The In Between

I didn’t write anything for yesterday. What can I say about the death of my Savior? This is one of the very few times that I am left speechless. Why would Jesus choose to die for me? I have no answers... I only know that he did. Out of God’s love for us... he did. And I’m so very thankful.

 

So what about today?         

 What about the day BETWEEN the crucifixion and he resurrection??  What do we do with today? 

We know that tomorrow is Easter. So... what do we do with today? 

And why does it even matter?????

It matters because we need the hope of Sunday and oh my GOODNESS it is easy to forget. It’s easy to get lost in hopelessness of dark times.

Waiting for test results
2am phone calls
Slamming doors
Death of someone we love
“I don’t love you anymore”

What do we do with The Saturday events in our lives?
We wait.
We trust.
We believe.


                     

Good Friday

Holy Week - Maundy Thursday

Good Friday, we know. And Easter most certainly. But what is Maundy Thursday? Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter, believed to be the day when Jesus celebrated his final Passover with His disciples. Most notably, that Passover meal was when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in an extraordinary display of humility. He then commanded them to do the same for each other.

What Was the New Commandment?

Well, for one thing, it raised the definition of love to a new and higher standard. Jesus sacrificially met His followers' deepest need---that of new spiritual life and the forgiveness of sins. He even loved His enemies, and He calls us to show love to those who don't appear to deserve it. Just as Jesus loved sinners "to the end" (or "to the max" John 13:1) when He had nothing to gain from them, so must we. The Bible says that there was nothing attractive about sinful mankind that drew Him to love us. God loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). Salvation is not only a wonderful gift that protects us from the penalty that we deserve Romans 6:23, the work of Christ also embues new life, grants spiritual strength, and motivates godly action in those who believe.

Yeah I totally copied all that off of a website. Don’t remember where. Sorry.

As Jesus prepared to be crucified, what did he do?

He observed the Passover with his disciples. He washed their feet. He shared a meal with the Judas who would later betray him. He shared a meal with friends who he knew would later flee in his time of greatest need and who would deny knowing him. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and spent time in prayer. He asked God to provide another way to deliver the human race.... and submitted to God’s perfect will.

I love the image of Jesus in the garden. Here he models how to submit to God’s will when it’s painful... “God, if there’s another way, let’s do that... but I want what you wasn’t above all else.”

I love the image of Jesus eating with the disciples. He showed us how to show love to those who do not love us. He shared a meal with Judas... even washed his feet. He knew Judas would betray him. In this moment, Jesus modeled how we are to”love our enemies.”

Jesus shows compassion for his disciples... for his friends. While he knew he needed them, he also seemed to accept their inability to understand the enormity of the moment or the magnitude of the situation. The disciples could not understand what would happen over the next few days.  Like wise, we have to understand the we are not all at the same level of spiritual maturity. The more mature will see the spiritual implications of situations that others miss... and just like Jesus, we need to encourage those less mature to see the truth while accepting that they are indeeed less mature and possibly incapable of seeing the whole picture at the moment.

Jesus gives us so much on the night before his death. It’s like a crash course on “how to live and love like Jesus,”  just in case we missed in before.

Just me thoughts-
K

Holy Week - Wednesday

Wednesday of Holy Week. Traditionally this day was called “Spy Wednesday” for it was on this Wednesday before the crucifixion that Judas conspired to hand Jesus over. For this he was paid thirty pieces of silver.

Then one of the twelve disciples—the one named Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?” They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him.  From then on Judas was looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them. Matthew 26:14-16

Clearly, the powers of good and evil, light and darkness, sin and salvation are poised to exhibit themselves at the place we call Golgotha. “Spy Wednesday" reflects the daily struggles we all endure in order to accept and grow our relationship with the Lord.

 Jesus sees right through Judas' false piety and friendship. Jesus sees right through our own appearances when we falsely present ourselves as holy and faithful followers. Our frail human spirit is exposed in our sinful acts and lack of faith.

This week has been a constant reminder of my failure to serve God faithfully. It has exposed my own pride and religiosity as well as my failure to love people. Today adds  the realization of how often I put my plans before God’s. How many times do I feel that  I know better than God when it comes to living my life?? Similarly, I am painfully aware of how often I fail to trust God. Finally, and most importantly this morning, I’m confronted with my failure to recognize the holiness of Christ.

I know that Jesus gave up His life. I know that Judas played a role. I also know that Jesus would have died for our sin with or without Judas. Do you find it interesting that in this account  we also see the love of money and the lengths a person will go to in order to satisfy the desire for more money?

This begins the section of the week that I really do have lots of thoughts on... but I will continue to try and keep it simple.

I’m sure there are so many more theologically profound and much deeper thoughts than this, but my thoughts on “Spy Wednesday” are simply this:

Just like Judas, I often fail to acknowledge Jesus’s holiness.
Just like Judas, I often do things strictly for my own gain, and
Just like Judas, that choice has terrible consequences.

I hope that you see that despite all the failures of the people around him, Jesus is still moving toward the cross. I hope this reminds you that salvation is something Jesus gives us, not something we earn. I also hope that over the next few days you will be reminded of the lengths God went to in order to restore our relationship with Him.

Holy Week reminds us of our need for a Savior. It also reveals God’s love for us despite our failures.

As this week progresses, I am more thankful than ever for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

Much love and big hugs
K

Holy Week - Tuesday - White washed tombs

On Tuesday morning, Jesus and his disciples returned to Jerusalem. Yesterday's cleansing of the Temple caused the Pharisees to question Jesus’ right to do “these things.” Jesus had not received His authority from them . . . so they wanted answers. They organized an ambush with the intent to place him under arrest.


 Jesus evaded their traps and pronounced harsh judgment on them, saying: 

"Blind guides!...For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness...Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?" (Matthew 23:24-33)

After a tiring day of confrontation and warnings about the future, once again, Jesus and the disciples returned to Bethany to stay the night.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that The Religious Leaders were being more intentional about catching Jesus in some sort of compromising position. Can you imagine how he drove them crazy? He didn’t follow their rules for behavior and now he is telling them just what he thinks of their religion:
“You are beautiful on the outside but your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

I wonder what Jesus would say about the “religious people” today.  Would he tell us the same thing he told the Pharisees back then? When he looks at todays church... I wonder what he sees.

I cannot help but stop and wonder these things. Only days before his death and resurrection, Jesus made a point to expose the Pharisees hypocrisy. He made known  his disapproval of their behavior.

It isn’t hard  to keep rules that make us feel that we are  “good” Christian people. Sometimes it is easier to check things off a list (church attendance, Sunday school, small group, volunteer, tithe, etc.) and use that to determine our “goodness” than to actually serve Christ.

Who am I kidding? It’s ALWAYS easier to keep a set of rules that WE have decided make us “good Christians” than it is to serve as Christ served. Following Christ means loving God and loving people. Jesus says that people will know we love him by our love for each other. He also says that our love for God is shown through our obedience to His Word.  Going to church on Sunday is easy. Loving people who hate me is not. Tithing is easy. Forgiving... not so much. Going to small group is easy. Showing mercy and grace to those who hurt me... well, that can be difficult. Dressing modestly is easy. Keeping my heart pure... can I be real here? That’s impossible.

I think that’s why this hit me hard this morning... Jesus called the Pharisees out on the condition of their HEARTS! That’s where all those things we try so hard to hide reside... things like lust, greed, jealousy, envy, pride... need I go on?

I’m sure there are more impressive and theologically complex things to take away from Tuesday of Holy Week, but here’s my simple thought...

We focus a lot on behavior change. We have “rules” like... Don’t cuss, don’t drink, don’t miss church, don’t dress provocatively , etc. Jesus points out here, just days before his death, that What’s in our hearts is not hidden by religious activity or following religious rules.  We can look good on the outside and still have a heart that reeks of death.

However... when Jesus gets hold of our hearts and changes our hearts to match His... then we are cleaned up from the inside out!!

Create a clean heart in me O God!

Much love and big big hugs!!!
K

Holy Week - Monday - Jesus has authority over what tries to keep us from God

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’" Matthew 21:12-13

God’s House is appointed by God, through the hearts of his people, to be place where we can come  to meet with the Lord and to hear his Word.

The problem on this particular day was that those who bought and sold sacrificial merchandise had absolutely lost there reverence for the temple and what it stood for and turned something sacred and beautiful into a money-making scheme that took advantage those who came into the temple area empty-handed.

Jesus walked into his own house and found the price-gouging merchants taking all they could from would be worshipers who could not afford it. The “Love of Money”, the root of all evil, had found its place inside the very House of God.  Jesus came to Jerusalem to freely give all that Heaven had to offer to purchase the souls of men at no cost to them. At the same time, those who were supposed to be providing a way for God's people to worship were actually taking advantage of the worshipers who came to the Temple empty handed.

 IT’S NO WONDER JESUS BECAME SO ANGRY!

We use the whole idea of "Jesus got angry" to justify our own anger but, looking at this in light of all the other things that Jesus did this week... I'm not sure this is so much about Him being angry as it is WHY He was angry and what He did with that anger.

Remember... He is going to die in a few days. He knows His earthly ministry is coming to a close. So why pitch a fit in the Temple this week? Surely it wasn't so that we could justify getting angry and turning "sinners" away from the church in 2019.

So what gives?

When He cleansed the Temple, He removed the thing (money loving sacrifice merchandise sellers) keeping His people from Him. This was what He did the entire time He was here... he consistently removed the things that came between people and God.

WOW

Maybe the Cleansing of the temple wasn't really about Jesus pitching a fit at all!!  Perhaps cleansing the Temple was totally about Jesus showing us that HE HAS AUTHORITY over whatever tries to keep us from God.

I'm sure there are more reverent and theologically impressive things to take away from Jesus cleansing the Temple, but ...

Today I am left with this simple thought:



Jesus has complete authority over whatever Satan puts in place to keep us from God. Not only does he HAVE authority over sin... he is not afraid to use it!

Much love and big big hugs!

K

Palm Sunday - A Life That Preaches The Gospel

When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.  Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

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. Mark 11:7-11

Up to now, Jesus's ministry is filled with miracles followed by commands not to tell anyone who He was. Today, things are different. Jesus enters Jerusalem in a very public manner. The ruckus was such that the religious leaders told Jesus to quiet his disciples, to which Jesus responded, "If they keep quiet, the rocks will cry out." 

Jesus had changed lives and the people knew it. They were excited. They worshiped Him because of who He was and for what he'd done in their lives. 

I wonder if my attitude toward Christ reflects the life He's given me. 

No, I don't have to wonder. So many times, it does not. I did not expect or plan to discuss this brutal reminder, but here we are. 

I originally planned to make today about the confidence of knowing WHOSE I am and embracing my identity in Christ. I originally planned to focus on knowing God's plan for my life and being secure in that. I still think these are good things, but maybe the purpose of my little exercise in reflecting on Holy Week is not about me at all. (imagine that)

Maybe I've felt prompted to reflect on Holy Week so that I am reminded of who Christ is and what Christ has done... not who I am and what I should do. 

I'm sure there are more reverent and theologically impressive things to take away from Palm Sunday, but ...

 
Today I am left with these simple thoughts:

• I want to know who I am  in Christ and what I'm here for... and be secure in that.

• More than that, I want to live a life that constantly and consistently points to Christ and the many ways He has changed my life.

• Most of all, I want to live each moment  filled with gratitude, praise, and adoration;  recognizing and acknowledging in my heart WHO Christ is. 

Much Love and Big Big hugs!
K