Daily Devotion for Lent 2018 - Day 32, Thursday

Scripture Reading: Genesis 40 (NRSV)

The above movie is also about a prisoner

who has great influence on those

around him.

This story of Joseph almost feels like a folk tale with a happy ending for the cupbearer and a tragic ending for the chief baker.  

We see that Joseph is not just a good person but also has a talent for interpreting dreams.  These dreams portend the future and we remember that Joseph had already had dreams of greatness for himself.  As we see him successfully predict for these two royal workers, we remember his own dream and renew our hope that Joseph has not seen his best days yet.  We begin to believe that Joseph will rise up again.  As I imagine Joseph pining away in jail, I project an optimism on him as he must have also remembered his early dreams.  Seeing the recent predictions come to fruition must have buoyed his spirits.

This begs the question, do you believe the future can be predicted?  Are there certain things that are set in stone or are they merely likely to happen?

Jesus predicted his own death on the cross multiple times.  Had this already happened in a future history?  Was it inevitable?  Was it just an extremely probable event?  Or was there a possibility that he could have avoided it if people had really taken his teachings to heart?  I prefer to think of it as the latter which places the blame squarely on humanity's shoulders, making Lent all the more the season for repentance.  While I don't think it is healthy to flounder in guilt, I also don't think it is healthy to ignore our own role in systemic violence.

Fortunately, the cross has become a sign of hope.  Just as Joseph languishes in prison looking for a better future, we sometimes live in the shadow of the cross, believing that resurrection will come to our lives.  We believe that resurrection will come to those suffering or imprisoned.  For us, this is not hope in vain but hope in the inevitable.


O God, you rule over your creation with tenderness,
offering fresh hope in the midst of the most terrible misery.
We pray for our brother whose soul is blackened by despair,
infusing him with the pure light of your love.
As he curses the day he was born and yearns for oblivion,
reveal to him the miracle of new birth which shall prepare him for the joys of heaven.
Amen.


Prayer by Dimma, Ireland, 7th Century