And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, "Come, for everything is now ready." - Luke 14:17
Former President Jimmy Carter tells the story of a Cuban pastor he came to know. The man had developed a ministry with poor immigrants from Puerto Rico. When Mr. Carter asked him to account for the success of his ministry, the pastor answered, "Senor Jimmy, we only need to have two loves in our lives: for God and for the person who happens to be in front of us at any time."
Jesus, the vine, assures us, the branches, that we are not alone in this journey. This is not a mere statement from a grape grower; it is the word of God spoken by Jesus Himself! Our Lord's words are clear and comforting: I am with you, and you are with me. Jesus also warns: whoever is not with me will wither and die and be thrown into the fire.
Being with Jesus is about loving Him and trusting in His absolute love for us. If this seems overwhelming, remember that the Holy Spirit is always there to assist us. When we love God and believe in His love for us, we are ready to love the person in front of us. This is when the miracle of bearing the sweet fruit of the kingdom of God begins.
We do not need to be anything or anyone other than what and who we are. Brilliance, wealth, eloquence, beauty, position, or power are of no significance in bearing fruit. We need only the willingness to have two loves in our lives: love for God and love for the person who happens to be in front of us at any time.
And how do we do that? Abide in Jesus. Abide in His Word. Ask the Spirit of God for help.
Like the disciples on the seashore, we are amazed that the risen Christ is so present in the commonplace and routine patterns and moments of everyday life. It is extraordinary because we least expect to come across the miracles of God and the marvel of the resurrection in such places and hours. But there Jesus is, showing up at mealtime, fully human, wholly resurrected, hinting that he is hungry and hoping his friends might be thoughtful enough to give him something to eat. The prosaic backdrop hardly prepares his followers for such a divine bolt from the blue. Surprise!
The astonishing truth about Easter is that it happens where we most need it to, in the very places where we live our lives. It happens where we spend our time. Easter happens in the rooms where we eat, sleep, play, work, laugh, and argue. Easter happens in our real world among real people making a real difference in our real time. If that is not true, then Easter is not true at all.
Christ's resurrection continues to be a miracle twenty centuries later precisely because the living Christ finds us in the mundane matters of life. "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me" (Revelation 3:20).
Christ's resurrection becomes our moment of Easter every time the Spirit of God breathes new hope into our old fears. Our hearts and minds are opened by the grace of God in the simple sharing of the meal where, with our risen Lord, we have a foretaste of the great Easter banquet yet to come.
"Peace be with you" when you are living in fear." Peace be with you" behind the locked doors of your insecurities. "Peace be with you" in your confrontation with foes. "Peace be with you" in your pain and wounds. "Peace be with you" in your doubts and misgivings. "Peace be with you" in your greatest challenges. "Peace be with you" in your darkest moments. "Peace be with you" in your resistance. "Peace be with you" in your humiliation. "Peace be with you" in your bewilderment.
"Peace be with you." These are the gospel words if ever there were any. The cadence of that greeting from Jesus strikes a note of paradoxical calm in trembling hearts and anxious minds.
Peace resides with us when we come to believe, however our believing comes about--in seeing or not seeing, in touching or not touching, in hearing or not hearing. Peace resides with us when the risen Jesus Christ, who defied the powers of death and tomb, defies the powers of our own defiance and demands for proof. Peace is the plan and promise of God for you. Peace was the Christmas song of angels over Bethlehem when Jesus was born, it was the Easter resurrection greeting of Jesus among terrified followers, and it is our eternal word of reassurance today. "Peace be with you"--peace from Jesus Christ when we find peace nowhere else.
Peace is the blessing we receive when we dare to risk believing that Jesus has indeed risen from death so that we too might rise from our death. Peace is the blessing we receive when we dare to risk believing that in the gifts of bread and wine the horrors of crucifixion and the glory of resurrection work to transform our moments of fear into eternities of joy.
"Peace be with you" wherever you need it now in your life.
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When you think back over your favorite books, do you remember the endings? The writer keeps our attention if the story leads to a satisfying conclusion, even if the plot twists and turns. When we commit to a book, we put a lot of faith in the author to tell a good story and to wrap up their tale in a way that makes sense. When the ending is unclear or unbelievable, we wish we hadn’t invested so much time in their book.
When Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices to Jesus’ tomb, they thought they knew the ending of his story. Jesus’ death on the cross brought his ministry to an abrupt conclusion. Nothing was left to do but show their devotion by anointing him with spices. How surprised the women must have been to hear that Jesus’ story hadn’t ended after all! He had been raised. He was going ahead of his followers to Galilee. They would see him again!
To us, this story of Jesus’ resurrection is familiar, so we hear it as good news. For the women, though, it was terrifying. This wasn’t how they expected Jesus’ story to turn out. They had seen him die on the cross, and now they were being told he was alive? They didn’t know what to make of this twist in Jesus’ story. They were so afraid that they fled.
The women ran away because they were shocked when the story didn’t turn out as expected. But soon, they would learn this was a happy ending: Where they had seen death, God made a way for new life! What seemed like the conclusion was actually a beginning. It was the dawn of a new day, a resurrection day. As Christians, we don’t know the future or how our stories will end, but we can trust that Jesus is alive. He goes ahead of us, leading us into a future full of God’s love and grace.
We are fickle. Our tastes and appetites change frequently--spurred by marketing that plays on our fears and egos. We cancel plans with friends at the last minute when something or someone more interesting makes us a better offer. We trade in cars that are in perfect working condition. We neglect or abandon relationships rather than do the hard work needed to keep them healthy. We pray and worship sporadically. Maybe we do not do all--or even any--of these things, but we are people who know how quickly affection can turn sour.
Palm/Passion begins with a noisy, joyful parade and ends with a bleak and cheerless execution. The hosannas of the adoring spectators in Jerusalem turn all too soon to ugly shouts of "Crucify!" as Jesus moves from a wonder-working teacher to a subversive criminal in the crowd's estimation. How do blessings turn so quickly to curses? How is it possible that people who were held spellbound by Jesus' teaching, who brought their sick and demon-possessed to him for healing, who welcomed him into Jerusalem with gracious words and loving actions--how is it possible that people touched so profoundly by Jesus' presence with them could so quickly turn around and put him to death?
To what extent are our own loyalties up for grabs? Perhaps it is simply the nature of human love to be inconstant, temperamental. Fortunately, God's love for us does not depend on whims. It cannot be swayed by things that we do or things that we fail to do. God does not bless us in one breath and punish us in the next. God's love for us does not change, no matter how capricious our affection for God tends to be. Thanks be to God for this grace.
