Last week my kids had a nasty stomach bug and it caught up to me Saturday night. I preached Palm Sunday at a combined service with our friends at the United Methodist Church in Watertown so I had to pick up some medication to help me out. The clerk's name was Hillel, so I had to speak up. "Your name means 'praise', right?" Well he light up with surprise and launched into an animated discussion. He asked if I was going to a Seder this week ( I was wearing a collar) and I told him no, as a Christian I believed that the final Paschal Lamb, Jesus, had been slaughtered for all time.
But I asked him if he could tell me about the Matzoh Tosh and the Afikomen used at the Seder. Oh, he said, that's just to keep the kids busy. I told him I had heard it taught that it was representative of Jesus but the conversation went on. So I asked if he burned the leaven in his house since he told he was Orthodox. Oh yes! But we "sell" our bread to the Rabbi who "sells" it to Gentiles. We give him money like we sell it to him and no longer own it but he just holds onto the down payment and doesn't take it to the bank. We keep the bread in our homes and just cover it with a cloth. After the Passover we buy it back.
Perhaps it was because I was so ill, or that the Lord shut my mouth but I kept quite. It just seemed like such a loop hole!
And today, as we enter into the second day of Holy Week, we see that the Holy Spirit is exposing the loopholes in all our lives. God has revealed Himself to us Gentiles and made us his vehicle to spread abroad his message of reconciliation (Ps 71:1-14). He has purposely chosen a ridiculously scandalous message (1 Cor 1:18-31) so that trust will be the mark of his disciples. And when we are asked by the world to prove God we are left with one picture and one picture alone; the Cross. Our sin and need for help is the only story we have.
So while I secretly laughed at the hypocrisy of Hillel hiding his leaven under napkins as if God couldn't see through it, I was reminded of how we all use napkins to cover the leaven (sin) in our lives. Yet God in his mercy never says "silly little man, I can see under your napkin!" but rather claims "I have a more perfect and complete covering for you, the blood of my Only Son, Jesus"
So Father, we join the request of the Greeks who found Philip and asked to see Jesus. As we enter into Holy Week, be kind and show us that we do not need to hide our sin and how futile our attempts have been. Show us Jesus, for Jesus does not cover, but blots out and causes you to not even remember we had leaven in our house. Master, give us grace to not buy back our Leaven (sin) after Holy Week for you paid for it with your life and that is a cost that cannot be taken back. You did so willingly, and not out of compulsion. May that fact drive our lives closer to your will.
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Great meditation!
ReplyDeletethank you Fr. Allen. Thankful the Lord spoke
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDelete