Trying to See; Three Kings Who Failed and the One Who, in Failure, Succeeded (All About Shepherds, How Justice Comes and God Working Secretly With a Secret Christian).

All three of the lessons we read today are straining for something beyond their ability to understand. The Gospel is at the center, and, in the Gospel, the question is how can it be that the One Most Beloved by God, the Chosen, the Anointed, the One in whom the heart of God delights, the Faithful One - how can it be that this One hangs there, stretched, nailed, helpless, gasping in pain unrelieved, despised, scorned, spat upon, abandoned, alone? How can this be? Luke is straining to give a rationale for the horror of the crucifixion, something beyond understanding.

In the second lesson, scholars tell us the author is quoting h…