Quite successful. Quite sad. Abraham had great highs in life, and some real lows too. But through it all, he kept his faith in God, who makes a covenant with him. And Jesus is the fulfillment.
Abraham had a very, shall we say, circuitous life. An early period of his life, or much of his life, where he became quite successful, financially and really probably in prestige. So financially successful that it got to the point where his herds and flocks were so large that they were getting in the way of lots herds and flocks, his relative.
On the other hand, for much of his life, there was a sadness in Abraham. He had no children. And especially in that culture, that would have been seen as a terrible disgrace. But somehow God had not blessed Abraham.
Today, we get the result of Abraham's life. His gratitude for his success and the removal of his disgrace. Through it all, Abraham was a man of faith. Whether it was in the good things that happened in his life and the blessings, where he was grateful to God for all that he had received, or in the challenges and his ability to pray.
And today, his faith comes to its natural conclusion for him. This great promise that he who had been disgraced was in fact going to have descendants more numerous than the stars. That from Abraham's covenant is going to be the first kind of vision of what God has in store. I should say the second.
Jesus, of course, is the fulfillment of that vision. Unlike Noah, David, Moses, Abraham, Jesus is not one more covenant in a long list of covenants. Jesus is the covenant. He is both the covenant maker and the covenant itself.
But, just as Abraham had moments where he was challenged, the biggest challenge in Jesus' day was that he was not like what they expected. How often can we miss the presence of God because we expect something else? We don't see it clearly.
And Jesus has a hard time explaining who he is, and it's not accepted. There's great challenge. In many ways, this week has been the week of accusations. We had Susanna, we had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And in these Gospels, we've really had Jesus being accused of not being authentic by what he is saying. What do we look for in the covenant of God? What do we expect during this season of Lent? Where do we look for God? As we are on the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week, how do we need to sharpen our vision to see the ways in which God is present? Today, let us redouble our efforts through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to understand more fully and to see more clearly the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the promises of God.
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