Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, August 9, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I wonder if I would have been among the doubters. And what was it that made them doubt that this was, in fact, Jesus, risen from the dead. Did he look different? Did they think he was a ghost? A figment of imagination brought on by terror or too much wine?
Jesus didn’t stop to question them, though he must have known who among them doubted him. He didn’t call them out or shame them to try to prove himself to him. He simply gave them a job to do. Go out and baptize in my name. Share the good news of God’s liberating love.
Jesus says the same to us who were not there on that hillside. Jesus says the same to us who sometimes doubt even when we have experienced evidence of his presence in our lives in the past. Jesus knows that when we have a job to do—good work full of love and purpose—we are pulled outside of our endless analyzing and are transformed in spite of our doubt.
Gracious God, energize me to do your good work of love and justice, that my doubts might be quieted and my heart fulfilled. Amen.
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