Jesus: More Than We Expect

So I am on a big NT Wright kick lately.  For my devotional I am reading his "Mark for Everyone," a verse by verse commentary on the book of Mark that is, well, for anyone.  It is very accessible but several times I have had my mind blown.

Today I was reading about the raising of Jairus' daughter and NT Wright said something that I thought was important for all of us to hear: "Why doesn't (Jesus) prevent awful things like the Holocaust from happening in our own day?" This is the type of question that causes many to stumble on Christianity.  How can God be a good God and yet let bad things happen? I come across this question all the time in my ministry.  Wright has a great answer: "Just as Jesus wasn't coming to be a one-man liberation movement in the traditional revolutionary sense, so he wasn't coming to be a one-man emergency medical centre.  He was indeed bringing starting a revolution, and he was indeed bringing God's healing power, but his aim went deeper; these things were signs of the real revolution, the real healing, that God was to accomplish through the death and resurrection."

A powerful reminder that our human nature wants to reduce Jesus to a 'fixer' when Jesus wants to be so much more.  And wants us to be so much more.  I think also Jesus doesn't fix our problems because he is calling us to work through the kingdom and by God's grace and spirit to help heal the world. If it is done for us, we would never learn or appreciate the gift.

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