TUESDAY 4.4.23: Keep the Faith – Luke 20:41-21:28
For Jesus, true worth lay in people like the humble widow, whose tiny gift only he saw. And worse lay ahead—the end of the Temple, where devout Jews met God. Great hardship and suffering would follow. It all happened—Rome destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. Despite this world’s sad state, Jesus urged his listeners to keep faith whatever came. He told them, “Don’t be alarmed . . .raise your heads, because your redemption is near” (21:9, 28).
Reflection
• The Covid-19 pandemic did more harm than most of us could have dreamed. To Jesus’ hearers, the Temple’s destruction sounded just that incredible. Jesus told his people to hold to faith even when that happened because their “redemption was near” (verse 28). How can trusting that God is near help you not to “faint from fear,” but hold your head up even in times of pandemic or war?
• Life in a broken world gets tough. Scholar N. T. Wright said, “This is what it’s about: not an exciting battle, with adrenalin flowing and banners flying, but the steady tread, of prayer and hope and scripture and sacrament and witness, day by day and week by week.” 1 In what ways can you sustain the “steady tread” of your faith journey even through personal or world crises? What models of patient, steady faith can you draw on?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to trust you even when life gets hard. Give me the strength and patience I need to deal with life’s struggles, the ones I am facing now and any others in the future. Amen.
1N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 260.