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The stage is set…

Sunday is Coming!

This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath.  As evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.  (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.)  Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet.  The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body.  Joseph bought a long sheet of lined cloth.  The he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock.  The he rolled a stone in front of the entrance.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid.

Mark 15:42-47

Jesus is buried.  Dead.  But, this is NOT the end of the story.

The stage is set for the greatest miracle in history.  

The resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

Sunday is COMING!!!

Today’s reading is on Mark 15:1-41.

Imagine you took one silver dollar, and drew an x on it with a marker. Now imagine going to Texas and throwing that silver dollar on the ground. The entire state of Texas, all 268 thousand square miles, is then covered two feet deep with silver dollars, all of them get mixed together, and you are blindfolded & asked to pick up the x-marked silver dollar on your first try. Do you think you could do it? Pretty tough odds, right?

I’m sure others have heard of Professor Peter Stoner’s famous analogy from his book Science Speaks on the sheer statistical improbablity of Biblical prophecy. The above analogy was made to represent the likelihood of just the following 8 of the 60 prophecies mentioned in Scripture happening to Jesus if He were not the Son of God & the events of His crucifixion in Mark 15 were up to pure random chance – about 1 in 10 to the 17th power – and not the precisely meticulous & awe-inspiring work of our God evidenced through Old Testament prophecy:

• • Micah 5:2: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” (Christ’s birth in Bethlehem)
  • Malachi 3:1: “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.” (John the Baptist’s preparing the way for Jesus)
  • Zechariah 9:9: “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.” (Christs’s arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey)
  • Psalm 41:9: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” (Judas’s betrayal)
  • Zechariah 11:12: “Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.” (Judas selling Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver)
  • Zechariah 11:13: “Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.” (Judas’ final act of throwing his ill-gotten earnings to the temple ground in remorse)
  • Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Jesus’s silence before his wrongful accusers)
  • Isaiah 53:12: “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.” (Jesus’s death bearing the wrath of God against our sin)

    We don’t celebrate Easter thousands of years after these events just to gawk over some weird coincidence. The fact that the Lamb of God would freely be given as a sacrifice for our justification is far more meaningful and beautiful than overwhelming odds; it is the work of all creation being moved by its Creator to display an overwhelming love & mercy for us.

Before what I’m sure will be a weekend of celebration & joy for many, it is important for us to consider the truth of Jesus’s death; he did not deserve death on a cross, any more than we deserve eternal life without His intervention. But Scripture pointed for thousands of years beforehand to the Messiah’s mission, sentencing, death, and resurrection. When Jesus willingly gave His spirit to atone for God’s wrath against us and split the veil of the temple, He opened the way for our freedom to be with God in a way that had never been blessed upon us before; it is a gift wrought of blood and selflessness that we should always remember, be thankful for, and praise Him for. 

I think in discussing this, it’s also worth noting the retelling of these events in Luke 23, where one detail is included that’s omitted in Mark’s telling: when one of the adjacent criminals joined in the execution rebukes the other for doubting Christ, he and Jesus have this conversation in verse 42: “And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And He said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” Jesus’s fulfillment of the Scriptures was not just a gift for those who believe right now; it is a gift continually offered and freely given until our last breath. If we believe & ask, Jesus will welcome us into His kingdom – that much we know to be true. Christ died for the many; this Easter weekend, amidst the celebration, consider how you can share the message that it is never too late, no sin too overwhelming, nothing powerful enough to stop the joy of accepting Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.

Can you hear the camel in the Geico commercial saying, “Hump Day!”  

Happy Wednesday!  We may be in the middle of the week but,  Sunday is coming!! 

As we look at our reading for today, Mark 14:1-31, we are reading about the same calendar Wednesday in the last week of Jesus here on the earth.  

We read of a woman (who is not named) and how she readies Jesus for all He is about to face.

Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy.  While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard.  She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.  

Mark 14:3

She. Broke. Open. The. Jar!!!!  This jar contained a perfume that was worth a year’s salary.  She did not “drip” a drop of perfume on his head.  She broke the jar and it ALL flowed on Jesus’ head.  She did not hold back any of the expensive oil for herself, she gave it all.  

Those who were also at the dinner began to criticize her harshly.  Did she not know how valuable the perfume was?  Did she realize how she could have sold the bottle and used the money to help the poor?  The dinner guests saw a horrible injustice and a waste in what they thought to be a frivolous act.  But, Jesus quickly comes to the woman’s defense.

But Jesus replied, “Leave her alone.  Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me?  You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to.  But you will not always have me.  She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. 

Mark 14:6-8

It was not customary for a criminal’s body to be anointed for burial.  The woman was authored by God to do this purposed act on the Wednesday before judgment day.  

The people in this room were focused on the perfume, the money, the tradition, and they missed the act of anointing.  

“She had done what she could”

Mark 14:8

When she broke the bottle, the woman gave all of it contents.  The woman loved the Lord with ALL that she had.  

It is Wednesday…Sunday is in sight. 

What is in your alabaster jar? 

What do you need to pour out at the feet of Jesus? 

Jesus will soon give His entire life for you and for me.  He will be completely broken and poured out for us.  

Have we done all that we can?

In Mark 12:1-12, Jesus was traveling and teaching the Gospel.  At every turn, members of the Jewish authority resented Him and attempted to trap Him into saying something blasphemous so they could arrest Him.  Jesus told the parable of man who built a vineyard and leased it to vinedressers. The vinedressers were to take care of the field and harvest the vineyard.  The landowner lived away from the property and sought to receive a portion of the fruit at harvest time.

As the parable goes, the landowner sent many servants to receive a portion of the harvest, and “they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully.”  In verse 5, “And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others beating some and killing some.”  Verse 6, “Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”

Verse 7 tells us that the vinedressers said “This is his heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” Verse 8, “So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.” Verse 9, “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.”

At this point, the parable is hopefully beginning to make sense.  Jesus was describing the vineyard as the blessings God had provided to the Jewish people, and us, and His servants were the many prophets God had sent to the Jewish people to save them. Clearly, the “son of the landowner,” was Jesus, whom God sent to earth.

Blessings come in many forms and many times we may not recognize them at the time.  God provides for us in all ways and the best outcome for us may not always seem like it in the moment.  We live our lives searching for meaning and understanding.  We seek satisfaction and happiness from material things.  Our hearts are programmed to accept sin and we turn away from God due to our selfish, sinful tendencies. Our human nature is sinful, and the challenge is to recognize what God’s purpose for lives are and not our own.  What blessings is God providing me that I may not recognize?

Perhaps the relationship that you thought was “meant to be” did not work out. Maybe you still think about the promotion at work that you did not get and are still bitter about. Perhaps it was the home that you wanted to buy that you could not afford.  All the things we seek have consequences and impacts.  Perhaps the relationship that did not work out would have pulled you further away from God. Maybe the promotion at work would have been too much time away from home and your family.  Maybe the house you could not afford would have taken your marriage into a stressful place that would not have been productive for your relationship.

God is sending us “servants” all the time to give us messages and signs about His will for us.  Our Lord loves us unconditionally and wants what is best for us, but we may not recognize what “best” is in the moment. I strive to recognize during the disappointments or challenges, “What is God’s purpose right now? What does He want to me see that I am not seeing?  What does He want me to hear in this moment?”

Do you look back on trying times and see them differently now?  As you get older and experience life at different stages, do you recognize moments that might be “God’s purpose?”  The most difficult question for me to answer is “What is God’s plan?”

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Esther 4:14 – Perhaps you were born for such a time as this.

Romans 8:28 – And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Psalm 33:11 – The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.

Jeremiah 1:5 – Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

My prayer is that we have the humility and heart to listen to “God’s voice” in the moments when we “cannot hear” anything.  My hope this that we rest knowing there is a plan, and someday we will understand more completely the struggles and trials, when God’s plan is revealed to each of us in Heaven.

Today’s reading: Habakkuk 2

I’ve told you before that I ask a lot of questions (and often drive my family nuts).  Sometimes my motive is to find out what is going on so I can meet the demands of the situation – due dates, arrival times, transportation needs, etc.  Sometimes it is just because I’m interested in the subject or entertained by the art of the conversation.  But some times I ask questions to gain understanding.  Either additional information is going to help me connect the dots and buy into the story, or it will help me see through the erroneous information so I am able to help resolve the issue.

What we know about God’s prophet Habakkuk was that he too asked a lot of questions.  Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah.  During this period, God’s people were in conflict with the Babylonians who eventually overtook Jerusalem and exiled God’s people into slavery.  At the time, Habakkuk didn’t know how things were going to turn out and cried out to God for understanding. The short book he authored, the fifth to last book of the Old Testament, is just three chapters long.  The first chapter outlines Habakkuk’s questions for God and the second chapter, our passage for today, records God’s answer.  Habakkuk’s questions to God were a cry for understanding.

Question 1 – How long would would the evil ways of the world prevail?  How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save (Habakkuk 1:2).

Question 2 – Why are you letting wicked people win?  Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves (Habakkuk 1:13).

When Habakkuk cried out in his time of struggle, God provided a clear answer – wait patiently.  God’s timing sometimes seems slow, but we must remember God hates sin even more than we do.  He will not overlook it.  Eventually, in his time, he will punish the unrighteous.  For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay (Habakkuk 2:3).

God wants us to come to him with our questions.  We may not always get the answers we want or expect, but he is sovereign and he will answer.

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him (Habakkuk 2:20).