"You Sweet Dummy"

{Reposted. Originally Posted February 2013.}

Yesterday I wrote the first draft of my write-up for my in-class theology presentation on Jeffrey’s commentary on Luke, chapters 22-24 and epilogue. Today life answered one of the questions I had planned on posing to the class:

“Jesus continues in his trademark method of enlightenment and self-disclosure for his hosts, and later for his disciples, beginning with gentle rebuke (285, 287), then reminding them what they have already learned, interpreting Scripture, and opening their understanding (285, 288).

Q: Does Christ still work this way? If so, how have you seen the method of rebuke, remind, enlighten in your own life or the lives of others around you?”

Today Jesus said, “You sweet dummy!” to me, for the billionth time (285).

The process of filling my prescription, which could have taken less than 40 minutes, had a friend driven me, took 2 hours. First, I had the wrong shuttle schedule and had to wait 30 minutes for the non-express, which actually stopped at the store. Then, I barely missed the shuttle (all because I had stopped for a second to rearrange something in my purse—I walked up to the store stop just as I saw the shuttle pull around the corner up toward school) and had to wait 50 more minutes. Worse yet, my roommate had offered to drive me to the store, after I was already there. (I could have saved so much time if she had just offered earlier!) And upon my plea to her to rescue me, she mentioned she was occupied and wouldn’t be able to save me from the restless near-one-hour wait.

“Unbelievable.

This is… a joke.”

Wide-eyed, I sat on the bench and basked in pity at my ill luck.

Then a something poked at my heart.

“Hey! You sweet dummy. Don’t you remember what I taught you? Don’t you remember the conversation we were having earlier this week? You told me you had trouble trusting Me, being patient, and being content. My gifts—joy, peace, and love, to name a few—are those which free you from being controlled by your circumstances. Others are trapped in their responses, all they know is to react to ‘what happens to them.’ But you—you’ve got Me living in you! You even engraved it under your skin—to remind you of this very thing. Because I live in you, you get to act based on Me. You don’t have to be enslaved by circumstances, doomed to merely react. This is the point, hon. Let it go, and turn your eyes to me.”

Oh… right.

Why do I always forget?

Because I am Cleopas (Luke 24:13-35). I am the disciples. I am walking on the road to Emmaus, forgetting everything and needing to be taught again (Jeffrey 288).

In that moment Jesus held my hand like the Daddy He is and helped me recognize my situation as it was—an opportunity provided in response to my cry for help. I had said, “God, I don’t want you to teach me patience. I want you to help me be patient. I can’t do it on my own when you give me chances. I just can’t do it. I want you to do it in me.”

What I thought might be another situation during which God provided an opportunity for me to “learn” patience and contentment, turned out to be the moment God “opened my understanding” (Jeffrey 288), and helped me do what I knew I ought to do, and that which I also knew I was incapable of doing.

(Jeffrey, David Lyle. Luke. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2012.)

Photo by Muhammadh Saamy on Unsplash