Double-Agents and Secret Agents - Advent, Day 12

December 14, 2006 by djackson.

Advent Readings: Isaiah 7.1-9, 2 Thessalonians 2.1-12, Luke 22.1-13

Three disciples took to the streets that day on two very different errands.  Judas slithered off to Tammany Hall to to cut a deal for betraying his boss.  Peter and John, perhaps equally furtive, sidled into the city looking for the prearranged sign which would identify their contact.  Men didn’t carry water.  The sight of this Gunga Din would be odd enough to identify him but not sufficiently strange to warrant undesireable attention.  The fishermen tail the flunkee to his destination then give the proper code phrase.  Jesus (who knew a thing or two about flying below the radar, John 8.59, 12.36) set up a password-protected Passover, insuring that Judas could not tip Homeland Security to kick down the door. 

During the Advent season, it seems that everyone goes to town for one of two reasons; maybe three.  Many, like Judas, sell out the celebration of the Savior’s birth.  Instead, they occupy their energies with thirty pieces of silver - down to twenty-seven for our holiday special.  There’s nothing wrong with Christmas shopping and gift-giving, but it does tend to crowd out preparations for spending time with Jesus.

Others, like Peter and John, deck the upper rooms in celebration that centers on the coming of Christ.  As in Our Lord’s day, this tends to be a black-ops affair which flies easily under the radar of a spiritual atmosphere choked with stress and commercials for electric razors.  Quietly, these few folks wait the Lord’s arrival.

But maybe the most admirable character in this story is the guy with the jug.  His one cameo in Scripture and he appears not as a quarterback, but as a waterboy in a day when carrying water was women’s work.  Moreover, there is no indication that he knew the crucial part he played in the drama of redemption.  The disciples’ orders are to follow him, but speak to the top kick.  Jesus knew his business:  this downmarket domestic couldn’t sell his secret to the Sadducees even if he wanted to.  And Our Lord showed great compassion:  if the secret police ever picked him up, he could soar past their polygraph with plausible deniability of a plot about which he knew nothing.  But he deserves our admiration because he accepted a humiliating assignment without having to be told its significance.

Maybe the best lesson for Advent is that we often serve Jesus without knowing it.  Our right hand can fool its southpaw because it is equally ignorant.  So cheerfully embrace embarrassing tasks as you look for the coming of our Lord.  You never know when Jesus may be sneaking up on your blindside.  You can’t tell how your unwitting ministry may make possible some critical act in the drama of redemption.

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