Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, April 6, 2025
by Rev. Dr. Miles Hopgood, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: At its heart, faith is something earnest. We may struggle with the embarrassment that comes from confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, but here Jesus shows us that no amount of ridicule will restrain his love for us.
In his poem titled, “An Embarrassment,” Wendell Berry writes: “If a lonely soul / did ever cry out / in company its true / outcry to God, / it would be as though / at a sedate party / a man suddenly / removed his clothes / and took his wife / passionately into his arms.”[1] Berry’s imagery captures well the embarrassing dimension of faith on display in these encounters of Jesus. First the blind man creates a scene. He cries out in the street and refuses to be silent when he is hushed. In fact, he gets even louder! So too, Zacchaeus calls attention to his diminished stature by climbing a tree. When everyone grumbles about Jesus’s self-invite to dinner, Zacchaeus doubles down by promising then and there to give away half of everything and atone for his misdeeds four times over.
Strictly speaking, public ridicule is not a necessary component of faith, but the willingness of the beggar and Zacchaeus to endure ridicule tells us something of what faith is like. These two show us that faith is earnest to the point embarrassment, springing from a deep need that looks to nothing except the one who it trusts will act to help. In so doing, faith cannot help but bear witness. Note, however, what these two are not doing when they express their faith publicly. Neither is interested in putting on a show, nor are they trying to proselytize or convert any around them. No, their words are motivated by their own needs—the first for healing, the second for forgiveness—and directed solely at Jesus. While there is a quality of witnessing at work here, it is the sort that arises from our honesty about ourselves rather than our (judgmental) evaluations of others.
Imagine what it would look like if we were to speak as openly about our needs as these do and confess with such confidence that in Christ we have a God who is attentive to them. To a world that trains people to hide their weakness and shame, such honesty will be a breath of fresh air to many. Sharing our stories in this way is a powerful form of invitation, beckoning others to know a God who is not ashamed of us. Because the true testimony of our boldness in speaking openly with one another about our needs and about our God who meets them is our witness to God’s refusal to be ashamed of us. God embraces us, just as we are, and doesn’t care what anyone else has to say about it. Like a teenager embarrassed by their parents’ love, it may cause us to blush and groan, but we wouldn’t want to live in a world without it.
