Anticipating Easter - What's in your cup (Besides Coffee) ?

When we encounter death or other severe losses and heartaches...

The worst thing is not the sorrow or the loss or the heartbreak. The worst thing is to be encountered by death and not to be changed by the encounter. 
-- Richard John Neuhaus, As I Lay Dying

"...to have the experience and miss the meaning" 
T S. Eliot, Four Quartets


When we experience pain and heartbreak, sometimes there are pills or drugs we can take to help us get through the dark days. Or we can try frantic acts of busyness to deaden our emotions.

Part of that danger, though,  is that the experience is still waiting when we are through with the pills and the frenzied activities. We didn't move on; we just delayed facing the grief.

The other part of the danger is that God intended us to experience the pain and suffering.

His goal? To make us into images of His Son, who did not take pills to deaden His pain.

There are people in our society, who, through carefully prescribed medication, receive the help they need to get through life. To avoid, as Shakespeare described, "The slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune."

This is not about those folks...

For most of us, we should not get used to the ease in which we can resort to chemical relief...to the dulling of all the sharp edges of painful experience.

Jesus prayed, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." (Mark 14)

Later at His arrest He said, "Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" (John 18)

In the Old Testament that cup is described as the cup of God's wrath, His absolute judgment on the wicked world. (Isaiah 51:17; Psalm 75:8).

Of all who had ever lived on this planet, this omnipotent God-man had the ability to remove that cup. To smash it into pieces and throw it into utter cosmic darkness. He did not have to drink the cup.

But He chose to drink the cup.


I think the cup we are given always comes from our Father.

Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,

E're to take, as from a Father's hand,

One by one, the days, the moments fleeting

Til I reach the promised land.

         Day by Day, by Caroline V. Sandell-Berg


Jesus drank the cup. He drained it dry. He lifted it up and took the very last drop.

Are we to do the same?

Anticipating Easter - What's most important?

                                

                                       Easter - What's Most Important?

My universalist friends tell me that we evangelicals emphasize the crucifixion too much -- that we should concentrate more of our attention on the resurrection instead.

It's an interesting thought.

But when I read through the gospels in preparing myself for Easter I notice something different.

The gospel writers themselves place far more emphasis on the death of Jesus than they do on His resurrection - if, that is, we can measure such a thing by the space they allow for the events.

It seems much more of the gospel material recorded relates to Christ's death than to His resurrection.

Matthew - 28 chapters. Chapter 21 begins with the Triumphal Entry in Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), the last week of Christ's earthly life, climaxing in chapters 26-27 with His arrest and death. Only chapter 28 records the resurrection.

In my copy, Matthew takes up 54 pages, with 18 pages on Christ's last week, and one page for the resurrection.

Mark has 16 chapters, with 11-15 devoted to the last week and only chapter, 16, to the resurrection.

Luke is a similar arrangement.

John has 21 chapters and the record of the last week begins in Chapter 11, with the resurrection of Jesus covered in chapters 20 and 21.

Also significant is the obvious slowing down of activity, a winding down, as the gospel writers record their words for us. We can see the climax coming.

When we celebrate Lord's Supper, we "proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" 

(1 Corinthians 11:26)

The scene of Christ's death is bloody and horrifying. It has been retold so many times that perhaps we have developed an immunity to the pain involved.

It was not fast like executions today in gas chambers, or electric chairs. It went on for hours in front of  scornful, mocking crowds, jeering at our Lord and Savior. Mocking Him -- Save Yourself, if You indeed are the Messiah!"

Jesus' death is the cornerstone of our faith, the most important fact of His Incarnation.

He came to die.

We can't follow Jesus without confronting His death.

"The gospels bulge with its details. He laid out a trail of hints and bold predictions about it throughout his ministry, predictions that could only be understood after it had been done, when to the disciples, the dream looked shattered.

"His life seemed prematurely wasted. His triumphant words from the night before surely must have cruelly haunted His followers as they watched Him groan and twitch on the cross."  (From The Gift of Pain by Philip Yancey)

No matter how glorious and celebratory the resurrection morning, it is the gruesome death that brings us back to God.

We glory in the resurrection, but our atonement and reconciliation comes from the death.

We call that day, not Black Friday, but Good Friday.

But after all that is said, He had to conquer death, because He is God and through His resurrection He guaranteed our own resurrection. And he fulfilled prophecy and also his own promises to His disciples.

Hear Paul's words to the Corinthians:

Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures....
                        -- 1 Corinthians 15:1-4


Death, burial and resurrection - it takes all to complete the gospel - the good news! This is the "gospel by which you are saved"!
   

Anticipating Easter - Strangely Comforting Words from Jesus

"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her?....She did what she could. She poured perfume beforehand to prepare for My burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."  (Mark 14:6-9)

Jesus was at Bethany, just a few days away from Passover, having dinner at the home of Simon.

The woman brought her alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head....

Some were indignant at the lavish display (and waste?) of her wealth -- why didn't she just sell what she had and give the money to the poor? they said.


"She did what she could," the Master said.

Were some of them jealous of her intimate act of devotion? Greedy? Self-righteous? Did they really want the money for the poor, or did they just want to extend judgment over the woman, and in doing so were they trying to steal the attention and gain approval from Jesus?

Motives are hard to determine. So often I seek approval, even as I am demeaning someone else....
but this is not about me....or is it?

When I was (much) younger, I read the words: "She did what she could" differently than I read them now.

I understood them as "She did what she could."
As a child explains away his low grade by saying, "But, I did the best I could!"

Or, since she couldn't do anything else, 'she gave Me her perfume and showed Me she loved Me....'

Now that I am older, I understand them to mean, "She did what (all) that she could."  Out of largess and love she poured all she had on Jesus, just as He poured out all for us. She performed a simple act, and in the words of T. S. Eliot, a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.


But no matter what His voice inflection, I find the words strangely comforting. He never asks us to do more than we can. But He does ask us to do all that we can.

He asks for no more. He asks for no less.

But Mary (and we find her name in John's account) had also discernment and understanding -- was she the only one who realized what He was saying? was she the only one who really understood?

She, this small woman, outside the man's world, was anointing His body for burial. She wanted Him to know she understood.There was a silent message given there -- unexpressed words -- (no words of hers are recorded in this incident) -- to let the Savior know she knew what was happening!

The fragrance of that heavily perfumed ointment (nard) on the head of Christ - it would have lasted a long time. Did He perhaps still smell its fragrance after the crown of thorns was placed on His head? As He was gasping for breath, nailed and bound to that cross...could He still smell the aroma of her final gift?

From Mary...the one who understood His mission.

Its pleasant aroma has wafted down the generations until we today can almost breathe it in ourselves as we read the story....and we do remember her memorial act, just as He said we would for centuries, as well as we remember the gifts the wise men brought to the baby...gold, frankincense and myrrh ..gifts for a dying King...

Have we broken our treasured alabaster jars for Jesus? Has the fragrance of His spirit filled our lives?

Are we doing all that we can do?... are we really doing all that we can do?

The Mary who "sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to what He said" (in Luke 10:39)...was the same Mary who, "when Mary reached the place where Jesus was, she fell at His feet" (in John 11:32)...she spent time at His feet....is this her spiritual secret?

Anticipating Easter - Every Sunday!

                                      REMEMBER EASTER

What do we celebrate?

"The angel said...then go and tell His disciples: He has
risen from the dead and is going ahead of  you into Galilee.  
There you will see Him." Matthew 28:6

YOU WILL SEE HIM!

Yes, He has risen...and yes! you will actually see Him!


What extraordinary news! 

And it was to be announced to the disciples;  not to Pilate, not to Herod, not to the prestigious religious leaders. 

But to the disciples, because it had serious implications for them. They now knew He was who He said He was all along. 

And they remembered His words: "Because I live you shall live also."

What a miracle - IT WAS ALL TRUE!!! 

So this Sunday, and every Sunday (because every Sunday is a celebration of that first resurrection Sunday) we celebrate two resurrections...His and ours!

But also we celebrate every day! Every morning we wake up...

every glorious sunrise, every miracle we experience all day -

it's all a celebration of His resurrection..because it is also a celebration of our redemption and restoration to His special family to live with Him forever!

Let's go celebrate!

Anticipating Easter - Charles Spurgeon - Substitution

The foundation upon which our faith rests is this: that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19).

The great fact upon which genuine faith relies is that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," (John 1:14) and that "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).

"Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

In one word, the great pillar of the Christian's hope is substitution.

The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the guilty. Christ made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him....

If this foundation were removed, what could we do?

But it stands firm as the throne of God.

We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be stirred and moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and conversations.

In these days a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the Atonement. Men cannot bear substitution. They gnash their teeth at the thought of the Lamb of God bearing the sin of man.

But we, who know by experience the preciousness of this truth, will proclaim it confidently and unceasingly and in defiance of them.

We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor desire to distort it in any shape or fashion.

It shall still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering in the place of man.

We cannot, dare not give it up, for it is our life, and despite every controversy we affirm that "God's firm foundation stands."

    -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon