Sunday, November 10, 2013

We shall see God...

Today's readings: Job 19:23-27a; Psalm 171-9; 2Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38



This week’s lectionary readings appear have a theme of resurrection running through them. Job, in the midst of his troubles, holds out hope that justice will come his way, that his redeemer lives, and that he will one day see God with his own, physical eyes, in the flesh (Job 19:23-27). Sounds to us like Jesus and the resurrection.

However, it is unlikely that Job -- possibly the oldest book in the Bible -- would be looking forward to the coming of Jesus or the resurrection; it was not a common expectation at the time. He simply hoped that God would set things right for him.

Yet this does not mean that we do not read this passage in Job with hope. We, too, long for justice and for God to set things right, and this hope took leaps forward with the coming of Jesus and his death and resurrection.

So it is we who look back on this text in Job and make it our own by attaching specifically Christian meaning about Jesus and the resurrection. We have a Redeemer who lives and we hope for the resurrection of the body in the end. We will see God with our own, physical eyes, in the flesh.

And so, as Paul asks of the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 2:15), we stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we received: Jesus died, Jesus rose again, and so will we who trust in him, so we can all say, “...yet in my flesh I will see God.”

This week's readings: Malachi 4:1-2a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19

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