Eastertide
April 19, 2015

Scripture Reading: Luke 24:36b-48

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. –Luke 24:44-48

Opened minds that understood the scriptures—how would we see that manifested in the world today? I have been a part of a Bible study on the book of Isaiah, first for several months in the fall and now in a spring semester. We move at a snail’s pace. Partly because it is mostly complex poetry with references to ancient realities with which we are not so familiar; partly because it appears to be a collection of writings that have been pulled together that bounce around a bit from subject to subject and among points of history; and partly because we, like its original readers, possess the desire not to see or hear that which we do not wish to see and hear. We pray every week for God to be present in our studies and our understanding.

We also often get sidetracked by seeing our world through the eyes of Isaiah. It is scary at times how closely the prophet’s observations could describe us today with just a slight change of names of peoples and places. We, of course, have larger and more technically advanced weapons of mass destruction. We have identified and implemented treatments for many of the diseases that devastated their world, but have found new ones to take their place. I do not think we are as advanced as we should be in the time lapse between Isaiah and now, regarding the care and treatment of the mentally ill.

The most important difference for us is that the Immanuel Isaiah proclaimed has come and has even poured out his life for us.  By turning around and looking into the face of God in Jesus Christ we are forgiven of our tenacity at not seeing and not hearing what has been told to us from the beginning. I will admit I still struggle with not wanting to see and hear and I regularly have to return to ask for forgiveness, but it is always there and I am still blest at times with aha moments from God when I do see and hear at least partially. Is that your experience also? Even with our limited insight, the Lord still trusted us with his call to share his wonderful truth with the whole world—the Christ has come, God is with us.

Prayer: Lord be with us in our study, open our eyes and our ears that we may be emboldened to spread your love throughout the world. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.