Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Sometimes when I am ‘down and out,’ it’s completely unfair- someone else did something wrong, and I have to pay the price. Today’s readings are for those times when the opposite is true: when I dug a hole and fell into it.
When is the last time you were been in the hole because of your own actions, feeling helpless and foolish? Has it been a while? Or are you ‘in deep’ right now?
In our first reading, Azariah and his nation are in deep. They’ve been brought low, and they only have themselves to blame for it. They have sinned. God warned the people that their actions would bring bad consequences, and the people didn’t listen. Azariah knows God’s mercy is the only way out. His earnest prayers show it.
When you’re in deep, do your prayers sound like Azariah’s? Do you admit wrong, ask for forgiveness, and remember that God’s power to put your life back together is greater than your power to mess it up? Do you let God change the kind of person you are today? What a good and powerful prayer!
In today’s gospel, Jesus is telling a story of another person who is ‘in deep.’ The wicked servant begs for his master to be patient with him, and makes an impossible promise to pay back everything he owes. We pray this way sometimes, don’t we? ‘God, I know I’ve sinned, but I promise to make it up with more goodness!’ It’s an easy temptation during Lent. Look at the difference between Azariah and the servant: Azariah knows only God’s power will solve it; the servant just wants more time to fix it on his own. Azariah remembers what he and his nation did wrong; the servant just cries and never admits he messed up. Azariah urges the nation to follow God’s ways with their whole heart; the servant treats his debtor the opposite of the way his master treated him.
Our sins are real. Our mistakes have left us with an impossible debt. They’re bigger than us, but they’re smaller than Jesus’s power to save and heal. Let us call out to God, with a prayer modeled after Azariah’s. And when we encounter people who are messing things up, let us be merciful, as our Heavenly Father is merciful. Amen1
-Chris Nieport