Day 2: Matthew 10-15
How does a story like the beheading of John the Baptist make it into the Bible. It is horrifying, it is pure wickedness and it is so absurd that it could be fiction.
[Herod] sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. (Matthew 14:10-11)
What happens next is, perhaps, often overlooked or viewed without much consideration of the human emotion surrounding a tragic death.
And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. (14:12)
That's the end of the segment in my Bible. It would appear that we aren't told about Jesus' reaction. We aren't even certain about the personal relationship between Jesus and John. But the next segment, I believe, gives us a glimpse of Jesus' heart.
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. (14:13)
It appears to me that Jesus is grieving. That He is searching for solitude and a place to mourn. For prayers, for tears, for contemplation, maybe even for remembering. But despite his search for quiet, the people follow. Full of compassion He ministers to them all day, feeds 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish and then:
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone... (14:22)
We often hear about Jesus' discipline to go away by himself and pray. We are reminded to invest in our relationship with God, to prioritize time together and even to carve out time at odd hours of the day as Jesus did. This is how the message is usually preached and this is the challenge we are given.
Of course, all of those things are true, but the scope of the day's reading allowed me to see these two scenes are not separate from one another. And I realized that, in addition to the Jesus-God relationship that Jesus was pursuing, He was also mourning. And He knew where to go for comfort.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
[Herod] sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. (Matthew 14:10-11)
What happens next is, perhaps, often overlooked or viewed without much consideration of the human emotion surrounding a tragic death.
And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. (14:12)
That's the end of the segment in my Bible. It would appear that we aren't told about Jesus' reaction. We aren't even certain about the personal relationship between Jesus and John. But the next segment, I believe, gives us a glimpse of Jesus' heart.
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. (14:13)
It appears to me that Jesus is grieving. That He is searching for solitude and a place to mourn. For prayers, for tears, for contemplation, maybe even for remembering. But despite his search for quiet, the people follow. Full of compassion He ministers to them all day, feeds 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish and then:
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone... (14:22)
We often hear about Jesus' discipline to go away by himself and pray. We are reminded to invest in our relationship with God, to prioritize time together and even to carve out time at odd hours of the day as Jesus did. This is how the message is usually preached and this is the challenge we are given.
Of course, all of those things are true, but the scope of the day's reading allowed me to see these two scenes are not separate from one another. And I realized that, in addition to the Jesus-God relationship that Jesus was pursuing, He was also mourning. And He knew where to go for comfort.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Comments