The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son (Matt. 17)

[Psalm 104]

We live in a day when many look at the suffering in this world and they wonder, “How can there be a good and loving God?”

We also live in a day that is horribly calloused to the suffering around us! Nursing homes and hospice facilities are full of lonely, dying people. Then again, so are apartment complexes and neighborhoods.

Our economy encourages us to fragment – to pursue our education and follow our employment all over the country, or all over the world – so that we are isolated and detached from our family.

We have been brainwashed into thinking that we don’t want to be a burden to others – which, of course, really means that we don’t want anyone else to be a burden to us.

We don’t want to “deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.”

Over the last few weeks, I kept hearing people say, “I’ve never seen a church take such good care of a dying man.” And I kept thinking to myself – “We’re not really doing a very good job. Why are all these people surprised? What has become “normal”?”

Instead of “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me,” the new normal is “please yourself, take up your hobbies, and follow your dreams.”

Lonely old people are a nuisance – until you become one yourself.

In the coming chapters of Matthew’s gospel Jesus will begin to describe the new community that he is building around himself. But first, Jesus establishes a “new normal...”