Lenten Devotional, Day 11: The Super Soldier, Message or Messenger?, Benefiting from Devotionals
2/28/26
Dear Saints,
How to use someone else's missives, devotionals, commentaries, teachings: Read the selected Passage/s first; then think before the Lord long enough to form a few thoughts. Now a couple of things can happen:
• You might come up with the same take. O the power of agreement (rf. Matthew 18:19)! The value of two bearing the same insight will synergize it and together it will be 1 + 1 = 3 or 4 or 7. New math!
• Or maybe you'll see it nuanced or differently. And that will set you to digging (rf. Acts 17:11). And maybe you'll have occasion to graciously but honestly interact as "iron sharpens iron." (Proverbs 27:17).
Both scenarios are win-win, but far better if you first form your own reflection before God. Meeting vertically with God is its own reward, and it is also key to edifying horizontal interactions with one another.
MESSAGE OR MESSENGER?
Let me set the stage by sharing a most desired Verse: "That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, Godly and dignified in every way." (1 Timothy 2:2). What makes this Verse all the more a wonder, is that it is a promise of sorts for praying for politicians. Go figure, better yet go pray.
My point here, however: We will go "extra-mile" lengths for peace with our "neighbors." Period. For to be reproached or reviled as we read today (rf. Isaiah 51:7) is an inconsolable ache. It can be despairing to the point of despondency. We crave acceptance; we prize peace.
In context, that reproach and reviling is for swimming against the current of culture, swimming upstream toward God. Basic self-examination in the aftermath of upset is to discern, was it the message or messenger, even if tacitly conveyed. The other party will undoubtedly conflate the two. But we need to know for ourselves: Is it who I am or how I steward who I am? If we have acted unpleasantantly, unseemly, impolitely, insensitively, then we repent and hopefully are granted to try again. If it is rather who we are in relation to Christ, then grieve the sore grievous "moment" of loss and long remember: "HIS favor is for a lifetime." (Psalm 30:5).
THE SUPER SOLDIER:
The Super Soldier? (I think only a handful or two read these, and I understand the various reasons why; but with that description, well, I'm not beyond trying to suck you in ;)
Yes, the super soldier, was a certain Roman centurion, so a commander of a hundred, in the backwater, mixed race, low-prestige, outpost town of Capernaum. This centurion was likely the highest authority in town and could have ruled extortingly, oppressively, capriciously. He didn't!
He cared for the land and people of his occupying stewardship, even built them a synagogue and was himself God-fearing. He could have summoned Jesus, but entreated and in Matthew's account bowed before Him. Ultimately he refused Jesus entry to his home out of abject unworthiness and utter humility. And what set this in motion? His desperation of love and compassion for a slave, likely a youth. He cared for whom Jesus called: "The least of these my brethren." (Matthew 25:40).
The super soldier, and that he was a ruling soldier, makes his fulfillment of this Verse all the more extraordinary: "For they all seek their own interests...NOT those of Jesus Christ!" (Philippians 2:21).
The interests of others is a heightened Lenten theme.
The Only Best in/is Christ,
tIM