Luke 5:17-39
Living in the north gives you a special appreciation for summer. Family barbeques, weekend camping trips, patio lunches – all for no other reason than the calendar, and especially the weather, have announced summer’s arrival. It’s funny how once the temperature outside reaches the slightly uncomfortable warmth of mid-June, we’re drawn to the great outdoors like flies.
The great outdoors. We eagerly abandon the comfortably temperature-controlled cool of our homes for the stifling, mosquito-infested heat of our yards. When you look at it that way, it sounds kind of foolish. So why do we do it? Maybe because we know what life was like before the heat. We remember all too well the tall drifts of snow where our patio table now sits. The driveway crusted with ice on which our kids now play. And the brown brittle lawn that's now green and soft, inviting bare feet and blankets. Everywhere we look we see sun screen, sun glasses, and sun burn. People enduring the heat. The bugs. The smelly mosquito repellant. And we happily sweat our way through yet another summer, all because we know that in just a few short months we won’t be able to. The warmth will be taken from us. Sounds similar to what Jesus was saying to the Pharisees in this reading.
The public ministry of Jesus was just gearing up as healing power was flowing through Him, and several men left everything to travel with Him. He healed the leper, raised the lame, and ate with the sinners. All the while, coming under stinging attack by many of the religious of His day. And when these Law-abiding citizens criticized His disciples for enjoying their time with Him, Jesus made an ominous comment that gave them pause.
Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Someday he will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. Luke 5:34, 35
Someday he will be taken away… Jesus wasn't going to be with them for long. Even though this was the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus knew that times hour-glass had been turned, and its sands were already mounting. The Groom will be gone. The Light of the World will go out. The warmth of the Son will grow cold. This was the plan of God. A season of mourning was necessary to usher in the radiance of new life. And that's exactly why Jesus came.
Yes, He was born on Christmas morning. And yes, He died on Good Friday. But don't let the story end there. There’s Easter Sunday too. The lifeless time of winter only lasted three days, and then summer was back. The Son had risen. New life was guaranteed.
Beautiful weather doesn’t last forever. We know that before long the flowers will die, the trees will go bare, and the earth will once again protect its roots with a blanket of snow. But our lives don't have to be that way.
Once the Son of God rises in a life, winter need never return.
