Two Questions for the Year Ahead

                          Jesus asked many questions of His followers when He walked with them; it was the way a Rabbi typically taught his students.  Questions engaged the disciple in the learning process as he would have to think his answer through before responding.

As another year comes to a close, I am thinking of two questions Jesus asked of His disciple Simon Peter:

"What about you?"  He asked.  "Who do you say I am?"

(Luke 9:20)

"Simon, son of John, do you truly love Me?...Feed my sheep."

(John 21)

When Jesus asked the first question of him early on in His ministry, Peter was able to respond immediately with:  "You are the Christ!"  The second question took Peter a bit longer to ponder and answer.  In fact Jesus had to ask it three times of him.  You see, Jesus asked this question of Peter after he had denied Jesus three times.  Even though Peter recognized that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God I think he understood his own shortcomings and failures in his relationship with Him.

As I look back on another year coming to a close I realize that I, like Peter, have come up short - failing many times in my relationship with our Lord.  But He is a gracious God and bids me start afresh once again, just as He did Peter.

I think that is one of the things that we love about celebrating a New Year; it signifies a fresh start.

What a blessing that with Jesus we don't need to wait for a New Year to dawn to start again! 

I encourage you to consider that the questions Jesus asked of Peter, He still asks of us today:  "Who do you say I am?"  "Do you truly love Me?"

If you find that you need a fresh start with Jesus, now is the time!  Don't wait for the clock to strike midnight.  His mercies are new every morning!

Happy New Year!

Tears

How fundamental is a newborn's cry - she learns it instinctively.  Her persistent cry summons help, a soothing touch, sustenance.  It calls to the one who  has given her life.  It is a cry necessary for survival. 

Pity the child who has learned how not to cry.

My heart breaks for her.  She was born with a label:  DEI (Drug Exposed Infant).  The drug was meth.  Her mother was a prostitute.  Her first childhood recollections are smoking joints at age six with her mom's friends.  At 13 she was using meth. At 14 she was in juvenile hall.

She has learned how not to cry.

How do I reach her?  How do tell her that it is ok to cry?

She tells me that it is her strongest weakness, this desire to use.  That even while doing it, she hates doing it. 

How do I explain to her that the incredible grace of our Lord can break through her strong weakness?

I wish she could cry. 

For the loss, the abandonment, the loneliness, the things that were done to her as a young child.

Please Lord, teach her to cry.

Until then, let my tears mingle with Yours as we grieve over what sin has done to this little one who was created in Your image.

Tax Collectors and Other Sinners

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.  "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.  Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and teachers of the Law complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other sinners"?  Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."  Luke 5:27-32

As I was reading through the Gospels recently I was struck by a phrase repeatedly used by Matthew, Mark and Luke to describe the people Jesus was associating with:  tax collectors and other sinners.

I wondered just how bad you had to be in order to have your own category.  On the one hand we have the tax collectors; on the other hand - all other sinners! 

 Obviously tax collectors were hated by Jews in 1st century Israel.  They worked for the cruel Roman government and extorted money from their fellow countrymen.  They were viewed as murderers.  Jesus not only searched them out but even ate with them, something no self-respecting Rabbi would do. 

I love that about Jesus, because I realize that I am just like the tax collectors.  If you knew how dirty my heart was you would probably put me in a category all by myself too.  Jeannie and other sinners.  Yet because he came to call this sinner to repentance he invites even me to his table.

If you are in my particular category or are simply lumped in with all the 'other sinners' His invitation still stands:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with him and he with me."

Rev. 3:20





Waiting to Die

Eight miles north of the California border with Mexico there is a plethora of senior citizen mobile home parks with lofty-sounding names such as Del Rio Estates, Palace Gardens, Golden Sands.

Names with such high aspirations but filled with people who seem to be just waiting to die. 

A trip to the local casino, a visit from a grandchild - something to look forward to while they wait.

I talk to some of the residents.  One woman suffers much with physical ailments.  She believes her next life will be better because she has had to endure such hardship in this life.  Another woman with cancer believes, as Buddhists do, that she is one with all creation and when she dies she will become part of the cosmos.  When I speak with her about Jesus, she calls me 'religious'.  I ask an ancient woman, 92, if I may pray for her.  She says yes and then tells me that I am a 'good pray-er' and wants to know where I learned how to do that.

There are many older lonely people here.  Like flowers which have lost their bloom and are possibly hours, days or weeks away from fading into eternity, they wait.

"When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were...helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples:  "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field."  (Matt. 9)

Lord forgive me.  As I think of the mission field in exotic locales like Africa or the Dominican Republic or even the inner cities of America, I never realized Your harvest field was also eight miles north of the border, in a community of our very senior citizens who are waiting...

Proverbs 3:5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."   

Sometimes when I read a verse from the Bible that is very familiar to me, I like to 'unpack' it using Hebrew (the original language of the Old Testament).  Doing so will often deepen the impact of God's Word for me.  Here is one of my favorites.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart"

bittachon:  trust, feel safe and secure; the emotional acceptance of the goodness of the Lord; having complete trust that He cares for you.

"lean not on your own understanding"

sa'an:  to support oneself; resting your weight against something to give it support.

biynah:  understanding, comprehension, discernment, right action.

"In all your ways (i.e., 'paths')"

derek:  your comings and goings; throughout the Old Testament 'path' or 'way' is used for one's journey through life).

"acknowledge Him"

yada:  to experience relationally; emphasizes the knowledge one has because of intimate experience.  It is the same word used for marital intimacy in Scripture.

"and He will direct your path"

yasar:  make straight, smooth, even.

My reflection on this verse becomes:  Be safe, secure and confident with God in every part of your being - your mind, will, soul and emotions - having complete trust that He cares for you.  When you need support, don't lean in towards your own comprehension or discernment; it will not hold you up.  Lean closely into the Lord.  In all of your comings and goings, your lying down and rising up, as you journey through life,  experience God in every part.  Come to know Him in deep intimacy.  Experience His goodness and love in every part of your life, the good and the bad, and He will make your journey straight.

The Sound of Grace

"And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom."          (Mark 15:37,38)

Someone once said to me,  "I wonder what grace sounds like."  I had never imagined that 'grace' might have a sound.

Perhaps it does.

In Jesus' day the Holy of Holies was separated from the rest of the Temple by a very thick veil.  Behind it was the Ark of the Covenant, symbolizing the presence of Almighty God.  Just once a year the High Priest entered through the veil, sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people.  The veil was a very vivid reminder of the barrier between Holy God and sinful man.

Woven together with colored yarn and twisted linen, it was approximately 60 feet high, 30 feet wide and 4 inches thick.  It was said that horses tied to each side of the veil would not be able to pull it apart!  Yet we read that at the moment of Jesus' death, when He breathed His last, the veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

The book of Hebrews tells us that now we can enter into the Holy of Holies "...by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the veil, that is His body..."  (Hebrews 10:19,20)

The Temple veil being torn in two when Jesus breathed His last is a picture of the access we now have been granted to the Father through the shed blood of His Son.  What a joyous and triumphant occasion for us!

Yet...

What must it have been like for God the Father to watch His Son die?  

Did you know that the Rabbis in Jesus' day referred to the Temple veil as the 'tunic of God'?  

Did you know that a Jew in deep mourning would tear his garments as a symbol of his great pain?

Did God, in deep mourning and agony over the death of His child, cry out and rip His tunic, the Temple veil?

What must it have sounded like across the heavens at that moment when Jesus died?  At that moment when God ripped the veil in two from top to bottom?

O, how the lament of the Father must have howled and thundered across the creation.

So much so that it shook to its very foundations,

the sun was darkened...

the earth quaked...

the rocks split...

 the graves were opened.

What must His pain have been like to witness the death of His Son on the Cross for the sins of the world?

In the Talmud it states that if one person is present when another 'breathes his last', that person must tear his tunic in mourning.  "One who stands near the dying, at the time when he breathes his last, he is duty bound to rend his tunic."  (Bava Meitza 25a)

"And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last.

Then the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom."

(Mark 15:37,38)

The Sound of Grace....

Heavy Grace

 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist.  After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples'  feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him...When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place.

 (John 13:3-5)

There is a beautiful picture here in these verses from John's gospel.  Jesus takes off His outer garment - the one with the tassels all Jewish men wore which symbolized God's authority.  In its place, He wraps the rag of a servant around His waist and begins to wash the disciples' feet.  As Jesus washes their feet, He dries them with the towel, transferring the dirt from them onto Himself. 

The next day He would do the same for us.  He would take the dirt of our sin and our shame and transfer it onto Himself as He hung on a cross to die.  The Apostle Peter writes:  "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross."  (1Peter 2:24) 

It is a heavy grace He freely offers us when we come to the Cross. 

It cost Him everything, yet He did it willingly. 

He took off the dress of a King and put on the garb of a servant, ready to wash the dirt from our feet, ready to wash the sin from our lives.  Ready to die on a cross for you and for me.

Heavy grace.

This time of year especially, it is good to pause and remember the weight of grace, the heavy burden, the heavy cost of it all.

Jesus Saves

Master - Lord - Son of David - Son of God - the Christ

Rabbi - Teacher - Messiah

King of the Jews

All titles of our Lord; all used by His disciples and others, whether in acknowledgement of who He was or in derision of who He claimed to be.  But there was one who simply called Him "Jesus" without any other title attached; one who probably never witnessed any miracles of His, never heard any teachings of His, never saw His compassion on those who suffered:

"Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."
(Luke 23)

There is something about that most intimate moment when the thief on the cross realizes who Jesus is and what He offers that no one else can:  Jesus saves.  And in those last few moments on the cross, when the thief came just as he was - with nothing to offer but everything to gain - he was the first to call Him by the name of a friend.  No titles, simply 'Jesus'. 

"Just as I am, thou wilt receive

with welcome pardon, cleanse, relieve

because thy promise I believe,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come."

(Wm. Bradbury)



Watch With Me

"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.  Stay here and keep watch with Me."  (Matthew 26:38)

It was a night of remembering and it was a night of watching.  It began at sundown, as do all days of the Hebrew calendar.

It was Passover, a night when Jews recalled the mighty acts of God who delivered them from the cruel bondage of Pharaoh.  God had told them to take the blood of an unblemished male lamb and put it on the door frames of their homes.  That night when the Lord passed through the land to strike down the Egyptians and saw the blood on the door frames, He would pass over that home and not allow the destroyer to enter. (You can read the story of the first Passover in Exodus 12.)Since that time Jews all over the world celebrate Passover each Spring, in accordance with all the Lord commanded them. 

Jesus celebrated Passover that last week with His disciples.  As people streamed into Jerusalem to offer their lambs in memory of the mighty act of deliverance from God 1500 yeas earlier, Jesus came to Jerusalem to become the Lamb who would deliver us from the destroyer.

After Jesus and His disciples had eaten the meal the night of the Last Supper, they went to Gethsemane.  Our Lord, knowing His time had come, took Peter, James and John with Him to pray.  He said to them: 

"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.  Stay here

and keep watch with me."      (Matt. 26:38) 

We know from the story in the gospel accounts, that they did not keep watch with Him; that during a time of great crushing sorrow, Jesus' closest friends fell asleep.  Alone in the garden and in great agony, our precious Lord sweat drops of blood.  Returning to His friends He said: 

"Could you not keep watch with Me for one hour?"    (Matt. 26:40)

These words from our Lord are so much more poignant when we know the story behind them.  When God first brought His people out from slavery, He told them exactly how they were to commemorate that great event as a Passover Feast to the Lord throughout all their generations.  At the end of the instructions He told them:  "Because the Lord kept watch that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep watch to honor the Lord for the generations to come."  (Ex. 12:42)  In obedience to that command from God, the Jews would stay up after eating the Passover meal.  They would pray and sing songs and recite scripture.  They would 'keep watch' to honor the Lord for His mighty act of deliverance.

When I discovered the full meaning of Jesus' question to His disciples - "Could you not watch with Me for one hour?" -  it brought tears to my eyes.  My tears were for our Lord Who endured this crushing time without His beloved friends by His side.  My tears were for the disciples, who must have been so confused and afraid upon waking to see the betrayer Judas arriving with the chief priests, elders and an armed contingent - ready to arrest their Lord and lead Him to the cross.  But my tears were also for me because I knew had I been there, I too would have failed Him.

I know in my life there have been many opportunities to 'watch' with our Lord, to spend time alone with Him, to contemplate all that He has done for me by His mighty act of deliverance on the Cross.  Opportunities where He has invited me to an intimate time with Him in the garden, opportunities when He has invited me to share in His sufferings.  Many times I have failed. Yet He still calls, He still beckons:  Watch with Me!

May we all find time this Passover Season to watch with Him.

Agnus Dei - Hearts Set On Pilgrimage Part 2

"Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs."  (Psalm 84:5,6)

We call it the Triumphal Entry or Palm Sunday.  It's the Sunday prior to Easter when we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of prophecy.  The city was crowded with tens of thousands of Jews celebrating this week of Passover.  As He rode into the city people took palm branches and went to meet Him, shouting, "Hosanna!"  "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!"  "Blessed is the King of Israel!"  

Much would happen in the next few days.  He would teach each day at the Temple as the chief priests and leaders sought ways to kill Him.  He would share a final Passover meal with His beloved disciples.  He would be arrested and tried in the dark hours of the night, betrayed and abandoned by His closest friends, and led out to be crucified on a tree. 

The passage above from Psalm 84 speaks of those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.  They will pass through the Valley of Baca and make it a place of springs.  "Baca" means weeping.  This is a valley of tears, a place where there is no oasis or comfort.  I'm reminded as I read of Jesus' last week that He too, in a sense,  had to pass through a Valley of Weeping.  It's called the Kidron Valley.

Historical records from Jesus' day indicate there may have been as many as 250,000 lambs sacrificed during Passover.  The blood from those lambs along with the water used for ritual purification drained from the Temple altar into the Kidron Valley.  The gospel writer John says:  "When He had finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley." (John 18:1)  This would be His final journey with His disciples across the Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane.  They had eaten the Passover lamb together.  In a few short hours, Jesus would become the Passover Lamb. I wonder as He walked through this Valley of Weeping, dark and crimson from so many sacrificed lambs, did the hem of His own garment become stained with the blood?

Let's go back to that Palm Sunday when He came riding on a donkey to choruses of praise.  It was symbolic in those days for a king who came in peace to ride into a city on a donkey; if he came as a conqueror, he would ride a horse.  What was going through Jesus' mind that Sunday as He entered the Holy City?

When He came on a donkey...
     was He looking ahead to one day coming on a horse?
When He received praise from the Nation of Israel...
     was He looking ahead to receiving praise from every Nation?

The Book of Revelation talks about that day.  I am reminded when I think of Jesus riding on a donkey that there will come another day when He will ride a horse:

"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True...His eyes are like blazing fire and on His head are many crowns...He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood..." (Rev. 19)

A robe dipped in blood.  A Lamb Slain.  A Savior crucified for my sins.  Because He set His heart on pilgrimage to walk through the Valley of Baca - the Valley of Weeping where there is no oasis or comfort - He has made it a place of springs, a  place that gives life.  It starts at the Cross.  Oh that I too might have a heart set on pilgrimage.

 





Agnus Dei  - The Lamb of God

Lamb of God:  Born as a baby, but born during the season that lambs are born.  

Lamb of God:  Died as a sacrifice, but died during the time lambs were sacrificed.  

Lamb of God:  Lives eternally.  "Then I saw a lamb...standing on the throne." (Rev. 5)

This week we enter in to Lent, a time of preparation before Easter when we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of our precious Lord.  I invite you to visit me here to share some reflections from God's Word as we prepare our lives and hearts for this very special anniversary.



A Little Hebrew, A Little Greek

"...I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered My Covenant.

Therefore, say to the Israelites, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.  I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgement."

Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.  (Exodus 6: 6, 9)

Amazing promises of rescue and redemption from God to His people who were so bitterly enslaved in Egypt!  Yet when Moses carried the message to the people they could not hear it because of their discouragement.  The original language says they could not hear because of their 'shortness of breath'.  The bondage they were experiencing under Pharaoh was so great, it felt like it was crushing them physically.  In fact the Hebrew word for 'Egypt' is Mizraim, from which they get their words for "crucible, anguish, crushing hopelessness".  They could not hear, so God sent Moses into His great redemption story to take them by the hand and lead them out of their bondage. 

Sometimes life is like that.  Look around and you will see people bitterly enslaved to sin and circumstances, people in a fiery crucible, experiencing crushing hopelessness.  People who live under such discouragement - such 'shortness of breath' - that they are unable to hear God's promises of rescue and redemption.  God still calls people into His story, as He called Moses, to take the oppressed by the hand and lead them out of bondage.  So I have a question for you:  Does what breaks God's heart also break yours? 

Consider this:  We all know the shortest verse in the bible, "Jesus wept." (John 11:35)  The occasion was at the tomb of His dear friend Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha.  When Jesus saw the weeping and mourning of the family and those who were gathered there, He was deeply moved and He wept.  We miss it in our English translations, but the original Greek word "wept" means "shed a tear".  Was it sorrow for those who had lost their loved one or the pain of death itself that moved Jesus?  We just know what scripture tells us, that when He saw the mourning of the people, it moved him deeply and He shed tears.

There is another time we are told Jesus wept.  In Luke's Gospel he writes that as Jesus was approaching Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, He wept over it, crying out:  "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem...if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace but now it is hidden from your eyes..." (Luke 11:42)   The original Greek defines this weeping as "to weep, to wail, lament, implying not only the shedding of tears, but also every external expression of grief."

What caused Jesus His greatest anguish, weeping and lamentation was not the death of His beloved friend Lazarus - although sorrowful, Jesus knew He would see him again.  But these gut-wrenching tears from our Lord were for those people who were lost and didn't even know it.  You can almost hear it as He approached the city that fateful week - the breaking of God's heart.

Does the breaking of His heart also break yours?

Consider the rest of the story from John's Gospel.  At Lazarus' tomb Jesus had the people roll away the stone.  He prayed to His Father and then called in a loud voice:  "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43)   

Lazarus came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face.  Jesus told the people standing there:  "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."  Jesus called Lazarus from death to life, but He also called the people to enter into the story by removing the grave clothes that bound Lazarus. 

Throughout the millennium, God has always had a great story of rescue and redemption for people - a wonderful message of hope for those who live in cruel bondage and oppression.  And when the hopelessness becomes so great that people cannot hear the message, He still looks for those who will enter into His story and lead by the hand, for those who will help remove the grave clothes. 

 Is He calling you?

O Lord - give us a heart like Yours!



The Cross

"Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

This morning I was listening to Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin singing "The Wonderful Cross" and I am reminded of the Apostle Paul's words to the believers in the early church in Corinth that he, Paul, resolved to know nothing while he was among them, but Christ and Him crucified.  I started to think of the imagery his statement must have brought to mind for these saints who lived only a few decades after our Savior's death on the cross.  We live so far removed from that time and place.

You may know that crucifixion was invented by the Greeks and 'perfected' by the Romans.  The historian Josephus says that about the time Jesus died, there were over 900 crucifixions in Jerusalem that year alone.  That is about three crucifixions each day.  Wherever the Roman empire ruled, crucifixions happened.

Crucifixion was such a graphic, visual picture to these people of the most obscene, cruel and horrific execution known to man.  It was a symbol of man's utter depravity that he could even conceive of inventing something so utterly crushing to use on his fellow man.  And yet this is what our precious Savior chose as His message - The Cross "...foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."  (1Cor.1:18) 

Today we cherish the symbol of the cross; we wear it, it adorns our walls, and we treasure it as a symbol of His great love for us.  But did you know that until about the 4th century there was no depiction of the Cross in art?  It is believed that perhaps the awful image of what crucifixion actually involved was too close a memory for the Church.  It was ugly.

Today we celebrate the Cross, as we should.  But in celebrating the work Jesus accomplished for us on that Cross, don't miss the awful cost of a love so amazing, so divine.  It is said that, in heaven, the only man-made things are scars and nail prints.

Jesus Christ - crucified, died and buried.  And risen on the 3rd day.  Hallelujah!