Category Archives: Lent

Lord, Is It Me?

17 That evening, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 During the meal, Jesus said, “I assure you that one of you will betray me—someone eating with me.”

19 Deeply saddened, they asked him, one by one, “It’s not me, is it?” (Mark 14:17-19, CEB)

Jesus prepares this meal on this night among chaos. He prepares a meal in love knowing he is about to be betrayed. He prepares this meal out of his incredible love for them. Each of the disciples then hear than someone will betray Jesus. They honestly ask, “Is it me?”

They knew their own capabilities. They knew their own sin.

We think too much of ourselves. We have been spoon fed this “You can do anything in the world” stuff so much we actually think we can.

But our hearts are capable of great wickedness. We can turn on a dime and we need to see that.

Yet, in the midst of that chaos and the near betrayal, Jesus sets the table. He does it for you and for me.

Taxes and Who We Owe

No better time than tax season to have a story on taxes from Mark 12. And it’s always a great question in our culture. Just bring up TAXES and see what kind of response we get!

13 They sent some of the Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap him in his words. 14They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you’re genuine and you don’t worry about what people think. You don’t show favoritism but teach God’s way as it really is. Does the Law allow people to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay taxes or not?”

15 Since Jesus recognized their deceit, he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a coin. Show it to me.” 16 And they brought one. He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

17 Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” His reply left them overcome with wonder. (Mark 12:13-17, CEB)

So… who do we owe?

The key may be what Jesus says about “Whose image?”

Of course, his response on giving Caesar’s what is Caesar’s never sits well with those who like lower taxes.

But what in the world does he refer to when he says, “Give to God what is God’s?”

If we can see the use of “image” in Jesus’ question, it may be that Jesus is saying, “The coin has the image of Caesar, so give him his due. YOU have the image of God, so give him HIS due.”

Jesus turns the question from how little we can get away with to what we really need to do, which is live in the image of God. We are so concerned with what we can get away with we forget to live in full surrender to him.

Whatever is Caesar’s, well Caesar is going to take. We can yelp all we want, but that is life.

The question is more to our own walk with God. Are we giving to God what is HIS due?

Did a Shooting Happen… or not?

Yesterday the news was all over the internet in what I consider “main sources.” It was the first thing you saw when the news page would come up. When newspapers were actually printed, it would be called “above the fold.” It was front and center.

I thought there was yet another shooting at yet another college campus. Seven dead.

And today? I couldn’t find it on several “major” news sites. Not in obvious places.

A small Christian college… catering mainly to Korean Americans…

Seven dead.

Are we just numb to those kinds of things now? Let’s get back to other things in the news cycle?

Probably it is something that is still being talked about on the morning news shows. Since I don’t watch them, I am not sure.

These are days when things really seem to be coming apart. Gun violence. Rampages. Anger and bitterness that seriously divides our nation and world.

There are days when events overwhelm us. It happens. It happened in the Psalms.

The news of the day would overwhelm David or another writer and their prayers were prayers of desperation. Prayers that said, “Lord, what in the world is going on?”

We can be given to extremes in thought, but Psalms help us realize we’re not alone in those extreme thoughts.

1 Help, LORD,
because the godly are all gone;
the faithful have completely disappeared
from the human race!
2 Everyone tells lies to everyone else;
they talk with slick speech
and divided hearts.  (Psalm 12:1-2, CEB)

In times of desperation we also need times of radical trust. The world is heading for destruction it seems, but we need our eyes fixed on God.

6 The LORD’s promises are pure,
like silver that’s been refined
in an oven,
purified seven times over!

7 You, LORD, will keep us,
protecting us
from this generation forever.

Death. Racism. War. Crazy politics. The economy wobbling around. Lord, in these days help us keep our eyes on you!

Where Greatness Dwells

Mark 12 gives a contrast in true greatness.

There is the greatness we aspire to (even if we may not admit it at times). For the Jews in that day there was an admiration for the religious leaders. They had places of position. They had esteem. They looked smart.

But all that glitters is not gold.

38 As he was teaching, he said, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with honor in the markets. 39 They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. 40 They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.” (Mark 12:38-40, CEB)

The temptation of power and prestige is fierce. Guard yourselves.

Then there is the story of the offering. Everyone is giving huge sums of money, and along comes a poor widow. There isn’t any fanfare for her. Hardly anyone notices the small pittance she drops in the offering plate.

But Jesus notices.

 41 Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. 42 One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. 44All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.”

Greatness isn’t in the outward display of wealth, honor, or intelligence. Greatness dwells in the person who lays it all on the line. There is no economic barrier for wealth. It could be someone who does indeed make a lot of money, or someone who makes barely enough to survive. The question is not the amount you give. The question is the amount of sacrifice. Greatness is about laying it all down for the Kingdom.

Who is this King?

 7 Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
8 Who is this glorious king?
The LORD—strong and powerful!
The LORD—powerful in battle!
9 Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
10 Who is this glorious king?
The LORD of heavenly forces—
he is the glorious king!
Selah  (Psalm 24:7-10)

The anticipation is always great when we think of Messiah coming. He’s the KING. We have our ideas, our wishes…

But when he really does come, it is his kingdom that reigns. His will. His way.

He is COME. The Lord strong and mighty is here. Are you really ready for this Kingdom?

Expectation

This Sunday is Palm Sunday. The journey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was one of high expectation. Everyone had their view of what Jesus’ coming meant. That entry had implications for everyone… yet not in a way any of them expected.

8 Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields. 9 Those in front of him and those following were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10Blessings on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:8-9, CEB)

The crowd had the expectation of Jesus saving them now.

“Save us in the way WE want to be saved!”

Jesus always exceeds our own expectations. Our problem may be is that we don’t see him doing that… or we don’t like his way of saving us.

We anticipate his coming again. We should live in expectation. But our eyes need to be on him, not our set of rules and predictions.

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

 15 They came into Jerusalem. After entering the temple, he threw out those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. 16 He didn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He taught them, “Hasn’t it been written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you’ve turned it into a hideout for crooks. 18 The chief priests and legal experts heard this and tried to find a way to destroy him. They regarded him as dangerous because the whole crowd was enthralled at his teaching. (Mark 11:15-18, CEB)

We are far too easily distracted as a culture. There are too many things flying at us, screaming for our attention. The main thing of turning our attention toward God… prayer… is too easily set aside. The main thing of keeping the mission of God (not OUR “mission statements”) in front of us gets shoved to the side too easily. We create noise and motion and think it’s the same thing as serving God.

The temple leaders had created a culture of distraction. It was noise and motion but it wasn’t going anywhere. Everything was supposed to be for “worship” and “sacrifices,” but it was only weighing people down. They weren’t free. And the house of God wasn’t for all nations at that point. It was exclusively Jewish, and they were maniacal about that point.

“A house of prayer.” 

I was reflecting back to my years in high school when I really learned prayer from a couple of godly men. My pastor at the time was the greatest example. What he did, I did. He got up at 5 in the morning to pray. So did I. He paced when he prayed. So did I. He would call out boldly. So did I. He prayed the Scriptures. So did I.

The priority was prayer. There was nothing more precious than being in the place of prayer seeking the face of God.

“For all nations.”

We are to bring this good news to the world. We are to make sure this gospel isn’t so “ethnocentric” no one outside our culture can’t understand it. The great news of Jesus Christ is not shackled to one particular venue and one particular method.

But distractions come. To feel better about not praying “as much” we create motion and noise. And then we do things in such a way it makes sense to us… to make us feel good… and that’s about it. We get so easily distracted.

The call of Lent and the journey toward Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is the keep the main thing the main thing. We worship an incredible God and that news is to be shared with all nations.

This gospel isn’t to be consumed on ourselves alone. It’s too good!

I think of the great C.S. Lewis quote:

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far to easily pleased.

We are so easily distracted. We are so easily pleased. There is so much more.

He’s Coming… and you may not like that thought

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. We celebrate the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. It is remembering his triumphal entry, then entering a week of reflection as we head toward the Cross.

The expectation when Jesus entered Jerusalem was probably enormous. There was a lot of talk and a lot of hope.

But when Jesus comes, it may not be ALL “good news” as WE would define “good news.”

First, he attacks an innocent tree.

12 The next day, after leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 From far away, he noticed a fig tree in leaf, so he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves, since it wasn’t the season for figs. 14 So he said to it, “No one will ever again eat your fruit!” His disciples heard this. (Mark 11:12-14, CEB)

More than a lesson on “faith,” it is a visual lesson concerning what he is about to do: enter the Temple and ransack it. Israel was bankrupt. It was time to toss some tables and let religious leaders know they looked like they had fruit… but they were barren.

Sometimes when Jesus comes we just may not like it. He comes to get things straight. We may not like his version of “getting things right.”

One of my favorite preachers is Mark Rutland, president of Oral Roberts University. I heard him at a pastors retreat several years ago. He told the story of pastoring a large church in Florida in the 1980s when the big names of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert were embarrassing the American church. One time he was asked why he wasn’t saying much at the time. He was influential, had a large church, and certainly didn’t lack opinions.

The reason he didn’t give much of an opinion, he said, was “Jesus was coming through the garden of church pruning things with a chainsaw. I’m just this tiny twig holding on for dear life!”

It was a great perspective.

We need to take measure of what kind of life WE are living… and then conclude we may not always like it when Jesus shows up.

When He Comes

31 The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the LORD.33 No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the LORD. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the LORD!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins. (Jer. 31:31-34, CEB)

The longing of God’s heart is to have people who know him. It is not about the land. It is about the heart. Move the covenant from the land to the heart. Israel didn’t learn that. The people of God need to learn it! It is about having the ways of God written on our heart. It is being able to live out the Sermon on the Mount daily, knowing what it means to bring “Kingdom rightness” into our situations.

Jesus came so we can know him. It’s not about our view of power, or our view of covenant. It is his view. It is his Kingdom.

He has come to declare the goodness of the Kingdom. We need to hear him.

A New Play on the Last Week of Christ

Kingdom Undone is a new production in the Twin Cities. It takes a look at the ministry of Christ and his purposes through the lens of Judas Iscariot and a young zealot named Isaac.

The play was well done and a fresh take. The first act added in some great humor, but the refreshing look was seeing how Judas might have thought of what was happening in the life of Jesus.

The great thing I came away with is we all think we have the great idea of the Kingdom in our minds. We think of our ideas of justice, liberation, who is “in”, etc. What we sometimes forget to do is actually listen to Jesus.

The acting is tremendous. The music blends in quite well. I honestly think they could develop the music a bit more. The songs were few, but powerful. Working on that piece would enhance the power of the moments the songs are done.

If you are in the Twin Cities, I would suggest seeing THIS play rather than the normal portrayals we will typically get this time of year. We all know the story… or so we think! Try this one for a fresh view.