Today’s
Scripture Reading (April 21, 2012): Job 42
Maybe one of the harder verses of the Bible is John 20:23. In this verse
Jesus seems to say that the possibility of forgiveness for our race lays at our
feet. If we forgive, then it seems that God will forgive, but when we refuse to
forgive, those that stand in need of forgiveness remain unforgiven. And that
seems to be a lot to lay at our feet – after all, forgiveness is hard.
But on the other hand, if we don’t forgive the people around us, then
how will they know that they have been forgiven. The old phrase is that I need
to be Jesus with skin on. And as part of the physical body of Christ I need to
show the forgiveness of God off to the world. And it is what God requires of
me. I need to love and I need to forgive – no matter how difficult that task might
be.
So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the first task Job is given as
his ordeal is ending is that of praying for his friends. He requested mercy for
friends, and in the process he received mercy for himself. And maybe that is
one of the hardest things that we need to learn.
There is a line in a song that rings true from an unlikely source. Billy
Joel wrote it in “Only the Good Die Young.” Talking about Virginia’s mother the
line goes Ah!
She never cared for me. But did she ever say a prayer for me? Forgiveness and prayer for the
world around us, even the parts of the world that we don’t agree with, are
still what is required of us. And as Christians, that is what our rhetoric should
reflect.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Genesis 23
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