Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Dedicated to God
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tuesday of Third Week of Lent
Hebrews 10:8-10
First Jesus says, “Sin offerings you do not delight in.” These are offered according to the law. Then Jesus says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. By this “will,” we have been consecrated.
Jesus said he did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. But what did he mean?
Because in Eden we chose to take from the tree of knowledge rather than waiting to be given from the tree of life, the fruit of that tree became the core around which our lives were formed. It was called “the law.” This was unsatisfying for everyone, including God the father, who wants us to have the tree of life.
Adam failed to do God’s will, and Jesus came to repair that damage. He would show us what is even more central than the law. The tree of knowledge has great value, but Jesus sees that it is no longer the basis of everything. What Genesis calls “life” is at the center.
Death seems to throw a wrench into this. Life … ends. At the center of life is death. Jesus points a new Way, where at the center of death is life.
From the Apostles’ Creed: “Jesus was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell.” There, as he probed death for its weakness, he discovered what he already knew: that life was even more central than death. This is how God does things, never satisfied with our pallid ideas and always yearning on our part for life.
The Creed continues, “The third day he rose again from the dead.” This revolutionized religion, making it the only way to live. No longer just a palliative to soften the blow of death; it became a path into the center of death, which turned out to be life.
Jesus’ physical death on the cross was one thing; the death we must undergo to kill our self-made identities is quite another. Regardless, Jesus “took away the first to establish the second,” and we participate in this: through Jesus’ obedience we have been consecrated, which by definition means we have been “dedicated with intensive force to God.”
According to the church calendar, this day is the celebration of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary of the coming birth of Jesus, and Mary’s acceptance. Her words have lifted us into our own obedience and humility ever since. “May it be unto me according to thy word.” And as we die, finally we live.
We bow before you, God, and call you Lord. We feel your arms and call you Father. We are thrown headlong toward each other loving and unafraid, and call you Holy Spirit. God you are the center of all centers, and only in you do we live. You turn us always toward your blessing, one day at a time.
http://christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1254
