Extraordinary Things (Luke 5:26)

 


Friday, February 14, 2025


Psalms 108; 109:20-30

Genesis 26:1-17

Luke 5:12-26


Observance: Cyril (d. 869) and Methodius, bishop (d. 885) missionaries to the Slavs


Extraordinary Things (Luke 5:26)


Wondering is a most joyful Christian pastime. We have our Scriptures; we have our Common Prayers; we have our liturgy; we have our welfare ministries; we have our fellowship. All these aspects of the Christian life contain within them that spiritual sweetness that whispers of the heavenly glory yet to come. But wondering is probably the closest we can get to the eternal things on this side of the veil. It opens our spirit to the Holy Spirit, to reflect on what we know and what we think we know, to consider all the works of our hands and the attitude of our soul, to lay bare our love and wait for the vessel to be filled to overflowing. A wonderful point on which to wonder is the fact that Jesus “would withdraw to desolate places and pray”.


Surrounded by the bustle of the crowds, of bringing about healing and life to his beloved creation, was surely a source of great fun for Jesus. He was God incarnate; he was upholding this universe by the word of his power, and he was now in it in the flesh, bringing about the kingdom of heaven on earth. But he would also withdraw to desolate places and pray. Of these times, we have little information: what happened when he withdrew, we wonder?


We know of his gentleness towards sinners, not least from yesterday’s episode with Simon and the fish. We know of his healing power, as today’s episode with the man on the mat teaches. We know of his wisdom, and how confident in displaying his wisdom publicly, from his conversation with the scribes and the Pharisees. Yet I wonder: how did this affect Jesus personally? What was the emotional response of the God-man after a busy day of bringing about the Lord’s favour? What kind of conversation happens between the Son of God, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit of God, when the Son withdraws to desolate places and prays? Every day was filled with God’s direct blessing on his people – how did God feel about it?


The crowd were seized with amazement, glorified God and were filled with awe, saying “We have seen extraordinary things today.” When we finish today, we will have seen something extraordinary from God. Joy is “the gigantic secret of the Christian” (G. K. Chesteron, Orthodoxy). What will be the tone of your prayers after such an amazing day?


Jesus, Son of Mary, Son of God, source of all joy: give us a deeper power in our private prayer, so that we may rejoice with you at all the extraordinary things you do for us every day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday, July 25, 2022

  Monday, July 25, 2022 Psalm 62; 63 Hosea 1 Romans 4:1-12 He only is my rock and my salvation: my strong tower, so that I shall not be moved. The prophecies of Hosea are rich with vivid imagery. Look at these names: firstly, “Hosea” means “salvation”. So too do the names Joshua and Jesus. Then Hosea has three children: “God scatters”, “Not pitied”, and “Not my people”. This is because the children are part of the marriage between Hosea and Gomer, which is an image God is showing to the nation. It is to our profit that God has used real-life events to communicate spiritual imagery and divine truths. We find it very easy to understand our relationship with God as being a faithful wife to a loving husband. We can reconcile this message with what Paul has to teach us today in Romans. He makes the very important observation that Abraham was given God's righteousness as a result of his faith before, not after, his circumcision. Again, this is God using real-life events...
Read more

Reliable Witnesses (Isaiah 8:2)

Image
  Tuesday, December 10, 2024 Psalms 76; 82 Isaiah 7:18-8:4 Mark 7:1-23 Reliable Witnesses (Isaiah 8:2) A virtue that I am sure everyone will agree with is to speak the truth. No-one likes a liar, and they are soon found out, and when they are, great is the collapse. Today, Isaiah is making sure that everyone understands that his prophecies do indeed come from God. And so, he collects a couple of reliable witnesses so that when what he prophecies comes to pass, everyone will know he was speaking the truth. We have a more insidious attempt at lying floating around us today in matters of religion and spirituality. It concerns the truth of God: of who he is, and what he likes. For those of us who read our Bibles and pray to Holy Spirit to reveal its meaning to us, we gain an understanding of God. Of course, God is infinite, and we will spend not only this life, but our eternal life always learning more and more about God. But still, God wants to make himself kno...
Read more

But You, Take Courage! (2 Chronicles 15:7)

Image
  Saturday, June 29, 2024 Psalm 145 2 Chronicles 15 James 5 Observance: Peter and Paul, apostles and martyrs But You, Take Courage! (2 Chronicles 15:7) Let’s take a quick moment to remember what the overall intention of the books of Chronicles are. They were written at a time when the Jews were really battered and hard done by; when the exiles were returning from Babylon and rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and the temple. When they needed a bit of encouragement from their history to remind them of the big picture. It can feel like the words of the prophets are always about doom and gloom. The three big ones, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, certainly have a lot of hard words to read. But here in Chronicles we have the words of God through the prophet Azariah, and they are very encouraging. He tells us that the Lord is with us when we are with him. If we seek him, he will be found by us. St James tells us to take courage from the example of the pr...
Read more