Were You There… as a Sympathizer - Luke 23:26-31

              

Were you there? Life isn’t always easy or fair and it really hit me as I watched Jesus stumble down the road under the weight of the beam the soldiers were forcing him to carry; the beam that they’re going to nail him too. The painful death waiting for Jesus brought tears to my eyes. It was so hard to watch!

Luke shows Jesus’ heart for those around him, even as he walks to his own death. He’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders; the weight of our sin is so much heavier than the weight of the piece of lumber scraping against the broken skin of his back. While Simon being forced to carry the beam offers Jesus some respite from the pain, the only reason the soldiers do this is so that Jesus can stagger under his own power to Golgotha, the place of his execution. Jesus has been beaten so badly that he’s no longer able to carry his own cross. What a powerful visual and echo to when Jesus called his disciples to take up their own cross, what the cost of following Jesus may cost. Simon carrying Jesus’ cross is only a brief reprieve for Jesus.

I sometimes wonder why there aren’t more tears and weeping when we watch Jesus walk the road to his cross. Is it because it’s just another story now, or do we hide our emotions and feelings behind the familiarity of the story, or behind our theology, hating to think of Jesus as a human being who’s hurting like this because of our sin? We too often fail to appreciate what’s happening as Jesus carries his beam to the hill outside Jerusalem. The women watching Jesus stumble in exhaustion and pain understand, at least in part, which is why they weep and mourn for Jesus. They see an innocent man filled with compassion and mercy for others experience great hatred, cruelty, and injustice at the hands of the powerful.

Jesus notices the women, and in another reminder of his compassion for us, even as he’s undergoing extreme suffering and pain, he urges the women, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.” Mourning for Jesus isn’t wrong because they love him, and hate what’s happening to him, and know their loss in his upcoming death. Jesus knows all this, but he also knows the reason why he’s doing this, and that’s more compelling and important than his suffering. Jesus doesn’t need our pity because he knows that his Father’s in charge, even in this moment. Jesus is following his Father’s will in order to save his people. Jesus knows that while he’s fully human, he’s also fully God and so through his death he’s going to crush the serpent’s head, defeat sin, and wash away its stain on our souls and lives through his blood, even defeating death, the great punishment for our sin. He also knows the great pain waiting for him.

My big question is, should we also “weep for ourselves and our children?” I needed to listen to the Old Testament to understand what Jesus is saying here. We hear an echo back to Jeremiah 9, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.’” Now, you women, hear the word of the Lord; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament.” Jeremiah’s calling the people to repent from their sin because their sin is the reason Jerusalem and the temple are going to be destroyed and the people sent into exile. In calling the women to weep for themselves, Jesus is calling them to repent of their sin.

This helps us understand why Jesus goes on, “For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Jesus is pointing ahead to the destruction and Jerusalem and Herod’s temple in 70 AD by the Romans because of the Jews defiance of Rome. This is going to be an extremely brutal time since Rome was unforgiving towards rebels and their enemies, treating them with devastating harshness to teach anyone else thinking of rebelling a reason to have second thoughts. It was so brutal, it brought back memories of how Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the slaughter that occurred, a slaughter that will be happen again by the Roman legions.

God allows this destruction to happen as a result of Israel’s sin, of Israel’s choice to walk in their own paths instead of God’s and Jesus’ path. During the time of Babylon, they failed to care for the orphans, widows, poor, and oppressed. The rich oppressed them, rather than caring for, and loving them. In Jesus’ day, there was also a lack of compassion for the poor, widows, and oppressed, and they failed to follow Jesus and accept him, even after he said that he was the way, the truth, and the life. We get a glimpse here of a warning about the Day of Judgement, Jesus’ return to claim all of heaven and earth for himself and completely defeat Satan once and for all.

For Israel, the weeping of women is a reminder of their sin and a call to repent; a call to remember their history and God’s faithfulness to his people in spite of their unfaithfulness. The root of sin lies in wanting to be God of our own lives, wanting to trust in our own wisdom rather than God’s wisdom. Adam and Eve trusted their own wisdom rather than God’s and ended up separated from God. This has led to much weeping and the need for repentance, a need to turn back and walk in God’s way and fully trust in him.

The call to repentance is the main message of Jesus, “Repent and believe for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Its radical nature as a complete turning around and return to the Father, is emphasized in the parable of the prodigal son. Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple, where the Pharisee is so full of pride, not recognizing his need to God’s mercy and forgiveness, shows us that repentance means admitting that we have no claim on God, that we’re called to humbly submit to God’s mercy. The call to turn our lives around to embrace Jesus’ values and the life-style he teaches is emphasized by his encounters in the rich young man and Zacchaeus and their responses to his call on their lives, or non-response.

Jesus calls the women and us to weep and repent of sin that leads us to think that our wisdom is equal to God’s. How we can ever have the wisdom to understand a God who forgives so completely, understand Jesus who takes our sin to the cross and lived a perfect life in our place. Rev. Dr. Laura Mendenhall challenges us, "I know I have sin of which I must repent, but I am such a product of my era, so captive to my fears, so dominated by my own need that I cannot even recognize my sin.” She recognizes the need for self awareness in each of us who follow Jesus, but also recognizes that many of us are not very self aware, we much more easily pick out the wrong in others, we see the speck of dust in someone else’s eye, but completely miss the plank in our own eye that we keep trying to look around. Without working on self awareness, without going to God and asking the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to our own pride and brokenness, we seldom feel any urgency for repentance.

What should we be mourning over, repenting from today? Part of our mourning should be for how many people today in our own communities and lives are unaware of who Jesus really is and their need for him. We should be lamenting the brokenness and injustice around us. We should be mourning for the effects of sin in the world, in every part of our lives and relationships, for those especially touched by the sins of others and the hurt that’s all around, so often silent and unseen. We should be lamenting how often we don’t care enough to even try to bring heaven’s shalom into our communities.

Part of our turning around to embrace God’s call in our lives is to live as Micah calls us, “to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” We may not be able to change systems, but, as Mother Theresa says, “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.” As we walk Jesus’ path of loving God and neighbour, we also share with them who Jesus is, “making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.” As Doctor Stephen Grabill from the Acton Institute reminds us, “The church is the body of Christ given as a gift for the life of the world.”

Were You There… as a Spectator - Matthew 27:32-44

Isaiah writes in chapter 53 about the Suffering Servant, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…  By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.”

Matthew carries on with what happens after Jesus’ trials in front of the religious leaders and Pilate, the Roman governor. Jesus has been charged with blasphemy by claiming to be God and going to destroy the temple, while Pilate washed his hands of Jesus, sending him to the cross with the accusation of being a traitor and threat to Rome for claiming to be king of the Jews. The soldiers take Jesus away, mock him as a king, and now are marching him to the place where he’s going to die on the cross-beam Simon is forced to carry because of the beating Jesus has already taken.

There are a lot of spectators there that day; there were people from all over the empire in Jerusalem for the Passover feast; celebrating how God saved them from slavery. God is doing something similar this Passover, fulfilling his great promise of a Messiah right in front of them all. Around the cross are a variety of spectators watching Jesus hang on the cross that day. There are the soldiers at the cross to make sure the prisoners die and no one tries to save them off the cross. They offer Jesus wine mixed with gall, making it taste awful and bitter, perhaps a way to mock him as a failed king.

They cast lots for Jesus’ clothes, unknowingly fulfilling Psalm 22, “They divide my clothes among them and they cast lots for my garment.” Matthew echoes Psalms 22 and 69 multiple times as he tells us about Jesus’ crucifixion, showing how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies in his suffering and death. The soldiers place a sign over Jesus’ head at Pilate’s direction, “This is Jesus, the king of the Jews,” so everyone can see who Jesus claims to be, another way to mock Jesus and the Jews, and yet an echo back to the wise men who travelled from the east after reading about Jesus’ birth in the stars, to worship the child born king of the Jews.

Two rebels are crucified on either side of Jesus, showing that the soldiers consider Jesus the most important criminal of the group. The rebels also mock Jesus, increasing the shame on Jesus. They’re joined in their mocking by the religious leaders who show up to make sure that Pilate carries through on Jesus’ crucifixion. They revel in their victory, even though they know Jesus is innocent. John records the high priest saying, “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” These leaders mockingly sneer, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself!” They mock him about being the king of Israel and the Son of God. The irony is that if Jesus saves himself, he condemns them. Jesus stays true to who he is, the king of Israel and Son of God, remaining on the cross so that they might be saved.

Then there are all those who just pass by. It’s like driving past an accident or following a fire truck to see what’s going on; everyone has a bit of a morbid curiosity about disasters. From how Matthew describes them, they would have been Jewish because they mocked Jesus about destroying the temple and rebuilding it again in three days. What is it in some people that they seem to take delight in hurting suffering people even more, stomping them into the ground.

Moses writes in Deuteronomy 21:23: “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God’s curse.” In Israelite law, the corpse of a criminal condemned by the courts who was hung on a tree showed the people that he was cursed by God. The chief priests wanted to make such that everyone felt disgust and revulsion who saw Jesus hang on the cross. This is why so walking by treated Jesus so harshly, so cruelly. The irony is that they’re right, Jesus took God’s curse on himself. Cursing is a serious business for God. When God curses, he’s condemning sin and judging it. His first curses come in Genesis 3 and still impact us today, “So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” God goes on to curse Eve, the ground, and Adam because Adam and Eve listened to the serpent’s voice over God’s voice.

On the cross, God’s curse against sin falls on Jesus, who becomes a curse for us. What’s happening here on the cross is so much more than a simple Jewish rabbi being unjustly crucified. In Jesus’ day, the Jews believed that the curse applied to anyone who was crucified; this is why the chief priests demanded that Jesus be crucified. On a cross, a person hung between heaven and earth, not belonging to either, but instead under the power of beings under the power of the kingdom of darkness and include fallen angels that were kicked out of heaven with Satan. The goal of these spirits is to twist God’s very good of creation out of its intended shape. This helps us understand what Paul’s talking about in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

God doesn’t hide what he’s doing, Jesus wandered through Israel and Samaria for 3 years, teaching publicly about who God is and who he is. Now, in front of many spectators, Jesus begins the crushing of the serpent’s head, making atonement for our sin, an act of love and justice by God, to reconcile God with us. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

Jesus’ crucifixion is part of a cosmic battle against these powers, the battle referred to in the serpent’s curse, the woman’s offspring going up against the serpent. On the cross, it looks like the serpent has won. We need to look deeper. D.A. Carson writes that “The curse on Jesus at the cross fulfills all OT sacrifices: it is a curse that removes the curse from believers—the fusion of divine, royal prerogative and Suffering Servant, the heart of the gospel, the inauguration of a new humanity, the supreme model for Christian ethics, the ratification of the new covenant, and the power of God.”

There are a lot of spectators in the church today, walking by the cross and looking up at this man most people are mocking, a man who seems to be carrying the weight of the world on him, a man who does something so unexpected it takes your breath away, but then just continuing doing their thing rather than worshipping Jesus. Astonishingly, Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Is your faith a spectator faith, something you do as an add on to your regular life, a Sunday morning, prayer at supper kind of faith in Jesus, but not really impacting what you do or who you really are? When you stop to take a close look at Jesus on the cross, what’s your reaction; do you recognize he’s there for you? Paul calls us to imitate Jesus, are you willing to move from being a spectator to being an imitator of Jesus, to live a life shaped by sacrificial humility, obedience to our crucified and risen Lord, confessing Jesus as your Lord?

Where are you at in your relationship with Jesus. Consider what he’s done for you on the cross: being the offering for your sin so you can be right with God. Confess your need for Jesus as your sin offering and respond by repenting, by saying “yes” every day to Jesus as he calls you to walk his path. Gratefully allow the Holy Spirit to shape who you are and how you live life. This is what Carson means about the cross being the heart of our ethics, the beginning of a new humanity, as we allow the gospel, through the Holy Spirit to transform us, shaping us more into the image of Jesus. Recognize that following Jesus, who becomes a curse in order to take the curse off you, is going to come at a cost, the cost of giving your entire life over to Jesus. Jesus becomes the curse so you can live in the blessings of the Father, are you ready to become more than a spectator?

 

Were You There… in the Shouting Crowd - Matthew 27:1-31

       

John tells us at the beginning of his account of Jesus’ life that “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” Even those who were the closest to Jesus didn’t really know who he was until after his death and resurrection. Many people say that they could never have betrayed Jesus, but that comes out of the arrogance of looking back with knowledge and insight that the people didn’t have then. This morning we’re reflecting on how many people failed to listen to Jesus, listening to other voices instead.

Matthew begins this part of Jesus’ journey to the cross by returning to Judas. After 3 years of being with Jesus, Judas hadn’t listened to who Jesus said he was, or what Jesus had been preparing them for. His betrayal was especially personal, even if the prophets had pointed to Judas’ betrayal. At the supper, Judas was served by Jesus, in the garden he kisses Jesus and calls him rabbi. This is personal, but now it sinks in to Judas just what the consequences are of his betrayal and deep remorse fills him at just how terrible his betrayal is. Judas’ betrayal was determined already in the Old Testament, but that doesn’t take away his personal responsibility for his acts or for listening to the voices of his greed, personal ambition, or Satan.

Judas tries to return the money. He throws the blood money into the temple, throwing away his god, but his guilt and remorse is so great that it prevents him from leaning into the forgiveness he could have experienced from Jesus. Jesus’ grace and love is big enough, as Peter writes in his second letter, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,” but Judas couldn’t hear it or accept it.

In Judas we also hear an echo back to Zechariah 11:12–14, ^“I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.” Zechariah’s talking about the sheep turning against the good shepherd here, a painful foreshadowing of what’s happening now to Jesus. In Zechariah, the people are rejecting the good shepherd and refusing to give him his pay even, and even when they do, it’s an insulting amount, showing no respect.

Now Matthew turns to the scene at Pilate’s palace and how the power of the crowd can lead to injustice and knowingly wrong decisions. Jesus is brought before Pilate, the one in charge of making sure that the Roman rule of law is carried out. Pilate knows something’s going on here that’s not completely legit, “he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.” Pilate only interested in Jesus’ claim to be king of the Jews because that can lead to a revolt against Rome. Pilate asks Jesus straight up, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus doesn’t affirm or deny the question, he simply states, “You have said so.” But when Jesus is accused by the chief priests and elders, he remains silent, echoing back to Isaiah 53, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Mathew’s writing to Jewish people, this is why he refers so often to the Old Testament prophecies.

John tells us Jesus’ response to Pilate’s question on whether he’s king of the Jews, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” Whose voice has Pilate been listening to, whose voices are guiding Pilate’s decision: Caesar’s voice who was unhappy with how Pilate has been dealing with the Jews in the past for allowing riots to happen, the Jewish religious leaders who failed to listen to Jesus’ voice, the voice of fear in Pilate’s own head, or to his wife’s voice, as his wife sends him an urgent message, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” God confirms Jesus’ innocence; Pilate has no excuse for the decisions he makes next.

Pilate offers to release a prisoner as part of the festival. Pilate offers to release either Jesus or Jesus Barabbas. When the crowd, stirred up by the Jewish religious leaders, choose Barabbas, Pilate’s forced to give a formal verdict, which should have been innocent, he instead literally washes his hands of his responsibility to defend the innocent, and hands Jesus over to be crucified. Jesus has been betrayed by the religious leaders, by Judas, by Peter, by the crowd, and now by Pilate. Do we really think we would have done anything different from any of these people?

The people accept the responsibility for the death of Jesus, even placing it on their children! I have a hard time understanding placing blood guilt on my children, but it shows how powerful the crowd mentality is, how the chief priests can rile them up to do something so unjust. Yet it’s easy to get caught up in joining the crowd in the moment, especially angry crowds who often seem to have a darkness in them. It’s easy to forget who we are as followers of Jesus and who Jesus is calling us to be when these voices are shouting in our ears.

We easily listen to those who tell us that what we already believe is the only truth, we allow our ears to be tickled and even get self-righteous about it. Adam and Eve listened to a different voice than God’s and it led them into rejecting God’s will for them. Whose voices are you listening to? Who’s tickling your ears right now? We tend to hunker down with those voices that affirm what we want to hear and tune out other voices. When we do this, we develop strong “them and us” ways of thinking and this distorts our relationships and ability to listen and relate with those who believe differently than we do. This can lead us to even believing that the other person’s motives are deliberately wrong.

We can find ourselves unable to recognize our own issues and the possibility that we may not have all the truth, or that we may even be wrong, the plank and splinter parable of Jesus. This is a pride and arrogance issue and is a huge problem today, both in our culture and even in the church, something I also struggle with much too often. This was part of what the chief priests, Pharisees, and Pilate were all struggling with and that the crowd didn’t even recognize, but got swept along into. When we allow our ears to be tickled, we reject God by choosing to listen to other voices over the Holy Spirit’s; we deny Jesus.

Earlier on in Matthew 23:37–39, Jesus hurts for what’s coming up for the Jewish people at the hands of Rome, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Even though Jesus has been betrayed repeatedly, he remains focused on walking the journey to the cross for the people, listening to his father’s voice over every other voice. On the cross justice and grace come together; justice in paying the price for our sin and grace in the forgiveness and restoration between us and God.

We’re called to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit rather than the voice of the crowds or those inciting the crowds. We’re called to learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit and reject the voices of those tickling our ears for their own purposes. This means regularly spending time reading the story of God and Jesus in the Bible as the voice of the Spirit, it means spending time talking to God in prayer and then being quiet to allow the Spirit to speak, which is why praying the Bible is so important. The church, over thousands of years, has developed ways of listening to, and being shaped by the Holy Spirit. Here are other spiritual disciplines I believe help us learn to listen to the Holy Spirit: fasting, confession, worship, fellowship, rest, celebration, service, generosity, chastity, and disciple-making.

Humility is so important because we’re connected to Jesus, and without humility, we find it hard to listen to any voices but our own. Paul writes in Philippians 2, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

God doesn’t give up on us, and in his justice and mercy sends Jesus to atone for our sin on the cross, where he died, and rose again, covering our sin and making us right with God again. Our response is to listen and obey God’s voice through the Holy Spirit as our act of grateful response to Jesus.

Were You There… at the Supper - Luke 22:7-38

                   

Were you there that night we celebrated the Passover with Jesus just before he was crucified? It was a confusing night; first Jesus sent John and I to prepare the Passover meal by going into the city, finding, and following a stranger to his house where he let us use a room big enough for all of us to share the Passover meal together. It always struck me how that whatever we needed always seemed to be there; I know it’s not coincidence, that God provides for us, but it always surprises me. I wonder if it’s because I don’t always trust enough that God does provide.

Then at the meal, Jesus started talking again about suffering and “not eating it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom of God, but the Passover is all about remembering how God saved us from slavery and then met us at Mount Sinai where he gave us the Law as a covenant to bind us to himself; “I am your God and you are my people,” is at the heart of the covenant!

Jesus then took the unleavened bread, made in a hurry so they could respond quickly to what God did, and Jesus then said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” We took the bread and ate and it felt like a gift, even though we didn’t understand what Jesus was doing at the time. Was Jesus telling us something by saying his body is given for us, this sounded at the time as if he was giving his life for a cause and his cause is us. Then Jesus took the cup of blessing, the last cup of wine for the Passover, a symbol that God is the giver of all good gifts and then consecrates the meal to the one who ate, and Jesus called it, “a new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

It reminded us of the prophet Jeremiah when God said he was going to make a new covenant with us, but it was going to be written on our hearts instead of the stone tablets given to us at Mount Sinai. Again, it sounded like Jesus was getting ready to die, and his death was going to be for us. we’ve been waiting a long time for this new covenant to come; is Jesus telling us that he really is the Messiah who has come to save us, but how does that fit with his talking about suffering and death?

The most confusing thing happened when Jesus began to talk about one of us betraying him; now looking back I see that he was talking about Judas, but we didn’t know that at the time. I even marvel now that Jesus even served Judas since I understand now that Jesus was showing us how the supper points us to salvation. James even leaned over and whispered those verses from Psalm 41 about a close friend turning against the psalmist and how Jesus seems to be saying that’s going to happen to him. We all wondered who Jesus was talking about.

I’m ashamed to say that we then started arguing about which one of us was the greatest. What a dumb argument when the greatest of all time has just washed our feet and then served us a meal we will never forget. Jesus stepped into our argument, to our shame and embarrassment, and reminded us that we are called to be different, that as his followers and children of God, we are called to humility and servanthood, and thinking back to the meal, serving even those who turn against us. I learned a lot that night, even though it didn’t sink in right away.

I couldn’t believe it when Jesus turned to me next with a warning, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” There’s no way I would ever turn from Jesus, at least that’s what I thought then, was Jesus saying I’m the close friend who’s going to betray him? Never, so I told Jesus, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” Jesus shocked me by telling me, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times what you know me.” I was horrified and heartbroken that Jesus could even say that, now imagine my shame when it became true. Yet Jesus never gave up on me, even though I must admit I was tempted to give up on myself. It hurts to realize how easy I turned against Jesus, but I was strengthened knowing that Jesus also drew me back.

Lent’s a time of reflection to get ready to celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death for us. Lent’s a time to get honest about ourselves and recognize just how much we need Jesus by remembering who we are, who Jesus is, and the power and grace found in Good Friday and Easter. We’re going to travel the path of suffering that Jesus walked, trying to understand from people who were there what was going on and why so that we can be shaped by the Jesus’ story.

Luke touches on so many things in this story of Jesus and his disciples. He touches on providence, showing how the meal’s provided for them. Luke touches on how following Jesus will often lead us into wondering what he’s doing and our place in it; then there’s the reassuring knowledge that Jesus prays for us so that we’ll have the strength to stand against temptation and recognize what Satan is trying to do in or lives. Luke shows us how, even after we mess up and fail Jesus, Jesus calls us back and to be there for each other as Jesus calls Peter to strengthen his brothers.

In the last supper, Jesus uses the Passover meal to point to how the theme of God’s salvation of his people points to what’s coming up in Jesus. This account from Luke shows how the Passover and the Lord’s Supper is about God’s relationship with regular people with all their strengths and flaws. In this account of Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples, we see Jesus’ sacrificial spirit, a humility that we’re all are called to live into. Jesus is the host, and he should have been the one being served, instead he serves them, even washing their feet as we read in John, and Jesus is on the road to serve them in an even deeper way by offering up his life for theirs so they could have eternal life, even if they don’t get it yet. The disciples argue about how they should be the greatest, somehow not recognizing in Jesus the humble, sacrificial love that should shape all his followers, including us.

Jesus is sharing this meal to help his disciples, after the fact, to recognize just who he is and what he’s doing in taking this journey to the cross. Meals were important times, times to offer hospitality, to build relationships, and show grace. This is why Jesus doesn’t kick Judas out before the meal, he’s offering Judas another opportunity to really follow him. The Catechism reminds us of the blessings we receive when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper: “First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup shared with me, so surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood poured out for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves, and taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, given me as sure signs of Christ’s body and blood, so surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life with his crucified body and poured-out blood.” It goes on to reassure us that, “It means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and thereby to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.” The shift in the Passover is from being saved from slavery to the Lord’s Supper’s focus on how Jesus offers forgiveness, bringing freedom from the chains that wrap around us, leading to eternal life.

Yet the power in the Lord’s Supper is that Jesus offers it to 11 men who are going to abandon Jesus in his suffering, 1 who is going to deny him 3 times in the middle of his torture, and 1 who has already betrayed him. It gives us hope knowing that the Lord’s Supper is not for the perfect, but that we can come with our messed up broken lives and experience Jesus’ grace, a grace that comes at a huge cost, which makes it even more beautiful. There have been times when I’ve come to the Lord’s Supper deeply aware of how messed up I can make things and in the Lord’s Supper I find hope again, I find acceptance and belonging. These are powerful things, things so many people are searching for today; this is why an invitation to follow Jesus with you to your friends, neighbours, co-workers, fellow students and others is such an act of love and grace.

Luke and the Catechism point to beautiful blessings, but that doesn’t mean we’ll always understand what’s going on, or what Jesus is doing, or why. Often that knowledge only comes later when we look back on the events of our lives to see where the Holy Spirit was working and how. Most of our lives we walk forward in faith and trust, shaping our lives to the path that Jesus calls us to walk, even if it can be hard at times, believing with hope that “God works for the good of those who love, who have been called according to his purpose.”

 

Act, Love, Walk - Micah 6:6-8

                             

Today we’re celebrating GEMS Sunday, a time to praise God for our girls’ ministry and his faithfulness shown through how the Holy Spirit is blessing the girls, the counsellors, and our church family through the GEMS. This year we’re focusing on the GEMS’ theme verse from Micah, a verse that shapes the ministry, giving them a foundation to build your faith and life with Jesus on, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” This is an amazing way to live!

GEMS, what do your parents expect from you? How do they want you to live?

Most of the time your parents are clear on what they want you to do, but even more important is knowing what kind of a girl they want you to grow up to be. Your parents all want you to grow up to become young women who love Jesus and follow him and the way he calls us all to live.

In the Bible verses we read this morning, the prophet Micah was talking to the people of Israel. Micah lived about 700 years before Jesus came and it’s a time when the Assyrian people were starting to attack Israel. God was allowing these attacks because he isn’t very happy with his people, they’ve forgotten the way that God has called them to live. They had become greedy, proud, and didn’t help each other out, instead they had become selfish. So, Micah asks them what they think, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?”

Micah’s wondering if God wants the very best things that they have, things like burnt offerings a priest would make asking for forgiveness, or their best and most expensive calves. The calves cost a lot because they will grow up and make more calves. They ask this because they’re thinking that maybe if they give God their very best and most expensive things, that God will give them something special back. That’s how they were thinking, just like the people who follow other gods.

What is your most special thing that you have, do you think Jesus is asking you to give it to him?

Then Micah asks, “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?” That’s a lot of stuff to give to the Lord! Maybe if they give the Lord a ton of stuff, God will give them even more back! It’s a really selfish way of thinking, it’s all about greed and wanting even more.

How much of your stuff do you think Jesus wants of yours?

Finally, Micah asks a really hard question, “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Can you believe that they’re even wondering this, though they may be thinking of Samuel who was given into the care of the priest Eli when he was still a young boy to be raised in the temple, but probably they’re thinking about offering their child as a sacrifice, a horrible thing! The prophet Jeremiah talks about how God gets so angry at this, Jeremiah 32:35, “They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind—that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.” Life is a precious gift from the Lord and should be treasured, which is why Jesus died on the cross, dying there to wash us from our sin so we can have eternal life with him. This helps us to understand the GEMS verse, because it’s about how precious life is.

You want to know what kind of people Jesus wants us to be, it’s in your verse, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” God doesn’t really want your stuff, he doesn’t need it, and he especially doesn’t want you to think you have to give it to him. The Reverend Helen White writes, “If you look at Micah closely or all of biblical faith, it is the other way around. First God gives us something and then we respond with our thanksgiving and our worship – our obedience.” Jesus comes to show us what kind of people he wants us to be, and it looks like acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.

What do you think acting justly look like?

I love how Amos says it looks like, Amos 5:24, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” Justice flows out of heaven and we live in it. When you look at what Jesus teaches about justice, part of justice is that when you sin, there are consequences, especially if you hurt someone else. It’s like if you do something wrong, your parents will punish you because they want you to grow up knowing right from wrong, knowing that Jesus expects us to live a certain way that is best for us. But justice also looks like being fair to others, making sure that people are treated well and properly. We are all created in the image of God and so everyone is precious and should be treated with respect. Acting justly is also about making sure that people who are going through hard times, like widows and orphans are given the help that they need. God gives us enough to make sure that people don’t need to go hungry or be rejected. It also means we don’t take advantage of people, instead we’re called to love our neighbour.

What do you think loving mercy looks like?

When you read the stories of Jesus’ life through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see that Jesus was filled with mercy and showed mercy in how he treated people and in his parables. Jesus cared about people that most regular people didn’t really care about or even notice; the poor, sick, and unloved. Mercy points to having compassion that decides to not punish someone even when justice demands it. I think about the woman that the people wanted to stone because she was caught in adultery and Jesus knelt down in the dirt because her and protected her from their anger and then told her he wasn’t going to judge her, but that she can go, but to go and sin no more. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells the story of a man who is beaten and robbed and how a Samaritan, people that Jews hated, came by and had mercy on him, taking him to a hotel and paying for his room and medicine to help him get better. Jesus shows us mercy by forgiving us our sin even though he doesn’t have to.

What do you think walking humbly with God looks like?)

Walking humbly with God means that God is the most important person in your life, that you’re always asking yourself first, “What does God expect from me,” and “What kind of a person does Jesus want me to be?” It means that we listen to Jesus and what he says and then obey Jesus in everything, trusting that he knows what’s best for us. In our Profession of Faith class, we are looking at a video series For the Life of the World, and they talk about Jesus, saying, “By putting himself in the person being helped, Jesus shows us that serving those in need is a way we can love God directly.” This is image of God thinking, this is Jesus saying, “Whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you do for me.”

The band Casting Crowns have a song called “Friend of Sinners” and it gets at the heart of what we’ve been talking about, “Oh Jesus friend of sinners, Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be led by mercy. Help us reach with open hearts and open doors. Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours. You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast, For the leper and the lame; they’re the reason that you came. Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast, But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at your feet ‘cause you are good, you are good and your love endures forever.”

Jesus calls us to become people who reflect his love and grace to others.