This Lent we follow Jesus as he faces evil in the hours before his death. What is evil? Who is doing evil against Jesus during Passion Week? What are ways in which we are complicit in evil? Do we take evil seriously? As we experience evil in our own lives, discover how Jesus stands in the face of evil.
Invocation
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who delivers us from all evil.
Invitation Prayer
Lord Jesus, you suffered evil at the hands of the religious establishment. Priests accused you of blasphemy. In their trial Lord, you know the power of the evil foe. You endured his temptation in the wilderness for 40 days. Answer our prayer to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Keep us from the devil and his schemes. Guard us from the fiery arrows of satan. Grant us life by the power of our victorious King, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Word
Luke 22:26
”But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.”
Meditation: Outdated Definitions by Susan Becher Schultz
I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “success” lately. In the past, every piece of art I created, song I wrote, book I penned, poem I crafted, meant nothing if it didn’t bring me success. As I mentioned in the meditation I wrote last week, Lent is about juxtaposition. About light and darkness. About opposites. If what I created didn’t bring me success, then it meant the opposite. I was a failure. My work was useless.
In this verse I find myself staring, again, at opposites. Great should be like the youngest. One who rules should be like the one who serves. Jesus asks his disciples to lay down their ideas of what power looks like. To reframe all they’ve been taught about leadership and kingship.
I’ve been depressed the past few months, not able to connect with creativity as I once did. For a while, during COVID, it was a lifeline. It kept me afloat. I buried myself in it. I searched for success in it. But the success, according to the definition I attached to it, never came.
But a couple of weeks ago I opened the draft of the novel I wrote. The same one I sent to agents that never got picked up. And I couldn’t stop reading it. This frozen, broken, ashamed part of me shattered. I realized no amount of other people telling me how good it was, no matter where it could get published, mattered much to me anymore. I wrote every word of that book for me. Every part of myself showed up in those pages. All the parts that I’ve been afraid to look at, scared to acknowledge, horrified to share. They were there.
I think of Jesus at the table, watching the disciples squabble over who is the “greatest”. They can’t see past their own egos and need for success to what greatness really looks like. They are so blinded by limited views of power that don’t fully encompass all a true king can be. They are stuck with old definitions of a word Jesus completely redefines.
Success doesn’t mean the same to me as it did before. I’m creating less these days, but not because I see myself as a failure. I’m learning to slow it down and do it when I feel like it. To allow parts of me to show up and say what they need to say, whether or not someone else approves. I have stopped trying to prove that I deserve a spot at the table. This verse reminds me Jesus already made room for each of us; I don’t need to fight in order to prove that I’m great enough to be there.
Jesus, help us to recognize where we attach outdated definitions to ourselves and others. Thank you for being patient with us, even as we struggle to understand your words. Remind us of what true greatness looks like in this season as you suffer for the sake of all of us.
Sending
In the face of evil, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.