Category: Theological Thoughts

On Tuesday of Holy Week, there was a plot that involved money, power, religious leaders, a famous festival, and the devil himself. The religious leaders were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. But they needed an insider; someone who knew the game plan of the inner circle, someone who knew the inside jokes, and someone who knew their bank account number. His name was Judas.

Satan enters Judas and attempts to replicate the wilderness temptations, and so he offers Jesus an easy way out of his course to the cross. If only Jesus is arrested, then he will precipitate a war with the Romans and show himself to be the Messiah. If Jesus is arrested by the religious leaders, perhaps there will be an inevitable war where Jesus will be forced to forego his mission and God will intervene and defeat the Roman powers and establish a fleshly kingdom. And perhaps Judas will be a powerful leader in this newly established messianic reign.

But Judas’ dream of an earthly kingdom without the cross and the resurrection would not be. In a fascinating turn of events, when Jesus is handed over to the religious leaders– on Holy Wednesday or Maundy Thursday depending on harmonization– what did the disciples want to do? They wanted to take up the sword and begin a war. They even cut off the ear of one of the servants. Is Judas’s dream being fulfilled before his very eyes?

“My plan has worked. Jesus is going to cast himself from the temple, take the bread, break the fast and show his authority.”

Jesus, however, does not follow the script as Judas imagined. He immediately turns the table, heals the man’s right ear and he says “None of this. This is not the will of my Father.” Almost immediately, Judas’s vision for what he believed would happen after the arrest of Jesus is shattered. Jesus’ triumphal entry was not a declaration of physical warfare against the Romans, it was a declaration that his kingdom would be a different kind of kingdom. The kingdom of Jesus would never come through the sword, but salvation; not through war but worship. Come, let us worship and bow down to the One who overcomes the Devil and rejects all satanic bribes.

Prayer: On this holiest day, O Lord, keep us in truth. Do not allow the offers of this world to persuade us to forsake the crucified Lord. We are unworthy as your servants, yet, we pray, that you may count us worthy in your kingdom, for there is no earthly gift greater than the gift of being united you. Amen.

Note: I don’t assume full inerrancy when it comes to chronicling each day. There is much overlap, but I stick with traditional categories of history, such as the Last Supper and Friday crucifixion. It is also crucial to note that John is much more interested in theology than chronology so that we shouldn’t attempt to find a harmony of chronology in all four Gospels, since this was not John’s concern. Additional material here.

On Monday of Holy Week, Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them,

“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

The sin of Israel in part was to see Jesus as a one-dimensional character in the story, but he is multi-dimensional. When Jesus enters the scene he is communicating a lot more than first meets the eye. Zechariah 9 instructs us that he is a King who is finally come home to set things right. The abuse of his home is over and now a gracious ruler is here to guard the true religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But you know how we are tempted to treat his coming on the Monday of Holy Week–we are tempted to keep business as usual. We are tempted to say: “In my home, there is no corruption. I am the right kind of housekeeper. Jesus, there is no need to change the furniture.” But Jesus comes to teach you that there is always cleaning up that needs to take place. When Jesus comes it’s Spring cleaning time.

It’s time to give your sins over to Jesus so He can carry them to the cross where he bled and died. Or, perhaps it’s time to allow Jesus to save you from your current residence? Aren’t you tired of the cycle of sin? Aren’t you tired of apathy? Aren’t you tired of not noticing any spiritual growth in your life in the last 2,5, 10 years? It’s cleaning time! It’s time to allow Jesus to enter and change the make-up of your home as he did in Jerusalem. It’s not going to be comfortable. He’s going to crush some things that you treasure a whole lot, but he’s going to give them back to you in a new way.

“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. (Ps. 5:11)

Every time heaven breaks through our daily life, it is a reason to rejoice. It breaks through with tremendous regularity in big events, like the birth of a child, the provision of our financial needs, recovering through severe pain, or whatever it may be, we see heaven given to us regularly.

But heaven also breaks through in many little things, like the response of a child to the wisdom of God, the beauty of a sunny day, the note or word of encouragement. Are we responding to that joy when heaven breaks through? It is common for people to talk to one another to report the sad details of other people’s lives; it is not so common to rejoice in the details of other people’s lives. We need more of that. We need to be genuinely joyful over the joy of others. As Augustine observed: “The good that we desire for ourselves we desire for our neighbor also.” Instead of lamenting the joy of others, let us rejoice in their well-being. Our lack of joy may stem from our lack of joy for other people’s joy.

Prayer: O, Lord, be gracious to us and show us the joy of rejoicing with others. Take away our anger and jealousy and make us happy to see the godly prosperity of our neighbor through Christ our Lord, Amen.

8 Days Until Easter

“But the fruit of the Spirit is kindness…”

It’s possible that you live in fear wondering if Jesus is at the right hand of the Father scheming to make your life miserable. Or, it is even possible that somehow you have bought into the thinking that Jesus is ready to crush you like a bug; like he is ready to take away your baptismal rights and give you a bag of filthy rags to carry around for the rest of our life.

You may think Jesus is there at the right hand of the father saying: “Yes, I cannot wait to ruin you because you sinned against me or you were seduced by false gods or because of your low self-esteem.” But this is not the case.

Like Pharaoh’s daughter showed kindness to Moses, like Rahab to the spies, like David to Mephibosheth, like Joab to Absalom, like Elisha who restored to life the woman’s son, like Joseph to Mary, the centurion to his servant, John to Mary, Paul to Onesimus, God’s kindness flows to you day after day after day after day. In God’s economy, no child of God is damaged goods. None. His hesed, his steadfast love, his kindness endures forever.

Prayer: Bless us, O Lord, for we too often believe that we are less than you say we are. We embrace false narratives forgetting that the story you wrote for us is unchangeable. Be kind unto us, for we are constantly doubting your promises. Remind us daily of your steadfast love, through Christ our Lord, amen.

10 Days Until Easter
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…”

When Jesus talks about managing something, he is referring to the proper responsibilities that come with an investment. A steward does not manage things for his own pleasure but for the pleasure of his master. This is how we should think of conflict. Conflict is not God’s curse on you, it’s in the words of one writer, “a management opportunity.”

It is quite fascinating how these virtues build on one another. We can say that love and joy prepare us to manage conflict well. Someone who is selfish and prideful will look at conflict as a way of getting what they want. They will not steward conflict with godliness. In short, stewarding conflict will require love and joy.

So, in the middle of conflict, we need to realize that these principles need to be at work. We are to remind ourselves that the goal of conflict is peace. And only Jesus can guide us in this journey for he is our peace.

Prayer: Our gracious Father, I know that I have a tendency to either pursue conflict or avoid it altogether. But it is inescapable as a Christian. I ask that you would keep me in your peace so that I may manage well the confusion that sometimes emerges in my conflicts with others. I pray this through Jesus Christ who is our peace, amen.

If the Bible speaks of the “spiritual,” our tendency is to think of something not visible or ghostly or otherworldly. But the Scriptures train us to see the word “spiritual” as the application of something formed in you by the Holy Spirit. The life that flows in the tree of human virtue is a product of the Holy Spirit who motivates and gives the power to live in these virtues.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is…”

When you think of “body” in the Bible think of your entire humanity, not just your flesh but your emotions, passions, desires, and decisions. The body is the battleground of good and evil. And the great battles of our Spirit-indwelt bodies are the nine great virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are not abstract virtues, but virtues that touch our very being.

Prayer: O Spirit of God, move in us giving us new desires and renewing our love. Cause us to not grow weary in pursuing faithfulness to your call in abiding by the great biblical virtues through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Laying down our lives is a distinctly Christian commitment. Only the Christian can truly say they follow a Lord who died for them. The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is the model of Christian existence. The Christian faith is sacrificial. The saint looks at his brother and says, “You are a follower of the crucified Lord and my duty is to lay down my life for you.”

“This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Now, at this point, it is tempting to list ten examples of sacrifice, but one would naturally feel like once he completes the list his sacrificial disposition ends. Laying down our lives for one another is not always calculated, it is generally an act of service at a time when we least expect.

True love sees an opportunity to lay down our lives and seizes it with wonder at the Lord of glory who gave his body on a tree. In communion with one another sacrifice becomes the language of love. As C.S. Lewis describes: “When God becomes a Man and lives as a creature among His own creatures in Palestine, then indeed His life is one of supreme self-sacrifice and leads to Calvary.”

Prayer: Our Father, in these uncertain times there will be certain opportunities to serve my neighbor. May you grant me health and willingness to be sacrificial with my time and energy in the name of our Crucified Lord, Amen.