As Christians reflect during this time of lent, I would like to invite all followers of Christ to come on a journey of imagination with me through Matthew 20:17-28.
Imagine being Jesus, knowing what lies ahead of us in Jerusalem and let’s try to answer the question, ‘why was Jesus so determined to face those atrocious acts?’ Mark’s account of this story tells us that the disciples were amazed and those who followed were afraid, whilst Luke thought the idea was incomprehensible to them. Should we be as eager as Jesus to confront our world’s problems? What about the disciple’s reactions? Would we have done any different? One would argue that Jesus was the shaken one in this story but instead we found out the disciples and others who followed were the ones clearly shaken. Was it because they could not get over the fear barrier?What barriers do we have in our paths today and how can we get over them? Maybe wealth, or our security? We saw in preceding stories of the rich man and ruler in Mark and Luke respectively. Whilst Matthew told us about the request made by James and John which Jesus was not able to grant what does these say to us? Perhaps, its not wealth or security for us but tiny or insignificant things seemingly could be our barriers and are we tempted sometimes to ask questions which are impossible to answer.
Whatever the issue might be, we saw in the reading Jesus matched on to the cross with love and hope and thereby bringing healing to the nations.
So let us go out into the world with the determination of Jesus into our mission to spread the gospel with love and hope, be resolute to soar over all barriers that our world presents and in the name of Jesus nations will be healed, Amen.
Foday Kamara
Lees Street Congregational Church, Higher Openshaw, Manchester
