As we join the saints of old and those around the world in remembering Jesus’ first coming, I’m celebrating the peace of Christ with you this week of Advent. The Lord has been kind; He steadies our hearts; and in this time nearing Christmas 2020, here are aspects of peace I’ve been meditating on/learning experientially that have helped to steady me.
Read MoreBefore 2020, waiting with longing hope was something to read about in the Bible. We could attempt to empathize with the Jews, waiting for their Messiah, but we may not have experienced the level of grief and desire they were feeling. But how do we deal with a general suffering experienced by all of us at once?
Read MoreAs I sat pondering our passage from the sermon in 1 Peter this week, it took me back a few years. For whatever reason, I began listening to a political talk show and it hooked me. I didn’t want to admit it, but it did. I became fearful about the security and future of our nation and world. This program promised me principles that could provide comfort and hope of security. The security not promised by a sovereign God, but found in a political agenda and government leaders. This program became my salvation, in a sense, and I became a disciple whose heart was hoping in its promises.
Read MoreI recently read a New York Times article by Nicholas Kristoff called Let’s Wage War on Loneliness in which Kristoff describes the lonely state of Western culture. Kristoff asserts that 20% of adults in the U.S. report being chronically lonely and 50% of adults in the U.S. live alone. And this was pre-Covid19. Given the current pandemic, I can only imagine what those numbers and needs are like now.
Read MoreFor three days, darkness was over the land. Two of Jesus’ closest followers, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary,” returned to his tomb in order to anoint the body of their beloved. The disciples were in hiding trying to make sense of the chaos, their hopes crushed by the cry, “It is finished.” But then we see the stone rolled away, an empty tomb, and hear that life was again thrust into the body of Christ.
Read MoreThe dream was dead. The One whom they hoped would usher in the Kingdom of God and set them free from their enemies had breathed his last. The text wants us to feel the dramatic reality of Jesus’ death. He really died. Pilate confirmed it. Then he handed over “the body” to Joseph of Arimathea who wrapped Jesus’ body in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb. Furthermore, he lays him in his OWN tomb. Both Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw the location of this tomb. These are eyewitness accounts, claims written at a time when other eyewitnesses were still alive who could corroborate them. We are reading verifiable history. Jesus of Nazareth died and was buried and with Him the hopes of this world.
Read MoreJesus was arrested in the wee hours of Good Friday. He endured a series of harsh and unlawful trials that would extend until dawn. The sleeplessness and agony of the garden had weakened his body. His fatigue was exasperated in anguish throughout the long day to come. Caiaphas and Annas, the former and current high priests prompted false testimony and pronounced their judgment. The Sanhedrin pressured the Pseudo-Jewish King, Herod, and the Roman Governor, Pilate, to crucify the Lord of glory. Throughout the evening and early morning, he was mocked and beaten both by temple guards and Pilate’s soldiers.
Read MoreBread and wine were two common items at Jewish dinner. But this was no ordinary dinner. This was the Passover meal and Jesus was sharing it with his disciples, his betrayer at the table. This was a meal rich with imagery of a past salvation and yet pointed to a newer and deeper one. The Passover meal commemorated the Exodus, God’s miraculous rescue of his people from Egypt. He delivered them out of slavery and into life and freedom.
Read MoreJesus’ life is swiftly moving to its climax. The time of the Passover feast is a couple of days away. The significance of the timing could not be greater. The Passover was an annual Jewish feast which commemorated their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The original Passover involved the sacrifice of a lamb without spot or blemish. The blood of the lamb was placed on the doorposts and lintels of the house so that the angel of death (the final plague sent by God on the firstborn of Egypt) would “pass over” the house. It is at this current feast of Passover that Matthew tells us of the chief priests and scribes seeking to kill Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Read MoreOn this day of Holy Week, Jesus was teaching in the temple and a group of Jewish leaders approached him to continue their attempts to “entangle him in his words” and end his impact among “their” people. They asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar…?” A precisely calculated question and one that the leaders were sure was going to finally rid them of this “blasphemous” menace. In those days the Pharisees had vilified the ruling authority and taught the people, through oral tradition, that it was “sinful” to give them any respect at all, even paying taxes.
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