John 20:1-18
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’'8 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
“The Unexpected Happened!”
No one expected Jesus to rise from the dead.
Pilate didn’t. The Centurion didn’t. The Pharisee’s didn’t. The disciples didn’t.
Not even Mary Magdalene expected to find an empty tomb. Then it happened and nothing has been the same since - for them or for us.
Everything we believe hinges on the resurrection. The words our Lord spoke; the sacrifice he made; the promises He gave, all rest on the resurrection. Without it they are empty.
With it they become words of life and hope, trusting that nothing now can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ!
“The Future Is Open”
When POW’s are released and go hope the future is open again.
When Jesus rose from the dead the future was opened again for him and for us.
Without a future life becomes stale, boring, routine, uneventful; it looses its sing. With a future, life becomes exciting, dynamic, moving, pulsating, alive. That’s what Easter is all about: a future which is eternal! Not even death can take our future away from us.
The future is open; we can live hopefully, joyfully - fully.
With Martin Luther, we can plant a rose bush in our garden today, even if the world should end tomorrow. For there is no end to God’s love and our eternal home!
Mark 16:1-8 (Alternate Gospel for Easter)
“Be Amazed!”
The angles advice to the women is absurd - “Do not be amazed!”
Indeed, how could they not be amazed! A resurrection had just taken place - something which had never happened before and would never happen gain - and they are to take it calmly, without amazement?
How absurd; preposterous; impossible!
Be amazed at the message of today. Don’t lose this quality as you contemplate the good news that Jesus lives. We have heard it many times; we think we know what it means; we believe it. It is still amazing! It doesn’t make sense; it is not logical or rational. It is exceptional!
Be amazed that Jesus rose; that out of death comes life; that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ! It is shockingly good news - it is love “so amazing so divine” at work in our lives and in our world.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science (we can add religion, as Paul says.’Great indeed is the mystery of our religion’). He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein
Be amazed by Easter and the energy it releases in our lives and our world.
i.e. The 4 Chaplains on the Dorchester in WWII.
Be amazed by Easter and walk “from here to eternity” as one who lives in the hope, love, peace, joy, and life’s meaning generated by that open tomb and the words, “He is not here! He is risen! He lives! Alleluia!
Monday, March 30, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
March 29, 2015 Palm/Passion Sunday
Mark 11:1-11
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” 4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The Passion Story - Mark 14:1-15:47
“Not What Was Expected”
Jesus was not what was expected by the people of Israel who had waited so long for their promised Messiah so they crucified Him within the same week they hailed him as King.
They were looking at Him as their great political Messiah; he was coming as a King whose kingdom was not of this world.
In His kingdom peace (“would that you know the things which make for peace”) comes not by being the most powerful but by loving enough to suffer for others. (Phil 2:8)
It is to serve rather then be served and to give one’s life as a ransom for many.
The disciples (nor the crowd) didn’t understand that the Messiah must die. The thought is both repulsive and enraging for them; this is not what they expected: a king riding into Jerusalem on a donkey!
God , the incomprehensible God, did things not necessary or expected of God. He took exception to our way of doing things and sent his Son to be a servant,
”to humble himself and become obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:8)
On April 25, 1958 a young Korean exchange student was killed by hoods in Philadelphia. The city cried out for vengeance; the parents wrote from Korea:
“Our family has met together and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to those who have committed this criminal action...In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to save money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational and social guidance of the boys when they are released...We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ who died for our sins.”
It is often in the unexpected expression of love and concern that God comes to us, or works through us, even as God did through Jesus.
This is our God, the unexpected one, who comes to us, as Albert Schweitzer wrote,
“...as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word; ‘Follow me!’ and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time. He commands and to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toil, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”
The struggle to grasp that Jesus must die to show the power of God's redeeming love for all of us, even for Jesus, is expressed by Nikos Kazantzakis in "The Last Temptation Of Christ" (pp. 386,387)
"Jesus lifted his eyes into the light. He had turned pale. He squeezed Judas's arm and clung to him. "There they are!" he whispered, terrified. "They've filled the air!"
"Read!" said Judas, who was also trembling.
Panting, Jesus began hoarsely to spell out the words. The letters were like living beasts: he hunted them and they resisted. Continually wiping away his sweat, he read: "He has borne our faults; he was wounded for our transgressions;l our iniquities bruised him. He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Despised and rejected by all, he went forward without resisting, like a lomb that is led to the slaughter."
Jesus spoke no more. He had turned deathly pale.
'" don't understand!", said Judas, standing still and shifting the pebbles with his big toe, "Who is the lamb being led to slaughter? Who is going to die?"
"Judas," Jesus slowly answered, "Judas, brother, I am the one who is going to die."
"You?" said Judas, recoiling. "Then aren't you the Messiah?"
"I am."
"I don't understand!" Judas repeated, and he lacerated his toe on the stones.
"Don't shout, Judas. This is the way. For the world to be saved, I, of my own will, must die. At first I didn't understand it myself. God sent me signs in vain: sometimes visions in the air, sometimes dreams in my sleep, or the goat's carcass in the desert with all the sins of the people around its neck. And since the day I quit my mother's house. a shadow has followed behind me like a dog or at times has run in front to show me the road. What road? The Cross!"
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” 4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The Passion Story - Mark 14:1-15:47
“Not What Was Expected”
Jesus was not what was expected by the people of Israel who had waited so long for their promised Messiah so they crucified Him within the same week they hailed him as King.
They were looking at Him as their great political Messiah; he was coming as a King whose kingdom was not of this world.
In His kingdom peace (“would that you know the things which make for peace”) comes not by being the most powerful but by loving enough to suffer for others. (Phil 2:8)
It is to serve rather then be served and to give one’s life as a ransom for many.
The disciples (nor the crowd) didn’t understand that the Messiah must die. The thought is both repulsive and enraging for them; this is not what they expected: a king riding into Jerusalem on a donkey!
God , the incomprehensible God, did things not necessary or expected of God. He took exception to our way of doing things and sent his Son to be a servant,
”to humble himself and become obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:8)
On April 25, 1958 a young Korean exchange student was killed by hoods in Philadelphia. The city cried out for vengeance; the parents wrote from Korea:
“Our family has met together and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to those who have committed this criminal action...In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to save money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational and social guidance of the boys when they are released...We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ who died for our sins.”
It is often in the unexpected expression of love and concern that God comes to us, or works through us, even as God did through Jesus.
This is our God, the unexpected one, who comes to us, as Albert Schweitzer wrote,
“...as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word; ‘Follow me!’ and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time. He commands and to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toil, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”
The struggle to grasp that Jesus must die to show the power of God's redeeming love for all of us, even for Jesus, is expressed by Nikos Kazantzakis in "The Last Temptation Of Christ" (pp. 386,387)
"Jesus lifted his eyes into the light. He had turned pale. He squeezed Judas's arm and clung to him. "There they are!" he whispered, terrified. "They've filled the air!"
"Read!" said Judas, who was also trembling.
Panting, Jesus began hoarsely to spell out the words. The letters were like living beasts: he hunted them and they resisted. Continually wiping away his sweat, he read: "He has borne our faults; he was wounded for our transgressions;l our iniquities bruised him. He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Despised and rejected by all, he went forward without resisting, like a lomb that is led to the slaughter."
Jesus spoke no more. He had turned deathly pale.
'" don't understand!", said Judas, standing still and shifting the pebbles with his big toe, "Who is the lamb being led to slaughter? Who is going to die?"
"Judas," Jesus slowly answered, "Judas, brother, I am the one who is going to die."
"You?" said Judas, recoiling. "Then aren't you the Messiah?"
"I am."
"I don't understand!" Judas repeated, and he lacerated his toe on the stones.
"Don't shout, Judas. This is the way. For the world to be saved, I, of my own will, must die. At first I didn't understand it myself. God sent me signs in vain: sometimes visions in the air, sometimes dreams in my sleep, or the goat's carcass in the desert with all the sins of the people around its neck. And since the day I quit my mother's house. a shadow has followed behind me like a dog or at times has run in front to show me the road. What road? The Cross!"
Sunday, March 15, 2015
March 22, 2015 Fifth Sunday of Lent
Mark 10:35-45
5 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“To Give His Life As A Ransom For Many”
The disciples were good at missing the point. cf Mk 8:31-33, 9:30-35; 10:32-37,41-45.
It is hard to accept suffering as necessary. The only way to live without suffering is to not live...not touch anyone, love, hope, care, trust, get close to anyone.
Suffering belongs to the very nature of our world and our lives; it is not something we simply eliminate. it is something we accept, grow in, and find meaning through. It is a part of the paradox of life.
Suffering is holy ground. We don’t go looking for it, but we are to let it become redemptive when it comes to us. It is an integral part of the good that happens in our lives. It brings out the best in people, it draws us together, it enriches life, it even causes us to discover a deep thankfulness. It enables us to discover the most enduring love. And when we discover this we have discovered something of the love of God in Christ, who suffered that we might be saved.
“Not to Be Served But To Serve”
James and John asked Jesus to be given the favorite spots in the Kingdom. They wanted to know what they were going to get before they gave too much of themselves.
They wanted to be promised a special spot in the Kingdom before then served long and hard, and suffered much.
But God shows no partiality. God has no favorites.
Grace does not make us favorites with God. It equips us to be servants of God.
To be great in the Kingdom is to be a servant.
To be first is to be last.
To really live is to lose oneself in life in serving Jesus Christ.
Don’t ask what you can get, but what you can give.
Being a servant is more in step with Jesus then being a mighty one.
Servant means lowly in our world. In God’s Kingdom it is the highest office one can hold.
A servant is one who “finds grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16b
Greatness, honor, deep meaning and fulfillment in life comes, in Jesus terms, ”...not in self-seeking, but in solidarity....not in accruing status, but in benefiting others,,,not in hoarding, but in giving...not in ruling, but in serving.”
Mother Teresa: “Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world. But it is His work. I think God wants to show His greatness by using nothingness.”
5 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“To Give His Life As A Ransom For Many”
The disciples were good at missing the point. cf Mk 8:31-33, 9:30-35; 10:32-37,41-45.
It is hard to accept suffering as necessary. The only way to live without suffering is to not live...not touch anyone, love, hope, care, trust, get close to anyone.
Suffering belongs to the very nature of our world and our lives; it is not something we simply eliminate. it is something we accept, grow in, and find meaning through. It is a part of the paradox of life.
Suffering is holy ground. We don’t go looking for it, but we are to let it become redemptive when it comes to us. It is an integral part of the good that happens in our lives. It brings out the best in people, it draws us together, it enriches life, it even causes us to discover a deep thankfulness. It enables us to discover the most enduring love. And when we discover this we have discovered something of the love of God in Christ, who suffered that we might be saved.
“Not to Be Served But To Serve”
James and John asked Jesus to be given the favorite spots in the Kingdom. They wanted to know what they were going to get before they gave too much of themselves.
They wanted to be promised a special spot in the Kingdom before then served long and hard, and suffered much.
But God shows no partiality. God has no favorites.
Grace does not make us favorites with God. It equips us to be servants of God.
To be great in the Kingdom is to be a servant.
To be first is to be last.
To really live is to lose oneself in life in serving Jesus Christ.
Don’t ask what you can get, but what you can give.
Being a servant is more in step with Jesus then being a mighty one.
Servant means lowly in our world. In God’s Kingdom it is the highest office one can hold.
A servant is one who “finds grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16b
Greatness, honor, deep meaning and fulfillment in life comes, in Jesus terms, ”...not in self-seeking, but in solidarity....not in accruing status, but in benefiting others,,,not in hoarding, but in giving...not in ruling, but in serving.”
Mother Teresa: “Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world. But it is His work. I think God wants to show His greatness by using nothingness.”
Thursday, March 12, 2015
March 15, 2015 Fourth Sunday in Lent
John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
“The Gift Of God”
One of the most difficult truths for us to handle is that it is...”by grace that we have been saved through faith; and this is not our own doing, it is the gift of God...There is nothing here to boast of, since it is not the result of our own efforts.” Eph. 2:8,9
We like to boast of how we have God in our control, as one ‘good’ Christian said recently, “God doesn’t hear Jewish prayers” - as if we know and control who God listens too!
When God becomes predictable, God also becomes impotent!
Grace means that God loves the person who first said, “God is dead.”
God has compassion for the person who rejects him.
For God’s primary concern is that we allow God to love us, to save us, to touch our hearts and change our living; to rescue us from our ability to self-destruct!
God makes it easy for us, as with the Israelites of old. Just look and you will live! Just look at Jesus and live! God wants us so badly that if we just give him the least little excuse, God will shower his grace upon us and call us his own! God is the waiting father!
God also trusts that once this gift of grace hits home, things will start happening in our lives.
For the person who truly lives by grace is the last person who can be judgmental towards others. That is simply a contradiction which leads to hypocrisy of the worst kind.
The line God draws is not a judgment line, but a grace line. To cross that live is to live in love and forgiveness. Faith is crossing that line and letting God have at you!
It is looking at Jesus, and living.
“This Is How Believing Works”
Sometimes the most common or familiar is the most difficult to hear, see, experience in a new and living way. This is true when we come to words such as today - “By grace you have been saved...” “For God so loved the world...”
There is more to this then just hearing it again in the same way. Believing in Jesus is a lot more then saying I believe. As verses 19-21 indicate, it is coming to the light of God’s truth, wanting it, yearning for it, searching for it, welcoming it when it comes; when it comes, as it always will, in human form.
This means that those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord should be the first to welcome the liberation of the black man, first to struggle with those who are struggling for then own identity, the first to listen to the other side.
To welcome the light of God’s love into our lives is to open ourselves up to all the evil which is within us...our greed, selfishness, bigotry, envy, jealousy, lust, pride. It is to have it all out in the light of day.
Woman in NY: “If you’re not interested in the rats in my apartment, I”m not interested in your Jesus.”
Judgment words on me; it exposes me rather then giving me reason to condemn others.
First act of faith is to confess often that I love darkness more then light.
This leads to true forgiveness and the good deeds which follow; as I then live in the light of God’s love and share it with others - not judgment but compassion.
AA is a good example of this dynamic at work.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
March 8, 2015 Third Sunday in Lent
John 2:13-22
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
“Remembered...and Believed.”
I memorized the 10 commandments and meanings by the 5th grade. I knew them better then, than I know them now. Yet I know them better now than I ever could have then. For I have gotten them wrong enough times to begin to know what they might mean and are all about.
The people in the temple where getting it all wrong. That is why Jesus drove them out. They were mixing greed with worship, and all but destroying worship.
We get it wrong often. We start to get it right when we have something to remember...
that I am loved with a relentless love
that I can be defeated but now destroyed
that I can blow it, but not lose it.
A key word in finally getting it right is “remember”.
The disciples understood this experience after the resurrection and they remembered. Then they got it right.
It is the same for us. We get it right finally, when we remember the grace and forgiving love of a God who never gives up on us and never forsakes us. A God who’s love never dies, and who’s dazzling grace always is.
“Jesus, the Intruder”
Jesus had two faces. He was “meek and lowly in heart”; and “he looked at them with anger”. (Mk 5:5) He was gentle but not anemic, as when he called Herod a “fool” or told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”
Nor was He anemic when he cleansed the temple. He was a violent intruder, disrupting their comfortable little set up. It must have been a wild scene! The disciples must have been stunned, even embarrassed. The people likewise.
Jesus was not always an easy person to be with. For example, when he said:
“Leave the dead to bury their own dead; for as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:60
“No own who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:62
“He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Mt. 10:37, 38
This may sound harsh and in some ways it is. It is also an expression of God’s awesome love which will not let us off easy, but expresses itself even in punishment for sin. It is as Luther prayed, “Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee...but be not silent...toward us.”
Jesus, would be an Intruder in our lives, harsh though it may seen, to awaken in us our need for a Savior, and then Jesus would be the Savior we need.
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
“Remembered...and Believed.”
I memorized the 10 commandments and meanings by the 5th grade. I knew them better then, than I know them now. Yet I know them better now than I ever could have then. For I have gotten them wrong enough times to begin to know what they might mean and are all about.
The people in the temple where getting it all wrong. That is why Jesus drove them out. They were mixing greed with worship, and all but destroying worship.
We get it wrong often. We start to get it right when we have something to remember...
that I am loved with a relentless love
that I can be defeated but now destroyed
that I can blow it, but not lose it.
A key word in finally getting it right is “remember”.
The disciples understood this experience after the resurrection and they remembered. Then they got it right.
It is the same for us. We get it right finally, when we remember the grace and forgiving love of a God who never gives up on us and never forsakes us. A God who’s love never dies, and who’s dazzling grace always is.
“Jesus, the Intruder”
Jesus had two faces. He was “meek and lowly in heart”; and “he looked at them with anger”. (Mk 5:5) He was gentle but not anemic, as when he called Herod a “fool” or told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”
Nor was He anemic when he cleansed the temple. He was a violent intruder, disrupting their comfortable little set up. It must have been a wild scene! The disciples must have been stunned, even embarrassed. The people likewise.
Jesus was not always an easy person to be with. For example, when he said:
“Leave the dead to bury their own dead; for as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:60
“No own who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:62
“He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Mt. 10:37, 38
This may sound harsh and in some ways it is. It is also an expression of God’s awesome love which will not let us off easy, but expresses itself even in punishment for sin. It is as Luther prayed, “Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee...but be not silent...toward us.”
Jesus, would be an Intruder in our lives, harsh though it may seen, to awaken in us our need for a Savior, and then Jesus would be the Savior we need.
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