Monday of the Second Week in Lent
The Word made flesh. This is who we believe Jesus is. He, though intangible, entered into tangible reality. The mind that thought up toes could now wiggle and even stub his own! In doing so, Jesus exhibits an extraordinary ability to teach in tangible ways. He can break things down for us and give truly practical analogies. He teaches us both with his words and the way he uses them.
Take, for instance, our Gospel from Luke today. Jesus speaks of judgment, condemnation, and forgiveness. Scholars can spend pages upon pages writing about properly understanding judgment and what it meant to condemn someone in that day and age or about some nuance of forgiveness that we had never considered before. And all of this is good.
However, Jesus also makes sure that we get not only words with important meanings but also images with clear relatability. I know this is more our day than his, but I can clearly remember standing in line for ice cream at a local place and watching the employee scoop and shove the ice cream down into the cone and then go back for more and then shove some more on top of that. She handed it to me as I looked with wonder and fear at this supposed "1 scoop" mammoth. Wonder that their measure of one scoop looked to be about a pint of ice cream. Fear because I was about to hand that behemoth down to my five-year-old!
I know that is a trivial moment, but we also live in a time when gas stations are plastered with auditor stickers. Or you can imagine my feeling of betrayal when I realized that a 2x4 is not actually a full 2"x4". Now just because some things are regulated, we can still live in constant fear of being cheated. My six-year-old is constantly sizing up his cereal bowl vs his sisters'. I'm secretly racing my wife to ensure she doesn't eat more of the popcorn and we're all trying to get the most out of tax returns.
Jesus though tells us clearly, that we should not cheat in expectation of being cheated, but instead should give.
The Word made flesh. The Word that conceived of the universe as vast as our own. The Word that envisioned the transmission of life as the giving of life. The Word that achieved our salvation by the gift of his own life. He is the Word that asks us to give, and he sets a pretty high bar. May our generosity be formed by the generous gift of Jesus and may we communicate our faith in him, not only in beautiful, intelligible theology but in the simple real images of human existence.
- Spencer Hargadon