This is Your Time

"It's critical that when you are heading the soccer ball, you strike the ball; don't let the ball hit you."  This is what my high school soccer coach told us.  Most of soccer is played with the feet, but when the opportunity arises and a header is called for, hit it the right way.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alohaxtreme2/1024471715/

The Biblical character, Esther, was in a tough position.  She was not supposed to approach the king without being summoned, but if she did not approach the king many of her Jewish countrymen would be murdered.  Her uncle knew that God was bigger than one person and the fate of the world does not rest on her, but why not let God use her in this unique situation?

^{Esther 4:14}
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” 

It is similar to striking the soccer ball - that she would be much more effective if she attacked the situation with God working through her rather than just letting the situation come upon her.  She could not change what others wanted to do, but she could control her reaction.

The writer of the book of Hebrews picks up this idea by encouraging his readers and listeners to attack their situations and live on purpose.  The world does not need more people who just react to what is given to them - God wants to use people who will run the race marked out for them.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

These words follow Hebrews 11 which is known as the great faith chapter - the definition and word are used in powerful ways to show how God has worked through his people and how he continues to work through them, people who see that God is active in their lives.  They lived by faith, therefore fix your eyes on Jesus, get rid of sin, and run.

You are not in your present situation by accident.  Wherever you are, God is working through your circumstances.  You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, so live for Jesus.  God can work through other people, too, but maybe you are where you are for such a time as this.

Restoring the Image

Genesis 1:27
So God created mankind in his own image, 
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them. 

The creation story tells us that people were created in God's image, but it does not explain exactly what that means.  Some would say that it is related to how we look, and it is true that Jesus took on human form so there might be some connection.  Others see a quality of God as the image; God is holy, loving, good, righteous, etc.  Another interesting idea is that people are the only ones in creation which are creative.

The unfortunate reality is that we did not stay in God's image, for now we are only a poor reflection of who God is.  Sin caused a separation from what God intended.  The first action of Adam and Eve after falling from perfection was to hide their nakedness and hide themselves.  They were not successful.  God found them rather easily, and making clothes out of leaves is not a long term solution.

God cursed the snake, the woman, the man, and the entire earth.  God's perfect creation was no longer perfect, so it could no longer be the eternal paradise that it was created to be.  Instead, God had a plan to redeem the world, and it started with finding new clothes.

At the end of the fall in Genesis 3, we find out that God covered the man and woman with animal skins; God covered their nakedness, their shame, and their sin.  This was the first sacrifice, since it required the life of the animal.  We don't know what animal was sacrificed, but some believe it was a lamb.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/147591

Adam and Eve were covered in the lamb and given new hope.  We also have new hope as ones who have been covered in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).  From the very beginning, God was pointing his people to Jesus - to his own Son who would cover sin once and for all.  Our life came at the price of another, as Paul describes:

^{Romans 5:20-21
20} The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Creation

It is easy to read a Bible passage and find something you missed before.  The creation account in Genesis chapter 1 is one of those stories that you know, yet are amazed when you find even more.

Creation happened in six days.  In the Bible, the number six tends to represent something that is incomplete (that is why there was one day of rest, making it a complete week).  The number three tends to represent God and the things of heaven, and it also finds its way into the creation story.

Day 1 - God separated darkness and light

Day 2 - God separated the skies and the seas

Day 3 - God separated the land and the water

There were three separations on the first three days.  You may be more familiar with the "Let there be..." phrase found in the creation story, but the separations are also a key.  His work is not just to separate, though; God hints and what the next three days will be like at the end of day three - he fills the land with vegetation and life.

Day 4 - God filled creation with lights

Day 5 - God filled the sky with birds and the sea with fish

Day 6 - God filled the land with animals

Now God moves into the work of filling.  Day one was about light, and now day four was about filling in the lights to carry out that work.  Day two was about the skies and seas, and now day five was about filling them with birds and fish.  Day four was about land, and now day six was about filling the land with wild and domesticated animals.  Yet again, God hints that there is something more than just animals he is creating.  Special emphasis is put on his creation of man and woman, signaling what is to come.

Separation and filling.  That is how fields are planted - separating the dirt and filling it with seed that grows.  That is how new muscle is formed - tearing muscle tissue and then letting the muscles rebuild in a stronger way.  That is how we can live a new life - separation from the sin that entangles us and filling with God's Holy Spirit.

Pour It On

How will the world end?  Jesus said it could happen at any moment, so we should be ready.  But ready for what?  There is a lot of descriptive language about what will happen in the last days, but it is not completely clear how it will all unfold.  Comparing Jesus' life to the Old Testament prophecies makes his fulfillment clear to us, but if it would have been clear to everyone at the moment, then I think the religious leaders would have treated him differently.  In light of that, I would have a hard time claiming to know exactly how the world will end.

Much of the controversy about the end of the world can be traced to a few verses at the beginning of Revelation chapter 20 which talk about a thousand year period of time.  There are three basic views of what these verses are referring to.  Pre-millennialists would envision this thousand years of Christ reigning on earth happening before "Judgment Day" and the end of time.  Post-millennialists would see "Judgment Day" coming first, followed by the the thousand year reign of Christ on a perfect and restored earth; this would be the view of many who believe in a literal rapture and period of tribulation as described in the popular book and series Left Behind.  The rest tend to fall into the amillennialist category which view the thousand year reign of Christ (along with many other events in John's Revelation) as symbolic; this would be the category that most Lutherans and Catholics fall into.

Revelation is a confusing book.  There are many strange and unexpected characters and events in this book, but overall message is this: times are bad and they are going to get worse, but hang in there because we win!  (We, meaning Jesus and all who belong to him).  This is why the command is given to be faithful to the point of death and Jesus will give us a crown of life.

But there was a different prediction that Jesus made which I think is more significant; it was a prediction about that which was going to help them get through the hard times coming up.  It was about the Spirit.  The night before Jesus died, he was preparing the disciples for his absence, but promising the gift of the Holy Spirit - the Spirit would help them remember the things that Jesus taught, understand the things that Jesus taught, and know how to continue to be a "little Christ" after he was gone. John 14:15-27

 In the Old Testament, a person had to be really important to have the Holy Spirit.  The prophets would speak about "being in the Spirit" or having "the Spirit of the Lord upon me."  The kings would be anointed (oil poured on their heads) as a symbol of God's Spirit being placed upon them.  The common people had to go through someone important to have access to God's Spirit.  Imagine the amazement people had when they heard the words of the prophet, Joel:

^{Joel 2:28-32
28} “And afterward, 
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, 
   your old men will dream dreams, 
   your young men will see visions. 
²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women, 
   I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 
³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens 
   and on the earth, 
   blood and fire and billows of smoke. 
³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness 
   and the moon to blood 
   before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 
³² And everyone who calls 
   on the name of the LORD will be saved;

All people would have the Spirit poured on them!  This was made possible by the cross.  When Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn in two and access to God was made available to all people - not just the prophets or kings or religious leaders.  And the Holy Spirit came with power.

From St. Nicolai Kirche in Lubbenau, Germany

Fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit came into Jerusalem with the sound of a howling wind, appearing as small flames upon the heads of the disciples who were speaking clearly and fluently and languages they did not know.  Peter preached to the crowd and explained what was happening by referring them to the prophecy in Joel:

^{Acts 2:17-21
17} “‘In the last days, God says, 
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, 
   your young men will see visions, 
   your old men will dream dreams. 
¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women, 
   I will pour out my Spirit in those days, 
   and they will prophesy. 
¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above 
   and signs on the earth below, 
   blood and fire and billows of smoke. 
²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness 
   and the moon to blood 
   before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 
²¹ And everyone who calls 
   on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

How does that help us approach the end of the world?  The Spirit helps us know what to say and how to live and how to be Christians, even in places that are hostile toward God's ways.  You, too, have the gift of the Holy Spirit.  You, too, have been given the power that was promised to the followers of Jesus!

Greatest Command

There was a "expert" in the law that tried to fool Jesus.  He was trying to give him a no-win question, a question with no right answer (or maybe just a lot of wrong answers).  The question was about the Law.

The Jewish leaders were dependent on the Law - also referred to as the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Books of Moses, the first five books of our Bible.  There are 613 laws found in these books.  Symbolically, Jewish prayer shawls will often be made with 613 knots or tassels to represent the commands of God.  We hold the Ten Commandments to be some of the most important, but this leader figured that he could argue with Jesus about the best commandment, depending on which one he chose.  So how would Jesus respond to a question about which commandment was the greatest?



Love God.  Love other people.  That sums it up - all of the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and the Prophets (most of the rest of the Old Testament).  It is not an emotion that we feel for someone on Valentines day; love is a verb that describes an action.

First, that action should be directed toward God.  We love God first and foremost.  When we love someone, we also love the things which that person loves and care about the things which that person cares about.  Loving God brings us to our second command.

Love others.  God loves all of his people and he calls us to love them as well.

If the first commandment about loving God is the vertical line and the second commandment about loving others is the horizontal line, then the Cross is where these two lines come together - the perfect example of love.  God calls us to love.

Even the commandments seem to follow this pattern:
1 You will have no other gods
2 You will not take God's name in vain
3 Remember the Sabbath day
(all three are about loving God)

4 Honor your father and mother
5 You will not murder
6 You will not commit adultery
7 You will not steal
8 You will not bear false witness
9 You will not covet your neighbor's house
10 You will not covet anything else of your neighbor
(all seven of these are about loving others and how we live while loving others)

The greatest commandment is to love.

Making Disciples

So what now?  Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus is a little more elusive, a little harder to follow compared to how the disciples had followed Jesus around Galilee and to Jerusalem.  They had not always been able to keep up with Jesus intellectually or spiritually, but at least the disciples could physically follow Jesus.  After the resurrection, that was harder, too.

Matthew records that Jesus had one more thing to tell the disciples.  He had instructions on what to do next.  They were short and to the point, but extremely hard to carry out.

^{Matthew 28:18-20
18} Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

It would have been easier if Jesus could have just told the disciples to talk to people about what they experienced.  They would have been able to follow instructions like, "Celebrate my life!" or "Create ways to remember my parables and miracles."  Writing spiritual music and making religious art would have been simpler.  It would have even been easier for the disciples to build a nice church for people to attend for about an hour every Sunday morning.

All those things are great, but smaller pieces of Jesus' request.  Jesus asks for more.  Jesus is commissioning disciples to make disciples.  They can't just be listeners, or even believers.  Jesus wants disciples of disciples.

The mark of a follower of Jesus, then, is not someone who desires more people to believe in Jesus, the mark is someone who creates disciples.  Disciples of Jesus are people who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, who make...

Not Only 'Mary had a little lamb'

The four Gospels have some differences, but there is one strong (and maybe strange) similarity: the climax of their story is the cross.  Jesus had clearly told his disciples what is going to happen to him, and yet they are still surprised.

Holy week commemorates the last week of Jesus' earthly life stretching from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday.  Thursday is often called Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday.  The word "Maundy" is connected to the  word 'mandate' which was a significant event in the upper room when the disciples ate the last supper with Jesus.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus gives them a new commandment/rule/mandate that they should live by: love.

Good Friday was good for us, but hard for Jesus.  The church services on Good Friday often revolve around the last words of Jesus which he spoke while he was on the cross.  There are seven, but all four Gospels are needed to get the full set of seven.  His phrases were monumental: Father, forgive them... In to your hands I commit my spirit... Today you will be with me in paradise... It is finished.

Yet one phrase is rather disconcerting.  It doesn't completely match what we think about God.  God would never really forsake Jesus, would He?  Since Jesus is God, God never really did forsake Jesus, right?  Why did he say that?  Why would anyone want to write it down?

I believe that the pain Jesus was going through was greater than we can imagine.  It is true that it was physically excruciating, but the sins of all people were placed on him in fulfillment of the atonement for sin done in the Old Testament.  With God being holy, the Father could not embrace the Son whom he loved because of the sin heaped upon him.  Jesus must have felt lonely.

And yet I think there is another significant reason that Jesus spoke these words.  If I said the words, "Mary had a little lamb," you would probably have several ideas in your head.  One idea is Mary having a lamb, but it would probably also be joined with the ideas that this lamb has really white wool and would follow Mary all over the place.  "Mary had a little lamb," is not so much a sentence as much as the first line to a familiar song.  Since it is so common, I can equate that one line with the entire song.

Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 
   Why are you so far from saving me, 
   so far from the words of my groaning?


The entire psalm is being recalled by only saying the first line.  When Jesus said the first words, the rest of Psalm 22 starting flowing through the minds of those faithful Jews who knew this Psalm.  The words of this psalm were strangely similar to what they were witnessing.

I wonder what those people felt when they made the connection between Psalm 22 and what was happening. I imaging the gasp or chill you get from a great suspense or mystery where the clues and answers have been given throughout the entire story, but only at the end are they able to be assembled to make sense.  Can we stand there with the centurion and declare, "Surely, he was the Son of God."?  The story of Jesus is the greatest story every told.

This is how we can be like Jesus.  We are not able to be born of a virgin, walk on water, heal the sick, raise the dead, or endure the sufferings that Jesus went through.  We are able to die, though.  This is why Paul says that "If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection." We can be joined with him on Good Friday, so that we might also celebrate with him on Easter.  Easter is about our resurrection, too!

This is probably why the author of Revelation makes the point that to be connected to The Lamb, we should:

Revelation 2:10b

Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.