Anticipating Easter - Philip Yancey - Who was really in charge?

Normally we think of someone who dies a criminal death as a failure.

Yet the Apostle Paul would later reflect about Jesus, "Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

What could he mean?

On one level I think of the individuals who in our own time disarm power. The racists sheriffs who locked Martin Luther King, Jr., in jail cells, The Soviets who deported Solzhenitsyn, the Czechs who imprisoned Vaclav Havel, the South Africans who imprisoned Nelson Mandela--all these thought they were solving a problem, yet instead all ended up unmasking their own violence and injustice.

Moral power can have a disarming effect.

When Jesus died, even a gruff Roman soldiers was moved to exclaim, "Surely this was the Son of God!"

He saw the contrast all too clearly between his brutish colleagues and their victim, who forgave them in a dying gasp.

The pale figure nailed to a crossbeam revealed the ruling powers of the world as false gods who broke their own lofty promises of piety and justice.

Religion, not irreligion, accused Jesus; the law, not lawlessness, had him executed.

By their rigged trials, their scourging, their violent opposition to Jesus, the political and religious authorities of that day exposed themselves for what they were - upholders of the status quo, defenders of their own power only.

Each assault on Jesus laid bare their own illegitimacy.

    -- From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey


[But even at His final hours, Jesus, the Savior God, pursued His mission - "Today you shall be with Me in paradise," He told the dying thief, laying bare His own true legitimacy!]

Anticipating Easter - Clouds

Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?"

But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
   -- Mark 14:60-62


This was a direct answer from Jesus to the question if he is the Christ, or the Messiah.

He answers "Yes, I am."

At other times in the Gospel of Mark Jesus avoided inquiries about His origin and His identity (Mark 7:5-6, Mark 11:29).

This time He answers directly and fully.


By saying, "I am," Jesus claims to be the Messiah, the promised one, and that He is God Himself.

The "I am" (the sacred Tetragrammaton -- the four consonants of the ancient Hebrew name for God, usually translated Jehovah or Yahweh -- was the Name of God considered to be too sacred to be spoken aloud, and so the Hebrews uttered the titles Adonai or Elohim in its place in the texts) directly connected Jesus to the God who spoke to Moses:

     Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to  them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' then what shall I tell them?"

     God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
       -- Exodus 3:13-14


But that is not all. 

Not only does Jesus apply the "I AM"  Name for God to Himself, He also amplifies His claim by identifying Himself as the Son of Man and also the one who will sit at the right hand of God.

There are two scriptural references here in Jesus' answer.

"Son of Man" comes from Daniel 7:13-14:

     In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven....He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. 

"At his right hand" comes from Psalm 110:1: 

     The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."


In both of these pictures of the Messiah, He comes as a judge. 

Everyone hearing this exchange -- all the ruling council of the Sanhedrin -- knows who the Son of Man is.

In Daniel 7 the Son of Man comes from the throne of God to earth in clouds of heaven to judge the world.

The clouds of heaven are not the same as clouds of earth, which are water vapor. The clouds of heaven are the shekinah glory of God.

So Jesus is saying he will come to earth in the very glory of God and judge the entire world.

It's an astonishing statement. It's a claim to deity.

He could have said many other things to describe Himself and His mission, but he chose specifically to  say He is the final judge.

It forced the audience (and forces us) to see the paradox.

He, Jesus Christ, the supreme, eternal judge of the
entire world is standing there at that moment of history being judged by the world.

Everything is upside down. He should be the ruler and we should be in the dock, in chains, facing judgment and punishment.

With these words, Christ incites the leaders.

The high priest "tore his clothes."

"Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked.

"You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"

They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said "Prophesy!"

And the guards took Him and beat Him (Mark 14: 63-65).


What do you think? Was Jesus a crank, or delusional, or the supreme con artist?

Or was (is)  Jesus Christ exactly who He claimed (claims) to be? 

It's the most important question of our lives!

 

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."]

The Result of Easter- The Breath of Life

 "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said 'Peace be with you!' After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

  Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.' And with that He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit."

                                                                                -- John 20:19-22

Sometimes we just don't know what to expect next. Nothing seems to be working out as planned.

Doubts whisper and fears scream at us from every side.

That's where the disciples were that night. They had followed Jesus, sometimes faithfully, and sometimes fearfully, only to stand and watch Him die a horrific, brutal death. They had no future left.

They locked themselves in a room, afraid to be seen.

Then Jesus mysteriously appeared among them.

He didn't chastise them for hiding, or doubting, and for being fearful -- He greeted them with peace, precisely what they didn't expect!

After revealing His scars, proving His identity, He breathed on them. That breath was not just air - it was the breath of life. He gave them the Holy Spirit, empowering them to move from frightened followers to become courageous witnesses of His resurrection.

Jesus was not sending them out in their own strength; He was giving them His own presence,  guidance and power through His Spirit.

(What happened next? Read Acts, chapters 1 and 2.) 

Sometimes we feel we need to have it all figured out before taking the first, or next, step, but God equips us just in His perfect timing. Just as He breathed life into Adam, Jesus breathed new life into His disciples and now into us.

He is equipping us for what He is calling us to do, even when we feel unprepared and incompetent. Maybe you feel tired, uncertain, or afraid. Invite the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into you and step aside and see what God will do for and in you!

Start now! Breathe, inhaling, deeply!

Anticipating Easter - Timothy Keller - The Real Rest

The word Sabbath means a deep rest, a deep peace.

It's a near synonym for shalom -- a state of wholeness and flourishing in every dimension of life

When Jesus says, "I am the Lord of the Sabbath," He means that He is the Sabbath.

He is the Source of the deep rest we need.

He has come to completely change the way we rest. The one-day-a-week we take is just a taste of the deep divine rest we need, and Jesus is its Source.

When Jesus says, in effect, "As the Lord of the Sabbath, I can give you rest," what does that mean?

When Jesus calls you to rest, He is calling you to take time off -- physical and mental time off from work on a regular basis.

But there's another level of rest, a deeper level.

At the end of Genesis chapter 1, the account of God's creation of the world, God is said to have rested from his work.

What does that mean? Does God get tired? No, God
doesn't get tired. So how could He rest?

A different reason to rest is to be so satisfied with your work, so utterly satisfied, that you can leave it alone.

Only when you can say about your work, "I'm so happy with it, so satisfied -- it is finished!" can you walk away. When God finished creating the world, He said, "It is good." He rested.

The movie Chariots of Fire was based on the true story of two Olympians in the Paris competition of 1924.

One of them, Eric Liddell, was a Christian, and he refused to run on the Sabbath. As a result he lost the chance for a gold medal in a race he was favored to win.

At one level, taking a day off for rest is what the movie is about.

But the movie added another level and contrasted Harold Abrahams with Liddell.

Abrahams and Liddell were both trying very hard to win gold medals.

But Abrahams was doing it out of a need to prove himself. At one point, speaking of the sprint event in which he was competing, he said, "I've got ten seconds to justify my existence."

Liddell, on the other hand, simply wanted to please God who had already accepted him.

That's why he told his sister, "God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure."

Harold Abrahams was weary even when he rested, and Eric Liddell was rested even when he as exerting himself.

Why? Because there's a work underneath our work that we really need rest from. It's the work of self-justification.

Most of us work and work trying to prove ourselves, to convince God, others and ourselves that we are good people.

That work is never over unless we rest in the Gospel.

At the end of His great act of creation, the Lord said, "It is finished," and He could rest.

On the cross at the end of His great act of redemption, Jesus said, "It is finished!"

And now we can rest.

On the cross Jesus was saying of the work underneath your work -- the thing that makes you truly weary, this need to prove yourself because who you are and what you do are never good enough -- that it is finished!

He has lived the life you should have lived; He has died the death you should have died.

If you rely on Jesus' finished work, you know that God is satisfied with you.

You can be satisfied with life.

You can take all the vacations in the world, but if you don't have deep rest of the soul, resting in what Jesus did on the cross, you will not truly rest.

On the cross Jesus experienced the restlessness of separation from God so that we can have the deep rest of knowing that He loves us and our sins have been forgiven.

    -- From King's Cross, Chapter 4, by Timothy Keller

~~~~~

Come to me, all you who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 

He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done,

 but because of His mercy.

He saved us through the washing of the rebirth

and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

 whom He poured out on us generously

through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Titus 3:5-6