Advent Devotions

Today’s author is Prince of Peace’s Intentional Interim, Pastor Steve Sylvester.

Water into wine.  Nice!

Sick boy gets well.  Heartwarming!

Blind man sees.  Colors abound!

Lame man walks.  Skip to my Lou!

Dead man comes to life.  Mic drop. 

Dead man comes to life.  This was the one.  No possibility of thinking it was smoke and mirrors or card tricks.  No, “Were you REALLY born blind?” or “The kid had a fever?  Big deal!”  This was the one that made people want to sign up and follow Jesus.  It was also the one that made people want to kill him (and Lazarus too, by the way).

You’re invited to see the power struggle.  That’s our theme during the season of Lent.  Jesus is using his power to bring life from death.  That’s a good thing, right?  But power is an odd thing.  Sometimes we simply want power for its own sake, so we grab at it and do anything required to keep it.  Sometimes there is something specific we want to do, and we can’t do it without power, so we go all in.  To put it even more bluntly, it is our tendency to be curved in upon ourselves, to make decisions and seek things that are to our benefit, even at the expense of others or God’s good creation.

Throughout this season of Lent, we will be considering the power struggle between Jesus and those who opposed him.  And in some cases, it wasn’t even that they opposed Jesus, it was just that his agenda was not their agenda.  Pilate and Caiaphas the High Priest might have been in this group, as they were not so much against the good Jesus was doing as they were alarmed by the possibility that the goodwill he was garnering might negatively boomerang back on them.

Power—the ability to act—is a simple thing.  It is also the most seductive of things.  There is not a lot we can do without power, and if we have power, and amass more, there is little we cannot do.  As we make our way through this season, take note how Jesus treats power, how he pursues it, or doesn’t, and what he does with it.  Take note too how others in the story of John’s Gospel chase after and use power.  Those things will tell us a lot, about Jesus and about ourselves.