do more than heap a nice blessing upon me but ALSO eliminate a glaring need. Not just a fat check for my birthday, but paying off my crippling debt AND giving me a fat check. Like giving me a car AND teaching me to drive it. Good Friday, the pause before the celebration of Easter, lets me think about the REASON I can celebrate so deeply: Not just that Jesus lives, but that He loved me enough to die so that I no longer carried the debt that would forever bar me from sharing eternity with Him. This Good Friday "pause" lets the depth and weight of His gift settle in.
I'm grateful for this study and for each of you. Happy week before the week before Easter!