Tag Archive | bible

Level Ground

Mar31

Whenever something like a death happened in our community, I never knew what to say. My dad always said we didn’t need to know what to say. We were just going to go and practice our ministry of presence. My mom was never going to go and do that empty handed, so I grew up in a home that when someone passed away, you hit the kitchen to fix something and then you go to the visitation. Here in the sunny south, that’s just what we do.

So it makes complete sense to me that the women had hit their kitchen. They had been quietly preparing to go to Jesus’ body. They had their spices and headed to the tomb together. And, then everything that heaven had been waiting for began to unfold.

When they got there– there’s a violent earthquake, and angels comes down from heaven, and sits down on the stone that had once blocked the tomb. And, the body of Christ was gone! At first, they stood there in full wonderment.

The angels questioned why the women would look for the alive in a space meant for dead people. Essentially saying, “This is going exactly like Jesus told you it would.” And then the proverbial lightning bolt goes off and they remember what Jesus told them would be the case. ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ (Luke 24:7)

I like to think that this is when someone takes off running with this kind of news. Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t. Either way, they left with some joy and some fear and headed to tell the eleven disciples and others, exactly what happened. While it was the truth that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb and was absolutely alive– it kinda sounds like nonsense that someone would be alive that just days ago they had all seen dead. Here’s where we get someone to run. Peter took off running to the tomb. I knew he was my favorite disciple! Peter finds that the tomb is empty of Jesus and finds that the cloth used to wrap his body was folded up. Peter moves on, trying to figure it out. Jesus spends time appearing to different people after His resurrection. Mary Magdalene is one of them. The disciples saw him too. With each appearing, in His own way, Jesus says “didn’t you believe me? It’s all going exactly like I said it would.”

I continue to be reminded that while Jesus isn’t always safe and that the things we walk through with Him don’t always feel good— He is still good. His heart is good, He can be trusted no matter what.

Today, all over the world, Christians have gathered to celebrate the good news of the risen Savior! I just wonder, after today, who will we tell? May we never tire of telling someone about how we have seen Jesus in our own lives today.

A Different Kind of Black Friday

Mar29

It’s Friday in Holy Week. Peter has denied Jesus three times, the rooster has crowed. Judas is overcome with enough remorse that he has hung himself. Altars are stripped of anything celebratory or covered in black cloth even. This is a dark day.

Around the third hour (roughly 9am for us), Jesus has withstood false accusations, endless beatings, and has been sentenced to crucifixion. For what crime? He committed none. Even Pilate agreed with that. Jesus was literally headed to die for the crowd that chose to spare Barabbas. Why? I love the way The Message answers the why for this part of Jesus’ story.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole. (Isaiah 53: 5-6, The Message)

Jesus takes on the worst form of capital punishment because of my sins. Yours too. He’s spit on, tormented, has a crown of thorns pushed into his skull, and then gets to carry His own cross. A wooden cross. That’s what he’s hung on, between criminals. Only faultless man to ever exist and He gets to die between two criminals. Most of us would say the two on either side deserved it. Jesus didn’t deserve it though. Jesus is hanging there exhausted, bleeding out. And He’s there out of LOVE.

And, because He is love… He asks God to forgive us. “Forgive them for they know not what they have done” (Luke 22:34). Forgive them he says. Where were the people who had been following Him around for years? Where were the people He had healed? What about the children? Oh, please tell me they weren’t around! Luke tells us that “anyone who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things”.

About 3:00 in the afternoon, Jesus takes His last breath.

I imagine that’s when even those closest to Jesus went home. Maybe there are women hurrying up to prepare meals for Mary and Joseph for there’s been a death in the family. Maybe there are friends crying in kitchens together or men shaking their heads in solitude.

And then there’s Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Council, a good and upright man. The NIV says “He had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God.  Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.  It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.” (Luke 23:50-54)

Things are dark. Jesus is laying in tomb. Everyone believes this is the end for Jesus. The world feels incredibly dark.

It’s so tempting to hide out today, isn’t it? To be part of the crowd that denies Jesus. We sure do live in a Good Friday kind of world. Today, my prayer has been for you and me. Maybe a little bit of “forgive us, we don’t know what we’re doing, Lord”. I think, mostly, though it’s been “help us not to be quiet at the cross”.