Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Lenten Reading for Wednesday, Third Week in Lent
Today's reading is taken from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 22, verses 66-70:
Jesus and God had other plans, other ideas for the world. They didn't want a world where people worshiped the King, but where God ruled from the throne of every human heart. Jesus couldn't answer the questions of the Sanhedrin because they weren't capable of understanding what he was really talking about. In fact, they'd proved that by bringing him to this secret trial. He'd spoken publicly in the Temple for many days and they'd heard him give sermons on the Torah.
My favorite phrase here is Jesus' "From this time on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Power of God." This is a phrase that can help give us deeper insight into Jesus' true nature. I would recomend using this phrase as a focus for a centering prayer session. Open your heart to what Jesus is saying here, and deeper insights are bound to be made clear.
When day came the elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes, and they brought him before their Sanhedrin. They said, "If you are the Christ, tell us," but he replied to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I question, you will not respond. But from this time on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God."Here we have scriptural evidence of the ancient question of Jesus' true paternity. Was it divine, or was he Joseph's son? This is a question which plagued Christianity from its very earliest days. It is a question which was silenced for many centuries, but which has arrisen again in the popular dialogue because of the popularity of The Da Vinci Code. It is interesting to see that in this passage, when challenged directly about the nature of his divinity, Jesus answers that it doesn't matter what he says becuase they aren't going to listen to him anyway. The word used Luke (in Greek) is Christos (The Annointed), but the Hebrew word the Sanhedrin would have used, Messiah, had different implications then than we as Christians give to it today. Messiah was like God's embassador to Earth. The Messiah would be a temporal ruler, like King David, who ruled and spoke as God. This was a vision modeled after the Pharaohs of Egypt... God and King, Messiah, Pharaoh is Horus.
They all asked him, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied to them, "You say that I am."
Jesus and God had other plans, other ideas for the world. They didn't want a world where people worshiped the King, but where God ruled from the throne of every human heart. Jesus couldn't answer the questions of the Sanhedrin because they weren't capable of understanding what he was really talking about. In fact, they'd proved that by bringing him to this secret trial. He'd spoken publicly in the Temple for many days and they'd heard him give sermons on the Torah.
My favorite phrase here is Jesus' "From this time on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Power of God." This is a phrase that can help give us deeper insight into Jesus' true nature. I would recomend using this phrase as a focus for a centering prayer session. Open your heart to what Jesus is saying here, and deeper insights are bound to be made clear.
