When the Road to Peace is Stained with Blood

 

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.  Rescue me, O Lord, from liars and from all deceitful people.  O deceptive tongue, what will God do to you?  How will he increase your punishment?  You will be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals.  How I suffer in far-off Meshech.  It pains me to live in distant Kedar.  I am tired of living among people who hate peace.  I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!  Psalm 120:1-7

Peace is forever sought and elusive.  The writer of today’s Psalm of Ascents for those travelling to Jerusalem’s temple, understood the anguish of one living far from home.  And the distance was not in miles or travel days, but attitude.  “Home” (as the poet has it) is where the heart is.  The heart of this writer longed for kindness and strength of trusted relationships.  You can almost feel his bones creaking for the absence of peace.  He brings forth his words from a tired heart that aches for the renewing of truth, an honest moment of unguarded rest.

The sentence that stands alone in this Psalm is I searched for peace, but they wanted war!  As the exhaustive climb to the apex of life’s mountain of experiences comes to a close, this aging prophet looks back at life and the vanity of all else but peace; his stand-out takeaway-line is anger.  He craved a soft, refreshing water of calm truth to restore his dusty soul; what he got was a mirage of an amusement park’s diversion…success offered on the backs of the poor and lonely.  So-called peace was bought with bloodstains on every road.

The Psalm begins with assertion that God heard and answered his cry for rescue from the peace-barren, angry foreign place!  So, how is the prayer of the writer’s troubles answered?  This is a good question, and one which the eons of humanity find sparse answer.  That is – there is sparse answer without the leap of faith. 

There is a tendency toward thinking too much in the here and now, as opposed to the eternal.  Peace (in this life…at the address you call “home”) is measured in fleeting moments of satisfaction with circumstances.  The key word is fleeting.  That word is key, because the heart longs deeply for peace that is eternal.  Considering the track record of humankind, from the moment Eve took the first unsatisfactory bite of the fruit that separated her from God’s loving embrace, to the sharing of it with Adam, and then passing it along to Cain, and the rest of every breathing being, staining with curse every part of our existence right down to this present moment, we can have little hope in the maneuverings of human cleverness to somehow produce anything close to peace.  

Much more likely is the scenario of Russia invading Ukraine, and then America retaliating, followed by some sort of “peace-response” of the United Nations, followed by decades of tension-filled negotiations, incidents, and exposed treachery on all sides.  Man longs for peace, but it’s an illusion, because the blood-stained road of war is more “profitable.”

For You Today

It is a short-leap from the history books to despair.  The one antidote for such misery is embracing it the way God did.  He sent his only begotten, beloved son, Jesus to deal with our problem.  In true fashion, we nailed the Prince of Peace to a tree on the town garbage dump.  And that’s when the olive branch of peace appeared…in the wonder of an empty tomb!

So…go on in…look around that empty tomb; see the folded death shroud…feel the empty space death was supposed to inhabit…and know that peace lives forever in the beating, resurrected life of our Savior.  And he wants you to have it.  You only need drink…deeply!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and other images:  Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

When 'No Answer' is the Answer

 

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body.  Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb.  On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”  But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.  When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side.  The women were shocked,  but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed.  You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Look, this is where they laid his body.  Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee.  You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”  The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened.  Mark 16:1-8

If you’ve ever had a serious conversation with a four-year-old you have heard the question, in that unmistakeable/annoying tone, WHY?  Four-year-olds (and probably most other ages) are hardly satisfied with an answer that does not scratch their particular “itch”.  They know when they’re being delayed or deflected, and they want an answer that satisfies.

In the dawning rays of Sunday’s morning the women approached the tomb.  They expected a lot of hard work with a heavy stone, a decaying body, and to have their appetite disappear for several days.  They didn’t get what they expected.

So it is with the way God does things; very rarely do we encounter what we expected.  And we can be thankful that God’s ways are different than ours; we get it wrong, and mess things up so much of the time.

Perhaps the women were like me.  I like things settled.  I want a final, definitive answer to my questions.  Give me a yes or a no, just don’t give me that we’ll see.  A body is definitive.  No matter how much it grieves you to do so, you can dress it, embalm it, put it in the ground, say good bye, and roll the stone back in place.  We call it closure, putting a final cap on our need to know what happens next.  It’s a holy duty, taking care of the remains of that which housed the image of God.  The women wanted that closure; it helps the memories heal, and gives us a chance to move-on with our lives.

God was not having any of that on Easter morning.  The women found the tombstone already laid aside.  They found the tomb vacant, except for a young man in a white robe who told them, He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Look, this is where they laid his body.  Now go and tell….  For those women (and the rest of humanity), those few sentences turned every thought upside down, and changed everything.  They left the tomb trembling and confused.  Death had been so predictable, breathing ceases, pulse stops, flesh grows cold, you put it in the ground.  Alive was much more complicated.  This was not an answer they imagined when they asked each other how they were going to get the tombstone out of the way. 

In typical human fashion they wondered about the task at hand, moving a thousand pounds of rock.  What they encountered was a cornerstone reality about being obedient to God:  whatever you expected, God will provide what you need…and it will sometimes be upsetting, even frightening…and it will be better and (eventually) make more sense than anything else.

For You Today

Does the thought of resurrection startle you? 

Just wait; you’ve not seen anything yet!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Buried in Brokenness; Raised in Glory

 

Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory.  They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.  They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.  The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”   But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit.  What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.  Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.  Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man.  Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.  What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.  These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.  But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret.  We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!  It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown.  For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever.  And we who are living will also be transformed.  For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.  Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:  “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.  But thank God!  He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.  So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.  Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.  1 Corinthians 15:43-58

Buried in brokenness; raised in glory, is the essence of redemption and grace.  We, who are broken, both in body and spirit, are dying.  We inhabit flesh that is passing away bit-by-agonizing-bit.  We spend more and more time in hospitals, waiting rooms, and treatment facilities as the years zip by. 

If we think of our bodies as houses, the windows fog over with cataracts, the skin of our houses suffer shingles, corrupted, peeling, and wrinkled.  Our nights and days get confused with insomnia and sleep-walking.  The pain of loneliness, the agony of knee joints scraping bone-on-bone, aching feet, and failing memory are signs that our human housing is crumbling as we frantically-search for a way to have five minutes not worrying abut the doctor’s bill, and wondering how to pay for the undertaker’s services. 

In all that physical and mental anguish, so consistent with 21^st century COVID woes, healthcare complications, political posturing, and other cultural shifting sands, we still have not been able to overcome the worst of it – our guilt over that which bought us all this trouble – Adam and Eve’s trip to the forbidden fruit tree.

The evidence of just how advanced is this metastasized endemic of moral human failure, or sin, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  With the unquestioned God-given answers to our need and solution to our dilemma, we celebrated the first “Good Friday” by nailing our anticipated salvation to crossbeams at Golgotha, the town garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.

But this Gospel also shows us the pattern of God’s love and amazing grace!  See here the pattern of our burial in brokenness and resurrection in glory:

On Good Friday we beat Jesus unrecognizable, mocked him, scourged, and crucified him.  Then we buried him in his brokenness, sealed the tomb, and walked away, imagining that was that!  We thought! 

We thought it was game-over, story finished; life would again be on our terms.  We thought!  But the tomb of brokenness couldn’t hold the Man of Sorrows.  Three days later the earth trembled, the curtain of separation in the Temple tore in two from the heavens to the earth, and on the earth, graves shook free their inhabitants; death walked in life sprung loose!

Come early Easter Sunrise the Graveyard became a Glory Ground!

Buried in brokenness, Raised in Glory!

The meaning of this is a pattern.  Jesus said we would also have this pattern.  Our bodies also get buried in our human brokenness.  And the song we sang last Sunday is also the song we will sing in just a few minutes, Victory in Jesus. 

The whole pattern of God’s plan for our brokenness, the redemption of our souls, and freedom from our sins, left off being prophecy, and settled forever into history on Easter morning when Jesus came out of the grave.  He broke the chains of sin and made for a new pattern.  Brokenness cannot bury us anymore.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church he reminded them of these facts.  In Jesus’ conquering death and sin there is a new pattern:

·       The nature of who we’ve been gives way to the spiritual of who He is

·       The earthly mind gives way to the mind set on God’s Kingdom

·       Dying gives way to Transformation and we become His image again

·       Sin gives way to Victory, and we are more than conquerors!

I am once-again reminded of the kind of faith we saw in public life in past generations.  On his eightieth birthday, John Quincy Adams was walking slowly along a Boston street.  A friend asked him How is John Quincy Adams today?   The former president replied graciously:

Thank you, John Quincy Adams is well, sir, quite well, I thank you.  But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated.  It is tottering upon the foundations.  Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it.  Its roof is fairly-well worn out, its walls are shattered, and it trembles with every wind.  The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable, and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon; but he himself is quite well, sir, quite well.

This is the kind of faith that understands we will all be buried in our brokenness; these bodies were never meant to be permanent prisons for transformed souls.

So…where do YOU stand…willing to remain in brokenness, and ready to be raised for judgment? 

Or are you willing to stand with Jesus, be healed of the worst of your brokenness, which separates you from God, and someday, when your name is called from above, stand before God with Jesus at your side, and hear from the Father, Well done faithful one…you have fought the good fight, and finished well?

Our Prayer

Father, our hearts are gladdened by the sight of an empty cross and an empty tomb.  Thank you for the gift we can receive of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ. 

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father.  Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

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Jesse's Stump

[1]

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.  And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  Isaiah 11:1-2(NLT)

I’ve got this elm tree that won’t quit.  It was a young tree, maybe about 15 years old when I first decided it was too close to my fence and needed to come down.  I’ve cut it down five or six times in the dozen years since the first razing; it keeps coming back.

You don’t expect a stump to produce a new limb; what’s dead is dead.  Yet, that’s exactly what the prophet Isaiah said about Jesse’s family.  Jesse was a descendant of King David.  Ever the poet, Isaiah strung together the beautiful imagery of resurrection; Jesse’s family, part of that old dead stump, Israel, would have a new driving, a shoot that would grow, thrive and produce fruit again.

Another prophet, Micah, said it more plainly:

As for you, Jerusalem, the citadel of God’s people, your royal might and power will come back to you again.  The kingship will be restored to my precious Jerusalem.  Micah 4:8(NLT)

Less poetic than Isaiah, Micah still presents what can be missed by the dull ear – the monumental difference between an earthly kingdom and a spiritual one.  Hollywood does that all the time.  Last night my bride and I watched a TV movie, Killing Jesus.  In some ways it depicted the life and ministry of Jesus in refreshing ways, showing his lighthearted joyful nature, as well as the suffering.  At other points, and (in my opinion vital points) there were omissions, or outright distortions.

For instance, in Jesus’ early years, prior to being baptized by John, he is portrayed as not understanding that he is Messiah; he tells the Baptist:  I never thought of myself as anything more than a simple carpenter from Nazareth. 

There is no Biblical evidence of that; rather just the opposite.  One such instance[2] was when Jesus was 12.  He stayed behind in Jerusalem when his parents left town.  When they went back, they found him teaching the teachers at the temple.  He knew he was doing his father’s business – his Heavenly Father.  That was awareness of his mission.

In the movie’s scene where Pilate agrees to have Jesus crucified Barabbas is nowhere in sight.  How vital is this point – Jesus, the best of the best, voluntarily taking the penalty of Barabbas, the worst of the worst.  The illuminating sacrifice of Christ needs the darkness of sin to get our attention.

And then, they bailed on the resurrection – the women and a few officials entered Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, only to find an empty shroud.  There is no appearance of Jesus…only a smile on Mary’s face, as if she’s the only one who gets it, that He’s alive.

And the sea shore fish fry where Jesus came to the disciples – it gets spiritualized.  There’s no Jesus walking around in a resurrected body – only Peter now replicating Jesus’ miracle of catching a boatload of fish after praying on a slow-catching afternoon.  He smiles and hollers to the other disciples – He’s come back!

They saved the worst part for the end.  After a tepid, feeble hint of a resurrection, the images fade as the voiceover declares that “…according to many scholars and those who believe, Jesus was resurrected, and Peter went on to establish one of the world’s most significant religions.”  Religion? 

Frankly, despite the attempts at presenting a “happy” Jesus, while failing at so many significant theological points, in hindsight the only positive thing I can say is that I’m glad I only wasted 3 hours in front of my TV; at least I didn’t blow $20 going to a theater to see a thinly-veiled liberal misrepresentation of the Gospel.

Well, if the dead stump of Jesse’s tree produced new fruit in Israel, maybe the dead stump of Gospel faith in America will have a new chance…but we will have to get rid of Hollywood first!

For You Today

Go ahead and watch those Christmas movies, just make sure you have your Bible handy; not everything that comes from the movie industry is fact-checked!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

[2] Luke 2:49