Subtitle: A Lenten meditation on Luke 13.31-35
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Jesus the prophet summoned a city to its calling. Jerusalem – the capital, the site of the temple, the iconographic locus of the people’s history and destiny – as all places and peoples, over time, had grown lax; given to outward and institutional sign over inward, spiritual and personal virtue. Jerusalem also had a reputation for rejecting and killing prophets; those who, in God’s name, declared the necessity of repentance.
Still, something more than mere devoted duty drove Jesus. Love. The power of unconditional benevolence that seeks to do good. Even more, prophetic love that wills and acts in the best interests of another even if, even when the reward is rejection and the result, death.
Love was Jesus’ “another authority.” His “heavenly cause.” His power greater than fear.
In truth, then, Jesus didn’t act in defiance of Herod, but in commitment to his calling. A calling for which, out of love, he wept in heartrending lament.
© 2022 PRA
#theimpossibledream #aheavenlycause #ahigherauthority #apowergreaterthanfear
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Wow LOVE!! Thank you Paul!! That answer wasn’t even on my radar but of course that’s the answer!! Love may not conquer all all of the time, but unconditional love is everything even when it hurts (or results in death). Thank you for the reminder!
Much love
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Yes, my dear Loretta, love is everything.
Amen.
Love
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