Passion/Palm Sunday
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
-- Isaiah 50:5-6
When we recall the passion of Christ, we are reminded that all suffering is not meaningless. The importance of remembering that this is Passion Sunday, as well as Palm Sunday, is that we need to realize that the victory of God comes with a price. Given the state of the world, responding to God's call often is accompanied by a struggle and some pain. All clergy who take seriously the call of God in their lives recognize that faithfulness includes absorbing a measure of insult and sometimes injury in the pursuit of their call. "I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting." Suffering is endurable if it is for a higher purpose. "The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced...." The prophet Isaiah, in seeking to understand the apparent insult to God's people of having been destroyed as a nation and carried off into exile, recognized that God was working through their suffering for a higher purpose. Jesus recognized the same truth in enduring his own suffering. All Christians, and especially those called to be pastors, must keep this truth firmly in mind. Our faith does not invite suffering, but it recognizes that our suffering does not defeat God. We are confident in God that "all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
-- Isaiah 50:5-6
When we recall the passion of Christ, we are reminded that all suffering is not meaningless. The importance of remembering that this is Passion Sunday, as well as Palm Sunday, is that we need to realize that the victory of God comes with a price. Given the state of the world, responding to God's call often is accompanied by a struggle and some pain. All clergy who take seriously the call of God in their lives recognize that faithfulness includes absorbing a measure of insult and sometimes injury in the pursuit of their call. "I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting." Suffering is endurable if it is for a higher purpose. "The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced...." The prophet Isaiah, in seeking to understand the apparent insult to God's people of having been destroyed as a nation and carried off into exile, recognized that God was working through their suffering for a higher purpose. Jesus recognized the same truth in enduring his own suffering. All Christians, and especially those called to be pastors, must keep this truth firmly in mind. Our faith does not invite suffering, but it recognizes that our suffering does not defeat God. We are confident in God that "all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
