URC Daily Devotion Friday 17 January 2025

St Luke 9: 43 – 45

While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples,  ‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’  But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Reflection

I feel sorry for the disciples. There’d been healings, crowds and the odd miracle; now the long promised Messiah was here let’s get on with the revolution!  Instead of joining in with it, Jesus doused their zeal.  Glory, it seems, is not found at the palace but on the Cross.  Power is seen not in armies or strength but in weakness and vulnerability.  The popular leader will be betrayed and not ascend to the throne. No wonder the disciples couldn’t understand and go on to argue about who was the greatest amongst them.  They’d just not understood.

There again in our world our leaders don’t understand it any better.  We’ve had a resignation from an archbishop whose apology for past failures seems mealy mouthed.  His Catholic counterpart endured far harsher safeguarding criticism but remained in office.  We’ve seen other bishops scramble to say how they haven’t done anything wrong.   Any sense of ministry as service, as a call to protect the vulnerable, speak the truth, or share the pain seems to be alien.  Instead we see Church leaders act as politicians adept at handling power, dealing with pesky complaints, joking about their privileges, and generally seeking to avoid pain.  

The leadership Jesus offers is different.  Clearly there are good days with healings, adoring crowds, and the occasional miracle but there’s the hard work too.  All his (and our) ministry is undertaken in the shadow of the Cross.  It’s too easy for us to see the Cross as a sign of victory – first it’s a place of pain, disgrace, torture, and vulnerable weakness.  Our redemption comes through that vulnerable weakness.  More – the world’s healing is found there too.  What, I wonder, would leadership look and feel like if those of us called to lead modelled this type of weakness?  What I wonder would it look like if our leaders shared our pain?  What, I wonder, would glory look like if it was seen in the dirt?

Prayer

God of weakness and tragedy,
God whose glory is found in the dirt of human life,
whose power is seen in vulnerability,
teach us to lead with integrity,
to reject power for its own sake,
and to seek only Your Kingdom
where the last are first, the hungry filled
and the rich sent empty away.  Amen