Worrying

This is not a rough draft, but merely me thinking outloud...er...on the keyboard...

"Worrying" seems to be a common theme that keeps coming to mind every time I read these passages. Job and Judas seem an odd couple for the lectionary to pair in this days readings. What do they have in common, if anything? They both have intimate experiences with Satan, even though they don't know it. They both suffer tragedy and disappointment. However, I think there is more to these two than meets the eye.

The lectionary begins the reading in the middle of the chapter. The half that it doesn't reveal on this day is all about the terrible things that will happen to the world and especially believers. So, it is no wonder that Jesus urges us to be ready, beware, be alert, and not to worry about this life.

Interestingly, Luke goes from this cautionary tone right into the possession of Judas by Satan. Why did Satan choose Judas? What made Judas so susceptible to Satan? Many have debated Judas' motives. Many believe that it was merely Judas' disappointment with Jesus that drove him to "betrayal". I personally like this angle and I think that the Bible supports the idea that there was more than just Judas' personal motives at work in this. I'm not sure if I would go as far as to say he was just an innocent pawn in this story but one could easily make pretty good case for it. My point here is that worrying got the best of Judas. Worrying for his people. Worrying for his nation. Worrying for what he thought Jesus mission was. Take your pick.

We all know of Jesus warning against worrying and what good can come from it. Yet we all do it. We worry about everything. We even worry about worrying. Are we playing right into Satan's hands? What we don't always realize is that this worrying leads to some kind of action. In Judas' case, his worrying led him to try to push Jesus' mission where it wasn't meant to go, an earthly kingdom. We can debate Judas' motives til our internet connection fails but what remains is Judas' emotions leading to actions that had dire consequences. To me this is the difference between a human reaction and a spiritual reaction. We are always going to act. Even non-action can be seen as a premeditated action. It is how we act that matters.

Good old Job is so revered in our minds. But we all have lessons that need learned. Why would Job be any different? The one thing that really is standing out to me from this reading is that Job would offer burnt offerings for his children because he was worried that they may have sinned and "This is what Job always did." Well, here again we find someone worrying and the actions that this worry caused. Why would he worry that his children may have sinned? And even if they did, why wouldn't they take care of their own sin? Could it be that he was afraid that he had failed as a father? Now I'm not saying that Job could have prevented all his calamity, again there were other powers at work here. But merely that Job's actions were based on a worry and like Judas', they were a bit off the mark.

I haven't done any other research yet, these are merely my initial grapplings.