A Physician (Mark 2:17)

            There is a profound humility that one must possess when coming to a physician.  Though one would be thoroughly embarrassed for the majority of the population, even close family members, to know the “ins and outs” of their digestive tendencies, when alone with a physician all walls are down.  That is, if the patient wants to receive form the physician what they supposedly came to them for in the first place, healing.  If they hide or distort the truth to the physician, then the physician will only be able to assist the patient to extent that they are willing to be candid.  So too, in the Presence of the Great Physician, it is only our own pride that can withhold the works of His hands.  When we stop editing reality and hiding from the God who sees all things we can expose ourselves to Him and He can heal us.  But until we humble ourselves we will remain ashamed, unexposed, bound up and famished in our longing for something greater and satisfying.

            As we mature in Christ we must grow in humility, knowing that we are being cleansed of even our own good works.  Jesus is not impressed by what we can do, or what we have enough will-power to keep ourselves from doing.  It is not as though we do some great feat of faith and Jesus turns to the Father and says “I didn’t think he had it in him to do that!”  He knows our limitations and frailty.  He is not surprised by our failures or our successes.  He is supremely aware of our potential and is pulling for us to reach it.

            We, however, want to be so self-sufficient that we try to prove that we can do it.  He knows what we can and cannot do.  His will is that we accomplish His will.  Many times, our will is to accomplish His will without His help and it just doesn’t work like that.  We cannot love Him unless He first loved us.  We cannot please Him without the faith that He gives to us as a gift.  While we were still sinners, dead in our trespasses, Christ died for us.  It takes internal honesty and self-abandoned humility to be healed.

            For anyone who grew up going to conferences as a youth in church community like I did, you know what it feels like after some alter time with the Physician.  After a message that you couldn’t summarize, something drew us to the front of the meeting, onto our faces where we wept and sniffled and gasped for air between repentant sobs.  In the end, the words that He spoke to us, whether words that could be written down or whispers in our spirits, had cleaned us and healed us even if we had no idea what was going on.  We had just finished an appointment with the Great Physician of emotions.  We had opened our hearts as wide as we could bare it and allowed Him, in His divine gentleness, to touch our barrenness and heal our wounds.  We got all we could from Him.

            The feeling after these sessions was great.  Exhilaration met exhaustion.  Humility met destiny.  And as snot dripped from out faces with no tissue in sight, we met God.  We were not ashamed anymore because there was Someone who knew everything and still loved us.  We had allowed Someone to see what no one else ever had and touch what no one else ever would, and we came out on the other side with an embrace that erased embarrassment and a kiss that melted our stone hearts.  We were transformed in our nakedness before Him.  No longer were we sycophantic servants, hoping to get something from the Divine gumball machine, we became loquacious lovers that could not be stopped in our pursuit of another encounter with the Wounded Healer.  Though some in our generation waned in our zeal, there is an arising generation that will pick up where we left off and will grab the King and fearlessly allow Him to love them and heal us all.

*O Great Physician, we offer our weakness for Your strength.  Heal us we pray.  Amen*

The Holy One of God (Mark 1:24)

            Though He is worthy of praise, He is selective about who gives Him recognition.  It is not because He is picky, it is because He is worthy of much better.  The enemy loves to be recognized, by angels, demons, men, it doesn’t matter to Him.  But the Father is looking for worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth.  Demons don’t fit that description, and thus their worship is unacceptable.  Jesus did not rise from the grave to redeem demons; He is the Resurrected King of men.  The demon was not wrong, He is the Holy One of God, but Jesus was not interested in the false praise of a demon.  Even the praises of the true angelic hosts is not what He desires.  His desire is to be lifted up in the hearts of men, and if men won’t do it the children will do it.  And when the children are hindered from praising Him, He will settle for giving rocks voices to cry out.

            Why would the demon say “I know who You are, the Holy One of God”?  It was to draw attention to itself from the people around, it was not for Jesus’ information or any other benefit.  We do the same thing, name dropping for recognition.  What we gain from this is a puffed up sense of accomplishment and self-importance, it does nothing for the advancing of the Gospel of the Kingdom.  When we derive our identity from who we know or what we have done, we set ourselves up for great disappointment in this life and in the age to come.  The sons of Sceva tried to use name dropping to cast out demons, not a good time to find out that doesn’t work, huh?  And what happens when we get to the final judgment, will it do any good to name drop with the Great Divine Judge?  Doubt it!

            Boasting in anything but our relationship to Jesus will get us nowhere.  The Lord said, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, the strong in his strength, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows and understands Me.”  Imagine what that would look like.  If someone preached a sermon and were complimented about it and asked how they got such great revelation.  How would you react if they said, “Thank you, I know God, that’s all I have going for me.”  Would you be offended?  I might be offended.

            The thing is that those who truly do know and understand Him are the most humble people.  You will not find them boasting in their relationship with the Lord.  They are just like Jesus, who though being God-incarnate did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.  But if you get the dwellers of the Secret Place away from the crowds and ask them what they know and how they know it, they will tell you.  They will tell you that they are addicted to the Presence of the Lord.  They will tell you that they are so desperately in love with Jesus, His Spirit and His Father that they easily set aside hours to be with Them.  They will tell you that when they are alone with Them, They tell the secrets of Their heart to all those who fear God (Psalm 25:14).  Find them and ask.

            Friendship and proximity to God are treasures untouched by most of humanity.  This is not because it is difficult, for we are as close to God as we want to be, but it is not modeled and therefore not experienced by many.  This is why having many teachers but not many fathers is such a problem.  Teachers can only teach what they know, but fathers impart who they are.  As fathers to arguably the most important generation in history, it is our duty to live Hosea 10:12 out so that they know how to do the same.  “Sow with a view of righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness, break up the fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain down righteousness on you.”  It is time to seek the Holy One of God relentlessly until His righteousness is raining and reigning.

*Holy One of God, leave crumbs of the Bread of Life for us to find You.  Amen*

Jesus, who has been crucified (Matthew 28:5)

            After months of being in Matthew, we reach the end of the tax-collector’s gospel.  When evaluating the four gospel accounts Matthew is normally categorized as the gospel that presents Jesus as King to a Jewish audience.  Matthew, being one of the writers of the New Testament who was actually present at much of what he wrote has a unique perspective and a valuable Kingdom lens.  We can trust this gospel without question.

            One thing that, apparently, marked the teachings of Jesus was the Kingdom.  Most of His parables were about the Kingdom and how it functions.  The disciples were constantly confronted with Heaven’s perspective, specifically how it diverges from the earthly-mindedness that they – and we – were submerged in.  Yet Jesus made everything so accessible to the hungry.  At one point Jesus teaches a parable and the disciples ask Him why He taught them in a parable.  He said it was not for them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom, but that it was for the Twelve to know.  So whereas normally a parable was used to illustrate and illuminate, sometimes He used parables to conceal Kingdom truth from the wise and present it to the hungry.  Knowledge is power and Jesus didn’t want to smart to be powerful, He wants hungry, desperate, limping lovers in power.

            The contrary, but relatable nature of the Kingdom is a dimension of His goodness that we will be increasingly thankful for as we are transformed into the image of the Son.  As we lose our earthly-mindedness we become so Heavenly-minded that we finally can be some earthly good (contrary to the popular, unbiblical phrase).  Sometimes, however, we get off in La-La-Land and get so “spiritual” that we forget the practical and simple things of life.  Intellectualism would like to convince us that Jesus wasn’t really crucified or didn’t really die.  That is just stupid.  The angel said that Jesus had been crucified and died but was raised up.  Adding complexity to truth doesn’t make it a higher truth, it makes it complex – and probably makes it wrong.  Heaven and earth (not the world) agree.  Angels and humans use the same measurements according to Revelation 21:17.

            Getting out of the goofiness of over-spiritual thinking is difficult because it is a good feeling to think that we have special knowledge, but really we are exalting ourselves in a modern Christian Gnosticism.  God likes Earth, otherwise He would not have long-term plans of making this His home.  The Great Cloud of Witnesses know that they are not done until we who remain on the Earth until the Second Coming have accomplished His will on Earth as it is in Heaven.  And would not have accomplished all of that if it weren’t for their prior sacrifices, neither will it be done until they are here.

            There are two options to why the angel referred to Jesus in this way.  Either the angel was speaking of Jesus in a way that the women he was speaking to would understand or even the angelic realm recognized Him as “Jesus who has been crucified”.  Certainly it makes sense that the angel had to condescend to speaking to the women in earthly tongues rather than angelic tongues, but Jesus was crucified from the foundation of the world.  From before Genesis 1:1 Jesus had been a Man.  He had lived and been crucified, whether that was before the angels were made or not, we don’t know for sure.  But if it were before, then this messenger angel has only ever known Jesus as a once crucified Man.  If it were after the creation of angels, before or after the fall of Lucifer’s third of the hosts, then they saw it happen and knew it well.  We should be so lucky.

*Father God, Jehovah-Jireh, connect us to You in such a way that we can feel the gravity of the Perfection, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  Amen*

That deceiver (Matthew 27:63)

            Yet another title that the Pharisees applied to our Lord.  Obviously we know that He is not a deceiver, but they thought of Him in this way.  As we step closer to the full expression of what the Lord has for the earth, those on the front end who are forerunning the end-time move of God will find that there is great accusation and persecution ready behind every advancement.  The hope that we have is that Jesus showed us how to deal with these accusations, He was dead.  Though that seems simple, it is profound and powerful if we apply it.  When they accused Him while He was alive, He was already as dead to their words as He was when they accused Him during the three days He was dead.  Jesus is our example in all things.  Our best option is to imitate Him in all things.

            The accusation against the only Man who never told a lie was that He was a deceiver.  We, too, will suffer accusation when we advance the Kingdom, some from the world, but mostly from well-meaning but stagnant believers.  William Seymour and Frank Bartleman, leaders of the Azusa Street Revival, were told that they were too extreme when in reality their reckless abandonment was what was absolutely necessary in order to bring about the world revival that they were to start.  Similarly, if you have heard from the Lord, people will tell you that you haven’t.  If you constantly have people telling you to do one thing, but internally you would be in anguish if you did, go for it.  Go.

            It is neither wise nor safe to betray one’s conscience.  Someone I know was told not to take a job for a season, but to stay faithful with what he was clearly directed to do.  For months he wrestled with this, especially because wise council had instructed him to get a job multiple times.  But internally he knew that he knew that he knew that it was not a season for traditional employment, so he trudged on.  One night he felt so overwhelmed by the “wisdom” that others had given him and the lack of funds coming in that he decided to just go and get a job because, in his words, “God was taking too long”.  Less two days later someone handed him an envelope with over $1000 in it.  He heard God.

            The difficult reality of the Kingdom of Heaven is that the logic of the Kingdom doesn’t work in the systems of the world.  In order to make the transition from our old, dead kingdom that most of the world is caught up in we must become like children and re-learn the logic of the Kingdom of Heaven.  The ways, or logic, of the Kingdom are better, higher ways and work when mixed in faithful trust in the King.  The smartest people on the planet will prove to be those who lived in the Kingdom before the Kingdom came.  The citizens of the Kingdom are dead to all other lesser kingdoms.

            In the world, Jesus said, we will certainly have trouble.  But what does He end John 16:33 with?  “But take heart, for I have overcome the world.”  He has everything in control, either directly or through His people.  There is nothing to fear, unless He really is a deceiver.  But who are you going to trust, the Guy who had death begging for three days to let go of Him or a bunch of religious leaders who were so gripped by envy that they plotted for years to kill just one Man who had been healing the sick, feeding the poor miraculously, raising the dead and delivering the helpless from demons and disease?  Personally, the Radical Redeemer seems to be the best option.  If we feel deceived by Him, like Jeremiah did, it is likely not His fault but the fault of our assumptions.  The Word and Words of the Lord are best taken at face-value unless He shows otherwise.

*We don’t really know You as the Truth.  We would like to, though.  Help us, please.*

My God, My God (Matthew 27:46)

            You know you have the Word hidden in your heart when you are being murdered and you groan Scripture.  It wasn’t because Jesus was the Word made flesh that He quoted Scripture on the Cross.  He wasn’t being wise, knowing that people would one day read about that moment, He was in pain and the only adequate expression of what He was feeling was from the Psalms.  He had to learn the Scriptures just like we have to.  For the first 12 years of His life He went to Hebrew school where He memorized the whole Old Testament, just like everyone else His age (of which there weren’t many because of the mass infanticide when He was younger).  The overflow of His heart was Psalm 22.

            What an appropriate Psalm!  He is quoted as only saying the first phrase of verse one, in which He claims His own Father as His God.  That is strange, a little.  Worshiping His Father as God, but all men have gods, His was His Father.  God worshiping God seems strange, but Jesus was the Firstfruit of a harvest of a New Creation Race of men.  This Race will worship their Father.  He was modeling what we would do, worship the Father as adopted children.  Everything Jesus did was a How-To lesson for our Race.

            Walking through Psalm 22, we see that David captured the situation’s emotions perfectly for Jesus.  Jesus was up all the night before with no rest (verse2).  The only praises for God to be enthroned on (verse 3) were the mocking sign on the Cross which read “King of the Jews”, so Jesus was firmly “enthroned” on what would one day be the focus of so much praise for Him to ride upon.  In verse 4 and 5, David talks about how their fathers had trusted the Lord and not been disappointed, and as Jesus hung there all His hope had to hang on the goodness and faithfulness of Jehovah for it would be the Father who would raise Him from the grave in three days.  Reading Paul’s letters to various churches, it is unmistakable that it was the Spirit and the Father who raised Jesus from the dead, He did not raise Himself up.  We, too, will not raise ourselves, They will.

            Verses six through eight are obviously perfectly fulfilled in the crucifixion.  And verses nine and ten are profound comments on the incarnation.  But verses 11 through eighteen seem like a poem that Jesus could have written while in Sheol for those three days (or wherever He was and whatever He was doing).  From His thirst in verse fifteen to His hands and feet being pierced in verse sixteen, it would be wise to read this psalm every time you consider the crucifixion and suffering of the Messiah.  It is astounding.

            Eternal treasures are found in the remaining verses of the psalm, but one pops of the page – the fear of the Lord.  Though books and libraries could not adequately explain this delightful Spirit (Isaiah 11:3), it is critical that we get anointed by the fear of the Lord.  “You who fear the Lord, praise Him.”  It is not a fear that grips us and makes us unable to function, but is a motivating fear that demands a response.  We worship Him not out of fear that we would be squashed if we withhold our praise, but we worship Him because we know what He is capable of yet did not do.  Accepting the gift of salvation is an act of the fear of the Lord.  It is God’s wrath that we are saved from, yet it is God’s love and mercy that saved us from His own wrath.  He isn’t schizophrenic, He is just.

            It is, after all, very foolish to not take protection from the most powerful Being in existence.  We who fear the Lord are not yellow, we are wise.  It is the foolish who think that they are able to function apart from the Blood of the only worthy sacrificial offering.  He presented His body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and we benefit from it.

*My God, My God, thank You for not forsaking us but showed us faithfulness.  Amen*

The King of Israel (Matthew 27:42)

            Silly rabbis, the God-Man is not mocked!  Just like He said five chapters back, “you are mistaken because you understand neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”  The Kingship of Jesus is not a matter of debate, He owns the whole world and the people in it (Psalm 24:1), He does as He pleases (Psalm 115:3) and He laughs at His enemies (Psalm 2:4), so let us dissect what these mockers were expectorating instead of building yet another case for the undisputed Throne of God.  Let us just be honest, we can’t kill Him, He threw Lucifer out with one-third of the hosts and Lucifer doesn’t even challenge His Throne and authority.  He knows the Scriptures, at this point he is just trying to take as much of humanity down with him as he can.  Victory for him is not really an option, his tactic is to drag image-bearers into the lake of fire as one last insult to the Almighty.

            Matthew 27:42 “He saved others; He cannot save Himself.  He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the Cross, and we will believe in Him.”  Quickly we will see the utter error in what they are saying, we will take this verse piece by piece.

            “He saved others.”  Well, if He saved others, why won’t you believe Him?  Were His signs, wonders and miracles not good enough for you?  It is not a good thing when your leaders are mocking people who are dieing.  The scribes, chief priests, elders and other leaders showed poor leadership and no character.  Watch and pray for your leaders.

            “He cannot save Himself.”  First, meekness is not weakness.  Being able to do something doesn’t make it wise to do it.  One Thanksgiving I was playing ping-pong with a young boy.  I beat him four games in a row without trying, so I switched hands and let him beat me.  He felt great about himself, which was far better for him than the feeling of victory I would have from beating a 10-year-old at ping-pong.  It wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t save Himself, it was more like He wouldn’t.  He never demands of us what He is unwilling to do.  So when He said “He who saves his own life will lose it and he who loses his life will gain it”, He knew exactly what would happen to Him and He would go down that road before anyone else would – good Leader.  What a stupid thing it would have been for Him to go through with the Incarnation but not the Resurrection!  It would be like Danny Ocean setting up and following through with a heist only to stop at the prize and turn to grab a pen instead.  It would be pointless.  And as my friend put it, on the Cross Jesus essentially said “My Bride’s life is more valuable than My own”.  True.  Jesus was operating under the influence of His desires.  His life was not His own.  Selah.

            “He is the King of Israel.”  You got it this time!  No, wait, you’re being sarcastic.

            “Let Him come down from the Cross and we will believe in Him.”  No you won’t.  First, it is in the best interest of everyone but the devil that He die and be raised up, but you don’t know that.  Second, y’all saw that Lazarus was alive and you tried to kill him again, what would make this any different.  And ultimately, would they really?  If He had yanked Himself off that Cross and stood before them, would they have served Him?  Not out of love, but out of fear, maybe.  But we don’t want a malevolent dictator, we want a love King.  Servants in love with their King are far more loyal than fearful slaves.  Jesus doesn’t want to rule over people, lording His authority over us, He has always wanted partnership with mankind, ruling with us.  This is what a religious spirit will do to the truth, twist it to make God a mean club-holding grouch.  He is not that, He is a meek Savior, loving mercy and justice, the Benevolent Crucified King of Resurrection.

*Our King, of Israel and the Gentiles, we lovingly bow before You, thankful.  Amen*

You who are going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days (Matthew 27:40)

            This Man says the craziest things, doesn’t He?  The people remembered this claim, for sure.  And they were not shy to bring it up again when it looked like the most ridiculous statement.  He has been beaten beyond human recognition and nailed to a tree and they are mocking Him a little more.  He knew He would be raised up on the third day, but He is so patient and meek that He didn’t need to defend Himself.  Most of us, in our impatient insecurity would have been saying things like, “Just you wait, I’ll see you in three days and you will be sorry then.  Oh, you are gonna get it and I’m making a special stop off at your place just to prove to you that I am who I say I am.”  Not Jesus.

            No, Jesus let His wisdom justify His words and actions by the results that came as a result of His character.  He didn’t need to tell everyone what was going to happen, He likes surprises.  He is actually a fairly dramatic Guy.  Read the story of Manoah’s visitation before his wife bore Samson, Jesus leaves the scene with no lack of flare.  We see Him just stand in a fire and float up a column of smoke like an elevator (Judges 13 in case you don’t believe me).  You can’t tell me that He doesn’t like to mess with our heads.  He likes to do things the worst way possible, in our way of thinking, but He accomplishes so much when He does it His way – proof that His ways are truly higher.

            Do you remember when He said He could rebuild the Temple?  In John 2 He says this as a sign of His authority to cleanse the Temple.  He was cleansing the Temple of Jerusalem, but the Temple He would rebuild would be the Temple of His Body.  His authority in the earthly Temple stems from the power of resurrection.  They certainly had no idea what He was talking about at the time, but He did.  Think about it.  If you knew you could die and not stay dead, you would do whatever you wanted.  No one could stop you.  They could only limit you a little, but imagine if you could create an army like that.

            If there were an army that were not afraid of death because to die would be gain for them, no government or social system could hold them back from accomplishing their goals.  If there were a group of people who were living for another age of history, they would not get caught up in the monochromatic pleasures of a vain society.  If there were young adults that realized that they were not living for themselves, but for the toddlers below them, they would not be consumed with looking good and accomplishing great things unless those great things paved the way for the next generation.  Here we stand.

            Friends, this is us.  Jesus said it would be better for Him to go away so that the Spirit would come.  Why?  Because if the Spirit comes, so does the army.  What good is the Captain of Hosts without a host of Saints to lead in the conquest of the globe?  A brilliant friend of mine once said that he lives his life, day-in and day-out for the next generation to complete what our generation could not.  And I believe him because for over half a decade he has spent most of his time praying for revival in the youth of the world.  His job is to pray and, as he said, he is pointing his life at the youth generation.

            I have been in prayer meetings in which I became afraid for those on the other side of those prayers.  I knew that no one could withstand these people’s prayers.  They loved people they have never met more than you would think is possible.  They loved much because they knew that He loves much and that He is able to do abundantly beyond all they could ask or think.  He can because He did the impossible, He raised Himself up.

*Jesus, You can do it, I know You can.  Raise up the selfless army that will die for You.*

The One whose price had been set by the sons of Israel (Matthew 27:9)

            It was the chief priests that set the price for Jesus’ betrayal, but there is an interesting coincidence with the price set.  If you search the Scriptures for another place where a price is set at thirty shekels, you will find only two places – both instances are the price for a person – in Exodus for a gored slave and in Leviticus for “special or difficult vows” for a woman.  Brace yourself for this one, it’s a doozy of a revelation.

            The first use of the word “special or difficult” in the Scriptures is in Genesis 18 when the Lord says “is there anything too difficult for Me?”  This is in reference to to Sarai’s unbelief that she could bare the child of promise, who would be a type of Christ as He would nearly be sacrificed on the very hill that Jesus was crucified on.  So the price set for the Messiah, which resulted in the purchase of His bride, was the same as the price for a woman making a difficult vow.  How was the vow “difficult”?  It was difficult because we cannot fulfill our vows, He does it for us in the Cross.  But, as He said to Isaac’s parents, nothing is too difficult for Him.  Nothing is impossible for Him, nothing.

            The special or difficult vow is the same kind of vow that a Nazarite would make, explained in Numbers 6.  Nazarites are those who set themselves apart in sanctification to the Lord not to earn something from God, but to honor His holiness.  Jesus wasn’t a Nazarite, He was a Nazarene – a person from Nazareth.  But many believe His cousin John was a Nazarite by the angelic proclamation before his birth (see Luke 1).  John was “a friend of the Bridegroom”, one who prepared the way of the Lord.  There is a generation that will have John’s heart to prepare the heart of the Bride for her Bridegroom, the romance of the Gospel is a treasure worth hiding deep in our hearts.  When Solomon was giving wisdom to his son, he spoke a proverb that declared three things are too “special or difficult” for him, four that he did not understand.  The last of these four things was “the way of a valiant man with his beloved” – Jesus and His Bride.

            If the bride of Christ thing is too gooey for you, you want a more manly understanding, let’s look at the warrior of warriors, King David.  He is the one whose hands were too blood-soaked for the Lord to allow Him to build the Temple.  Side note: in 2 Chronicles 2:9 Solomon asks for the best wood for the Temple because it was to be “special” – same word.  Jesus, also used special wood to tear down the Temple of His Body and then He rebuilt it in three days.  Back to ruddy King David, a man’s man.  Read 2 Samuel 1:26, you will find that David had such deep love for Jonathan, the son of the current king, Saul, that he said “your love to me is more wonderful than the love of women”.  In the same way, our soon-coming King Jesus, the son of David, has such deep love for us that it surpasses marital affection.  And, yes, you guessed it, the word “wonderful” used in David’s song in 2 Samuel 1 is the same word we talking about.

            This price that was set for our redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus not only yanked us out of eternal damnation, it clothed us with His righteousness.  Job used our new favorite word in Job 10:16 saying that the Lord had stalked him like a lion and “shown Himself marvelous upon him”.  Like David sang in Psalm 23, Job saw that the Lord had stalked him with His “special and difficult” goodness and lovingkindness.  We, too, after receiving the redemption of the Cross and Empty Tomb receive the Spirit and are born anew, clothed in His righteousness.  We can then enjoy new Life in new garments as we see Jesus show Himself “marvelous” upon us.

*Jesus all we can say is, “Thank You.  Thank You.  Thank YOU.  THANK YOU!”*

Innocent Blood (Matthew 27:4)

            Can you imagine the feeling gripping Judas’ soul?  You walk closely with one of the greatest men you have ever known.  He never did anything but trust you with His finances, love you and bring you up into a place that you didn’t know was possible.  After three of the best years of your life you are sure that this Man must be the Messiah, so you set up a way for Him to prove that He is going to take over rule of Israel by force from the Romans and make some money in the process.  When the time comes to do the betrayal, the sign of your betrayal is a kiss.  Throughout that night and the following day you begin to realize that the One you are betraying is not going to take over Israel by force.  He was the greatest Man that you knew, you knew that He had never done anything wrong – sure He irritated you sometimes, but that was because He was just so darn righteous and you just weren’t.  He let you get away with things and then gave you a chance to redeem yourself, always encouraging you and showing you that you are someone different from what you see of yourself.  And you look back on it all and see what you have done.  You have betrayed this Man.  You have betrayed Innocent Blood.

            Judas knew everything that Jesus did for the years that he was with Him.  Jesus, knowing that Judas was a greedy swindler, put him in charge of the money that was given to Him.  Judas would steal from the money, and surely Jesus had caught him doing so and didn’t take away this responsibility because the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable.  Judas saw Jesus heal innumerable people, so many that John’s gospel says that if it were all recorded and the whole earth were a library, there would not be enough room for the full record – and God does not exaggerate in His Word, mind you.  He was there when Jesus dealt with the adulterous woman so compassionately that everyone present was humbled and she left the scene feeling love she never knew.  He was at their last meal with Jesus, when Jesus told him to go and do what he was going to do quickly.  He must have wondered how Jesus knew what he had planned and thought that Jesus approved of it, thus spurring him on to his plan that would exalt their group into power.

            Judas was not rejoicing in the fact that Jesus was a perfect sacrifice of eternal blood to atone for the sins of all men eternally.  He had no concept of a resurrection from the dead done by the One who had died.  He had seen Jesus raise the dead, but who would raise Him up?  Judas knew he couldn’t do it, and he knew the other Eleven and surely thought very little of their ability to resurrect their Rabbi.  He watched the whole process and saw that he had near single-handedly ruined the lives of everyone he had lived with for the last years.  He felt every bit of the shame and when he tried to reverse what he had done, the religious leaders who he thought would restore things to normal did nothing.  It really is no wonder he killed himself under those circumstances.

            When we read the Bible, it is not a good idea to read it like a text book.  There are real people involved, real emotions flopping around every page and real spiritual forces that are influencing every situation.  The Bible is not a good book, it is a Divine Library of 66 books that are all sown together with a scarlet thread called Redemption.  If someone read a third-person account of your day today, could they fully understand everything and make conclusions based on your words and actions?  No, there is back-story and emotions and thoughts that no one could have known about from “just the facts”.  Read your Bible with the Helper, He’ll help you understand what’s going on.

*Jesus, thank You for Your Innocent Blood shed and Your Body resurrected.  Amen*

The Man (Matthew 26:72)

            Oh let us never lose sight of the revelation at the end of this road.  HE IS A MAN!  Peter could have said “I don’t know the Savior”, “ I don’t know the Lord”, I don’t know the supernatural being that made Himself into the image of human flesh so that He could become our sin and kill death and prove it by rising from the dead on the third day” or even “I don’t know that one-third of the Trinity Godhead.”  But Peter didn’t know Jesus in these terms; maybe later he realized them a little.  Peter knew Jesus as a man, simply.

            It wasn’t as if Jesus were just human enough to fool everyone.  He was 100%, bon-a-fide, pure-bred human.  Jesus sweated.  Jesus puked, pooped and peed when He was a bitty baby boy.  Jesus got tired when He walked long distances.  Jesus said the Hebrew equivalent of “Ouch!” when He dropped wood on His human toes when He was carrying it to His human step-father.  He was in every respect a man, always will be.

            He was tempted in every way that we are…every way.  Whether that means that He was presented with every temptation ever possible, I doubt it.  But my guess is that no one has ever endured a 40 day fast in the desert and then a demonic encounter with the prince of lies in their face.  If for one moment someone thinks that their temptations and struggles are unique, that Jesus just couldn’t understand, they ought to read the temptation narrative out loud to themselves and let it resonate within them.  In class one day, we were learning how to present the Gospel.  The leadership team refined our message and began to make it increasingly difficult for us by adding approved hecklers in the crowd.  The final group was taken out of the room and our instructor gave permission to the whole class to act like absolute heathens while they preached.  They didn’t know.

            As the ignorant preachers entered, we sat kindly for about 30 seconds and then began to just get up and mill about the class room.  Some people started shouting at the preachers, others carried on their own conversations, completely disinterested in them.  Then it started getting really intense.  I won’t mention any names but someone took a bottle of water and dumped it on one of the preachers, got on the drum set and went to town on the cymbals.  By the end of the chaos, the preachers were being carried out the door of the classroom, still preaching the love of Christ.  Once everyone had settled down, our instructor said “If you ever have it worse than that when you are trying to minister to people, then you have something to complain about.  Otherwise, be quiet.”

            Jesus had it bad.  Everyone thought He was a bastard, except His mother, of course.  The religious leaders followed Him around to find ways to bust Him so as to kill Him.  The demon-possessed came out of graveyards to see Him.  Every sick person around Him demanded His attention and touch.  The harlots hung around His friends.  And when things were at there worst for Him, His best friends were too tired to sit with Him to console Him.  But He never complained.  He was anointed with joy despite it all.

            Using a common phrase, Jesus was “the Man”.  He was so awesome.  When people tried to trap Him, He nailed them.  To quote a friend of mine, when the Pharisees tried to stump Jesus concerning the Law, Jesus said “Silly Pharisees, the Law is for kids.”  Jesus was unstumpable by the most brilliant of minds.  When they gave up trying to talk Him into a corner and just came after Him physically, He just walked right through them.  Like the old man in “Big Fish” He knew how He would die.  He wasn’t afraid.  He was a man on a mission, nothing could deter Him.  The great news is that He never changes.

*Jesus, You are the Man.  We think You are so marvelous.  Make us like You.  Amen*