I wonder how many times I have sat in meetings over the years…church, choir, school governors, work, and other things too. For someone who does not really like meetings it feels bizarre that they have been so much a part of life ever since I left school. That leads me to the next musing which is, of all those occasions, how often have I wondered, ‘what is the point?’ or ‘please, for everyone’s sake, get to the point’. But then again, sometimes I will have been the person avoiding the point.
There are times when we have a difficult message to deliver, when softening up our hearers before delivering the message is wise, or kind, or both. I am also glad to say that in church life I have made some firm and lasting friends amongst people and congregations I have worked with in tough situations. Usually the successes have accrued when, together, we have hit issues head on and not minced words.
In today’s gospel reading from John 12:27-13:6 Jesus is facing a really hard time. The final conflict with the authorities is in view and the gospel records the rhetorical question, shall I avoid this? The immediate answer is, ‘No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour’. The account reads as though avoiding the point of his whole life was only a passing thought, soon corrected. When the point of a life is to lose it, it is inappropriate for us not to take seriously the glimpse of agony revealed in the question. There are times when we all find it hard to make a difficult point so why would Jesus, living us we live, not show us that he too had to remind himself of the reason for being there.
When we must face exacting situations, it is good that we can look to Jesus and be reminded that whatever it is like for us, in the moment of his approaching Passion, his circumstances were harder. He is with us, so he washed his Disciples’ feet to make the point.
A Prayer
Lord Jesus, you faced so much; when we struggle with things that are happening, give us determination to see through those things you have called us to finish. May we make it easier for others to do hard things by not being awkward and obstructive. Be our strength and our determination always. Amen.