Anticipating Easter -- The Real Question

Thieves crucified on either side of Jesus showed two possible responses.

One mocked Jesus' powerlessness: A Messiah who can't even save himself?

The other recognized a different kind of power. Taking the risk of faith, he asked Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom."

No one else, except in mockery, had addressed Jesus as a King. The dying thief saw more clearly than anyone else the nature of Jesus' kingdom.

In a sense, the paired thieves present the choice that all history has had to decide about the cross.

Do we look at Jesus' powerlessness as an example of God's impotence or as proof of God's love?

The Romans, bred on power deities like Jupiter, could recognize little god-likeness in a crumpled corpse hanging on a tree.

Devout Jews, bred on stories of a powerful Jehovah, saw little to be admired in this god who died in weakness and in shame.

So which was it? Was that God-Man hanging on the cross of shame a proof of God's mission failure and impotence, or evidence of His successful rescue mission based on His eternal love?

We have the same choice to make.



[The Greek word for 'It is finished' uttered by Christ from His cross, also occurs in ancient manuscripts of Roman tax receipts from the time of Christ, and means "Paid in full."]

Anticipating Easter - A Violent Death - From Timothy Keller

Jesus' death had to be a violent one. The writer of Hebrews says that "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin" (Hebrews 9:22).

This is not a magical view of blood.

Rather, the term blood in the Bible means a life given or taken before its natural end.

A life given or taken is the most extreme gift or price that can be paid in this world.

Only by giving his life could Jesus have made the greatest possible payment for the debt of sin.

Jesus' death was not only a payment, however; it was also a demonstration.

James Edwards writes:

       The prediction of Jesus' passion conceals a great irony,
       for the suffering and death of the Son of Man will not
       come, as we would expect, at the hands of godless and
       wicked people...rather at the hands of "the elders, chief
       priests, and teachers of the law".....Jesus would not be
       lynched by an enraged mob or beaten to death in a criminal
       act. He will be arrested with official warrants, and tried
       and convicted by the world's legal jurisprudence -- the
       Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman court.

The Jewish chief priests, teachers of the law, and,
of course, the Roman rulers should have been standing up for justice but instead conspired to commit an act of injustice by condemning Jesus to death.

The cross reveals the systems of the world to be corrupt, serving power and oppression  instead of justice and truth.

In condemning Jesus, the world was condemning itself.

Jesus' death demonstrates not only the bankruptcy of the world, but it also reveals the character of God and his kingdom.

Jesus' death was not a failure. By submitting to death as penalty, he broke its hold on him and on us.

When Jesus went to the cross and died for our sins, he won through losing; he achieved our forgiveness on the cross by turning the values of the world on their head. He did not "fight fire with fire."

He didn't come and raise an army in order to put down the latest corrupt regime.

He didn't take power; he gave it up -- and yet he triumphed.

The corrupt powers of his world have many tools to make people afraid, the worst one being death.

But since Jesus died and rose again from the dead, if you can find a way to approach Jesus and cling to him you know that death, the worst thing that can possible happen to you, is now the best thing.

Death will put you in God's arms and make you all you hoped to be.

And when death loses its sting, when death no longer has power over you because of what Jesus did on the cross, then you will be living a life of love and not a life of fear.

       -- From King's Cross, Chapter 9,
                                      by Timothy Keller



       When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable,
          and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is
          written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in
          victory.'

         "Where, O death, is your victory?
           Where, O death, is your sting?"

         The sting of death is sin...But thanks be to God! He gives
         us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
                                     --1 Corinthians 15:55-56

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?