“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Mark 2:17
This is from the passage which appeared in Spill the Beans a couple of weeks ago. And in my preparation for preaching on it I was struck by the reminder that those who were trying to catch Jesus out, handed him over to Caesar. They handed him over to be sentenced and killed. They handed him over to be done with him. But at a much deeper and more profound level, they handed him over to the One he truly belonged to - God the Father.
As Jesus hangs on the cross, he quotes from Psalm 31:5:
"Into your hands I commit my spirit;
deliver me, Lord, my faithful God."
It is a tremendous act of surrender, courage and faith. It is an act of trust - as we read later in Psalm 31:
"But I trust in you, Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands;
deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
from those who pursue me."
We hand our time over to lots of different people and endeavours - to things we choose and things that are demanded from us. And we don't just hand over our physical time. We can also hand over the time our thinking time. Sometimes we hand over our sleeping time...
There can be many demands upon us - regardless of what stage of life we are at.
But this week, we are reminded of Mary's decision to choose the one thing that truly matters.
This week we are reminded by the extraordinary darkness on Good Friday and by Holy Saturday that time is ultimately not in our hands. Sometimes we are forced to stop, to pause, to wait. To hand things over to God and wait for Him.
Thankfully we now the other side of the story. And come Sunday we will be celebrating God's answer to Jesus' prayer for deliverance. Our God is a faithful God.
May God walk us this week and into the light of the resurrection, when the dawn breaks on Easter Sunday.
Rev Stella
