Day 121

Joshua 19:1-21:19, John 2:1-25, Psalm 54:1-7

We knew that there would be tough days when we set out on the journey, and the endless boundary descriptions are a bit of a struggle, even for an ex lawyer. I did however love the fact that a big tree was one of the markers, as if everyone would know where it was!

Words in this Old Testament passage seem to have been a bit tedious. Today I watched the Matt Lucas documentary on Les Mis and then followed it up with the show itself. One of the things that struck me about the show was the number of different languages that it has been translated into. The music must stay the same and the story must stay the same, the translators challenge is to find the right words to fit the two together.

With the Gospel we have a similar thing going on. The story stays the same, the actions stay the same, but the words in the middle sometimes change. I have read the Greek for these first few chapters of John and they don’t make as much sense as the English, but the water turning into wine, the clearing of the temple. The actions stay the same, the miracles stay the same. The truth of Christ stays the same.

We looked yesterday at the fact that we are key to sharing the Gospel. John told Andrew, Andrew told Peter and so on. Jesus also didn’t need man’s testimony about man (v25). This is not to say that we should never speak about Jesus, but one of the most convincing testimonies we can give is to go past the words and live the grace of Christ.

Les Mis is the story of grace and love. The story though is not just in the words, it is in the power of the music and what lies behind the words. The story of Christ is in the power of Grace in our lives and what lies within, that us the best testimony we can give.

We cannot let today go without noting that Jesus got angry. “Meek and mild”? Not always! Jesus saw the abuse that was being given to the house of God and he got angry about it. When we look at the injustice of the world, when we look at the abuse people are giving to the people of God, we can be assured that he is not being “meek and mild” about it all. God get’s upset when these things happen and he desires that we go beyond words to action to bring about change.

This is the call of Christ in our lives. Let us go beyond words to living out the Word.