Lenten blog | March 7, 2025

He Can't Say That ... But He Did

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 7th:  Exodus 6:1-13; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; and Acts 7:35-42.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is our first Lenten Friday.  Lent is an austere time.  We are asked to sacrifice, or as it is more commonly expressed, we may give-up some treat or pleasure.  Or still in the vein of sacrifice but from a different perspective, we may undertake some charitable or spiritual practice we would not do otherwise.  This is true of Lent’s 40 days, but on Lenten Fridays it is even more so.  These are days that bring Good Friday closer to the front of our mind’s attention.  The cross is larger.  We stand nearer.  Jesus’ suffering is more real.  These are not meant to be maudlin.  They are meant to impress upon us the unwavering commitment of Jesus to each of us and to all.

I intentionally added “to all” at the end of the above paragraph because Jesus does not endure the cross only for believers or even only for good, decent folk.  Jesus suffers and dies for all people.  This is sometimes difficult for believers and good folk to process.  And this is nothing new.  Evidence for this is found right in the biblical text that has been handed down to us. 

Scholars argue about the biblical text to this day because there are inherited variations.  The earliest copies are not complete, are left to us as fragments or even as secondhand quotations.  Scribes even changed the text sometimes in an attempt to make a reading more clear and other times because they wished to reverse its meaning. 

One of those disputed verses is Luke 23:34.  The argument among the scholars of the NRSV of the Bible was so contested that the verse is printed in the Bible, but within double brackets.  Here are the contested words as they appear in print:  [[Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’]]  To me these words sound so authentically Jesus, to His last breath offering forgiveness even to those who intentionally prolong His suffering execution.  However, I understand the reservation of some early biblical scribe(s) who could not muster the capacity to exonerate those who killed the Saviour, leading him/them to excise this verse from their copy (copies) of Luke’s Gospel.  This verse is one of the reasons why I added “to all” above.  Jesus’ life that culminates at Golgotha is lived and offered-up for everyone.  Neither saint nor sinner deserves what Jesus offers, but it is offered freely “to all.”

I wish I could express this promise more convincingly.  I meet people who disregard Christ and church because they don’t believe our preaching of “to all.”  There are some who have been so hurt, even traumatized, by the meanness and/or randomness of this world that Christ and church are the opposite of “to all.”  To many of them it feels more like “to none.”  It’s like the account shared today from Exodus:  “Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.”  They could not hear and hope because life deafened them.  To them I wish I knew how to better share the Good News that the cross is not about judgment and “Look what we did to Jesus.”  The cross is about the ineffable love of Christ offered “to all.”  And when Jesus could not snap His fingers and change the world, He shared life with us, even more of its meanness than I hope any of us ever will experience, all so that He could be with us always including times that are good, normal and frightenly horrible, and this is a promise offered “to all.”

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.