March 24th:
John 12:1-8
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
This is a lunch that is rich with symbolism.
On the surface this seems like an ordinary gathering. Jesus was in town and was invited to a luncheon in his honor that was being held at the home of a man known as Simon the leper. Simon was known as “the leper” because he had been a leper but Jesus had healed him. So, this was an “ordinary” lunch being hosted by a man who had for years been considered dead to the world but was now alive again.
Attending this dinner were the 12 disciples and Jesus’ good friends Mary, her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus, who had been dead for four days and was called out of his tomb by Jesus. So, it was just an ordinary lunch being hosted by a man who had been socially and emotionally dead and attended by a man who had been physically dead and had been raised to life by the power of God. OK, so it’s not so ordinary, but it is interesting.
And then, somewhere during their time together, Mary decided to offer Jesus a very expensive gift. She took a bottle of perfumed oil, about the size of a ½ liter bottle of water, and poured it on Jesus’ feet. This was oil that was extracted from the roots of a plant which grew in the Himalayan Mountains. It had to be processed and imported and so it was very expensive to buy. Some people even bought it as an investment. This oil (nard) was so precious that it was used to anoint “kings” and, in her mind, that may have been exactly what Mary was doing. She saw the kind of impact Jesus’ ministry had on people. She knew that they were on the verge of something big. She could very well have been anointing her king for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
And this was the next event in the life of Jesus. After this “ordinary” dinner Jesus would be riding into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a colt (which, by the way, was how conquering kings entered a city) and people would stand on the side of the roadway and wave palm branches in the air.
Mary may have been anointing her king, but Jesus knew that she was anointing him for his burial. Jesus knew that he was going to Jerusalem to die.
Against this backdrop we have Judas Iscariot complaining about money.
Simon and Lazarus recognized Jesus to be the Lord of life. Mary recognized Jesus as her king. Jesus was preparing to ride into Jerusalem to sacrifice his life for the sin of the world and all that Judas cared about was a few dollars.
Judas was sitting in the presence of a man who had healed Simon the leper and called Lazarus from his grave. Judas was sitting in the presence of a man who had walked on water, healed the blind, multiplied loaves and fish and forgave sin and all that Judas could see was that someone was being overly generous with some perfume.
It struck me that we often struggle with this same kind of “blindness.” Judas saw but he did not see because he was so focused on temporary things that he missed all of the really important things that were unfolding around him.
How many people do you know whose lives have been changed by their relationship to Jesus? If you haven’t seen them yet, then you need to start paying attention because they are all around you. How often have you paused to admire the complexity of a leaf or marveled at the birth of a child and missed seeing the hand of God at work in these amazingly “ordinary” things? It is time for us all to open our eyes so that we might see what has been right in front of us “hiding in plain sight.”
Lent is supposed to move us to look at things we rarely see and recall things we have forgotten. Easter is supposed to remind us again of a God who loved us too much to leave us alone, but instead came into our lives to save us from ourselves. Judas wasn’t seeing what was right in front of him. We should never make that mistake.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Calling The Prodigal Home
March 18th:
Luke 15:11-32 (in the New Testament) is one of the most familiar parables that Jesus told; the story of the “prodigal son.”
There are a number of memorable characters in this short story and most of us find ourselves relating to one or the other of them. However, what often gets missed as we follow the progress of this run away boy is that this “made-up” story was addressed to two groups of real people.
It struck me that if we are going to get any real value out of this bit of teaching we might want to take a look at who the story was being told to.
The first group was “tax collectors and "sinners." Jesus had a habit of reaching out to those people who were the outcasts of society. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government and they were considered to be the worst kind of traitors. The Romans didn’t care how much money the tax collectors collected as long as they got their cut. So, tax collectors basically extorted money from everyone and used Roman soldiers for protection.
“Sinners” is a word that would have included people like prostitutes, the physically crippled and even lepers. These were the members of society that honest, decent people avoided. These were the members of this society that were considered to be un-redeemable. I would assume that when you’ve been told for years that you are not acceptable that after a time you wouldn’t even want to try anymore. Jesus was a ray of hope for people who had no hope.
The other “real” people in the story were the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law.” They were the ones who spent their lives telling people what they could and could not do. They were the ones who determined who the “real sinners” were and who was “in” and who was “out.” They weren’t very “gracious” and they didn’t offer a lot of “mercy.” They were “hardnosed religious types.”
It was to these two groups of “real” people that Jesus told this story about two sons. The older son was a good boy. He stayed home, he did his work and he followed the rules. The younger son was just the opposite. He turned his back on his “decent” family and ran off to do the kinds of things that decent people don’t do. In fact, he went so far away and so far off the deep end that his family considered him dead. He was lost to them physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Most of the story is about how this “prodigal son” came to his senses and decided to return home to his father, but the point of the story isn’t so much about his decision to return as it is about the responses of his father and his older brother.
The older brother could only see how he, himself, had been “offended.” He was acting morally superior, which was bad enough but his real problem was that he had no mercy in his life. He had no forgiveness in his heart, no grace to offer. He wanted his brother to stay dead. The father (on the other hand) saw what was really happening. He loved his son and understood that the son was stepping from death back into life. The father was willing to forgive and welcome his “lost son” back into the family.
But we have to come back to the fact that this make believe story was being told to two groups of real people and the implications are pretty clear. The tax collectors and sinners are the “son who walked away” from the family. They were the ones who had made poor choices and had found themselves far away and lost. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law were the “elder son” who chose to be offended and had forgotten about things like mercy and grace. They cared more about being right than they did about these other people. At least on the surface, they were the ones who were following the rules and doing their jobs, but they had no heart.
And the application is also fairly clear. If you have wandered away and your life is coming apart IT IS TIME TO COME HOME. Your heavenly Father is waiting for you to come and will welcome you back into the family. He wants you to move from death to life.
If you have never strayed then you need to remember that IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! Be grateful for all that you have been given and learn to care about those “lost” brothers and sisters. Don’t turn them away. Invite them home. This is OUR job.
Luke 15:11-32 (in the New Testament) is one of the most familiar parables that Jesus told; the story of the “prodigal son.”
There are a number of memorable characters in this short story and most of us find ourselves relating to one or the other of them. However, what often gets missed as we follow the progress of this run away boy is that this “made-up” story was addressed to two groups of real people.
It struck me that if we are going to get any real value out of this bit of teaching we might want to take a look at who the story was being told to.
The first group was “tax collectors and "sinners." Jesus had a habit of reaching out to those people who were the outcasts of society. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government and they were considered to be the worst kind of traitors. The Romans didn’t care how much money the tax collectors collected as long as they got their cut. So, tax collectors basically extorted money from everyone and used Roman soldiers for protection.
“Sinners” is a word that would have included people like prostitutes, the physically crippled and even lepers. These were the members of society that honest, decent people avoided. These were the members of this society that were considered to be un-redeemable. I would assume that when you’ve been told for years that you are not acceptable that after a time you wouldn’t even want to try anymore. Jesus was a ray of hope for people who had no hope.
The other “real” people in the story were the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law.” They were the ones who spent their lives telling people what they could and could not do. They were the ones who determined who the “real sinners” were and who was “in” and who was “out.” They weren’t very “gracious” and they didn’t offer a lot of “mercy.” They were “hardnosed religious types.”
It was to these two groups of “real” people that Jesus told this story about two sons. The older son was a good boy. He stayed home, he did his work and he followed the rules. The younger son was just the opposite. He turned his back on his “decent” family and ran off to do the kinds of things that decent people don’t do. In fact, he went so far away and so far off the deep end that his family considered him dead. He was lost to them physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Most of the story is about how this “prodigal son” came to his senses and decided to return home to his father, but the point of the story isn’t so much about his decision to return as it is about the responses of his father and his older brother.
The older brother could only see how he, himself, had been “offended.” He was acting morally superior, which was bad enough but his real problem was that he had no mercy in his life. He had no forgiveness in his heart, no grace to offer. He wanted his brother to stay dead. The father (on the other hand) saw what was really happening. He loved his son and understood that the son was stepping from death back into life. The father was willing to forgive and welcome his “lost son” back into the family.
But we have to come back to the fact that this make believe story was being told to two groups of real people and the implications are pretty clear. The tax collectors and sinners are the “son who walked away” from the family. They were the ones who had made poor choices and had found themselves far away and lost. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law were the “elder son” who chose to be offended and had forgotten about things like mercy and grace. They cared more about being right than they did about these other people. At least on the surface, they were the ones who were following the rules and doing their jobs, but they had no heart.
And the application is also fairly clear. If you have wandered away and your life is coming apart IT IS TIME TO COME HOME. Your heavenly Father is waiting for you to come and will welcome you back into the family. He wants you to move from death to life.
If you have never strayed then you need to remember that IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! Be grateful for all that you have been given and learn to care about those “lost” brothers and sisters. Don’t turn them away. Invite them home. This is OUR job.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Home Blessed
March 4:
For the first time in my life I am feeling homeless. It’s not like we are out on the street or living under a bridge. We still have a roof over our heads. It’s just that, for the first time in our lives, we know that we are leaving where are living now (we are here on limited time) but we don’t know where we are going to end up.
Normal people do this all the time. It’s just that for the last thirty plus years we have been parsonage dwellers. I don’t have time nor space to elaborate on parsonage living (it has both advantages and disadvantages) but let me just say that we are looking forward to being first time homeowners. But, until we find the house that God has set aside for us we are in a kind of property limbo. I guess it would be more accurate to call us “property-less” or “place where we keep all of our stuff-less.” Whatever the label, it’s still a little unnerving.
I have always heard it said, “home is where the heart is.” What this means is that I actually have a number of “homes.” I gave my heart to Jesus thirty-seven years ago and I have been trying to keep myself from taking it back every day since. As of this moment, it still belongs to Him (at least a sizeable piece of it.) My wife and children all lay claim to pieces of my heart as well. When I think of them I think of many of those things that make life special.
Ok, I take it back. I’m not “homeless” I am “home blessed.” I’m just not certain where I’ll park the car after July 1st.
You know, I'd be willing to bet that, if you think about it, you will discover you are “home blessed” as well.
For the first time in my life I am feeling homeless. It’s not like we are out on the street or living under a bridge. We still have a roof over our heads. It’s just that, for the first time in our lives, we know that we are leaving where are living now (we are here on limited time) but we don’t know where we are going to end up.
Normal people do this all the time. It’s just that for the last thirty plus years we have been parsonage dwellers. I don’t have time nor space to elaborate on parsonage living (it has both advantages and disadvantages) but let me just say that we are looking forward to being first time homeowners. But, until we find the house that God has set aside for us we are in a kind of property limbo. I guess it would be more accurate to call us “property-less” or “place where we keep all of our stuff-less.” Whatever the label, it’s still a little unnerving.
I have always heard it said, “home is where the heart is.” What this means is that I actually have a number of “homes.” I gave my heart to Jesus thirty-seven years ago and I have been trying to keep myself from taking it back every day since. As of this moment, it still belongs to Him (at least a sizeable piece of it.) My wife and children all lay claim to pieces of my heart as well. When I think of them I think of many of those things that make life special.
Ok, I take it back. I’m not “homeless” I am “home blessed.” I’m just not certain where I’ll park the car after July 1st.
You know, I'd be willing to bet that, if you think about it, you will discover you are “home blessed” as well.
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