Focus

A friend recently told the story of meeting a Black Pastor in one of the southern states of the USA. This Pastor said to him, “the problem with you white folk is that you focus on the one hour of Jesus’ die’n to the exclusion of his thirty years of living”.

I guess there’s some truth in this, especially during Lent and Easter time. There are probably many consequences for the death of Jesus becoming detached from his life but one is that we detach the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Our conception of who Jesus is becomes more rooted in our own preferences than in the narrative of the gospels, and our discipleship becomes shallow as if all we know of Jesus is that he died then there’s no journey to go on with him.

So during this period of lent, yes I want to think about why Jesus died, what his death has accomplished. But I also want to reflect upon the Word becoming flesh, his teaching and his life….his resurrection an it’s implications for our lives now.