LENTEN READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

DAY 4

Reading: Matthew 20:1-24:51

Jesus had a very unsuccessful ministry. In the end he lost most of his followers.

Think about the stories of rejection he tells in Matthew 20-24.

The Vineyard Owner's messengers are killed by the vineyard workers. They even kill his Son. The master of the banquet, and the banquet itself, is despised by the invited guests. The capstone is rejected by the workers.

But Jesus is far more concrete in this section and leaves off parables for predictive prophesy. He says, “ We are going up to Jerusalem , and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified." (Matthew 20:18-19)

I don't know that his disciples ever really heard him or understood what he meant when he spoke of rejection until the night he was arrested and they themselves were among those deserting and rejecting.

Up to that point they'd been busy arguing about who would be enthroned next to Jesus in Jerusalem after they'd booted the Romans.

Well it didn't happen that way. Jesus was rejected and crucified and his followers scattered like sheep without a Shepherd.

In three years Jesus went from the most popular preacher in all of Palestine to the most despised.

But what the world missed and what his followers at first failed to see (and only realized three days later) is that it was in his rejection and death, his suffering servitude, that God won the victory. Jesus would not have risen, had he not died first. His death destroyed death so that in his rising he would never die again.

And if you are in him, you will not die either.

Oh, your body will probably die, unless Jesus returns first, but you will not. You will live forever, at first in your spirit and then, once again, in your body.

But the process of death and resurrection is not just something that we wait for. It is something we believers must endure here and now.

We fail. We fall. We do not always win. Sometimes we suffer and suffer greatly. And in those times it is so very easy to wonder why; to question the Father's love for us.

But what we fail to see is that God always brings new life out of death. He permits us to go to the cross, calls us to it in fact, because it is only by bearing it and suffering that we learn to truly live.

Paul puts it this way. “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

When you are rejected or suffer the loss something or someone you depend on in this world, hear in that loss God's call to cling to Christ. God is building perseverance into your soul, and character. He wants to set your heart and your hope on Christ alone.

And if Christ is your hope then hope will always be with you. Nothing can take it away because nothing on this earth or in heaven or under the earth can ever separate you from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the life God wants you to live; a life of joy and hope resting on and cleaving to the One who will never leave you or forsake you.

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