Week 24—Thursday Matthew 13:53-58
Matthew 13:53-58
AMAZING: “HAPPY IS THE MAN WHO
IS REPELLED BY NOTHING IN ME”
We pause for an additional comment on yesterday’s passage: “And happy is the man who does not find me a stumbling-block” (Luke 7:23, NEB) or as Moffatt puts it, “who is repelled by nothing in me,” or, “who takes no offense at me” (RSV). That is amazing. We usually think the other way round: “Blessed am I if people find nothing to be offended by in me.” Here Jesus says the opposite: “Blessed are you if you find nothing in me regarding which you can take exception.” For I am the Standard, and if you fit that Standard you are a blessed and happy person. Here is supreme arrogance or supreme authority speaking. And the ages have decided that it is supreme authority, for every departure from him turns out badly—always has and always will.
A passage along the same line is this one: “Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it’” (Luke 10:23-24). Here Jesus says that your eyes are blessed to see what you see. Your eyes have looked on the desire of the ages! We can say the same to ourselves. I do! I say to my eyes, “You are blessed eyes—you have looked on your Redeemer.” And to my feet, “You are blessed for you have walked with him for sixty years and have never found a misstep in him.” And to my heart, “You are blessed for you have known a love that does not disappoint.” And to my whole being, “You are blessed, for you have given yourself to One who knows you absolutely and yet loves you completely.” And I can say to the future, “Blessed are you, for you hold him and I cannot drift beyond his care. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” Blessed be life, for he makes it blessed! Everything is blessed, for he is Everything. Everything is blessed when it is seen and held in him.
O Jesus, my Everything, I hug myself in gratitude that I had sense enough to open to you when you knocked and wisdom enough to see amid the fog of things that this is It! My only regret is that I haven’t walked in all the Light I’ve seen. Forgive me. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: May no one be repelled by anything they see in me today!