“Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”’
The Pharisees were angry with Jesus because he “worked” on the sabbath by healing an invalid who had been crippled for 38 years, and he told that man to break the sabbath by carrying his mat home.
How dare God break the sabbath rest rule. What was the law?
“8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Interpreting this law of God fell to the leaders of Israel.
Rest became a job for the Jewish people. I don’t have the specifics but I heard recently that stipulation was that you couldn’t wear false teeth because it constituted carrying a burden.
The people were so concerned with keeping Gods laws that they lost touch with the God who gave them the laws. The laws weren’t put in place to drive us away or to drive us crazy but to drive into the arms of God who loves us.
Jesus has come to set us free, not from the rules but from our failure to keep the rules. We can’t keep the rules. He can, he did, he died to pay for our breaking them.
What if Jesus showed up at the door to the museum of our life and asked for a tour? The museum is the store house of our memories, the place where our motives and motivation are kept, where our world view rests. Would our tour sound like this?
“Welcome Jesus to the museum of my life. You may look but do not touch. Please stay on the well marked pathway during the tour. Jesus you are welcome here but please do not alter or change anything, I like my life the way it is”.
What if at the end of the tour Jesus made some suggestions for changes to improve our life? Remove this, add that, clear out an entire area, change the focus of our world view?
Matthew 12 has another story about Jesus shaking up the religious establishments view on their rules.
“9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.”
It’s very easy to see how the religious leaders were wrong here. I keep wondering what other messages should this story be telling me?
So I imagined Jesus coming to me. My life. Bearing all of my life to him. Immediately I think of things that I don’t want him to see. Then I ask myself, why are they there? If Jesus shouldn’t see them, then why are they still in my life? Is there anger or resentment that I’ve been hiding? Why don’t I let Him wash that out of me? What about my little room of guilty pleasures? Not outright wrong, or the little closet of secret sins? Wouldn’t it be nice to do some spring cleaning and purge that all away? The weight of guilt and shame, overwhelming for me,but not for Jesus. He can cleanse those all away.
Is Jesus welcome in my life? Yes. Generally speaking. What if he asks me to change something?
Jesus is the Lord of the sabbath. He is that because he created it. He created. Everything that exists, exists because of him. He is the author and architect of life. He created me. He knows what is best for me because he knows what he created me for.
Back to the tour.
Today Jesus is at the door of the museum of my life. I am handing him the keys and saying, “Jesus, welcome to my life. It is a mess. I’m tired of the gunk and junk, please help me clean it up and clean it out”. Just over his shoulder I see a dumpster labeled Sin Disposal. That is a welcome sight. All of my sins forgiven.
Today not only will be forgiven of sins committed by me, I will also be forgiving sins against me.
Where was Jesus when God was giving the the 10 commandments to Moses?
We read in John 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.”
Jesus was with God as God gave Moses the law.
Matthew 12 shows us the spiritual leaders of the day explaining the law to the author of it.
“12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”’
I have a personal law or rule that I try to follow.
Do not put your hand in a toilet bowl.
It’s a good rule. Toilet bowls are nasty. I’ve seen what I deposit in there and can only imagine what others have done.
I broke my own rule the other night. Sometimes you just have to. A family member had a toilet that was plugged and the plunger wasn’t getting it done. I used a snake. It was cold and unpleasant but I got it un-stopped.
My rule is to keep me safe from germs. I broke it for a higher reason. To help.
Jesus, the author of the rules, the Lord of the sabbath, reminds us that the sabbath wasn’t invented so that we could have a rule to follow. It was put in the set of rules to give us a day of stop. A day of stop. Stop and rest.
I Think of my daily drive and of the one place that I have to stop that doesn’t make any sense. In the beginning there was no stop sign there. But then one day, maybe several days, two cars collided and someone was hurt. The wise leadership decided to put a stop sign there to keep people safe. Keep collisions from happening.
In my own heart I want to rebel against that stop sign but it’s intent is to keep me safe. My heart is cesspool of either rebellion or rule enforcement. I want to blow through the stop sign but pity the fool who does blow through it on my watch. I want to break the rule myself but I want it enforced on everyone else.
Sometimes we use the rules around us to control or condemn others. That’s not what they are there for. Gods rules are there to guide us, bless us and keep us safe.
Here’s a rule to follow: Jesus said Love one another as I have loved you. How has he loved us? Sacrificially.
Are we there yet?
To sum up:
Jesus wrote the rules.
Keep our hands out of the toilet bowl unless it would help others more than it will hurt us to get our hands dirty.
“60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[e] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)”
My pastor says this often, the problem with life is its so daily. I live my life day by day and the challenges, especially the spiritual challenges are there every day.
The next day After Jesus fed the 5000 they were all hungry again. At the wedding when the water turned into wine was gone people got thirsty again.
The miracles were not to change the world, the miracles were to point to the one who could change a heart.
The miracles that Jesus performed weren’t an end in themselves. They were to point to Jesus otherness, his holiness. Yes he did grow up down the street but his origins were from eternity, not Galilee.
Not everyone could see past the miracles to the God/man who was before all time and who could build a bridge from a sin filled existence to an eternity with God.
The disciples saw it and Peter said it. ““Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”’
To whom shall we go? Is there another offer? A better offer? An offer with a brighter future than an eternity with a holy God?
I drink coffee every morning. I don’t like the taste so I sweeten it. It used to be sugar but since i was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes I have been using artificial sweeteners. I settled on truvia because it seems to have the least poison in it. I use the pouches. The brand name stuff has little sayings on the pouch to uplift and encourage me. Today’s pouch said “be what you love”. That made me think of Jesus’ summation of the law. It’s found in more than one gospel. I will quote the version from Matthew 22.
““Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40 -NLT
In John 14 Jesus said something similar but he made it tighter and more difficult.
“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:34-35 – NLT
“A new commandment I give to you that you are to love one another as I have loved you. “
How did Jesus love us? He loved us to death, Not our death, his death.
We can’t actually love others completely and perfectly like Jesus did because we are damaged with sin. But Jesus commanded us to even though he knew we would try and fail.
Christianity has what we call the golden rule. If I follow this rule I will by default, be following every other rule.
“12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 7:12 – NIV
Jesus expanded into it in Luke 6.
“27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Luke 6:27-36 – NIV
Yes that’s all we have to do. Just treat others as we would have them treat us. That’s all. Long pause.
How are we doing with that? I’m failing. I try but then some jerk cuts me off in traffic, or mistreats me or maligns me in a meeting. My heart and head No longer want to treat them as I would want to be treated. I want them punished!
At the end of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew Jesus explained the consequences of unforgiveness.
“14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Matthew 6:14-15 – NIV
I want sins against me punished but I want my own sins against others and against God to be forgiven. How fickle my heart is.
“Be what you love”. That’s how this post started and it has rambled around. I’ll try to tie it together.
When I take a standard and try to press it onto my life from outside it doesn’t work very well. It is like using cookie cutters on bread dough. I squish out. I don’t maintain the shape for long. The bubbling up from the inside fights against the shape imposed on me from the outside. But if the change comes from inside? When I become a follower of Jesus the Holy Spirit comes and moves into my heart and mind and begins to remodel me from the inside out. He is making me into the shape of my savior Jesus not from the outside in, but from the inside out.
“Be what you love”? I love Jesus. The longer I follow him, read his words and serve him, hanging around with others who also follow him, I am becoming more of not what, but who I love.
Following Jesus isn’t about perfectly following rules. He isn’t expecting us to be perfect on our own. He isn’t squishing a cookie cutter of himself onto our bloated puffed up hearts and lives. He knows us, knows our fickle fallen hearts that want to follow him but stumble and fail. That’s why he died for us. His death paid for all of our mistakes and now all we have to do when we fail is confess and repent and allow his Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out.
I suggest a new saying for Truvia, be who you love.
It was late at night or early in the morning. I was sitting in my 62 Mercury Comet station wagon outside my apartment. The dash lights were illuminating the inside of the car. The street light on the corner behind me dimly lit the outside.
I had blown it again. I knew the rules of Christian living. I’d spent the last 19 years in church at least once a week. I knew what the rules were. I just couldn’t keep them.
I was remorseful. I repented…again. It felt like it wasn’t just what I’d done that night. I was weighed down with what I had done on all the nights. All the nights and all the days. All the rules that I had broken. And now add one more to the pile of my sins. It felt like I was seeing it all at once. It also felt like God was sitting next to me staring at the huge pile of mess Then he asked me “what are we going to do with all of this?”
I was crying pretty hard at this point and I answered, “…I don’t know God…”
He said “Peter, someone has to pay for all of this. You know the rules, someone will have to die for all these sins…”
I said “ok” assuming he meant me.
I wiped away my tears and snot and went into my apartment and went to bed, expecting to wake up dead.
But life went on. I didn’t die, and life returned to normal.
In an animated version of my life, there would be a map of my spiritual journey and on that map would have a cartoon bubble that instead if saying, “you are here” it would say “for this someone must die”.
What did it mean that someone would have to die? How could God require a death?
Let’s look back to the beginning.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-17
Adam and Eve broke the only rule. They ate the forbidden fruit. They sinned and fell short of the glory of God.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Genesis 3:6-10
There were consequences to Adam and Eves sin. Among them was being cast out the garden.
But God did two things. First, he made a promise to them (and so also to us) while speaking to the serpent , “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15
God promised a helper, a savior. Someone who would be bruised in the fight, but that would crush or destroy Their enemy (and so our enemy) the serpent.
Second, God provided a covering for their nakedness.
“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21
Adam and Eve were covered by the skin of animals after attempting to cover themselves with plants.
Unlike the cartoon world of Wile E. Coyote, where Wile E. can unzip his skin, in the real world of Adam and Eve, (the same world we live in), the animals died to provide their skins. This is the first recorded death in creation, and it took place in order that Adam and Eves nakedness would be covered.
Sin caused Blood to be shed.
Sin must be paid for. I guess that is not entirely true. Sin doesn’t have to be paid for. But if we want to undo the damage that sin does, and the worst of the damage is the separation between us and God, we can go on without the sin being covered. If we do that, we die separated from God. Our inclination tends to be to want to even out the score. Do good stuff so we can outweigh the bad. It doesn’t work like that. We can’t pay for it with good works. Our good works, our best possible behavior appears to God looking like filthy rags.
Sin causes death, it must be paid for with a sacrificial death, life for a life.
The pattern of sacrificial death to atone for sin is throughout the old testament. We see it in Abel’s good sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock. We see it in Abraham offering Isaac and God intervening and providing the lamb. We see it in the lamb that was sacrificed on the eve of the Exodus, and then God used animal sacrifice over and over throughout the tabernacle worship that was prescribed for his people in laying out how to worship.
But I was in modern times. Animal sacrifice had faded away. Besides, God had said to me not something, but someone. Someone would have to die to pay for my sins.
My spiritual journey continued. I was trying to pay for my sins with good works and Christian service. I planned on becoming a Lutheran Pastor. Those plans were waylaid, and I was left wondering how I would ever clean up my mess. Then early one Sunday morning, I was alone in the back room of my parent’s cafe, getting breakfast for myself and my very pregnant bride and God continued our conversation that he had started sitting next to me in my car about a year earlier. I had left school to take over the café so I could support our little family. It seemed like I would never finish school and become a pastor so how could I ever right the wrongs that I had piled up?
“Peter, Your sin problem, I took care of it”.
“How God? You said someone would have to die? I’m still alive, I’ve tried to pay for it by being good and doing good, but that’s not working either, I just keep failing…..”
“Peter, I sent Jesus for you. I sent Jesus to die for your sins, it’s my gift to you and for you”.
And then he reminded me of the verses in Ephesians 2;
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10
I would later read and understand that over and over again God says in his word that he loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die in our place. From the garden and even before, he had a plan to redeem us, us his beloved fallen race.
Another of my favorite verses is in Romans chapter 5.
“6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” God has brought us reconciliation, he has restored the relationship between us and him through Jesus. That night, the night of tears, it was so hard and yet it was a stepping stone on the pathway back to my God. Jesus didn’t just die for me. He died for everyone. His one death covers all of our sins. He is waiting and wanting for all of us to return, through his gift of love, his gift of sacrifice, his gift of his own blood to cover our nakedness. What will you do today about this gift? Will you receive it? Jesus did not stay dead. Once his work was accomplished by his death, 3 days later he rose again and now he is busy preparing a place for us and also interceding for us. Going to his Father and now our Father and reminding him, that we are covered by his blood. Our sins are now forgiven. There is room for all of us in his house. Will join Jesus and me in our Fathers house and in his family?
“16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles,[b] they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.
22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.”
The circumstances are unclear. Why did the disciples leave without him? Did they think he had left already? Jesus had withdrawn so they wouldn’t make him King by force. Had there been chanting? “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!”? The crowd was determined. But Jesus knew that wasn’t The plan. He would be made King, but not like that. His crown would not be gold, it would be of thorns. All that comes in time.
Jesus is on the shore on the east side of the lake his followers are headed to the west side and experiencing a brutal storm. Men know instinctively that the shortest distance between points a and b is a straight line. Jesus started walking. The lake was beneath him and in front of him. But why walk on water?
One thing that may have happened and it completely conjecture on my part.
Maybe after Jesus would not become king the disciples checked out. Maybe Jesus walking on the water was supposed to say to them “I am king, but my kingdom is bigger than Israel, bigger than Rome, bigger than you can comprehend right now and the battle is not about land or laws. The battle is about hearts and minds and lives and eternity.”
Or maybe it was the quickest way across the lake.
Jesus is still waiting to rule hearts. He rules mine (most of the time, I still struggle with things and don’t always obey). He wants to rule our hearts, all of our hearts. That means each heart and all areas of each heart. He doesn’t want to control us, he wants to protect and bless us. He wants the best for each of us. His best, not always the same as the worlds best.
Today the choice is up to each one of us. Who will be king of our heart?
It is said of Clarence the angel in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, he has the IQ of a rabbit, but he has the faith of a child.
In Matthew 11 we find these verses.
“25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”’
Who is Jesus?
If we don’t use the word “my” in our answer then he isn’t all he can be to us yet.
I must’ve been 15. I was terribly snarky at that age. We were all in the 67 Ford Galaxy and it was a sunny spring Sunday. We were leaving church heading back home, my sisters Judi and Shari, My new friend Mary, my cousin Kathy, mom and dad, dad was driving. Out of the blue and probably because of my youthful Snarkiness my dad asked me, “Pete, who is Jesus?”
The car got quiet as I thought about an answer, but I said the safest thing that came to mind, “Jesus is my Lord and savior”.
The rest of the conversation is blurry but dad said something like, “you have answered well…” and “I wish someone had asked me that question at your age”.
I don’t know why my dad asked me that, but I’m glad he did. He pushed and popped a truth pimple out of me that I didn’t even know was down there.
It would be several years and many mistakes and blunders later when that confession of my mouth and the understanding in my head and the longing and belief in my heart would all come together and I would be “born again”. My dad helped me that day.
Jesus wants us to know his dad. Jesus died so that our sins could be forgiven and our relationship with our Heavenly Father can be restored.
So I ask again, who is Jesus? May this question nudge you closer to a God is waiting with open arms to welcome you home.
“Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”
God provides. Jesus is God. Jesus provided for 5000 men.
5 loaves + 2 fish = food for 5000 with 12 baskets left over.
I myself have many stories of need, usually $$$, and how our needs were filled miraculously (past tense). Are filled miraculously (present tense). My current job and the things that Mary and I have done together are miraculous. Every day miracles happen all around us.
Sometimes when miracles happen we miss something. We stop asking about our biggest needs and our biggest problems.
Even if we get food today and we eat so we don’t starve to death, death will meet us on another day. When death meets us we cash in morally. We need to settle up our debts.
How do we pay for our sin?
The form will look like this: Have you ever said anything that was not true? Yes or no? If yes you are a liar- you cannot enter Gods kingdom
Have you ever taken possession of something that didn’t belong to you? Yes or No? If yes then you are a thief you cannot enter Gods kingdom.
Have you ever said the name of God in a way not referring to God? Yes or No? If yes you are a profaner of the name of God-you cannot enter Gods kingdom.
Have ever had sex with someone that you are not married to? (Or even thought about having sex with someone you are not married to?) Yes or No? If yes you are an adulterer-you cannot enter Gods kingdom.
The list goes on. There are 6 more. So far I’m not doing so good. Who will help me?
Jesus. Jesus will help me. Jesus has paid the price for my sin. He has paid the price for all of our sins. Do you believe that?
Seriously, that’s the question that is posed, and will be posed to all of us- it will be on the bottom of the form at heavens gate, “do you believe that Jesus died to pay for your sins? Yes or No? If yes then enter into Gods kingdom and welcome to the family of God, we’ve been waiting for you. A place has been prepared for you.”
Truthfully I don’t know if that’s how it works, if we can choose after we exhale for the last time and our spirit leaves our body and enters eternity, is there one more chance? I don’t know. Why wait? Choose him now. Let’s Get our debt settled now, let Jesus pay your bill now.
I read Psalm 98 this morning. Another great set of verses that encourage us to praise God because he is so worthy of being praised. There is nothing about God that is not absolutely glorious and worth praising. He is omnipotent and yet full of compassion, mercy and grace. He is omniscient, knows us all and knows all about us and yet loves us. God created and owns everything and yet is generous with it all.
If we doubt his love for us we can read John 3:16.
“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.”
John 3:16 -NIV
God loves us enough to sacrifice his only son.
At the end of Psalm 98 there is a spot that caught my eye. Something about judgement.
“let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.”
Psalm 98:9 – NIV
Knowing I am going to be judged doesn’t usually make me want to sing, well maybe sing the blues…”nobody knows, the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows, my sorrow…”
But God’s judgement is about justice and fairness. We don’t have to fear.
Sometimes we equate judgement with condemnation. A judge can condemn a person but Jesus didn’t come to condemn us. There is proof of that in John 3:17-18
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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.
John 3:17-18 -NIV
From these verses it looks like we are responsible for our own condemnation by choosing not to believe in Jesus and what his death on the cross has accomplished, forgiveness of sin.
In Matthew 25 Jesus tells us a story about a judgement coming where God will divide all of humanity into two groups.
“31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Matthew 25:31-40 -NIV
Those who believe in Jesus and have trusted him as their savior can now live without fear of judgement or condemnation. Let me rephrase that. We will be judged; we will not be condemned. And our judgement will happen from the safety of the sheep pen.
Paul said this in his letter to the Romans:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:1-4 -NIV
We have the righteous requirement of the law that should condemn us to death, met in us, through the perfection of Jesus. His perfection covers our imperfections like a cloak or a blanket or a robe. We are robed in his righteousness.
Back to a Psalm 98. Here are the last two verses this time from the new living translation.
“Let the rivers clap their hands in glee! Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with fairness.”
Psalm 98:8-9 -NLT
It isn’t the greatest of news, like waking up during our days at school on Monday knowing we have a test coming. But that is actually the good part. We know ahead of time. There is judgement coming, we know it’s coming and we have a friend in the courtroom, Jesus.
I believe the test only has one question and because we read these verses this morning, we know the answer. Here is the question: God just asks one thing, “Why should I let you enter my heaven?”
What is the answer, I’ll give you a hint. It starts with J.
“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
This is radical. A man claiming to be equal to God. He is either crazy or he is who he says he is. If he is crazy we should ignore his words and go back to our lives seeking what pleasures and comforts that we can find until we die.
If he is Gods son? What should we do then?
“Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”
Jesus said he has the power to give life to whom he pleased to give it and that all judgement has been given to him. And that we can’t honor His father if we don’t honor Him.
These are stern hard sayings. I’m squirming a little just writing them.
Let’s move on.
““Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”‘
Death is coming for everyone of us. Sobering truth. Jesus said that if we hear his words and believe God who sent him we don’t have to fear death. We have crossed over from death to life.
(Originally posted 3/2/2016)
So much of our culture we pick and choose from life like we are at a supermarket or in a buffet line. I don’t think we get to pick and choose when it comes to Jesus. You take him all or you take nothing. If you take him you have crossed over from death to life. If you don’t chose him…..? Well just choose him and we don’t have to discuss the other option.
“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.”
How could they miss the miracle? It astounds me. Whenever I am astounded by someone else’s mistakes I try to pause and look at my own life. Where am I missing a miracle? I know I can be judgmental and prudish, excusing myself from the same scrutiny I give others.
But 38 years of torment erased by a single command of Jesus!? It says that Jesus found out how Long he had been there, I think Jesus may have enquired, “who has been here the longest?” and picked that guy out of the “great number” of people there to heal.
I don’t want to miss the miraculous by tripping over the mundane. The religious leaders of the day had written volumes of rules to live by, very specific rules that were like application for the 10 commandments. Somehow these rules were given as much or more importance than the original word of God. Jesus exposed the ridiculousness by telling this man to break the rules. God said rest on the sabbath, do no work. man said well this is what work is. Carrying a weight, the mat.
I don’t want to miss the miracle by explaining the background. Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years.
“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.”
I really wish Jesus hadn’t said this or that John forgot to write it down. “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you”.
Is there a cause and affect relationship between my behavior and the consequences of my life? I don’t have the answer for that here yet.
There’s a difference between following rules made by man and following rules made by God. Breaking the rules have different consequences too. Jesus saves us from our broken rule records by paying for all those blunders with his life, dying in our place on the cross. Following rules doesn’t get us closer to God, following Jesus does.
I have accepted Jesus’ death as payment for my sins. Will you too?
I read Psalm 92 this morning. It is a psalm of praise and adoration for God.
I needed to hear the words of this psalm. In my line of work there are new technologies and new software applications popping up all the time. There seems to be an endless line of new things that I have to learn. At my age, my brain isn’t as stretchy as it once was and it is filled with things that don’t seem to matter anymore. I know how to dial a rotary phone, I know how to gently place a needle onto a spinning vinyl disc without scratching the vinyl disc, I know how to use a pencil to rewind a cassette tape that has sprung out of its case. None of those things are useful anymore. I get the growing feeling that I am becoming redundant. The word “redundant” can have different meanings. In my line of developing control logic and programming redundancy is a good thing because it means that the system is robust and resilient, there are multiple sources of power or control so if one is lost the system can continue to run. But redundancy in the job market is a scary place to be. Redundant as a worker means extra, not needed, superfluous and unnecessary. As I age I worry that I am becoming redundant, and not the good kind, the extra superfluous kind. So with those worries rattling around in my aging brain I read Psalm 92.
Psalm 92:
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. 2 It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, 3 accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp, and the melody of a lyre.
4 You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. 5 O Lord, what great works you do! And how deep are your thoughts. 6 Only a simpleton would not know, and only a fool would not understand this: 7 Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.
8 But you, O Lord, will be exalted forever. 9 Your enemies, Lord, will surely perish; all evildoers will be scattered. 10 But you have made me as strong as a wild ox. You have anointed me with the finest oil. 11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the defeat of my wicked opponents. 12 But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. 13 For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. 14 Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. 15 They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!”’
Here are some things that stand out to me.
God is always good and always worth praising.
Setting God’s praises to music is a good thing.
The evil people that seem to flourish now, will be dealt with.
The Godly will flourish.
The Godly will grow strong like Cedar trees.
Even in old age, the Godly will still produce fruit.
Even in old age the Godly will remain vital and green.
That is what I am hanging onto this morning, even as I age, I will flourish and still produce fruit in the courts of my God, I will not be redundant to God, but I will be vital and green.
Mary and I have been binge watching Leverage. It’s an action series and on almost every episode there is a rescue. Audiences love to watch a Rescue.
If the Jesus story were rewritten for a modern audience Matthew 11 might be very different. John the Baptist was in prison. He had endorsed Jesus as the messiah, Jesus was showing himself to be powerful in word and deed but John was still languishing in prison.
“11 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.[a]
2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[b] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’[c] 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence,[d] and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
I think what John was asking in a roundabout way is, “when may I expect my release?”
The release doesn’t come. John will be beheaded while in prison.
The ministry of Jesus was predicted and described in Isaiah 61.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61:1-3 -NIV
Jesus answer to Johns disciples was to affirm that he is the messiah and God’s plan is moving ahead. It may not look like what John was expecting. No daring prison break. No overthrow of the Roman Empire.
Sometimes the center of God’s will is to be unjustly imprisoned. It may even to be unjustly killed.
Does God know? Yes. Does he care? Yes.
Now a question for us, can we still trust and believe in God if life is not going the way we want?
What if there is no rescue? Can God really be God if there is no rescue?
Yes.
But there is a rescue for each of us. A freeing us from a prison that each one of us is in, The prison of sin.
Jesus came to set us free, free from sin. No one else can do that and without it no other freedom matters. We will all face death. Without Jesus our sin will forever separate us from God. With Jesus even the physically imprisoned can be spiritually free.
God is good. Life is sometimes hard. God is always good.
“Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.”
I think I would’ve insisted that Jesus come with me to see the boy.
This father just accepted what Jesus said and went back home.
Maybe the circumstances of the water to wine incident were well known, so I propose this Galilean conversation.
“How did he do it? What did he put in the jars?
“Nothing, he never touched the jars or the water.”
“Did he do any incantation or have a wand or magic powder?”
“No, none of that, he said ‘fill those water jars’, they filled them and it became wine…!?”
“Well that’s a miracle!”
“Yup, miracle”
“Who is this guy again? Jesus? The carpenters son…?”
He can turn water into wine. What else can he do? He can heal people. He is not a genie. He is not obligated to us to do whatever we ask but we can ask anything. I’ve asked him to heal my grandsons. I have 2 with bad allergies. Not immediately life threatening, unless a peanut comes into play. So I’m kind of annoying God with requests for healing and so far the answer has been no or not yet. I continue to ask because I believe he can do it. I believe he will do it. I don’t understand why it hasn’t happened yet but I believe it will.
I contend in prayer for friends family and coworkers who haven’t met Jesus yet. That they will meet and believe in him. Believe that his death paid for their sin and his coming back to life guarantees our eternal life.
I take him at his word.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
God is not a genie. He is better. Genies have no conscience and no foreknowledge of how what we ask for will affect our lives and those lives around us. You wish for a bazooka, you get a bazooka. You ask God for a bazooka and he knows what you really need. If you’re a weapons specialist involved in a military conflict or if you are a 7 year old boy with bully issues. The answer will fit the situation.
One of the sillier things that I’ve prayed for is a 57 chevy pickup. I prayed for 30 years. Then out of the blue My uncle gave me this one. I had to work on it a bit but here it is. Answer to prayer? I think so.
What is it that you want? What do you need? Ask and take Jesus at his word.
Which is harder to wait for? The last hour of Monday’s work day or the final hour of Friday?
Waiting is hard to do. It causes anxiety. For me the best remedy for waiting anxiety is to stay busy. To distract myself with activity.
We are waiting for Jesus to return and according to 1 John, we are in the last hour. This last hour hasn’t just seemed to take forever, it has actually been 2000 years (ish).
In hours? If I did the math right it’s been 17,520,000 hours (ish) since John wrote this.
“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
1 John 2:18-23
We have two primary jobs to do while we wait: 1. hang onto our faith. Do not walk away. and 2. Share our faith.
David, who wrote the psalms, had some experience with waiting for the Lord.
“I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”
Every winter my soul starts to despair because of the short days. It seems like it’s always dark. Dark when I get up, dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. But if I just wait a little longer, late February, the days get longer again, and there is a glimmer of light on the horizon at both ends of my workday.
Could the world be at that same spot now? Is it late February on God’s timetable? Are we seeing the glimmer of light on the horizon of time? Not because the world is improving but because the world is getting worse. We know from reading through the book that it will. It will continue to get worse.
Even if Jesus’ return is not imminent i have a job to do. I should be sharing my story about Jesus with the people I meet and see every day. Who will I share with today?
“28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”’
Sometimes it only takes one person in a village who has met Jesus and been changed by him to awaken the rest of the folks living around them to their need of a savior. There is only one. Jesus is the savior of the world.
“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”’
Jesus is the savior of the world.
He knows everything about me and still died to pay for my sin, our sins. Who will I tell ?
Sometimes it only takes one. Am I the one? Are you the one?
“7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”’
Mary’s car is under warranty. If it breaks the company will fix it. There are conditions to the warranty. Every 3 thousand miles or 3 months whichever comes first we are supposed to change the oil. I missed one. I may have missed 2. Mary doesn’t drive much so the months and Miles don’t line up. 27000 miles requiring 9 changes but we’ve owned it for 36 months which means we should have had 12 oil changes. Oops. How do I fix that? If I now change the oil 3 extra times are we good? Are we back on track?
Jesus met a woman. She had voided the warranty on her life. The warranty was sketchy at best. She was a Samaritan woman. A shirttail relative of Gods people. Gods people had a warranty of sorts, God would take care of them. At some point God was going to send the ultimate claims adjuster/repairman, the messiah and he would make all things right.
This lady, if you can call her that, and I think Jesus did treat her as a lady-so yeah, lady, had voided her warranty. 5 husbands and now sleeping with a man not her own. Warranty broken. But she was a charmer, she had charmed her way into and out of 5 marriages. But her charm was wearing off a little. She had a man but he was not so smitten as to seal the deal.
When she met Jesus she met a man who was impervious to her charm and yet knew how completely she had voided her warranty. She was exposed.
“21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”’
When she met this man Jesus who was impervious to her charms she also met the God who knew her whole story and yet……loved her and had come to this very spot on this very day to reveal himself as the claims adjuster/repairman that she had hoped existed but was sure she was unworthy of meeting. Certainly unworthy of being helped by.
The thing is, all of us, every one from the best to the worst, have voided our warranties. We are all without hope, unless there is a messiah, a claims adjuster/ repairman who can rescue us.
“Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
John the Baptist was a key player in announcing Jesus arrival. He brought awareness of sin. And then he was arrested and beheaded.
While he was alive, He continued to tell his followers that he only came to announce the coming of the Christ.
“To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”
31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[i] gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
Like John. My job is to announce that one has come from heaven bringing with him forgiveness for sin. All we have to do is repent, turn away from our sin, and believe that Jesus death pays for our sin and we will be forgiven.
Romans chapter 10 says this. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile —the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:9-13 – NIV
It wasn’t about John.
It isn’t about me.
Jesus. What will we do with him today? Believe and receive and be saved?
Allegories are usually wasted on me. I read Watership Downs in high school and thought it was a story about rabbits. In my early 20s I read a Christian allegory, I think it was Pilgrims Progress but I’m not certain. In the story the characters were on a journey to the celestial city. Each evening they would walk down to the river and some of them would put rocks in their back packs. They would purposely add to their own burden. It didn’t make sense to me or to the main character in the story. Little did I know that at the end of the journey those rocks were revealed to be prayers for other people. Sometimes we shoulder the burden for others as we walk our journey.
That idea got stuck in my head.
Yesterday I was on one of my daily walks and I have a plan to beautify the path I walk. I have some flower seeds that I plan to plant along the way. They are wild flowers so they won’t require water. I envisioned myself like Johnny Appleseed walking down the path and tossing out the seeds from a seed pouch slung over my shoulder.
Then I remembered Jesus story about the farmer who cast his seed and the seed was the word of God. I realized that that was my real mission in life, to spread Gods word.
But I knew that wasn’t all of it. Gods word needs to be shared in context or it doesn’t make sense. The context needs to be in an actively loving and forgiving and serving life. So I boiled that down to grace and mercy, AKA, forgiveness. That’s how I arrived at what I shared below here. I hope it makes sense.
I could see myself on life’s journey with 3 bags over my shoulders. Each bag carrying an essential element to the Christian life.
3 bags. Seed, salve and supplication.
As Christians We each start out the day with 3 bags over our shoulder.
Each morning two are full and one is empty.
Salve: One full one is forgiveness. Our job is to Empty it. His mercies are new every morning. We are forgiven our sins as long as we forgive the sins of others.
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Seed: One full one is Gods word, we are to share it.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”’
This bag we can fill up ourselves. The Holy Spirit can bring seed to us but as we mature we will become more actively involved in filling our own bag. If we don’t become active we won’t mature.
“12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!”
Supplication: The empty one we are to fill. It is for the needs and concerns of others. We fill it while walking through life meeting people and asking the age old question; how can I pray for you?
We empty it each night as we pray. ( or throughout the day), for our needs and the needs of others.
The Holy Spirit can at any time fill these bags. He kinda has a mind to do that. He will Give us extra forgiveness, give us the perfect seed to plant in someone’s heart, show us a need that only God can meet in some ones life. We may wake up in the middle of the night with a burden that we couldn’t know on our own.
As a followers of Jesus our lives can be different than those around us and we can have an attractive quality about us. We will be full of God’s mercy and grace. We will know God’s word and be applying it to our lives and be able to share it, not as a weapon but as a tool of mercy and grace, a splint for brokenness or a bandage for woundedness or a light for those in darkness, a cup of cold water for the thirsty, and our lives can be lived out, caring about the needs of others, sharing their burdens by praying with them and for them.
It’s a morning, a new day, i have 3 bags. 2 full and one empty. What will I do with them?
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