We followers of Jesus try so hard to summarize what He means, turning His words into eternal life advice. But Jesus has another message: die first, then live.
Read my guest post on Tyler Braun’s blog: Discipleship in the Life Advice Age
(Image for blog series designed by Ross Gale, original iconographic artwork by Duccio)
What does God think of the messiness of our lives? Is He mad like the parent who tells the kids to clean their rooms only to return and find them dirtier and more disheveled than before?
I’ve found through Jesus God the Father comes and cleans up the mess alongside us, even doing the hardest parts gladly, yet letting us feel like we’ve contributed to the project. Of course, without Him it (and we) would still be a mess, and simply put, He’s done it all. All because Jesus proves God doesn’t mind getting messy.
“We worship a God who gets His hands dirty, forming humanity from the dust of creation, becoming human and breathing His first breaths in the filth of a stable, and living an ordinary life as a carpenter. His hands are stained with blood and dust as He climbs Golgotha and His hands are forever scarred by nails as He dies for you and me. The story of the Gospel is a story that takes place within our world, beginning in a garden, journeying through deserts, and showing up in the landscapes and living rooms of our own stories, where we first came to know Jesus and hear what He’d done to bring us back to God.
… Though Jesus has ascended to heaven, He’s not finished with getting His hands dirty. Now, though, His intent is to get His hands in the dirt through you and me as we live in the world on His behalf.” 1
The events of Jesus’ last week leading up to His death on the cross and resurrection are called “Holy Week” or “Passion Week.” His passion speaks of His sufferings in our place, on our behalf, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
Starting in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12, we get to walk beside Jesus, seeing and hearing what He did and said.
Creative artist Josh Byers has put the timeline of events of Passion Week in illustrated form. Follow along, from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday, and everything vital movement in between.
“The Incarnation,” a video spoken word piece from Odd Thomas:
(Video below)
“What good is the Christmas story if it’s void of God and His glory?
What’s the worth of the words ‘peace on earth’ if it’s not rooted in the Truth of Christ’s birth?
What benefit is it for us to discuss the joy of the season unless we fix our hearts and minds on the principal reason that Christ has atoned for us?
See Christmas is more than just a story of a baby born in a manger,
More than a poor fiancé engaged to a humble virgin teenager,
More than a Magi, more than gold, frankincense and myrrh.
It’s more than a narrative of a Nativity scene, it was so much more that occurred.
It’s the coming of the Messiah, the fulfillment of all Old Testament promises,
The prophecy of the suffering Servant and all of His accomplishments,
The second Person of the Trinity commissioned to abandon His position,
And literally set aside the independent exercise of His attributes in full submission,
The Word manifested in the flesh, the fullness of God expressed,
The self-emptying Jesus poured out at the Father’s request,
The image of the invisible God, the radiance of the Father’s fame,
Holy, but retained His humanness to empathize with our pain.
He was unjustly crushed, chastised, cursed and shamed,
Mocked and adorned with a crown of thorns, disgraced but He still faced the grave,
To fulfill the Father’s will, to come and die in the place of sinful men,
And receive the fully fury of God’s judgment upon Himself instead,
The most monumental mark for mankind made in human history,
Wretched sinners being made righteous only by the wounds of the risen King,
The condescending of a holy God made in the likeness of men,
A child born to be the Savior that would save the world from their sins,
The offspring of the virgin’s womb,
The Christ, God’s own Son, fully God, yet fully man, the only theanthropic One.
This is what we celebrate, Christ the newborn King, veiled in flesh, the Godhead seen,
Hailed incarnate Deity.”
Odd Thomas – The Incarnation (Spoken Word) from Humble Beast Records on Vimeo.
Closing quote: Continue reading
Yesterday’s post on pragmatism may have struck a cord.
When we turn from pragmatism as our way to use God, we transition from trusting God for things to trusting God with our lives. This seems like a subtle shift, yet it makes a world of difference.
We still trust God for keeping His promises, as our hopes are rooted in the foundation of His faithfulness. He will not let us down. The key change is that we quit holding our hopes over Him. (Do this for me or else!) Instead we remind Him of all He surely has promised in His Word. Everything else is held with open hands, as we trust God with the changing circumstances, relationships, and opportunities that come our way. Example: Let’s say you are longing for a home to own. Are you trusting God for a home … or trusting God with a home? One has clenched fists, the other has open hands of faith.
Along those lines, this quote came my way yesterday:
“The utter uniqueness of the Christian message — the heart of the gospel — is found in the three words of Christ from the cross, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). The message of every other religious system, without exception, is predicated on some variation of another three words, which stand starkly opposed to the gospel’s three words.
Religion’s three words are: ‘Get to work.’ And this is the heart of the bad news behind every approach to spirituality, enlightenment, or salvation that is not Christian.”
— Jared C. Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 131.
Let’s exchange one set of three words for the better set.
(Quote via Of First Importance)
Listen in & sing along:
1 In tenderness He sought me,
Weary and sick with sin,
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again.
While angels in His presence sang
Until the courts of heaven rang.
Chorus:
O the love that sought me!
O the blood that bought me!
O the grace that brought me to the fold,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold!
2 He washed the bleeding sin wounds
And poured in oil and wine;
He whispered to assure me,
“I’ve found thee, thou art Mine;”
I never heard a sweeter voice;
It made my aching heart rejoice! (Chorus)
Continue reading
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
—Romans 6:1-11 (ESV)
What does it mean we “died to sin”?
The moment we become Christians, we are no longer under the “reign” or
“ruling power” of sin. This is the same as saying (6:14) that sin does not have the “mastery” over us because we are “under grace!” This is the same as saying (6:12) that we no longer have to obey sin, and thus it no longer reigns. “Let not sin reign…that you obey its evil desires.” Paul has just said in 5:21 that, “Sin reigned… so also grace might reign.” In other words, sin still has power, but it no longer can force its dictates on you. In 1:18-32 Paul says that outside of Christ we are “given up” to our sinful desires. Previously, those sinful desires so reigned and ruled over us that we could not see them as sinful, and thus we could not resist them. We were completely under their control. Now however, sin no longer can domineer us. We have the ability now to resist and rebel against their dictates.
“Our ‘old man’ is the old self or ego, the unregenerate man in his entirety in contrast with the new man as the regenerate man in his entirety.” —John Murray
Kari continues writing meditations for each day of Holy Week…
Friday’s Reading: Matthew 26:47-27:51, Mark 14:43-15:38, Luke 22:47-23:49, John 18:3-19:37
—Jesus (John 19:30)
I clicked “send”, made sure it went through, then closed my laptop and exhaled in relief: Ahh…It’s finished. I’d been working on it night and day, and when I wasn’t working on it I was thinking about working on it. Ever been there? It’s not so much the time you spend working on something but the time you spend thinking about working on it. My mind and energies were depleted. As soon as the kids were settled for the afternoon, I crawled into my bed and took a nap, the first time I’d really rested that week.
I couldn’t rest until it was finished.
And as soon as it was, my whole body knew it. The sleep that had evaded me swept back all at once as I slept soundly despite the bright afternoon sun. The rest of knowing it is finished.
We rest because we know that it is finished.
Today, Good Friday, we meditate on Christ’s final words, His victorious cry from the cross of Calvary, the sacred words that fill my eyes with tears:
“It is finished.” (John 19:30)
From eternity past Jesus had a project. Nothing surprises God, and it was not Plan B that Jesus had to die in our place. He knew all along, and Jesus knew all along that this was His project. In a divine sort of way, Jesus never rested. Until then.
Then He finished.
In one final surrendering act Jesus “gave up His spirit” and the full wrath of God was poured out on His sinless perfect lamb. All the punishment for my selfishness, my pride, my greed. All the punishment for the rapists and robbers, swindlers and sex-traffickers. The most heinous of crimes, He took the punishment. He laid down His spirit. Died.
But of course Sunday’s coming.
But here’s where I get excited. Do you know what Jesus did after He rose from the dead? After he appeared, bodily, to more than 500 people? After he gave the great commission and then ascended into heaven? Do you know what He did after that?
He sat down.
Why? Because it was finished.
“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
I took a nap. Jesus sat down at the right hand of God. His work was done. Finished. But here’s the beautiful part.
Continue reading
On that wretched day the soldiers mocked him,
Raucous laughter in a barracks room,
“Hail the king!” they sneered, while spitting on him,
Brutal beatings on this day of gloom.
Though his crown was thorn, he was born a king—
Holy brilliance bathed in bleeding loss—
All the soldiers blind to this stunning theme:
Jesus reigning from a cursed cross.
Awful weakness mars the battered God-man,
Far too broken now to hoist the beam.
Soldiers strip him bare and pound the nails in,
Watch him hanging on the cruel tree.
God’s own temple’s down! He has been destroyed!
Death’s remains are laid in rock and sod.
But the temple rises in God’s wise ploy:
Our great temple is the Son of God.
“Here’s the One who says he cares for others,
One who says he came to save the lost.
How can we believe that he saves others
When he can’t get off that bloody cross?
Let him save himself! Let him come down now!”—
Savage jeering at the King’s disgrace.
But by hanging there is precisely how
Christ saves others as the King of grace.
Draped in darkness, utterly rejected,
Crying, “Why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus bears God’s wrath alone, dejected—
Weeps the bitt’rest tears instead of me.
All the mockers cry, “He has lost his trust!
He’s defeated by hypocrisy!”
But with faith’s resolve, Jesus knows he must
Do God’s will and swallow death for me.
—Source: D.A. Carson, Scandalous, pp. 36-37.
Kari continues writing meditations for each day of Holy Week…
Thursday’s Reading: Matthew 26:17-46, Mark 14:12-42, Luke 22:7-46, John 13-17
“I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do.”
—Jesus, to the Father (John 17:4)
On Thursday we find Jesus sending the disciples into Jerusalem to prepare for the Passover meal. That evening they ate the Passover meal in an upper room where Jesus predicted both Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. Late into the night Jesus gives the disciples His final instructions and prays for them. The day closes in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays, “Not my will but Yours be done.” In just a few moments Judas will come on the scene…
This week Women’s Bible study started back up. Despite my planning and early mornings I still found myself cramming in all the last minute things that needed to be accomplished. (Fifteen minutes before study started I was at Safeway getting all the refreshments.) It seems like this whenever we go on vacation as well. We plan ahead, but there are still a hundred last-minute things to be done before we can leave. It’s always a little hectic at the last minute.
These passages today are Jesus’ final moments. Thursday is the last day He spends with His disciples before being arrested around midnight. And He’s not just leaving on vacation, He’s leaving earth! This, the rescue plan of the world, is coming to a close in a few short hours. Is Jesus frantic? Rushing around trying to finish things? Making a few quick rounds to do a few healings? No. He does stay up late giving the disciples His final words then praying His way through the night, but there is no sense of panic or rush. He walked His 33 years on earth with ordered, measured steps, and now, at the close of His time on earth, He can quietly and confidently say to His Father, “I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave me to do.”
Isn’t that what we all long to be able to say on our deathbed someday? I know I do. My greatest heart’s desire is to be able to say, with my final breath,
“I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work You gave me to do.”
Is there anything better? Right now I’m writing the Sacred Mundane chapter on time, and it’s challenging me in beautiful ways. It’s amazing to see Jesus in His final hours, neither rushed nor frantic. Never in a hurry. He walked calmly through this life, completing all the work God gave Him to do and only the work God gave Him to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
Kari continues writing meditations for each day of Holy Week…
Wednesday’s Reading: Matthew 26:3-19, Mark 14:1-11, Luke 21:37-22:6, John 12:1-8
—Jesus (Matthew 26:10)
Today we see the religious leaders gathering at the palace of the high priest to discuss how they can secretly arrest and kill Jesus. We see Judas agreeing to betray Jesus. We see Jesus continuing to teach in the temple. And we see Mary break her alabaster flask and pour out her expensive ointment, anointing Jesus with worship, with love. I know we just looked at this recently, but in case you need to consider it again today. (I know I do.) Remember this beautiful waste … Mary tiptoed into the room, quietly knelt, and broke her alabaster flask, anointing Jesus’ feet … (the rest here)
~
Perhaps the application for today is simply to waste some time at Jesus’ feet?
Could you do that today?
Martha was busy in the kitchen, busy serving:
None of these things are bad. But today, let’s waste some time at Jesus’ feet.
Can we agree to do that today?
Continue reading
Tuesday’s Reading: Matthew 21:23-26:3, Mark 11:27-13:37, Luke 20:1-21:36 (today’s are longer than the rest, perhaps break up into two sittings…)
Each day this week, Holy Week, we’ll follow Jesus with a meditation by Kari. Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, returned on Monday to cleanse the temple, and now was being tested by the religious leaders.
Matthew 22:15
As you read through these passages you see Tuesday’s common thread: The religious leaders were testing Jesus. They challenged His authority, they “plotted how to entangle Him in His talk,” they came up with complicated scenarios regarding Old Testament law in order to test His knowledge. Over and over and over in these passages the Scribes, Pharisees, chief priests and Sadducees approached Him with “questions.” But their questions had nothing to do with wanting to gain knowledge, wisdom or understanding, their questions were challenges of authority.
One in particular stands out, because it’s so sharply contrasted with another story in this same passage. The chief priests and scribes ask Jesus about paying taxes, crafting their question in a way that might easily entangle a lesser man than Christ. But Jesus cuts to the heart of the issue:
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Done. The response: “Marveling at his answer, they became silent.”
Our world is full of people who are “questioning” the faith. I have little patience for these “questions” which are really nothing more than an attempt to be let “off the hook” of worshiping Christ and bowing before Him in humble obedience. Do you know what I mean? There is a place for humble, honest, sincere questions—but we are wise to recognize when our “questioning” is nothing more than an attempt to slip away from surrender.
