For me, "resolutely" is the key word in this pivotal (in a literal sense) moment in Luke's account of Jesus' life. The mission to reveal "the Father," implicated in Luke 10:22, had turned a corner. Up to this point Jesus had revealed numerous dimensions of God's character as he passionately preached about kingdom values such as forgiveness and justice, and compassionately healed broken bodies, fractured relationships, and tortured spirits. Now, he resolutely steps out on the last leg of a journey that will end at a cross where the depth of the Father's love will be revealed in a vivid image of sacrifice.
"Resolutely" comes from "resolve" which means, among other things, "to come to a definite or earnest decision..." according to Dictionary.com. Jesus had made an earnest decision to see the mission through to its ultimate conclusion. But consider this. "Resolution" also comes from "resolve" and has interesting implications for our 21st century sensibilities. In this digital age resolution has a new meaning: the amount of detail from an original image that is captured and stored in a copy of the image. If our TVs and smartphones aren't HD, we look the other way because higher resolution means a clearer, more realistic copy of the original image. We demand it.
Jesus came to offer a uniquely perfect, high resolution image of the Father that would be seen in its highest and purest rendering on the cross. While you and I are not called to the type of sacrifice Jesus accepted, perhaps our lives could become higher resolution images of the Father as we follow Jesus daily. Maybe we could resolve to put more pixels in the picture of Jesus that, hopefully, appears when people look at how we live our lives. Could we be bold enough to demand HD from the image of Jesus our lives represent? May we pray daily to offer a world that is often gray and blurry a more colorful, higher resolution image of Jesus' compassionate and unconditional love.
Blessings,
Larry
The hard part to follow through on (like those *other* resolutions we're all so familiar with), is to make living like Jesus something that we eventually do automatically, not just as a gesture or an intentional "good deed." The verse that probably most often characterizes my sin is Luke 6:45. When I am trying hard to live like Jesus, the things that are accomplished are nice and helpful and good. It's when I'm not paying attention that the crud bubbles up out of my heart and I fail miserably. (Of course, that can be true even while you're doing "good" things.) We can succeed in doing wonderful things, even as that nasty stuff still lives in the bottom of our hearts. I guess the only answer is to pray that the stuff that lives beneath the surface would be cleaned out by the Holy Spirit. It's a little like Spring Cleaning, but it can take a lot longer...
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