Anticipating Easter - Mary's Choice

How Jesus spent his last weeks on earth:

Holy Week - Crucifixion - Resurrection - 40 days - His ascension back to eternal glory


Mary, Did You Know?


We see Mary, the mother of Jesus, at His cross.

Thirty-three years before, while she and Joseph were in the temple with baby Jesus, she had heard an enigmatic prophecy from an old, devout man named Simeon.

He had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he laid eyes on the God's Messiah.

"Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts." He saw the baby, took Him in his arms and praised God.

Then he turned to Mary, saying, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel...the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul, too."
(Luke 2)

Her own soul, too...a prophecy for both.

Faithful Jews realized from the "suffering servant" prophecies that the Messiah would be wounded.

Now Simeon was including Mary in the suffering of God's anointed One.

Mary's Choice

Now, thirty-three years later, she chose to stand at the foot of the cross, witnessing the cruel punishment of her Son, and she felt the sword that pierced Him, piercing her own body also.

She was not under arrest. She could have left. She
could not have saved Him. She would not have been able to convince the solders to take Him off that cross and release Him to her.

She had only two options - leave or stay there at His feet and witness His pain and suffering until the end.

She made the free choice to stand by and enter into His suffering and feel the sword pierce through her heart. A memory she would never be able to erase.

Against the scene of the basest brutality, she shines as a pure light of love. It was a cosmic contrast. Their hate and her love.

She made the choice to stay.

And so did He.

True to His purpose in coming to earth, "...who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame..." (Hebrews 12:2), He stayed on the cross.

Mary chose to enter into the pain and suffering of Jesus.

The Burden of Love

I heard a story once about a young couple who were expecting their first baby. Then they received the tragic news that the baby was not developing as he should -- his heart was not developed and he would surely die just after birth.

"Abort," the doctor declared.

But they refused. Knowing the baby would not live, they chose to go through with the pregnancy in hopes that they might have a few hours on this earth with their child before he would be gone from them.

The nurse, who shared this story with me, couldn't watch the couple. She couldn't bear it. Instead, she focused on the immediate needs of the newborn baby.

She watched his tiny fingers, grasping at the air and reaching for life, as new babies do. Then she saw his fingers become still, as he gave up his struggle and let go.

I am so moved by this story. The couple wanted to share in the suffering of their tiny beloved infant, no matter what the cost to them.

He would have felt pain in an abortion. And he would have been alone.


The cost of love. The burden of love.



Mary chose to enter into the pain and suffering of Jesus.

The cost of discipleship.

More About That Veil (Part 2 - cont'd from yesterday)

More About That Veil! Part 2. (Cont'd from yesterday)

3 PM - At the Cross - Jesus gave up His spirit, at that moment the veil in the temple was torn in two, and the earth quake shook the area and the tombs of followers of Jesus opened up.

Notice the timing --  who was in charge every minute? God Himself! Every detail was orchestrated by Him!

At 3 PM on Passover the evening sacrifice would begin, requiring the presence of many priests in the Holy Place, engaged in their duties in front of that curtain! God wanted the splitting of that curtain to be witnessed and not disputed! And so He had an audience!

And it happened at the same time as the earthquake!

And at the cross, those witnesses knew Jesus died and that then the earth quake occurred!

There were never any arguments about when these events happened! 

3 PM - the Passover Lamb was slain. Immediately the veil was torn and access to God revealed for all to see! And there was the earth quake!

So when the curtain, the sign of the separation sin had created between man and God was removed, it announced that the sin requiring the need of that curtain had also been removed!

The tearing of the veil was symbolic of what Jesus had just actually done on the cross. Jesus had forever settled the problem of sin that barred man's intimate fellowship with God. No further obstruction remained for those who would draw near to him through their faith in Christ...the problem been removed...forever!

****[note about some of those priests - see Acts 6:7 -- "So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith."]

That Veil Was A Really Big Deal

 

"Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded His Spirit. And, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks were split"(Matthew 27:50-51).

No small miracle occurred when that veil was split.

The temple veil was a significant feature of the temple. It was a thick curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

The priests could enter and serve in the Holy Place, but only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, but only once  a year on the annual Day of Atonement.

The Holy of Holies housed the sacred Arc of the Covenant, the abiding place of God's shekinah glory, which signified God's dwelling place among His people.

The veil was massive: about 60 feet in height and 30 feet wide. It was quite heavy, requiring 300 priests to move it when it needed cleaning. It was about 4 inches thick.

With the curtain torn and open, all the old ways of worship were transformed. 

The mercy seat covering the top of the Arc could now be seen by everyone with the glory of God gleaming above it. 

With the death of Jesus we now have an unhindered revelation and pathway to God. Direct access to God is now permitted and is the privilege of every believer in Christ. We may now come with confidence to the throne of God and receive His heavenly grace. And call Him "Father"!

      "Let us now come boldly to God's throne of grace so that we might           receive mercy and receive grace to help in our hour of need"                           (Hebrews 4:16).

And with His death, since He was the perfect and final sacrifice, all other sacrifices were finished forever.

"It is finished," He said. He paid the final price. Our owed invoice says, "Paid in full." We are free!

He wore the crown of thorns so we could receive His crown of life! He took our punishment so we wouldn't have to. He was treated as a criminal so we could be treated as Sons of God -- Princes and Princesses and heirs of God!

Look back at the cross -- every day -- and marvel with the soldiers, "Truly this was the Son of God"!

"He took our pain and bore our sufferings...He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Anticipating Easter - Everyday!

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.

For what I received I passed on to you, as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according  to the Scriptures....1 Corinthians 15:1, 3



This is the gospel - What Paul received and what he passed on to the struggling church at Corinth: that Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, came in flesh, died for our sins to bring us back to God, and now lives.

This is the Easter story. A story we need to tell ourselves every day - every morning when we rise and throughout the day. It's the song we keep singing!

It's about being "saved."

Not only has God forgiven our sins, He has also credited to us the perfect righteousness of His Son.

This is sometimes called the "Great Exchange"-- He took away our sins and gave us righteousness --   God's own righteousness which comes to us by faith (Colossians 3:9)

God's eternal forgiveness includes all sins--past, present, and future.

All of what we think of as our own "righteousness" is like filthy rags--God removes those rags and dresses us in new, clean clothing of His righteousness. Just removal of our rags would not be enough.

But sin still remains with us, and in us, here on earth. Yes, sin still remains, but it does not reign! With the power of the Holy Spirit we can begin to control and conquer the power of the sin still in us.

"Saved" is not a word relegated to the past -- to that day we received God's free gift of grace and accepted it through faith in Jesus Christ.


"Saved" is a word we can use every day.


                                                       PAST                  
We have been saved (freed) from sin's guilt.  That happened once, in the past. (Has it happened for you?)

PRESENT           

We are being saved (freed) from sin's power. That happens continually, every day.

FUTURE             

Someday we will be saved (freed) from sin's very existence. That will be when we live in God's Presence.


"Saved" is a word we will use forever. That song will never end.


So if someone asks me, "Are  you saved?" I can say confidently: "Yes, I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved!"

We can preach the gospel to ourselves - EVERY DAY!

The result is a joyful, grateful heart, praising God for His never-ending goodness to us. A heart of peace.

The sun comes up.

It's new new day dawning.

It's time to sing Your song again.

Whatever may pass and

whatever lays before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes!

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!]