Juggling

14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” 

17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Matthew 17:14–18

How are you at juggling? I can’t do it. To be honest, I’ve never really tried and I’m not really minded to. I don’t trust circus things… Don’t think I’ll try and unpack that.

I don’t rekon our world is good at juggling either. What I mean is, holding things in the air together, in tension. It’s either one thing or the other. You either hate something or you love it. Something is either wrong or it’s right.

Jesus, though, holds some things in tension. Like this passage. People are often surprised by Jesus’ words. Seems a bit harsh. Doesn’t God so love the world? Yeah he does. But that doesn’t mean he also doesn’t hate it.

Just like you actually. Some days, you hate the world. You see everything that’s wrong with it. Earth can be a very dark place. Other times, however, you love it. It’s beautiful, people are wonderful and you can’t imagine why God would want to make all things new.

Jesus holds these two realities in tension. This world is a mess, it’s a broken creation. It’s full of sin and evil and wrong. But… God so loved the world. God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit also love their creation and their people. So much so that Jesus came to save unbelieving and perverse generations of people.

So how should we think about this world and its people. We hold it in tension. We should hate what is wrong with the world (including our own sins). But we also love as Jesus loved, desiring for sinful/broken people to be saved.

Today:

Pray: