Lent Day 34: Thankful for sorrows

Jacopo Tintoretto - The Ascent to Calvary

I'm reading the familiar passage of Jesus wounded for us. The last week of Lent is coming and I'll be reading the gospels at least once more before Easter. I am astonished again by the love of Christ, his perseverance, and his focus on his Father's pleasure. No matter how intense the pressure to get distracted, no matter how oblivious his followers to his warnings of the cross ahead ... Jesus kept moving toward the cross.

If we had no sorrows or pains to bear, would we be as grateful that He paid the debt and lifted the burden of sin and hurt from us?

A speaker at NU reported on the view of China's government officials, that the United States was blessed because it followed Christian principles. They see the decline of America as a consequence of abandoning those values.

Yet we seem blind. We are full. So sated with our perception of "the good life" that we forget the Man of Sorrows. We are surprised and angry at any grief or hardship.

Outsiders often see what a culture misses. May we return to the cross and its wealth of pain and suffering this week––with grateful hearts that love God and love others as ourselves, no matter what the circumstances.Read more:

*He is despised and rejected by men,  

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5 NKJV

*Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Psalm 105:3

*Why do you look for the living among the dead? Luke 24:5 

Moravian Prayer: Blessed Savior, hear our prayer of rejoicing for your gift of the promise of new life. Let us learn to trust in your path and lighten our hearts with joy. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 

Inconvenient life

So, here we have Joseph.

He's a normal, all-around nice guy with a small construction shop in an obscure town. Nazareth, to be exact.

He's not exactly looking for trouble. He's got a sweet fiance who will make a good wife. Everyone likes her, and she gets along with other people. Life should be peaceful.

Except that Mary sends him a message that's really bad news. "I'm pregnant." His night visitor tells him not to be afraid - his wife-to-be is expecting God. God-with-us, Immanuel.

What? No one asked Joseph for permission to turn his world upside down. His dream of a quiet life shatters. To top it off, the census is due, and the highly-pregnant Mary and Joseph have to trek to Bethlehem with fellow villagers. It's not an easy trip, at least a few days walk.

Joseph doesn't know that he won't return to Nazareth for a few years. The rage of Herod against Joseph's son will cause the massacre of infants and toddlers around Bethlehem, hardly something to endear Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to the place. They will have fled from their country to live among stranger where the language, food, and surroundings are unfamiliar. 

Egypt. The place his people left years ago. Going backward, not forward, it may have seemed to Joseph.

We don't always choose the path by which God works in the world. Sometimes we seems to be regressing to where we thought we'd never go. 

Somehow, Joseph put one foot in front of the other in his inconvenient life. He seems to have died before Jesus reached adulthood, but from the tender care Jesus later exhibited to others--including his mom--there must have been a lot of love at home.

What diversions are driving you crazy? What detours seem hard to bear? Let's wait, watch, and work like Joseph to bring the Savior's love to those around us.

Read more:
*And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
 
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:1-7  KJV

Thank you Moravians: 
 Psalm 143:1-6 Micah 3:8-5:15; Revelation 12:18-13:10

All the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord,
because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Ezra 3:11

No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid;
that foundation is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11

Prayer: O Rock of Ages, we cling to you. When we fall on slippery slopes we
create for ourselves, your foundation is always there to provide for us
a safe place to land. All glory in Jesus Christ. Amen.