What Now?

•April 7, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Having you ever felt a huge sense of anti-climax?  You were expecting something spectacular, and somehow it all seems to have gone wrong.

Jesus Is Buried

42It was now the evening before the Sabbath, and the Jewish people were getting ready for that sacred day. 43A man named Joseph from Arimathea was brave enough to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph was a highly respected member of the Jewish council, and he was also waiting for God’s kingdom to come.44Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, and he called in the army officer to find out if Jesus had been dead very long. 45After the officer told him, Pilate let Joseph have Jesus’ body.

46Joseph bought a linen cloth and took the body down from the cross. He had it wrapped in the cloth, and he put it in a tomb that had been cut into solid rock. Then he rolled a big stone against the entrance to the tomb.

47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were watching and saw where the body was placed.

So what do we do now?  It all seems to have gone wrong.  There’s a huge sense of anti-climax.

Jesus made so many claims.  We thought he was showing us a new way to understand God; a new way to live, that was how God wanted it.

Everyone else seems to be carrying on as normal.  Don’t they know?!

Joseph did the only thing we can do for Jesus now, claimed the body, tended it, wrapped it, and placed it in tomb.  He wanted to do his best for Jesus still – we all did.

All we can do now is wait and see what happens.  See what lasting effect what Jesus taught us has on us.

It all seemed so promising…

Lord,

I wait,

to see what you are going to do next

This year, I am again following the BigRead using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
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The Full Cost

•April 6, 2012 • Leave a Comment

A few years ago, a well-known supermarket, headed up its Easter shopping campaign with the phrase,

Cutting the cost of Easter

As we see from these readings, there was no cutting the cost of Easter – the price had to be paid in full, and it was paid by Jesus, Bringing in God’s new thing.  There was no easy way, no short cut; just one man, living God’s way, bringing heaven to earth – giving his all.

Mark 15

Pilate Questions Jesus

1Early the next morning the chief priests, the nation’s leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses met together with the whole Jewish council. They tied up Jesus and led him off to Pilate.

2He asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Those are your words,” Jesus answered.

3The chief priests brought many charges against Jesus. 4Then Pilate questioned him again, “Don’t you have anything to say? Don’t you hear what crimes they say you have done?” 5But Jesus did not answer, and Pilate was amazed.

The Death Sentence

6During Passover, Pilate always freed one prisoner chosen by the people. 7And at that time there was a prisoner named Barabbas. He and some others had been arrested for murder during a riot. 8The crowd now came and asked Pilate to set a prisoner free, just as he usually did.

9Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to free the king of the Jews?” 10Pilate knew that the chief priests had brought Jesus to him because they were jealous.

11But the chief priests told the crowd to ask Pilate to free Barabbas.

12Then Pilate asked the crowd, “What do you want me to do with this man you say is the king of the Jews?”

13They yelled, “Nail him to a cross!”

14Pilate asked, “But what crime has he done?”

“Nail him to a cross!” they yelled even louder.

15Pilate wanted to please the crowd. So he set Barabbas free. Then he ordered his soldiers to beat Jesus with a whip and nail him to a cross.

Soldiers Make Fun of Jesus

16The soldiers led Jesus inside the courtyard of the fortress and called together the rest of the troops. 17They put a purple robe on him, and on his head they placed a crown that they had made out of thorn branches. 18They made fun of Jesus and shouted, “Hey, you king of the Jews!” 19Then they beat him on the head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt down and pretended to worship him.

20When the soldiers had finished making fun of Jesus, they took off the purple robe. They put his own clothes back on him and led him off to be nailed to a cross. 21Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross

22The soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.” 23There they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.

24They nailed Jesus to a cross and gambled to see who would get his clothes. 25It was about nine o’clock in the morning when they nailed him to the cross. 26On it was a sign that told why he was nailed there. It read, “This is the King of the Jews.” 27-28The soldiers also nailed two criminals on crosses, one to the right of Jesus and the other to his left.

29People who passed by said terrible things about Jesus. They shook their heads and shouted, “Ha! So you’re the one who claimed you could tear down the temple and build it again in three days. 30Save yourself and come down from the cross!”

31The chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses also made fun of Jesus. They said to each other, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. 32If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross! Then we will see and believe.” The two criminals also said cruel things to Jesus.

The Death of Jesus

33About noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until around three o’clock. 34Then about that time Jesus shouted, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”

35Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, “He is calling for Elijah.” 36One of them ran and grabbed a sponge. After he had soaked it in wine, he put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus. He said, “Let’s wait and see if Elijah will come and take him down!” 37Jesus shouted and then died.

38At once the curtain in the temple tore in two from top to bottom.

39A Roman army officer was standing in front of Jesus. When the officer saw how Jesus died, he said, “This man really was the Son of God!”

40-41Some women were looking on from a distance. They had come with Jesus to Jerusalem. But even before this they had been his followers and had helped him while he was in Galilee. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joseph were two of these women. Salome was also one of them.

Today Lord, I come.

I stand at the foot of the cross,

awed at how far you were willing to go.

That heaven and earth met on a cross,

that now, God’s new thing may really begin,

and I worship

This year, I am again following the BigRead using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Good Friday, Jesus
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Remember Me

•April 5, 2012 • Leave a Comment

How much preparation would you put into hosting a dinner party at your house?

How much preparation do I put in to preparing to meet with Jesus?

Jesus Eats with His Disciples

12It was the first day of the Festival of Thin Bread, and the Passover lambs were being killed. Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal?”    13Jesus said to two of the disciples, “Go into the city, where you will meet a man carrying a jar of water. Follow him, 14and when he goes into a house, say to the owner, `Our teacher wants to know if you have a room where he can eat the Passover meal with his disciples.’ 15The owner will take you upstairs and show you a large room furnished and ready for you to use. Prepare the meal there.”

16The two disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal.

17-18While Jesus and the twelve disciples were eating together that evening, he said, “The one who will betray me is now eating with me.”

19This made the disciples sad, and one after another they said to Jesus, “You surely don’t mean me!”

20He answered, “It is one of you twelve men who is eating from this dish with me. 21The Son of Man will die, just as the Scriptures say. But it is going to be terrible for the one who betrays me. That man would be better off if he had never been born.”

 The Lord’s Supper

22During the meal Jesus took some bread in his hands. He blessed the bread and broke it. Then he gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this. It is my body.”

23Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to God. He gave it to his disciples, and they all drank some. 24Then he said, “This is my blood, which is poured out for many people, and with it God makes his agreement. 25From now on I will not drink any wine, until I drink new wine in God’s kingdom.” 26Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

We thought it was just going to be your average Passover meal, us and Jesus, celebrating together.  Two had gone on ahead to prepare, to get everything ready.

So there we all were, gathered around the table, and suddenly Jesus says,

One of you is going to betray me.

Going to betray him? Be unfaithful?  To deliver him to the enemy?

Well that caused some soul-searching.  Could it be me?  Would I do that to Jesus?  After all we’d been through. could I still turn my back on God’s new way?  Made me think…

And then he did something that seemed really strange at the time – though of course it makes sense now.  He took the bread, just our normal Passover bread, nothing special; and he prayed over it.  Then he broke some off and said,

Take it, this is my body.

What did he mean?  How could bread be his body?  As I think about it now, I think that bread is a very staple in life.  It gives strength and sustenance.  It enables us to live.  Jesus does that too.  His life in us gives us strength.  It helps us to play our part in the new thing God is doing.  It feeds us for our journey, gives us the sustenance we need to go with him.

And he hadn’t finished.  Then he took the cup of wine, prayed over that, and said,

This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many.

And continued saying he wouldn’t be drinking it again.

God had made a covenant with his people, a special promise that we are his.  Now that covenant is going to be sealed once and for all.

These are things we will be able to do to remember him.  Things to comfort us; things to help us draw near to him in the times we are missing him; things that will be our strength.  When I remember drinking that wine, I think of how it warms as it slides down my throat.  You can physically feel it.  And I remember Jesus.

In all this, Jesus was asking us to remember him.  To remember what he showed us.  To remember God in the way he brought him to us.  To remember God’s new way – and to live it.

Lord,

I remember you.

May my remembrance be

not just a fond recollection;

but a compulsion to do something;

to be strengthened by you,

to live in your ways

This year, I am again following the BigRead using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
Tags: , , ,

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