Easter Sunday: The Pattern

On the Coleman Glacier, Mount Baker, Washington, USA

[Life] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. 

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5

A hundred years ago, British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell used the Second Law of Thermodynamics in a vigorous assault on theism.  Russell’s position was that since the Second Law requires that the universe is ultimately doomed, life is ultimately meaningless.  All achievement and therefore human life itself are futile. 

You can go with Russell, or take door number two: read Luke 24: 1-12

In a few short days, everything has unraveled, disastrously, for the disciples.  From his triumphant entry to Jerusalem, Jesus is arrested. He is condemned, tortured, then humiliatingly crucified.  One disciple has hanged himself.  The others are cowering and in hiding. 

Now, the first day of the week, at early dawn, some women go to the tomb, taking their spices.  These are not women expecting a resurrection.  Gloom has settled on their hopelessness and confusion.    

Have you ever felt like your life has spun so completely out of control that everything that means anything to you has slipped through your fingers?  Before you even know what is happening, you can’t trust anything, anyone, or even yourself anymore. 

Have you ever questioned whether anything matters, whether there is any purpose at all? 

They find the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they go in, they don’t find the body. They’re confused. 

Suddenly two men appear next to them in dazzling array.  The women, frightened, bow their faces to the ground, and the men remind them that

1.   Jesus himself had told them, repeatedly, that this would happen (“Remember how he told you”).   

2.   Jesus’ death (as well as his resurrection) is rooted in the Old Testament. 

3.   There is a larger plan (“the Son of Man MUST BE delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise).”

Just because you can’t see the pattern yet doesn’t mean it isn’t there. 

God knows what it is to lose a child.  God can take something so horrific and unjust as the violent betrayal and crucifixion of his Son, and breathe meaning into it (and meaning that reaches redemptively to all people everywhere).   

God, the Lord of history, can take your circumstances and redeem them, too. 

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

That’s good news for Peter.  He’s the one who denied knowing Christ, not just once, but three times, remember? 

Peter runs to the tomb.  Stooping, he sees the linen cloths by themselves, and he goes home marveling at what has happened.

In denying Christ, Peter screwed up, monumentally.  But the story isn’t over yet for Peter (just read Acts and his epistles).

And it isn’t over for you either.  He is risen.  Fresh start.  It’s a new day.  See the world with new eyes. 

Holy Saturday: Actions Amplify Words

Pope Francis washes – and kisses – the feet of a young offender at a detention center in Rome last Thursday.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures

1 Corinthians 15:3, 4

Read Genesis 22:1-18  

Trust is key to the journey with God.  Later writers will cite Abraham’s trust in God, proved in his actions, as a faith worth emulating. 

This story of near-miss child sacrifice, captured in Genesis 22, parallels the gospel remarkably.  At least three elements of the story in Genesis anticipate the gospel: 

1.   An only son

Isaac is Abraham’s “only son, whom he loves.”  

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

2.   Atonement by sacrifice

Atonement is the reconciliation of alienated parties by making amends, blotting out offenses, and giving satisfaction for wrongs done.  Christ’s death on the cross satisfies the just wrath of a holy God against the sins of everyone who trusts in him, so that our relationship with God is fully restored (see Romans 5, especially verse 10). 

3.   A substitute

The Lord provides a ram for sacrifice instead of the chosen son.  In the same way, Jesus offers his life as a substitute for God’s chosen ones (that is, we who are his children by faith). 

And in verses 17 & 18, God’s fourfold promise is confirmed:

1.   God’s blessing, specifically, the presence of God in protection and guidance: “I will surely bless you.”

2.   A seed, that is, descendants: “I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” 

  

3.   A land, an inheritance, yet with a view to the whole world: “And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.” 

4.   Blessing that extends to all nations through the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel): “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

All this, because Abraham proves his faith in his actions: "because you have obeyed my voice.”

As God acts in history, and the Kingdom of God in Christ became present in Word and in deed, God confirms his promise with his word. 

All of history points to Christ. It’s God’s history; His-story, and you (yes you) are part of his plan.  

In what key area of your life is God calling you to prove your faith, to prove your confidence in him? 

ü  Maybe it is an ethical question you are facing at work. 

ü  It might be a moral issue in your private life. 

ü  It could be that God is saying to you that now is the time to express your faith in Him by what you say. 

ü  Or there is something you need to do – action, and now is the time to prove it. 

Christ’s actions include his sinless and obedient life, his death, his burial, his resurrection and the pouring out of His Spirit on his people soon after.  God explains -- he interprets -- these actions in history by his Word.  The kingdom, present in word and in deed, continues… with you. 

How is God calling you to prove your faith, and demonstrate the presence of the Kingdom today?  

Good Friday: Not Around, but Through

I have felt shame, and unworthy at times in my life.  Sometimes it has been for personal things: being so short (such a late bloomer) when I was a young teenager, being a child of divorce, for misdeeds in my past.  There has been a time or two in my life when I felt particularly flawed.   

Read John 19:17-30  

If you have ever felt ashamed, unworthy, or had a secret fear you are not good enough, know that Jesus Christ felt has similar rejection. 

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him. 

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53

Isaiah depicts Israel as a suffering servant in the Old Testament.  He points ahead to Christ, the suffering servant who was to come. 

For anyone who has ever felt ugly, Christ knows what it is like to feel ugly.  If you have ever felt despised, hated, or rejected, Jesus knows how that feels.  If you have felt tempted to the breaking point, Christ has been there.  He knows what it is to feel sorrow, suffering, and mistreatment, and be unable to respond. 

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; by oppression and judgment he was taken away, stricken for the transgression of my people.  Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53

Christ’s identification with human suffering is not sentimental sympathy.  It is an empathy that also heals:   

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53

His wounds bring our healing. 

His suffering works our forgiveness. 

His obedience is the antidote for our wanderings. 

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53

Christ’s identification with your suffering is not mere sympathy.  It is an empathy that can forgive your sins and heal your wounds. 

Holy Thursday

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Missing the Moment

I knew a guy who followed Jesus till his girlfriend broke up with him. I know a woman who lost, and then lost again, and trusts onward, with peace. 

It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with it. 

Read Luke 19:37-44   

Jesus rides the colt into Jerusalem, and in their euphoria his enthusiastic fans spread their cloaks.  Matthew tells us they lay branches too.  Luke, a Gentile, may have missed the meaning and didn’t include the branches in his record.  But the branches suggest some in the crowd see in Jesus a liberator.  The zealots see an independent Jewish state: a free Israel, their opportunity to be free from Roman occupiers. 

It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with it. 

As he approaches Jerusalem, this multitude of disciples is exulting, now at the top of their lungs.  “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  Honestly, things are getting out of hand. 

The momentum is palpable – and accelerating – so much that some Pharisees tell Jesus, “Rabbi, rebuke your disciples.”  Put on the brakes, they say. 

He counters, gesturing, “I tell you, if these people were silent, the very stones would cry out.”  Something bigger than Israel is happening here.  This is not mere hyperbole; this is an epochal shift. 

But when Jesus sees the city, he breaks down.  Like the eye of the storm, he’s not part of the hysteria.  Weeping, he gives a searing oracle of doom.  He pronounces judgment, inevitable.  He predicts the destruction of the temple, something even the Romans left in place.  Clearly moved, he says,

“If only you had known your moment, Jerusalem!  Today is the day for shalom! But alas for you, it is hidden from your sight. For the days will come, and your enemies will lay siege to you and surround you.  They will hem you in on every side.  They will tear you down to the ground, you and your children too.  They will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

~ Jesus

Even this crowd who exults before him will miss their moment.  The Pharisees will miss their moment.  The Israel that rejects the Jesus in front of them will miss their moment.  Everyone who turns her back on Jesus when he doesn’t meet her expectations misses her moment. 

Will you? 

Has God let you down?  Have you had expectations that he failed to meet, like the crowd of Jesus’ day?  You wanted him to save your child, your marriage, to find you a boyfriend.  Take a breath.  Deep sigh. 

If you let go of your terms, your demands of God and what you think he must do for you, you can find peace. 

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

~ Jesus (John chapter 16, verse 33)

Will you miss your moment?  It’s time.    

The Declaration

The year is 1320.  William "Braveheart" Wallace has been dead fifteen years, and Robert the Bruce is King of Scotland.  The Declaration of Arbroath will become the most important document in Scottish history.  It’s an appeal for liberty.  It’s a prayer for justice.  It’s an affirmation of democracy.  It’s a declaration of a free Scotland.  And like every grasping after freedom, it foreshadows the liberty of God. 

Read Luke 19:28-40  

Whether he has made prior arrangements or just knows the future, Jesus sends two disciples on an errand.  “Go to the village ahead, and you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

So they go and find it just as Jesus has told them. And as they are untying the colt, sure enough, its owners say to them, “Hey, where do you think you’re going with that colt?”

These aren't the droids you are looking for.  And they said, “The Lord needs it.”

So they bring it to Jesus, throw their cloaks on the colt, and they set Jesus on it. And as he rides along, they spread their cloaks on the road.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

    righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9

The colt is young, so it symbolizes purity. Ordinarily a king or victorious warrior would ride a horse, so the young colt also reflects Jesus’ humility, his peaceful character.  This is the Prince of Peace, the King of Jerusalem, of Zion, the Son of David, humble, pure, and bringing salvation. 

The crowd goes wild. 

As he is drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples begins to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they have seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

This is their moment.  They have seen the miracles.  They have heard Jesus’ astonishing teaching.  He is coming to Jerusalem.  Surely this is their time.  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd say to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

He answers them, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”  The King of Israel is the King of Creation, too.  

In a few days the same crowd will be calling for his crucifixion.  Would you crucify him? 

Shattered Assumptions

It sucks to have your preconceptions shattered.  The earth is flat; no, it’s round.  Our race is superior; oops, it’s not.  Global warming is a conspiracy concocted by tyrannical leftists; oops, there goes the polar ice cap. 

Meanwhile, back at the house with the man-made skylight…

Read Luke 5:17-26  

The man comes for healing and gets that, and forgiveness too.  The Pharisees, threatened and scrutinizing, hear Jesus declare forgiveness of sins for the paralyzed man.  Their blasphemy sensor is screaming.  How dare Jesus forgive this man’s sins?  That is something God, and God alone, can do. 

The Pharisees are right of course.  Correct as usual, King Friday.  For Jesus to forgive sins is tantamount to his declaring himself God. 

Later Judaism would teach that God does not help sinners or liars.  If that man is paralyzed, he must have done something to deserve it, sinner that he is (or at least his parents, see the gospel of John chapter 9, verse 2).  And they were quite confident that God does not appear in human form. 

The Pharisees were quite certain about a lot of things.  It sucks to have your preconceptions shattered, unless you have power and you can silence the truth tellers. 

Luke presents a Jesus who forgives sins, who is divine, who is God made man.  The divinity of Jesus is the plain teaching of the New Testament. 

And because Jesus is God, he has power to forgive sins, yours included.  He is able to fill that God-shaped vacuum we feverishly try to fill our hearts with anything besides him. 

Come to Jesus on your own terms and your preconceptions will be shattered too.  It may be preconceptions about Christianity, or about Christians when you get up close.  It may be preconceptions about yourself: you didn’t deserve to be violated the way you were.  You are more deeply loved than you ever dared to imagine.  It will certainly be preconceptions about Jesus.  He’s good.  He’s powerful.  He’ll change your life.  But you can’t control him.  Aslan is not a tame lion. 

Bait and Switch

Read Luke 5:17-26  

When I was a young teenager, I had big questions about purpose and life’s meaning.  I found those answers in Jesus Christ.  But I had to be forgiven in order to find that purpose. 

You may look everywhere BUT God for meaning and peace. 

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ. 

Blaise Pascal

The men bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing.  They leave with so much more.  Jesus sees their faith and answers a question they did not even dare to ask: “your sins are forgiven you.” 

Later Judaism would teach that God does not help sinners or liars, yet here is God, through Jesus, not only forgiving but healing.  It will give the Pharisees, who may have traveled as far as 200 kilometers from Jerusalem to scrutinize Jesus, something to think about. 

The good news is that God does help sinners. 

They came to Jesus for healing; they left with that and forgiveness too.  I came to Christ for meaning.  I left with that and forgiveness too, as well as a Father who would never leave me, a new set of true friends, a sense of inner peace, and the resources to achieve beyond anything I had accomplished in my young life.  Is it any wonder so many professional athletes are people of faith? 

You may come to God for answers about meaning and purpose, as I did.  You may come to God for relief from your addiction. You may come for help with your marriage.  Whatever you come for, he will welcome you, and send you off with so much more. 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30