Space to write, space to create and space to let the spirit speak.
Write Now!
This blog started as a 'Lenten Writing Project', where we wrote each day in Lent. Now that Summer is here, let's keep up the discipline of writing with a weekly writing challenge! A prompt will be posted each week and anyone is welcome to join in and post their writing here or participate just by reading it.
Every writer has their own special light to add to this blog and all of your writing offerings are appreciated, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists or comments and encouragement.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Lenten Prompt #42
Which of Jesus' disciples do you most identify with and why OR which are you most fascinated by and why?
Luke 22:61 "And Jesus turned and looked at Peter..."
This is during the time when Peter had denied Jesus three times before Jesus was taken away to be crucified.
And Jesus turned and looked at Peter.
We can all identify with Peter. We all have the grandest of intentions to live righteously, to do better, to show the world and God that we can do what we have been called to do. And we all, eventually, will fail miserably in the attempt.
We cannot know what kind of look Jesus gave to Peter. Was it one of disappointment? hatred? resignation? Did Jesus look at Peter with a look that said, 'I knew you couldn't do it'? Or was it a look of understanding? forgiveness? or maybe it was a look of love. Pure, true, love.
This verse has always held an interest for me. Mostly because though we can imagine what actually happened between Peter and Jesus, we don't really know for sure.
We can surmise some things however. Peter was loyal, idealistic and committed to Jesus and his teachings. He was also human and imperfect. Jesus was understanding, forgiving and brutally honest with his disciples. He always told them the truth, no matter what. He knew what Peter would do. Peter heard but did not believe. Peter did not believe that he could fail his friend.
The look that passed between them...it was everything. The perfect man looking upon, with love and forgiveness, the imperfect man.
Tax collector to the Roman base Gospel writer for the human race
How did you change, Matthew? What did you learn? Your own faith journey, we little learn.
And yet you lead us through faithful times showing us Jesus’ rhythm and rhymes.
It’s you old Matthew that I’d like to greet but you point me to Jesus and it’s there, where we meet.
In the infant and child in the teacher and priest we find him and each other as we practice what he preached.
We find him and each other as we practice what he preached.
(Matthew and I both have, or had, financial professions. We're both accountants, bean counters. And we are both in our own way - me much less - but still - both writer's. I think that's an odd, or at least an unusual combination. I claimed Matthew long ago because of the accounting connection. But more and more I would love to meet this guy - someday. ..........On another note Bob Newhart was an accountant before he took up writing and comedy. Do you suppose Matthew had a sense of humor? I hope so - but I digress!)
In the church I went to growing up, there were pictures of all the disciples along the top of the conference room wall. Each picture showed the disciple as some representation of who they were – loving, questioning, etc. Then there was Judas - shadowy, sinister and looking out of the side of one slit eye. I have always been fascinated by Judas, yet hesitant to study his story. Maybe because I’ve been brought up that I shouldn’t. He was the “bad” one that we all should try to distance ourselves from and only think of with distain.
In the Bible, it says that Jesus called his 12 disciples, including Judas - and didn’t they all go out, preaching, healing and doing good works? Then, it says in the Bible that the devil that left Jesus in the wilderness with the words that he would be back did so and entered Judas. It seems the devil couldn’t get to Jesus, so he got to someone close to Jesus to betray him (for money) and ultimately lead to Judas’ desperate end of suicide and Jesus’ death on the cross.
However, I do not revile Judas. I look at him with sadness and compassion. He screwed up as much as someone can, really. As an imperfect person myself, I don’t know if I can put myself more righteous than him and what role I would have played in this story if I were alive and called at that time. Would I have misunderstood Jesus’ works – wanted to silence the upcoming momentum that seemed, at least perhaps to Judas, to be rolling in the wrong direction? Would I have betrayed Jesus? Become a vessel to let evil in? In distancing myself from Judas, I deny the Judas that is in me because I benefit from Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection, so the blood money is mine as well.
That is not the point of the story though. Because Jesus is not dead. Human-ifying the story and putting all the blame on Judas doesn’t focus on what is truly important. God. A forgiving God that is so much concentrated love, we can’t even fully fathom it. Easter is fraught with mystery for me – one that I will never understand fully until I am able to be with God myself after this life. I am sure that Judas will be there too though.
Easter is partly about turning the status quo - the way things have always been - on their head. What was dead has arisen and is not back to smite and judge, but to love and show that love wins. Seeing Judas healed and welcomed and loved by God is the God that I have faith in. And realizing that God loves and the light of that love is in all of us – even the most fearful, sinful and horrible, is a truth that is difficult to embrace.
“Come and follow me,”
ReplyDeleteJesus called and Peter came,
Discipled in faith.
“Peter, who am I?”
“You are Christ, the Son of God.”
“Blessed is your faith.”
Walking on water,
He saw wind, became afraid,
Cried out, “Save me, Lord.”
Fire in the courtyard.
“I do not know him,” Peter said.
The cock crowed three times.
Peter went and wept.
Jesus asks, “Do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord, I love you.”
That is golden. Great work : )
Deleteby Pat Mason
ReplyDeleteLuke 22:61 "And Jesus turned and looked at Peter..."
This is during the time when Peter had denied Jesus three times before Jesus was taken away to be crucified.
And Jesus turned and looked at Peter.
We can all identify with Peter. We all have the grandest of intentions to live righteously, to do better, to show the world and God that we can do what we have been called to do. And we all, eventually, will fail miserably in the attempt.
We cannot know what kind of look Jesus gave to Peter. Was it one of disappointment? hatred? resignation? Did Jesus look at Peter with a look that said, 'I knew you couldn't do it'?
Or was it a look of understanding? forgiveness? or maybe it was a look of love. Pure, true, love.
This verse has always held an interest for me. Mostly because though we can imagine what actually happened between Peter and Jesus, we don't really know for sure.
We can surmise some things however. Peter was loyal, idealistic and committed to Jesus and his teachings. He was also human and imperfect. Jesus was understanding, forgiving and brutally honest with his disciples. He always told them the truth, no matter what. He knew what Peter would do. Peter heard but did not believe. Peter did not believe that he could fail his friend.
The look that passed between them...it was everything. The perfect man looking upon, with love and forgiveness, the imperfect man.
And it is only the imperfect man who weeps.
Pat, I loved this! I never caught that line about the look between them. I can imagine so much...what a great perspective to that story : )
DeleteMatthew’s Gospel
ReplyDeleteTax collector
to the Roman base
Gospel writer
for the human race
How did you change, Matthew?
What did you learn?
Your own faith journey,
we little learn.
And yet you lead us
through faithful times
showing us Jesus’
rhythm and rhymes.
It’s you old Matthew
that I’d like to greet
but you point me to Jesus
and it’s there, where we meet.
In the infant and child
in the teacher and priest
we find him and each other
as we practice what he preached.
We find him and each other
as we practice what he preached.
(Matthew and I both have, or had, financial professions. We're both accountants, bean counters. And we are both in our own way - me much less - but still - both writer's. I think that's an odd, or at least an unusual combination. I claimed Matthew long ago because of the accounting connection. But more and more I would love to meet this guy - someday. ..........On another note Bob Newhart was an accountant before he took up writing and comedy. Do you suppose Matthew had a sense of humor? I hope so - but I digress!)
In the church I went to growing up, there were pictures of all the disciples along the top of the conference room wall. Each picture showed the disciple as some representation of who they were – loving, questioning, etc. Then there was Judas - shadowy, sinister and looking out of the side of one slit eye. I have always been fascinated by Judas, yet hesitant to study his story. Maybe because I’ve been brought up that I shouldn’t. He was the “bad” one that we all should try to distance ourselves from and only think of with distain.
ReplyDeleteIn the Bible, it says that Jesus called his 12 disciples, including Judas - and didn’t they all go out, preaching, healing and doing good works? Then, it says in the Bible that the devil that left Jesus in the wilderness with the words that he would be back did so and entered Judas. It seems the devil couldn’t get to Jesus, so he got to someone close to Jesus to betray him (for money) and ultimately lead to Judas’ desperate end of suicide and Jesus’ death on the cross.
However, I do not revile Judas. I look at him with sadness and compassion. He screwed up as much as someone can, really. As an imperfect person myself, I don’t know if I can put myself more righteous than him and what role I would have played in this story if I were alive and called at that time. Would I have misunderstood Jesus’ works – wanted to silence the upcoming momentum that seemed, at least perhaps to Judas, to be rolling in the wrong direction? Would I have betrayed Jesus? Become a vessel to let evil in? In distancing myself from Judas, I deny the Judas that is in me because I benefit from Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection, so the blood money is mine as well.
That is not the point of the story though. Because Jesus is not dead. Human-ifying the story and putting all the blame on Judas doesn’t focus on what is truly important. God. A forgiving God that is so much concentrated love, we can’t even fully fathom it. Easter is fraught with mystery for me – one that I will never understand fully until I am able to be with God myself after this life. I am sure that Judas will be there too though.
Easter is partly about turning the status quo - the way things have always been - on their head. What was dead has arisen and is not back to smite and judge, but to love and show that love wins. Seeing Judas healed and welcomed and loved by God is the God that I have faith in. And realizing that God loves and the light of that love is in all of us – even the most fearful, sinful and horrible, is a truth that is difficult to embrace.