MONDAY, July 21 Matthew 26:45. Are you still sleeping? This is a terrible passage, one of the most painful in the Bible. Its description of Jesus’ agony is much more evocative for me than accounts of the crucifixion. That may be because I have been really frightened and full of dread, but I have never been nailed to a cross. I can identify with this story, and it is not a comfortable association. It may be enough today to enter the mind and heart of Christ and feel what he must have felt. It is a part of the Passion to which we all have some access. If that route is unappealing, one might wonder how the story came to be told. The disciples were the sources for the gospel writers, but the disciples were asleep while all of this was going on. Or were they? Either Jesus told them the story during a resurrection appearance or the disciples observed his agony and were falsely accused of slacking. In either case, the story was told in all of its terrible detail without any attempt to clean it up. Jesus was really frightened, and, fairly or unfairly, accused the disciples of letting him down. That is life, and the gospel does not pretend otherwise. PRAY for the Diocese of Egbu (Owerri, Nigeria) From ForwardMovement.org
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:07:20 +0000
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