TELL
Today’s word is sending me in all sorts of directions: show and tell, telling time, time will tell, telltale signs, tell the truth.
I’m remembering a painful conversation. Just tell me, I said, when the silence grew unbearable. And when the person sitting across from me finally did tell me, I immediately wished I hadn’t asked for the truth. I knew I needed to hear it, but it broke my heart.
Jesus seems to be fond of saying truly I tell you. In the gospel of Matthew alone, he says it over 25 times.
Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matthew 11:11).
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3).
Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her (Matthew 26:13).
Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me (Matthew 26:21).
Jesus is a truth teller. Jesus is truth. And sometimes the truth he tells–the truth he embodies–is painful. Sometimes our hearts are broken on the way to healing and resurrection.
So what to tell on the way? What to tell yourself? Your neighbors? Your family? Your friends? What to tell your enemies? Your rivals? Your opponents? What to tell the one sitting across from you preparing to speak a truth that will leave you reeling?
Tell
Everyone
Love
Lives
Amen.