Musings on the Daily Lectionary

There is a popular image of Jesus as meek, mild, and saccharin sweet. Certainly Jesus is loving and kind, but he can also be very demanding of those who follow him. "Let them deny themselves and take up their cross... For those who want to save their life will lose it." And then from today's gospel, "And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive... So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

Now it is likely that the term "worthless slaves" was less harsh to the ears of Jesus' first hearers than it is to ours. "Worthless" may here refer to a slave who is owed nothing and not be a value judgment on the person's character. But even so, there is nothing sweet and saccharin about what Jesus says.

One of the difficulties with following Jesus is the need to handle the paradox of Christian faith. On the one hand, God's grace is freely offered to us in Jesus. Forgiveness, wholeness, peace with God, and true community with others are ours for the receiving. But at the same time, followers of Jesus are called to live out Jesus' teachings, to do the will of God, to love Jesus more than family or life itself.

Most of us don't like paradoxes. We want to resolve them, usually by embracing one side of the paradox or the other. Some emphasize the obedience side of the Christian life. For them faith is primarily a matter of keeping the rules, remaining pure, walking the straight and narrow. Others emphasize the grace side. For them faith is primarily a matter of freely accepting God's love and offering it to others. And both these groups often see the other as perverting faith.

But as uncomfortable as paradoxes can be, resolving the faith paradox simply doesn't work. It cannot be grace or obedience, love or law. Somehow it must be both. May God help us live faithfully in the tension of this paradox.

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