Psalm Reflection: The Presentation of the Lord (Cycle A)

“Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!” - Psalm 24

How would you describe Jesus to another person who had never heard anything about Him before?

What adjectives and qualities would you use to convey the importance of who is He to them?

I think too often we use comfortable and relatable words like “friend” and “teacher” to describe Jesus instead of the uncomfortable truth of who He really is.

Jesus did not come to make us comfortable. He came to turn our world upside-down. He brought life through death. He brought victory out of defeat. He reconciled what we could not reconcile. And He did it in a radical way after living a radical life.

Jesus was, above all, our Savior, offering Himself as an eternal sacrifice for our sins. He was a rebel, preaching against the hypocrisy of those in power. He was a criminal who  went against Jewish rituals and laws to bring about the fulfillment of the law, resulting in His execution by capital punishment. He was an exorcist who drove out demons and a healer who instantly cured the incurable.

He was not a comfortable or cookie-cutter person. He was not the stoic and serene figure you see in most religious art and images. He was wild and unpredictable, and yet had such love and tenderness, especially for those who were most vulnerable. 

And the crazy thing is that He wants to be those same things to you, and work in those same ways through you. He still needs us to rebel against tyranny and hypocrisy. He still wants to heal and drive out demons from us and through us. 

When we make Jesus too comfortable, we only let Him do comfortable and easy things in our lives. We limit how we allow Him to work. He wants to do so much more.

What if? What if this week you let Jesus loose in your life and let Him do whatever He desired to do in and through you? I know that is so much easier said than done, but I challenge you to listen for His voice this week and to say “YES!” to whatever He prompts you to say or do, as uncomfortable as it may be. You will find that you have probably only scratched the surface of how you are capable of being used by Him.

We are praying for you this week. See you in the Eucharist.