Three moments in history and one dramatic confession.

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11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

14Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.  John 20:11-18

“I have seen the Lord.”

Mary began with a statement of fact.

“I have seen the Lord.” He said, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

And so the good news of the Kingdom was now more real, but not yet fully realized.  I’m sure they had lots of questions!

Mary’s confession is a proclamation that screams “Jesus is alive!” I imagine that their confusion would have been about both how and why? Now a search for meaning would ensue that had three historical moments to understand: The birth of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus and The Resurrection of Jesus.

The Resurrection of Jesus requires us to examine the Scriptures and understand what His life, His death, and His Resurrection means. After the disciples met the Risen Lord they had to wrestle with the question, “What has God done through the Lord Jesus Christ?” What is this Gospel?

One of the first written accounts of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 highlights the Gospel narrative and its rootedness in historical events. Paul writes:

1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord reaches back to a historical moment in which we believe God has acted decisively for His glory and our benefit  through the life, the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the reason we have examined the first two historical moments is because of the last, Jesus’ resurrection. It changed everything!

“I have seen the Lord.”

The King who died on a cross.

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32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.  Luke 23:32-49

Jesus is the King, the Christ of God, who died the death of criminals.

Jesus, who could have saved Himself, remained for the salvation of all.

Jesus, who will justly judge all, forgave those who unjustly judged Him.

Jesus gave grace for one who believed even as He made Paradise accessible to those who find in Him the righteousness that comes by faith.

Praise to the Lamb who was slain! Praise to the King who died on a cross.

Pragmatic disciples are so quick to miss a beautiful thing.

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6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”  Matthew 26:6-13

Every pragmatic, highly committed, value driven disciple needs to keep this woman in mind.

Jesus knows us!

Timing matters.

Sometimes extravagance is exactly what the moment requires.

We can’t always predict these moments, especially if we are not in the know. Especially if we have an operation to run.

But she had a plan. And she followed through.

She knew what love and devotion for Jesus was motivating her to do for Him.

For Him.

A beautiful thing.

That’s what the pragmatic disciple is likely to miss.

Lord help me!

Caught between God and the opinions of people

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27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Mark 11:27-33

Its easy to miss the moral dilemma here. Its easy to say, “Oh that’s not me!” But, this interaction between Jesus and the authorities of Jerusalem illustrates the mess we are in.

Jesus made a scene in the temple. He made room for the nations in the Court of the Gentiles by stopping “business as usual” for the day. Jesus’ actions aligned Him with our Heavenly Father’s heart. God wanted Israel to be a blessing to the nations. God wanted communion with people.

“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”  Mark 11:15-17

These leaders were offended and outraged. Jesus kept acting like a person with authority. So they wanted to know who gave Him the right to do and say these things. They weren’t going to like Jesus’ answer, for his authority came from His identity as the Father’s Beloved. But that wasn’t Jesus’ concern.

Jesus’ concern is for the alignment of hearts with God’s heart. So, His question about John’s baptism is designed to draw out the duplicity of their hearts. Truly they were concerned for themselves. They needed the power, position, and prestige granted to them by people. And this kind of authority could only be theirs if they managed the impression that they were really “on God’s side.” But being “on God’s side” would require a humility and a submission to God’s strange work through John and through Jesus.

Yuck! That’s the mess we are in if we are managing the opinions of people. It is possible to be with God and for people. If you doubt this, just take a close look at Jesus’ life. However, when we are doing life for ourselves we are going to end up using both God and people.

Jesus will call us out.

Take care that you do not desire the applause and admiration of people over the applause of God.

Running on Fumes

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30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

34When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.

41And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42And they all ate and were satisfied. 43And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. Mark 6:30-44

Running on Fumes

The disciples where tired. They had started the day with hopes of rest with Jesus. But Jesus spent the day teaching the crowd that intercepted and interrupted the retreat plan. And now the crowd is hungry. The disciples wanted them to go home. Jesus wanted the disciples to feed them.

Outrageous.

“You give them something to eat.”

Without this invitation and command the day would have passed into the mix of other crowded days in the disciples’ minds. But now, Jesus turned it into a memorable moment. Retelling this moment would have grounded their faith in Him.


An imagined conversation
“Remember what Jesus did with five loaves and two fish?”
“Remember how tired we were? I was fuming by the end of the day!”
“Remember, there was enough!”
“More than enough.”
Jesus is enough. Walk with Him and there will be interceptions and interruptions. This intersection of people and need is a holy moment when our apparent inadequacy meets the not so obvious abundance but very much real grace of Jesus.

Feeling empty? Inadequate? Severely challenged, perhaps annoyed, by ___________________ ( you fill in the blank!)?

Pause and listen. What does Jesus want you to be a part of? As you take what you already have, He will provide the balance… and more.