A Word from Joel - May 7, 2025

“‘We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.’ [Jesus] said to them,
‘Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”
 Luke 24:21, 26-27

Hope is a rare commodity these days. Between climate change and rising
authoritarianism, no one is selling hope in 2025, which is strange considering we are
living through the most prosperous, peaceful period ever, yet you’d never know it. We
are like Cleopas, the disciple who meets the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus and
doesn’t recognize him. Cleopas said, “We had hoped,” and Jesus will have none of it.
Jesus does not traffic in despair. He is hope personified. He knows better than we do
that suffering comes before glory, that setbacks are to be expected, and that failure is
never final.

In every great story, the conflict always seems insurmountable before the resolution.
Nevertheless, when it’s our story, we always seem to forget that. Jesus proceeds to
retell the story of God, “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to
them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” As someone who has studied the
scriptures my entire life, I would love to have listened to this. Though Luke gives us no
details, I think we have a good idea of what Jesus said. For Jesus the story of God is
his story, and Jesus’ story is one of liberation, in which he brings good news to the poor
and release to the captives. Jesus’ entire life is about God’s will being done on earth as
it is in heaven, and that means hungry people get fed. Sick people are made well,
enemies are loved, those on the margins are brought into the circle of God’s
compassion, and forgiveness knows no bounds. It’s a story of a God who is so
vulnerable that God willingly dies to free us from our addiction to violence. That’s the
story of Jesus, and it can be ours as well.

For Presbyterians, scripture is central. The Word of God is our authority, above any
human person or institution. Yet the scriptures don’t interpret themselves. The Bible was
used to justify slavery, and today it is being used to justify all kinds of oppression,
including patriarchy and Christian Nationalism. Saying the Word of God is central is
meaningless, unless that Word resembles the crucified and risen Christ who doesn’t
destroy his enemies but forgives them and loves them. The authority of scripture is the
authority of self-sacrificial, compassionate, nonviolent, universal love, a love that warms
the hearts of those in despair. The good news is that the risen Christ dwells in our midst,
even when we don’t recognize him. To see him, our eyes must be opened to the
vulnerable God who like a mother willingly breaks her body to give us life. That’s where
we can see resurrection in our world, in relationships of mutual love.