Author Archive

Posted on April 8, 2012 - by genes

Luke 24: 36-45

Peace.  You can hardly watch a newscast or look the headlines on Yahoo without seeing something about peace or problems caused by the lack of it.  No doubt that some, when reading about the coming of peace via the Easter account in the gospels, wonder how Christians could be so optimistic about Christ’s work when the world is so void of peace.  Still, the Easter message is all about peace – the ultimate peace that is the result of fellowship with God.  It transcends politics, natural disasters and the ravages of time.  The peace that Christ died to achieve was a spiritual peace that only became possible once He tore down sin’s dividing wall between us and God.  It had always been His plan to bring about such lasting peace because there was no other way to achieve it except through a divine personal sacrifice.  If He did not move to personally orrect the situation, there was no possible hope at all for achieving spiritual peace.  It really is true:  God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only son so that whoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life – everlasting peace – everlasting fellowship with God.

Posted on April 6, 2012 - by genes

John 12: 27-36

Once again we find a passage that underscores Jesus’ knowledge of His impending death.  My heart is troubled … Yet, even so, He well knew that His own sacrificial death was the very reason why He had come to this time and place.  Just as a voice came from heaven at the time of His baptism, so too does a voice from heaven come how.  Both times, the first at the beginning of  His ministry and now this one at the close, these heavenly voices serve as authentication of Jesus and His actions.  With such obvious divine approval, how could anyone deny the authority of Jesus?  Following up on yesterday’s passage, He reiterates what He said to Nicodemus in John 3, with the caveat that His death would, indeed, draw all people to Him.  Some will come willingly during their life time and others will come at the judgement.  Either way, all will come because Jesus came as the glorified Son of God.  

Posted on April 5, 2012 - by genes

John 3:10-15

There are  several reasons why Mel Gibson put a snake in the opening sequence of his Passion of the Christ.  A snake was involved when sin entered the world, Genesis 3:1 ff.  In Numbers 21:4-9, when God’s people were particularly sinful, a plague of snakes began killing the people.  In that story, salvation did not come for any of them until Moses, at God’s direction, made a bronze snake and hung it on a pole.  People who looked at it were saved and people who would not or did not look at it died.  While all of that imagery may seem a bit odd for a Passion Week devotion, fewer passages could be more linked to God’s master plan for redemption.  In today’s passage, Jesus is teaching Nicodemus about the Kingdom of God and those who will be a part of it.  I am sure that some of the things Jesus said to Nicodemus that night seemed a little odd … at least at the time.  However, Jesus’ reference to  Numbers 21 would, eventually, be crystal clear.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man use be lift up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  Just as God brought about the possibility of salvation to the sinners in the desert, so too does mankind have that opportunity if they focus on the salvation provided by God.  Of course, for us, it was no mere snake on a pole for a temporary fix – it was Jesus on a cross for eternal salvation.  His death and eventual resurrection not only provides the salvation we need but it also fulfills one other snake prophecy:  He will crush your head (snake/satan) and you will crush His (Jesus) heel.  Satan thought, when he got Jesus crucified, that he had won. However, Satan was wrong.  Jesus’ time on the cross brought about spiritual liberation, not defeat.  And, when He rose from the tomb, that signaled the final downfall – the crushing – of Satan.  

Posted on April 4, 2012 - by genes

Luke 20: 9-19

Since this passage comes after the cleansing of the temple, it is not too surprising to think that there might have been people in Jerusalem who wanted Jesus dead.  Certainly, His righteous act would not have gone over well with the powers that were ultimately in charge of the temple and the revenue collected there. Just like the vinyard renters who came to view their rental property as their own, so too did the religious leaders seem to forget their stewardship responsibilities before God, viewing the temple as their own private gold mine.  The parable’s meaning is so obvious that it must have made the teachers of the law even madder than they were before His lesson.  Anyone listening to this parable would know Jesus was classifying the officials as no good usurpers.  What is most amazing, however, is that Jesus not only knew the heart of the people who would falsely condemn the rightful heir, He also knew the heart of those who would allow that condemnation to run its logical course.  Jesus knew all of that … and still went willingly to the cross so that all of those people would have an opportunity for salvation.

Posted on April 4, 2012 - by genes

Luke 20: 34-38

Whenever I read this passage, it always makes me wonder if the average Bride and Groom put as much effort into their relationship with God as they do into the plans they make for the perfect wedding day.   Not meaning to be cynical, I have to say … probably not.  Often, couples plan for months in hopes that they get everything just right.  Oh that they would plan that hard for the perfect relationship with God!  While I think that weddings are important covenant events, even the best wedded couple will only exist as a unit for a very short period of time.  Yes, according to Jesus, there is a resurrection.  No, we will not exist in the same human way then as we do now.  Consequently, we need to put even more focus and preparation into being ready for that eternal union with God.  After all, we will be like angles.  We will never die, or marry or focus on beings other than God.  It is another reality of the resserrection that made the Sadducees questions to Jesus all the more silly.  It is another reality of the resurrection that underscores our need to prepare.

Posted on April 3, 2012 - by genes

John 2: 18-22

Early in the ministry of Jesus, He made a bold claim:  Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. Of course, everyone listening to Him talk – particularly the religious leaders – thought He was making a ludicrous claim.  The temple, which had taken decades to be built by Herod, could not even be destroyed in 3 days, let alone rebuilt in that amount of time.  Of course, with the vantage point of hindsight, we know that He was making a prophecy about His death and resurrection.  It is important to know, as we progress along the path Jesus took to the cross, that it was no accidental journey.  Jesus’s sacrificial death was a part of God’s grand, redemptive plan for all of mankind.  Knowing how the story ends only makes Jesus participation in that plan all the more remarkable. For all of us who have ever said: If I had known it was going to end like it did, I would have never done it in the first place, it is amazing to think that Jesus knew  … and did it any way.   

Posted on March 28, 2012 - by genes

Matthew 5:17-20

Given the fact that Jesus was often at odds with the religious establishment of His time, some people probably thought He was a radical who rejected the law.  There certainly were times, like when He healed people on the sabbath, that He was perceived in that way.  Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.  His reason for coming was to fulfill the law.  If the law demanded perfection, He would be without sin.  If the law demanded a sacrifice, He would be the sacrifice.  As He fulfilled the law, mankind could finally see what God had in mind all along.  Christ was not opposed to the law, He was the law worked out in  flesh and blood.  It is amazing to me how people often refer to the grace or love of Jesus as a way of justifying a personal behavior that is totally foreign to righteousness, purity or holiness.  I have literally heard people excuse their bad behavior by saying Jesus understands I am not perfect.  That sort of thinking is rather akin to the public conclusions that Jesus debunked with His statement:  I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets.  Everything the law-giver or law-spokesman wrote or said was eventually reflected in the life of Jesus Christ.  In fact, that law was given for the express purpose of bringing us to Christ so that we could be in a perfect fellowship with Him and His father.

Posted on March 27, 2012 - by genes

John 6:44-51

Bread that comes down from heaven which we may eat and not die.  It is a great image and a great promise.   Moses certainly delivered bread from heaven on a daily basis … but all the eaters eventually died, Moses included.  Of course, those grumblers referred to in today’s text no doubt thought:  Moses we know of but, Jesus, who are you?  It probably was more logical, by their way of thinking, to put their hope and trust into a known entity – Moses, the great lawgiver, etc.  Still, if seeking logic, one wonders why no one ever concluded it wasn’t particularly logical to trust for eternal life in a dead leader. Better yet to trust in a living leader who was, obviously, sent by God.   There was a future in that kind of leader.  I do have the vantage point of history – knowing what would happen and how Jesus, even though crucified, could not be kept in the tomb.  How this same Jesus, the author of such cryptic statements as Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him, would make perfect sense at the first communion service after His resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Jesus was that bread, come down from heaven, broken and shared to give life to all who would claim His eternal salvation.  But, what good is such historical knowledge if we do not claim it ?  After all, its not just knowing where the “bread” is, its about feeding on that bread – making that bread the source of our life.

Posted on March 26, 2012 - by genes

John 3: 17 & 18

Everyone knows the verse that comes right before today’s section.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (Yes, I memorized it back when KJV was what everyone used and it doesn’t sound right to me any other way.) It is one of the most comforting verses any one could quote because it shows the intent of God.  We love hearing the fact that God wants fellowship with His creation.  Verse 17 continues that thought, expanding God’s vision to salvation.  That is His intent … and it has always been His intent since Adam and Eve rebelled in the Garden of Eden.  Yet, even the love the God must be accepted and returned with faith.  In fact, scorning the son is the same as scorning the Father.  He does love the world and has sent his one and only son to bring about the salvation of the world.  However, those who refuse to believe in this act of great love condemn themselves.  It’s one thing if someone consciously makes the decision to ignore God’s love.   They certainly have the right to do so.  It’s a very different thing when someone ignores God because they don’t know enough about Him to even have an opinion.  It is, at that point, where we have some responsibility.  We can’t make people believe in God and Jesus.  However, we can be a witness to our own belief and the everlasting hope we have because of it.

Posted on March 23, 2012 - by genes

Luke 10:17-20

Those who believed Jesus to be the Messiah probably learned to be comfortable around Him and His miraculous works.  To say that they got “used” to it would probably be an over statement, still, there are signs that they learned to depend on Him and what He could do.  However, when the followers started being able to do some of the miraculous things that Jesus did, it must have been rather difficult to handle.  Today’s text recounts such a moment in the feed back from the returning 72 disciples that Jesus had sent out to preach and spread the good news about the Kingdom of God.  Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!  I’ll admit, I am reading between the lines a bit as I interpret this passage.  But, as the disciples were high-fiving each other on all the miraculous things they did while out on the road (and Jesus seems to agree with their celebration to a point) Jesus focuses the celebration on the truly miraculous thing:  their names written in heaven.  Regardless of how a particular disciple might be used or infused with power, etc., the important bottom line was not whether or not they had done some miraculous thing – it was that they were saved.  Jesus’ implication is clear.  Don’t trust in physical displays, even miraculous ones.   Trust in God’s salvation.