Turn around, get on board!

Matthew 4 presents us with Jesus’ experience with temptation in the wilderness, his calling of his disciples, and then the start of his teaching. In between the wilderness and the calling of the disciples, he offers his first message to us: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (4:17). “Repent” in this case isn’t “shame on you,” but rather more like, “turn around, get on my team, see how it’s done.”

I love maps. Maps offer so many different expressions of a place. I love road maps, lined with veins of transportation lifelines. I love topographical maps, where I can appreciate the various contours of nature and geological history. My favorite type of map is a laminated scale map, where I can hold an entire city in my hands and mark up my day’s plans for getting around. Then, at the end of that day, I erase everything and mark up new plans for the next day. That’s the magic about maps - you never need an entire map. It depends on where you are in your journey at that moment, then you focus on that place.

To me, scripture is like a map. It offers me direction and it presents answers to my biggest questions:
What is God like?
What are humans like?
What is the relationship between God and humans like?
What is being a man or woman for others like?

This last question is a familiar one to us here at Jesuit Dallas, as we explore how to be men and women for others. Today’s daily reading from Isaiah 1:16-17 offers a brief but thorough list of answers to this question:

Wash yourself clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
Cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
Hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
(Is 1:16-17)

Just like Jesus shared at the beginning of his ministry, Isaiah shares a message in which we are called to get ourselves right, then get on board. To leave behind our old ways and learn what it looks like to do good in relationship with others. It gives us directions, offering us advice on how to turn around and get on the right track.

This is what makes scripture so inspiring for me: it offers directions for me in so many forms. In narrative, it offers me stories of how others have experienced God and Jesus in their lives. In psalms and poetry, I read about the hopes and heartaches of other faithful people, and how God IS present and good in all of life’s experiences. In letters, I read how communities of various locations explore their relationship with God and with each other. In so many forms, scripture reaches me differently at different times.

The better something can tell me where I am and where I need to go, the better a tool it is for me. I give thanks for the new discoveries I continue to receive in the familiar words of our Bible.

Author: Laura Hudec, Language Department