[This is the journal entry from my quiet time with God today.]
Look: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” (Mark 16:7)
This is part of what the young man in white, who I presume to be an angel, told the women at Jesus’ tomb on the first Easter morning. Jesus, Who had died on the cross, was now risen from the dead and would meet His followers in the Galilee region.
But the phrasing caught my attention this morning: “tell his disciples and Peter.” When read as and, the Greek word kai, could mean several things in this sentence:
1) It could mean that, because of his denial of Jesus on the night of Jesus’ arrest, Peter was no longer considered a disciple. The fact that in John 21, Jesus makes a point of restoring Peter to fellowship with Him three times might be read in support of such a reading. But if Peter was being considered, at least temporarily, excommunicated, he would hardly be invited to a gathering of disciples with the risen Jesus. Besides, all of the disciples denied or betrayed Jesus in some way.
2) If read as and, kai could also be seen as singling Peter out for special mention as the designated leader of the Church that Jesus is founding. This seems to be the preferred meaning among most scholars, I think, and I have no particular quibble with it.
But this morning, a third possible interpretation hit me. That little Greek word kai can also mean even or also. What if the angel’s invitation was meant to be a word of reassurance to Peter, whose denial of Jesus had been so cowardly, so public, and so bitter to Peter himself that he wept over it?
What if the angel was saying, “tell his disciples, even Peter who feels ashamed over his denial of Jesus to meet Jesus in Galilee”? Even Peter, who denied knowing Jesus to a lowly servant girl who posed no threat to him, is invited back.
After all, Peter, who was inclined to pride and shame (two sides of the same coin), may have concluded that his sin was unforgivable. “You tell Peter that the Lord wants to see him too,” the angel may be saying.
Even if you accept the second interpretation above, it wouldn’t preclude translating kai as even, not and.
Listen: The implications for me this morning is that Jesus, just as He wanted to see Peter, even wants to see me.
Despite the condition of sin into which I, like the rest of the human race, was born.
Despite the sins I've committed because of my fallen condition.
Despite my failings.
His grace includes me because He is good and because I, however inconsistently, by the power and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, repent and believe in Jesus and the good news His death and resurrection brings to sinners like me.
The angel seems to be telling Peter that Peter’s sense of guilt need not lead him into shame.
I’ve noticed the difference between these two things, guilt and shame.
Guilt is the prick to one’s conscience used by God to turn us back to Him when we’ve heard the good news of Jesus and realize that we've acted out of our sinful nature and sought to be our own gods.
Shame is the conclusion we draw that our sins make us beyond redemption, forgiveness, or renewal, that God is impotent to save us.
Guilt can turn us to Christ.
Shame turns us ever-inward, away from God and His grace.
I think that Peter was so inclined to self-sufficiency that after he had denied Jesus, he may have believed that he was forever damned. Peter still was putting too much faith in himself, even in his own sense of guilt. There is a subtle egotism and pride involved in refusing to be forgiven, in wallowing in shame, in refusing to allow Christ to have dominion over our sins.
But, if this is how Peter was feeling, the angel would have none of it. He tells the women at the tomb, “Tell his disciples, even Peter!”
When I pronounce absolution during worship, God wants me to remember, “These words are for you too, Mark. Yes, you’ve been a sinner again today and this week. You are a sinner, after all: Sinners sin. But you are a sinner saved by grace through faith in Christ. When you turn (repent) and trust Christ with your life, including all of your sins, you’re forgiven. The only people beyond repair are those who stop turning to My Son, who refuse it when the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sin or when the Holy Spirit convinces them of My grace. The only ones who can’t be saved are the ones who are too focused on themselves to turn to Christ.”
I’m sure that Peter felt like a failure after Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Truth is, he was. But that didn’t make him beyond Christ’s capacity to save him from himself, to give him life. In Christ, God can save, restore, renew, empower, enliven, give resurrection to anybody, even Peter, even me.
Respond: Thank You, Lord, for this reminder of Your grace. Help me today to not be afraid to own my sin and my sins before You and in Jesus’ name, see You crucify my sinful nature so that You can be about the work of making me over in Jesus’ image. I don’t deserve Your grace. But in Christ, it comes even to me. In the name of Jesus, I thank, praise, honor, and glorify You. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Showing posts with label Mark 16:7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark 16:7. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Good Intentions
Pastor David Wendel's 2014 Advent devotions are rooted in the passages of Scripture found in the daily lectionary of Lutheran Book of Worship. The verses explored by Wendel are part of the Gospel of Luke's account of Jesus' crucifixion:
Peter, we know, isn't good for the promises he makes here. On the black night of Jesus' show trial, Peter is identified by people in the crowd as one of Jesus' followers and on three occasions, denies any association with Jesus.
The seasoned Christian has a tendency to either lament Peter's spinelessness or to take comfort in our own fear.
But maybe we should have a different reaction.
All of us tend to condemn those who say one thing and do another. And for good reason. There are few things more contemptible in others--or in ourselves--than intentionally committing to one thing and failing to do it. Or intentionally committing not to do one thing, then doing another. With other Christians, I often confess to God that I have "sinned against [Him] in thought, word, and deed, by what [I] have done and by what [I] have left undone."
It's still sin to willfully break our promises to God. Peter still needed to repent and reclaim his faith in Christ after Christ had risen (John 21).
But the evidence indicates that Peter's "denial" was not seen by Jesus as being on a par with Judas' "betrayal."
There appears to be a difference between what we often call "good intentions," the breezy, thoughtless promises we make that carry no commitment and no real intentionality, and those promises we truly intend to make but that we allow our sinful natures to prevent us from fulfilling.
In the former cases, our spirits are disengaged from and indifferent to the promises we make.
In the latter, our spirits are willing but our finite, selfish human natures--what the Bible calls our "flesh"--is weak, irresolute, flaky. (See here.)
I think that Peter's denial fell into this latter category. Unlike Judas, there was no premeditation in Peter's failure to stand by Jesus. He'd had actual good intentions.
That's why, I think, Jesus didn't give up on Peter. On the first Easter Sunday, an angel tells the women who have come to Jesus' tomb, thinking Jesus was dead that, in fact, Jesus had risen from the dead, then gives these instructions: "...But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee.'" (Mark 16:7)
The angel, God's messenger, singled Peter out for inclusion.
Peter remained part of Jesus' plans and within the scope of His forgiving grace despite failing to meet the bold commitments he made on the Thursday of Jesus' arrest.
I take comfort from this.
Like Peter, I've made bold commitments to Jesus. And I have failed to keep them. Sometimes spectacularly so, at least in my own mind.
But the God we meet in Jesus penetrates my heart and knows the difference between so-called good intentions and the actual variety. In his charge to his son, Solomon, King David in the Old Testament said:
He "remembers that we are dust" and, so meets us with forgiveness when we, seeing our failure to fulfill our intentions to love God and to love others, repent and seek His power to live differently today than we did yesterday.
It's to bring the possibility of such grace to us that Jesus was born, died, and rose again: to make us right with God, to help us to live in the light of heaven and not the darkness of hell, and to give us life with God that never ends.
Thank God for that.
But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and death."The interchange between Peter and Jesus happens just before Jesus' arrest and subsequent execution.
Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me." (Luke 22:33-34)
Peter, we know, isn't good for the promises he makes here. On the black night of Jesus' show trial, Peter is identified by people in the crowd as one of Jesus' followers and on three occasions, denies any association with Jesus.
The seasoned Christian has a tendency to either lament Peter's spinelessness or to take comfort in our own fear.
But maybe we should have a different reaction.
All of us tend to condemn those who say one thing and do another. And for good reason. There are few things more contemptible in others--or in ourselves--than intentionally committing to one thing and failing to do it. Or intentionally committing not to do one thing, then doing another. With other Christians, I often confess to God that I have "sinned against [Him] in thought, word, and deed, by what [I] have done and by what [I] have left undone."
It's still sin to willfully break our promises to God. Peter still needed to repent and reclaim his faith in Christ after Christ had risen (John 21).
But the evidence indicates that Peter's "denial" was not seen by Jesus as being on a par with Judas' "betrayal."
There appears to be a difference between what we often call "good intentions," the breezy, thoughtless promises we make that carry no commitment and no real intentionality, and those promises we truly intend to make but that we allow our sinful natures to prevent us from fulfilling.
In the former cases, our spirits are disengaged from and indifferent to the promises we make.
In the latter, our spirits are willing but our finite, selfish human natures--what the Bible calls our "flesh"--is weak, irresolute, flaky. (See here.)
I think that Peter's denial fell into this latter category. Unlike Judas, there was no premeditation in Peter's failure to stand by Jesus. He'd had actual good intentions.
That's why, I think, Jesus didn't give up on Peter. On the first Easter Sunday, an angel tells the women who have come to Jesus' tomb, thinking Jesus was dead that, in fact, Jesus had risen from the dead, then gives these instructions: "...But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee.'" (Mark 16:7)
The angel, God's messenger, singled Peter out for inclusion.
Peter remained part of Jesus' plans and within the scope of His forgiving grace despite failing to meet the bold commitments he made on the Thursday of Jesus' arrest.
I take comfort from this.
Like Peter, I've made bold commitments to Jesus. And I have failed to keep them. Sometimes spectacularly so, at least in my own mind.
But the God we meet in Jesus penetrates my heart and knows the difference between so-called good intentions and the actual variety. In his charge to his son, Solomon, King David in the Old Testament said:
"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." (1 Chonicles 28:9)In Jesus Christ, God grades those who genuinely repent and trust in Christ as their only hope on a grace curve.
He "remembers that we are dust" and, so meets us with forgiveness when we, seeing our failure to fulfill our intentions to love God and to love others, repent and seek His power to live differently today than we did yesterday.
It's to bring the possibility of such grace to us that Jesus was born, died, and rose again: to make us right with God, to help us to live in the light of heaven and not the darkness of hell, and to give us life with God that never ends.
Thank God for that.
Monday, April 01, 2013
Leaving the Past Behind (Good Friday, 2013)
[This was shared during the Logan Community Good Friday service on March 29, in the sanctuary of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church.]
John 18:1-19:42
Before the service, Howard and I were talking about what makes this Friday good? Humanity conspired to kill God in the flesh, an innocent man. That doesn't seem very good, does it? But Jesus offered Himself up voluntarily, the perfect sacrificial Lamb, to atone for our sins and open up the possibility of forgiveness and new life for all people. That's why, despite of the ugliness of the events, we commemorate this day as Good Friday.
Each year in fact, Good Friday comes as a brutal dose of reality for those prone to living in the pretend world of a perfect past, for those who look at episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and say to themselves, “That’s how life used to be.”
But the phrase "nostalgic Christian" is an oxymoron.
In fact, believers in Jesus want to leave the past behind, living with Christ in the now and looking ahead with excitement and anticipation to the perfect future ahead for all who believe in Jesus.
"Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Good Friday reminds us of the bad old days from which Jesus Christ wants to set all of us free.
From the moment that Adam and Eve bit into the fruit that God had warned them not to eat, the human race has been, collectively and individually, plunged into sin: alienated from God, from one another, from the creation God gave us to manage and tend.
Sin entered into the human gene pool, passed along from generation to generation.
It was to eliminate the condition of sin from us and to end our slavery to sin and restore our relationship with God that Jesus, God in the flesh, came into our world. He took death, the punishment for sin that you and I deserve, onto Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God the Father made Jesus "to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus entered into death. Based on Scripture, many of us in our creeds say that on Good Friday, Jesus descended to hell. Then He rose from the grave to claim new life and a perfect future for all who follow Him.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” He says. “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” [John 14:6]
And, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” [John 11:25]J
And, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe in Him are condemned already, because they have not believed in the Name of the only Son.” [John 3:16-18]
It wasn't "bad Romans" or "bad Jews" or aberrant representatives of the human race who put Jesus on the cross. It was you, me, our parents, and our grandparents and the common human desire to "be like God," to flush God from our lives or considerations, going all the way back to Eden, that drove the nails into Jesus' flesh on the first Good Friday.
It was for us and our sins that He died, for us that He came to offer life in His Name. No wonder then that God inspired the witness of the first Christians about Jesus: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
Different expressions of our sinful nature go in and out of style.
So in the morality department, you and I are no better or worse today than past generations were.
Good Friday shows us that.
But Good Friday also shows us that sin, the human race's ancient and ongoing alienation from God and the life only God can give, does not have to be the last word over our lives.
God has acted.
In Christ, God is reconciling Himself to all who confess their sins and entrust their lives to the rule of Jesus, the King of kings.
In Christ, the sins of our past that weigh us down are taken off our shoulders and put on those of the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
All who are in Christ have the power of the Holy Spirit working within us, giving us and making us part of His holy catholic Church and the communion of saints, assured of the forgiveness of our sins, the resurrection of our bodies with Christ and all the saints, and of the life everlasting with God.
It's a lie to believe in some perfect past. It never existed.
But when we trust in Christ, the Savior Who died and then rose to give us life, our present is invaded by the presence, power, and love of God.
That doesn't mean that the world will be hospitable to Christ and the good news about Him.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus points to a time in world history when the followers of Jesus will be hated because of their allegiance to Him. Many will then fall away from trusting in Him, He says, “and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.” The pall of sin that made Good Friday necessary will even blanket the human race, Jesus says, after He has died on a cross and risen from the dead so that we might be saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ. But even then, Jesus tells us not to pine for a dead past or to despair over the present or the future. He says: “...the one who endures to the end will be saved.” [Matthew 24:9-14]
If we remain steadfast in following Jesus, He will invade our todays with peace and strength and our futures will be more perfect than we could ever imagine.
On the Sunday after Jesus' crucifixion, some of the female disciples went to anoint Jesus' dead body. But they were met by a "young man, dressed in a white robe" who told them that Jesus was not dead, but risen. "Go," he told them, "tell his disciples and Peter that [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" [Mark 16:7].
Jesus has broken out of the dead past.
He's blown our nostalgic notions to bits.
He's ahead of us, pioneering a way for us through this life and opening up eternity to us.
Don't pine for the past. Follow Jesus into the future! That's the call of Good Friday. Amen
John 18:1-19:42
Before the service, Howard and I were talking about what makes this Friday good? Humanity conspired to kill God in the flesh, an innocent man. That doesn't seem very good, does it? But Jesus offered Himself up voluntarily, the perfect sacrificial Lamb, to atone for our sins and open up the possibility of forgiveness and new life for all people. That's why, despite of the ugliness of the events, we commemorate this day as Good Friday.
Each year in fact, Good Friday comes as a brutal dose of reality for those prone to living in the pretend world of a perfect past, for those who look at episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and say to themselves, “That’s how life used to be.”
But the phrase "nostalgic Christian" is an oxymoron.
In fact, believers in Jesus want to leave the past behind, living with Christ in the now and looking ahead with excitement and anticipation to the perfect future ahead for all who believe in Jesus.
"Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Good Friday reminds us of the bad old days from which Jesus Christ wants to set all of us free.
From the moment that Adam and Eve bit into the fruit that God had warned them not to eat, the human race has been, collectively and individually, plunged into sin: alienated from God, from one another, from the creation God gave us to manage and tend.
Sin entered into the human gene pool, passed along from generation to generation.
It was to eliminate the condition of sin from us and to end our slavery to sin and restore our relationship with God that Jesus, God in the flesh, came into our world. He took death, the punishment for sin that you and I deserve, onto Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God the Father made Jesus "to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus entered into death. Based on Scripture, many of us in our creeds say that on Good Friday, Jesus descended to hell. Then He rose from the grave to claim new life and a perfect future for all who follow Him.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” He says. “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” [John 14:6]
And, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” [John 11:25]J
And, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe in Him are condemned already, because they have not believed in the Name of the only Son.” [John 3:16-18]
It wasn't "bad Romans" or "bad Jews" or aberrant representatives of the human race who put Jesus on the cross. It was you, me, our parents, and our grandparents and the common human desire to "be like God," to flush God from our lives or considerations, going all the way back to Eden, that drove the nails into Jesus' flesh on the first Good Friday.
It was for us and our sins that He died, for us that He came to offer life in His Name. No wonder then that God inspired the witness of the first Christians about Jesus: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
Different expressions of our sinful nature go in and out of style.
So in the morality department, you and I are no better or worse today than past generations were.
Good Friday shows us that.
But Good Friday also shows us that sin, the human race's ancient and ongoing alienation from God and the life only God can give, does not have to be the last word over our lives.
God has acted.
In Christ, God is reconciling Himself to all who confess their sins and entrust their lives to the rule of Jesus, the King of kings.
In Christ, the sins of our past that weigh us down are taken off our shoulders and put on those of the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
All who are in Christ have the power of the Holy Spirit working within us, giving us and making us part of His holy catholic Church and the communion of saints, assured of the forgiveness of our sins, the resurrection of our bodies with Christ and all the saints, and of the life everlasting with God.
It's a lie to believe in some perfect past. It never existed.
But when we trust in Christ, the Savior Who died and then rose to give us life, our present is invaded by the presence, power, and love of God.
That doesn't mean that the world will be hospitable to Christ and the good news about Him.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus points to a time in world history when the followers of Jesus will be hated because of their allegiance to Him. Many will then fall away from trusting in Him, He says, “and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.” The pall of sin that made Good Friday necessary will even blanket the human race, Jesus says, after He has died on a cross and risen from the dead so that we might be saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ. But even then, Jesus tells us not to pine for a dead past or to despair over the present or the future. He says: “...the one who endures to the end will be saved.” [Matthew 24:9-14]
If we remain steadfast in following Jesus, He will invade our todays with peace and strength and our futures will be more perfect than we could ever imagine.
On the Sunday after Jesus' crucifixion, some of the female disciples went to anoint Jesus' dead body. But they were met by a "young man, dressed in a white robe" who told them that Jesus was not dead, but risen. "Go," he told them, "tell his disciples and Peter that [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" [Mark 16:7].
Jesus has broken out of the dead past.
He's blown our nostalgic notions to bits.
He's ahead of us, pioneering a way for us through this life and opening up eternity to us.
Don't pine for the past. Follow Jesus into the future! That's the call of Good Friday. Amen
Friday, April 06, 2012
Follow Jesus Into the Future (Good Friday Reflections)
Each year, Good Friday comes as a brutal dose of reality for those prone to living in the pretend world of a perfect past.
The phrase "nostalgic Christian" is an oxymoron.
In fact, believers in Jesus want to jettison the past, living with Christ in the now and looking ahead with excitement and anticipation to the perfect future ahead for all who believe in Jesus.
"Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," the apostle Paul wrote, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).
Good Friday reminds us of the bad old days from which Jesus Christ wants to set us free.
From the moment that Adam and Eve bit into the fruit God had warned them not to eat, the human race has been, collectively and individually, plunged into sin: alienated from God, from one another, from the creation God gave us to manage and tend.
Sin entered into the human gene pool, passed along from generation to generation.
It was to eliminate the condition of sin from us and our slavery to sin and to restore our relationship with God that Jesus, God in the flesh, came into our world. He took death, the punishment for sin that you and I deserve, onto Himself. God the Father made Jesus "to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus entered into death. Then He rose from the grave to claim new life, a perfect future for all who follow Him.
It wasn't "bad Romans" or "bad Jews" or aberrant representatives of the human race who put Jesus on the cross. It was you, me, our parents, and our grandparents and the common human desire to "be like God," to flush God from our lives or considerations, going all the way back to Eden, that drove the nails into Jesus' flesh on the first Good Friday.
Different expressions of our sinful nature go in and out of style.
But in the morality department, we're no better or worse today than past generations were.
Good Friday shows us that.
But it also shows us that sin, the human race's ancient and ongoing alienation from God and the life only God can give, does not have to be the last word over our lives.
God has acted.
In Christ, God is reconciling Himself to all who confess their sins and entrust their lives to the rule of Jesus, the King of kings.
It's a lie to believe in some perfect past. It never existed.
But when we trust in Christ, the Savior Who died and then rose to give us life, our present is invaded by the presence, power, and love of God.
And if we remain steadfast in following Him, our future will be more perfect than we could ever imagine.
On the Sunday after Jesus' crucifixion, some of the female disciples went to anoint Jesus' dead body. But they were met by a "young man, dressed in a white robe" who told them that Jesus was not dead, but risen. "Go," he told them, "tell his disciples and Peter that [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" (Mark 16:7).
Jesus has broken out of the dead past.
He's blown our nostalgic notions to bits.
He's ahead of us, making a way for us through this life and opening up eternity to us.
Don't pine for the past. Follow Jesus into the future!
The phrase "nostalgic Christian" is an oxymoron.
In fact, believers in Jesus want to jettison the past, living with Christ in the now and looking ahead with excitement and anticipation to the perfect future ahead for all who believe in Jesus.
"Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," the apostle Paul wrote, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).
Good Friday reminds us of the bad old days from which Jesus Christ wants to set us free.
From the moment that Adam and Eve bit into the fruit God had warned them not to eat, the human race has been, collectively and individually, plunged into sin: alienated from God, from one another, from the creation God gave us to manage and tend.
Sin entered into the human gene pool, passed along from generation to generation.
It was to eliminate the condition of sin from us and our slavery to sin and to restore our relationship with God that Jesus, God in the flesh, came into our world. He took death, the punishment for sin that you and I deserve, onto Himself. God the Father made Jesus "to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus entered into death. Then He rose from the grave to claim new life, a perfect future for all who follow Him.
It wasn't "bad Romans" or "bad Jews" or aberrant representatives of the human race who put Jesus on the cross. It was you, me, our parents, and our grandparents and the common human desire to "be like God," to flush God from our lives or considerations, going all the way back to Eden, that drove the nails into Jesus' flesh on the first Good Friday.
Different expressions of our sinful nature go in and out of style.
But in the morality department, we're no better or worse today than past generations were.
Good Friday shows us that.
But it also shows us that sin, the human race's ancient and ongoing alienation from God and the life only God can give, does not have to be the last word over our lives.
God has acted.
In Christ, God is reconciling Himself to all who confess their sins and entrust their lives to the rule of Jesus, the King of kings.
It's a lie to believe in some perfect past. It never existed.
But when we trust in Christ, the Savior Who died and then rose to give us life, our present is invaded by the presence, power, and love of God.
And if we remain steadfast in following Him, our future will be more perfect than we could ever imagine.
On the Sunday after Jesus' crucifixion, some of the female disciples went to anoint Jesus' dead body. But they were met by a "young man, dressed in a white robe" who told them that Jesus was not dead, but risen. "Go," he told them, "tell his disciples and Peter that [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" (Mark 16:7).
Jesus has broken out of the dead past.
He's blown our nostalgic notions to bits.
He's ahead of us, making a way for us through this life and opening up eternity to us.
Don't pine for the past. Follow Jesus into the future!
Monday, November 07, 2011
Following Christ Into the Future
I've always found it interesting that, at Christ's empty tomb, the angels told the women who had arrived to anoint Jesus' body only to be told that Jesus was risen from the dead:
When you follow Jesus, you can be grateful for what has happened in the past--including Jesus' death and resurrection. You can also learn from the past. But your focus is on Him and the future--both here and now and in eternity--to which Jesus takes those with faith in Him.
With a focus on Jesus and the future, we're freed from the endless rehearsal of past failures and hurts. We're free from religion's insistence on reproducing proscribed rites and conditions in order to win God's attention or approval.
Instead, Christians bearing their scars and mindful of the lessons of their lives with Christ, learn and grow and move into the great future that belongs to all who follow Christ!
Check out these thoughts, today's installment of Our Daily Bread.
"Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee..." (Mark 16:7).This has always seemed an apt metaphor for the fact that to follow Jesus doesn't involve nostalgia for the past or propping up old ways of doing things.
When you follow Jesus, you can be grateful for what has happened in the past--including Jesus' death and resurrection. You can also learn from the past. But your focus is on Him and the future--both here and now and in eternity--to which Jesus takes those with faith in Him.
With a focus on Jesus and the future, we're freed from the endless rehearsal of past failures and hurts. We're free from religion's insistence on reproducing proscribed rites and conditions in order to win God's attention or approval.
Instead, Christians bearing their scars and mindful of the lessons of their lives with Christ, learn and grow and move into the great future that belongs to all who follow Christ!
Check out these thoughts, today's installment of Our Daily Bread.
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