These are Written that You May Believe

April 27, 2025

            It’s a phrase that we, as Christians, hear all the time; Christ-likeness.  We are called to be Christ-like, but what does that really mean?  I mean, to begin with, Jesus is perfect.  We are not.  So, how are we supposed to emulate something that is completely unattainable?  Well, the first thing that we need to know is that God does not expect the impossible, and truthfully, Christ-likeness isn’t about perfect behavior anyway.  I’ve spoken often about the fact that Christianity isn’t so much about what we do as it is about who we are, or more accurately, who we are in Christ, and the good news is that in last week’s and this week’s stories, Jesus has modeled for us a lot of the attributes that comprise Christ-likeness. 

            Last week we talked about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and we discussed how lowly this job of washing feet was, to the point where Jewish law prohibited Jewish slave owners from forcing their Jewish slaves to perform this task.  But this example, set by Jesus, was not intended to inspire us to go out and daily wash the feet of others, it was intended to teach us a foundational truth about love.  And that is that love, real love, what the Greeks called ἀγάπη (a-ga-pay) love, is selfless.  It is a love that denies self in the interest of serving others.  Jesus wasn’t calling us to become professional  foot washers, He was teaching us about the depth of love that we are called to have for others.  This isn’t about actions or behaviors.  This kind of selfless, extravagant love is an integral part of Jesus’ character; it’s WHO HE IS!  And because Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, it’s who God is as well.  And since we are called to Christ-likeness it’s an attribute that needs to be developed in our lives too.

            And so, our first step in understanding Christ-likeness today is understanding that we need to allow the Spirit to grow within our hearts that same kind of love; a love where we are willing to completely lose ourselves in the act of loving and caring for others.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t take care of ourselves; far from it.  It simply means that, at the times that God puts people or circumstances in our path, and we find that the Spirit is leading us to love and care for that particular person or that particular circumstance, that we provide that care with a love that is willing to put the needs of others first, a love that is willing to “take a back seat” as it were, in order to provide for the needs of this person or circumstance that God has asked us to care for.  The call… is to have this kind of love not just as a behavior, but for it to be a part of our character, just as it is a part of the character of Jesus. 

            But that was last week’s lesson.  In our story today Jesus shows us two more attributes of His character that we are also called to grow in to. 

            One of the things that I really love about the Bible is the fact that it tells us real stories.  There is no whitewashing of human foibles or frailties, people are not presented as heroes when they are not, and often the failings of humanity are presented with brutal honesty.  The Bible does not present a rosy picture of faith, the Bible tells the truth, even when truly faithful people fail miserably.  Over the last few weeks, the conduct of the disciples has generally been somewhat less than stellar.  They have consistently failed to understand what Jesus has been trying to tell them about His impending death and resurrection.  They have argued about who was the greatest, they have asked for preferential treatment from Jesus when He comes into His kingdom, and then as Jesus was arrested all of them, except for the disciple who Jesus loved, ran away and Peter denied Jesus three times.  Not a great couple of weeks for the disciples.

            Our story today tells us that after the crucifixion the disciples are in hiding “for fear of the Jews”.  And not without reason.  The Jewish authorities were determined to put an end to all of this “Messiah foolishness” and so it was quite reasonable for the disciples to be concerned that the authorities would be after them next.  Couple this with the fact that the Romans were well known for their brutality when dealing with insurrections and that they made a practice of pursuing and crucifying every single follower of these rebellious leaders after the leaders had been captured and crucified.  So, I think that it is fair to say that the caution exercised by the disciples was prudent.  But there is one thing that the disciples, not surprisingly, were missing.  Our story today tells us that Mary had already reported to them the fact that Jesus was alive and that she had seen Him and spoken with Him.  Our parallel resurrection story in Luke tells us that the disciples “did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” 

            Let me put this into perspective.  Mary had been charged by Jesus Himself to go and to bring the Good News to the disciples that He was alive, and the disciples simply refused to believe.  But I think that there is more going on here than just their fear of being tracked down and crucified by the authorities.  There also must have been, especially in Peter, an anxiety over how they may potentially be received by the risen Jesus.  After all, in spite of all of their protestations to the contrary, they had, all but one of them, abandoned Jesus, and Peter had denied Him three times, exactly as Jesus had told him he would do.  It isn’t hard to imagine that they were expecting a stinging rebuke from Jesus at best.  And yet as they were cowering behind closed and locked doors, Jesus appeared among them, and His first words to them were?  Anyone?  “Peace be with you”. 

            You see, a second part of Jesus’ character is that of being forgiving.  Jesus, in offering peace to His disciples, was seeking to dispel all of their anxiety, all of their fear.  The guilt which the disciples were feeling, while well founded, was going to interfere with the task that Jesus was about to place before them, and so forgiveness and restoration were essential.  Jesus needed to give the disciples a clean slate, to restore them, and to reassure them that He still loved them every bit as much as He always had, and that He needed for them to let the past BE the past in order that they may step up and fulfill the mission that Jesus was about to place in front of them.

            And so, after love, the second aspect of our character that we are called to develop in our quest to become more like Christ, is the aspect of being forgiving.  Harboring guilt or harboring anger prevents us from loving one another.  And if loving each other fulfills the law and the prophets, then we must be willing both to forgive in order that others may be made whole, AND to accept forgiveness in order to constructively deal with our guilt and to allow our relationships to be restored.  In both of these instances, not only are we restoring those relationships but even more, we are witnessing to the world the truth of God’s love – that is, at its very core, reconciling, restoring, and forgiving.

            And this brings us to the next part of our story today, where Jesus exhibits a third integral part of His character.  After Jesus says a second time to the disciples “Peace be with you”, He then continues, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  The third part of Jesus’ character, this third attribute that we are to nurture and develop… is mission.  I wrote a song several years ago that centered on the idea that God actively pursues relationship with His children.  I called the song “Relentless Love”, and while the word relentless is usually used in a negative manner, as in something bad that just won’t go away, I couldn’t think of a better word to describe God’s love than relentless.  Through all of our sins and all of our failings and all of our imperfections; through our moments of doubt and our moments of faithlessness, God is relentlessly faithful to love us and to call us to follow Him.  This steadfast refusal to give up on His beloved children and His continual pursuit of reconciliation and restoration is another integral part of God’s character, and another core component of this Christ-likeness to which we are called.

            Fiddes explains, “The reason why mission is of the very being of the church is that mission is not just imitating the sending forth of Jesus.  It is a participation in the Father’s own sending of the Son… mission is rooted in the very being of the Triune God”. [1]  And as mission is part of the character of Jesus, so we are called to be a missional people as well.

            But let’s take a look at what we just learned.  Why are we forgiving?  We are forgiving because forgiveness is rooted in love.  We can’t be loving if we are angry because of what someone else has done to us, and we can’t be loving if we are feeling guilty over the fact that we hurt someone.  And so, forgiveness pours from a heart that loves as God loves.  Forgiveness reconciles and restores loving relationships.

And we are also missional because of love.  When we know from our personal experiences the love and grace and peace and joy that are so very much a part of the Christian experience, we want everyone that we know to experience this joy as well.  At the heart of our quest for Christ-likeness is love, and one of the many ways that we show that love is helping others to find that same love for themselves.  Now, we are imperfect people and so we won’t always find it easy to love as we are called, but God, through the Holy Spirit, will guide us and teach us how to love.  And God will eagerly forgive our sins and imperfections in order that we may love as He loves in ways that are gracious and forgiving, and missional. 

Taylor says, “Not only do we need to see the resurrected Christ, we need to realize that the world is looking to us to see Him. How are we showing resurrection to a desperate world? How are we offering [peace] instead of fear?  Jesus sends us out, just as surely as he sent those cowering disciples.” [2]  Love compels us to seek to bring to others the peace that we know can only come from a right relationship with God.  And that peace can only be attained when one begins to follow Jesus; when one aligns themselves with Christ’s attributes of love, forgiveness, and mission.

Klink writes, “It is not the church but God who is the primary actor.  Before the world even knew of its condition or could recognize its Creator, God ‘sent’ Himself to the world.  God is the first and foundational missionary.  The fact that God ‘sent’ is itself a declaration regarding the true nature of God.  The actions of God are a reflection of the very life of God… that ‘God’s own life is Gospel shaped’.  Just as God is rightly described as loving or sovereign, so also is He rightly described as missionary” [3]

Leaving the story of Thomas for another day, our section concludes with Jesus imparting the Holy Spirit on the disciples and then making a rather curious statement, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”  This passage might lead one to believe that we are empowered to forgive or to bind sin, but a proper reading of the Greek here gives us a better understanding of what is being taught.  The eminent Greek scholar Dr. Julias R. Mantey translates this passage as “Whoever’s sin you have forgiven shall have already been forgiven them.  Whoever’s sin you have not forgiven shall have already not been forgiven them”.  Warren Wiersbe explains, “The disciples did not provide forgiveness, they proclaimed forgiveness on the basis of the message of the Gospel.” [4]  It’s not that God has given the disciples, or us, authority to forgive or to bind sin, it is that we are called to provide the Good News of forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name, and that acceptance or rejection of our message has eternal consequences.

In light of this understanding, our responsibility to be bearers of the Good News, to SHOW the world the love of God, in Christ-like living that is loving, forgiving, and always reaching out to others, becomes enormously, enormously important.

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, it is this to which we are called.  As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us.  Let us always be willing and faithful to answer that call.

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[1] Paul Fiddes, “Mission and Liberty: A Baptist Connection” in Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology, (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2003) 249-73 (251)

[2] Jo Anne Taylor, APastorSings.com, John 2019-31-Thomas-Sylvester

[3] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 867

[4] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Transformed, Pg. 167

I Have Seen the Lord

April 20, 2025

I used to be pretty stubbornly closed minded.  I believed what I believed, and I didn’t leave much room, if any, for things that I considered to be on the fringe, or contrary to the neat little box into which I had placed my theology.  One of the things that I took a rather dim view of was speaking in tongues.  An early Christian mentor of mine had once explained to me that the tongue speaking, disease healing, demon exorcising, dead raising, first century apostles were specially gifted with the ability to do these things because some miraculous activity was warranted in order to “kick start” this new Christian faith.  These miracles, he told me, just weren’t something that happened anymore.  And I was perfectly content to live with this flawed and narrow-minded belief structure, until I made a friend.

This friend was a person who lived their faith beautifully.  And yet, they had a difficulty in their life that was far greater than anything that I could ever imagine trying to live with.  It was truly a burden on them, and a heavy one at that.  I often marveled at how this person was able to keep things together when everything about them seemed to be falling apart.  And then, one day, I found out that this person regularly spoke in tongues.  And surprisingly, the first thought that I had when I found this out was not one of skepticism, it was one of dawning comprehension.  In a circumstance where abundant grace was desperately needed in this person’s life, God granted that need with the gift of tongues.  In a person’s life that was so disrupted and so chaotic, God gently touched this person with a Spiritual gift that spoke volumes to them, re-assuring them that God was intimately active in their lives, that God loved them, and that God was walking every single step with them in their trials.

I also was often skeptical when I heard people say that God was talking to them.  Yes, I did understand the guidance of the Holy Spirit and how the spirit will lead us, mostly with ideas and notions and nudges in one direction or another, but I found the idea of having words coming to a person directly from God to strain the limits of credulity. 

Most of you know that in 2021 I lost my wife of almost 48 years.  I was 15 when we met, 16 when we had our first date, and 19 when we were married.  We didn’t have a perfect marriage, we managed to drive each other nuts on a pretty regular basis, but her love was everything to me.  On the morning that I lost her; the very first thing that happened was that a Bible verse just appeared in my mind.  It wasn’t a verse that I had ever memorized, it wasn’t a verse from a book that I had ever led a Bible study on, in all honesty it was a verse that I had never really paid much attention to, but on the morning that I lost her, there that verse was, plainly in my mind, as if someone had just spoken it to me.  The verse was from 1 Corinthians 15 and said “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.   And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”  At a time when I was in desperate need of comfort, God stepped into my life and reminded me of the incredibly Good News of Easter.  That Christ is alive, and that He has conquered sin and death, and that death no longer means “goodbye”.

In our story this morning we find Mary Magdalene on her way to Jesus’ tomb while it is still dark.  The other gospels tell us that other women went with her, and when Mary eventually speaks to the disciples she does indeed say “we” and not “I”, so, she wasn’t alone, but the author of John focuses his story on Mary. 

Because Jesus had died on the eve of the Passover his body was buried in haste.  Mary and the other women were going to the tomb to complete the burial ritual so that Jesus could have a proper burial.  When they arrived at the tomb Mary was shocked and dismayed to discover that the stone had been rolled away, and that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. 

Possibly Joseph of Arimathea had moved the body, after all, it was a borrowed tomb.  Or perhaps the Jewish authorities had moved the body, not wishing for it to become a shrine for Jesus’ followers.  Or maybe grave robbers had vandalized His tomb.  Mary doesn’t know what happened.  All she knows for sure is that Jesus’ body is missing, and that the only logical explanation for this is that someone took it.  Distraught, Mary runs to tell the disciples what happened.  Peter, and the disciple who Jesus loved ran to the tomb to investigate and they found it to be exactly as Mary had told them.  But strangely, they found the burial clothes laying neatly in the tomb with the cloth that had covered Jesus’ face neatly folded and placed on the shelf where His body had laid.

Our story tells us that Peter and the disciple who Jesus loved, “still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead” and with nothing else that they could do there, they returned home.  But Mary stayed behind at the tomb, crying.  Mary was convinced that someone had taken the body.  And then, when she looked into the tomb again, she saw two angels sitting there.  But Mary just couldn’t shake the idea that someone had taken the body and so when the angels asked her why she was crying, she said it was because she didn’t know where they had taken Him.  And then Mary turned around and saw who she presumed to be the gardener, and she asked him if he knew where they had taken Jesus’ body. 

It took exactly one word from the supposed gardener for Mary to go from grief to joy.  Mary!  Jesus exclaimed.  And at once Mary recognized His voice.  And we recall the passage where Jesus taught us that His sheep know His voice.  Mary must have embraced Jesus because He told her “Do not hold on to me because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  This seems odd because Jesus allowed Thomas to touch his wounds, but the word that Jesus uses here that we translate “touch” in the Greek is ἅπτομαι (hap-toe-my) which doesn’t so much mean “touch” as it means to cling to or to adhere.  Mary didn’t just touch Jesus, she clung to Him as if she wasn’t about to let Him go.  But now, Jesus had more important things for Mary to do than just to hold on to Him. 

Jesus told Mary to bring the news to the disciples and Mary went directly to them and proclaimed “I have seen the Lord”.  And in so doing, Mary Magdaline became the first evangelist; the first person charged by Jesus to bear the Good News that He was alive!  And please note the fact that Jesus didn’t wait for a man to come around to be the bearer of this news.  In fact, Peter and the Disciple that Jesus loved had already gone home.  It was Mary who waited, trying to solve the mystery of what had happened.  And though Mary’s proposed scenario of someone taking the body was completely wrong, she received the news of Jesus’ resurrection immediately and with great joy and rushed to bring the Good News to the others.

Mary did not keep her theology in a neat little box.  Mary instantly broadened her perspective with one word from Jesus.  Mary was not willing to put limits on the things that she believed God could do, even when one of those things was as completely impossible as a resurrection from the dead.  If we limit what we believe that God can do, whether it is having someone speaking in tongues or having God speak directly to our minds or to our hearts, or even God raising His Son from the dead, then we may miss out on some of God’s greatest blessings.  One could conceivably even miss out on the opportunity to become one of Jesus’ followers.  How many people in Jerusalem that week welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday and then called for His crucifixion on Friday because He didn’t meet their expectations?  We need to be willing to ask ourselves the hard questions, but then, after we ask them, we really need to stop and listen to what God has to say.

Theologian Karl Barth says we come to worship to answer this one, simple question: “Is it true?” Is it true that God exists? Is it true that he created a perfect world, and that humans were part of that creation? Is it true that he wanted us to love him the same way he loves us, freely, and of our own choice, so he made it possible for us to choose not to love him? Is it true that we broke his heart and the perfect world he created by choosing the wrong thing, and he’s been working to heal our brokenness ever since? Is it true that he loves us so much he gave his only Son to die, so that we could be reconciled to him? Is it true that this same Son not only died, but rose again, to give us eternal life?  Is it true?”  If we are not open to miraculous possibilities, we may never know; we may never find out. 

            But to the heart that is open, to the heart that believes in God without limits, the resurrection stands as a brand-new beginning.  Satan no longer has any power over us, because Satan stands defeated and because God’s Spirit protects us from Satan’s influence.  And death no longer has any power over us because we know that if Jesus was raised from the dead, those who belong to Him will share in His resurrection.  There is no greater Good News than this. 

And there is one more thing that I would like to point out about today’s lesson.  Throughout the Gospels Jesus refers to His followers sometimes as “disciples”, sometimes as “servants” and sometimes as “friends”.  When He speaks of the Father He refers to Him as “the Father”, or “the Father who sent me”, or as “my Father”.  But look at what Jesus does here in verse 17, “Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”  The word Jesus uses that we translate “brother” is ἀδελφός (a-del-fos) and ἀδελφός literally means “from the same womb”.  It is a word that expresses a deep familial relationship, and this is the first time that Jesus has referred to His followers as His brothers (or more correctly as His brothers and sisters!)  It is also the first time that Jesus has referred to God as “my Father and your Father, my God and your God”.  N. T. Wright says, “Something has altered, decisively.  Something has been achieved.  A new relationship has sprung into life like a sudden spring flower.  The disciples are welcomed into a new world: a world where they can know God the way Jesus knew God, where they can be intimate children with the Father.  [1]

This new type of relationship isn’t just for the disciples.  It’s for all of us.  When we read the story of the crucifixion we read that, at the moment that Jesus died, the curtain in the Temple was torn in two.  The most holy place in the temple was the holy of holies, which was the dwelling place of God’s presence.  The holy of holies was separated from the rest of the temple by a curtain that hung 60 feet from ceiling to floor.  The holy of holies was entered only once each year on the Day of Atonement, and only by the High Priest.  So terrifying was the prospect of entering the Holy of Holies that tradition tells us that when the High Priest entered there he had bells tied to his robe so that the rest of the priests could hear him moving, and he had a rope tied to his ankle so that if  the bells stopped ringing because he had been struck dead they could pull him out without anyone else having to enter.  It was this curtain, the curtain that separated the temple from the awesome place of God’s presence that was torn in two.  Through the work that Jesus did on the cross, no longer do we need to fear being in the presence of God.  We don’t need any ropes tied around our ankles.  Through Jesus we can come to God directly and be welcomed as treasured members of God’s beloved family.

This, my friends, is the meaning of Easter.  It’s a story of God refusing to let us go.  It’s a story of God pursuing us until His love finally touches our hearts and causes us to turn to Him.  It’s a story of a God who loves His children with a love that will stop at nothing in its quest to reconcile them to Himself.  And this wonderful, gracious, extravagant, love, He holds just for you.

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[1] N. T. Wright, John for Everyone Part 2: Chapters 11-21, Pg. 103

You’re Not Washing MY Feet

April 17, 2025

            In Exodus and again in Leviticus the Bible gives very specific instructions as to how the Jewish people will celebrate their Passover.  For centuries Jewish families have followed these instructions and for at least the last 2500 years Jewish families have used variations of what we today call the Haggadah, a Hebrew word that means to tell or explain a story.  The Haggadah provides a script for families to follow during the Passover Seder.  This book includes the list of the food and drink served during the meal, the order in which it is served, and a text to read that includes the Exodus story.  Any time that children are involved in the Seder there are activities for the children that are designed to draw them into the experience and to teach them the meaning of the various symbols that are used and to teach them why the Passover matters.  The object of this is to make the Passover real and personal for each succeeding generation.  It’s not just a story, as a Jew, the story of the Exodus is an integral part of the Jewish identity.  The exodus is the great redemptive act of the Hebrew Bible.

            For the Christian, the telling of the story of the passion of Jesus shares a similar objective.  The death and resurrection of Jesus is the great redemptive act of the Christian Bible, and we as Christians also need to be striving to make this story to be real and personal to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially to our children.  Every time we have communion, we recite the story of the Last Supper and admonish those taking communion to remember; to remember Christ’s sacrifice, and to rejoice anew in His resurrection.  But there is more to the Biblical story on this special Thursday of Holy Week than just the Last Supper, and so, it’s important for us to understand all of what it is that Jesus is teaching us in the events of Maundy Thursday.

            We begin with Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and there are a few things about this event that are unusual.  First of all, it was common for a host to have a servant wash the feet of their guests when they first arrived.  But this foot washing was considered to be just about the lowliest of possible jobs.  So much so that the task would usually only be done by slaves if they were available, and Jewish law even prohibited Jewish slaves from being forced to perform this task.  So, if you wanted to wash the feet of your guests it had to be done by a gentile slave.  Our story today tells us that Jesus removed His outer clothing and wrapped a towel around His waist.  In so doing, Jesus was dressed in the way that a slave would have been dressed when they performed this task.

            The second curious thing was, that Jesus did not do this as His guests arrived.  Nor did He do it following the meal.  He actually did this right in the middle of the meal, getting up from the table while they were eating.  This was an absolutely unheard-of way of doing this.  But of course, the most unusual thing of all was the fact that Jesus Himself was doing the washing.  And I would like to take a moment for us to reflect on what this means.  The creator of the universe, He who literally spoke creation into existence, He who created the sun and the moon and the stars and earth and every living thing, including us, assumed the role of the lowliest slave and washed the feet of His disciples.  It’s not at all hard for us to understand why Peter would have had such a negative reaction.  The English translation does not adequately convey the force with which Peter vehemently opposes the idea of Jesus washing his feet.  But Jesus tells Peter that while Peter does not yet understand why Jesus has to do this, he eventually will understand, and so, it must be done.  Jesus further tells Peter that if He doesn’t do this, that Peter has no part of Him.

            And so, Jesus… God Himself, washed the feet of the disciples, including Peter… and also including Judas.  In verse 2 of today’s reading the author of John lets us in on a little secret.  When Jesus later says in verse 18 that one of the disciples will betray Him, the rest of the disciples are clueless as to who it might be, but back in verse 2 the author tells US that, “the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.”  Before Jesus even began the act of washing the feet of His disciples, He already knew that Judas would betray Him, and yet still Jesus washed his feet.  Why would Jesus do that? 

Our answer to this question is stated in verse 1, but the answer requires us to dig a little bit.  John 13:1B, “Having loved his own who were in the world, [Jesus] loved them to the end.”  And the Greek word that we translate as “end” is τέλος (tay-los) which actually means completing something in its entirety, or the final achieving of an overall purpose.  It is as we might say, “when all is said and done”.  When we read this verse, to whom do we assume the Bible is referring when it says, “His own”?  Who is it that Jesus loves to the end?  Is it the disciples?  Is it His followers?  Is it His church?  To answer this, let’s go all the way back to John 1:11… “He came to that which was his own, but his owndid not receive him.”  It turns out that “His own” is all of humanity.  Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and indeed went to the cross because He loved them.  And He washed the feet of Judas because He loved him too. 

God loves His entire creation.  And He loves every single one of His beloved children who He created, even Judas who betrayed Him.  God grieves at the loss of every single one of His beloved children that turns away from Him, and like the shepherd seeking that one lost sheep out of ninety nine, so it is that God actively seeks to find and to redeem as many of His lost children as He possibly can.

How badly does God want this reconciliation with His children?  Enough to go to the cross.

            Our lesson today culminates in a new command.  “Love one another”!  It’s not that loving each other is a new command.  Embedded within the Ten Commandments is the idea of loving one another, as Jesus so eloquently explained in the Sermon on the mount.  But what IS new is the understanding and the implementation of this love.  In Jesus’ washing of the disciples feet, and much more so in the cross, Jesus shows the lengths that WE need to go, in order to love as He loved.  We must empty ourselves of pride and selfishness and serve with the best interests of others standing first in our hearts.  Klink says that when we empty ourselves to serve others we “do not experience a demotion but a promotion to the kind of ‘life’ God offers to His children.” [1]

            In denying ourselves in order to serve others, in this process of giving up our lives in service, we aren’t losing ourselves, we are finding ourselves and we are finding our new home as a part of the body of Christ.  This is why Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and ultimately why He went to the cross.  Because in so doing He showed us that His love for us is so great that there is nothing that He will not do in His mission to reconcile as many of His beloved children to Himself as He possibly can.

            This is the new command.  Love one another!  Selflessly, abundantly, extravagantly, and sacrificially, in order that through us and through our love, each and every one of God’s beloved children is given the potential to discover the opportunity to be reconciled to the God who will love them to the end.

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 586

Wait! Where Are You Going with That Donkey?

April 13, 2025

            It’s curious, you know, this thing with the donkey?  Jesus knew exactly where there would be a young donkey upon which no one had ever sat.  He sent His disciples to the place where He knew this young donkey was and He told His disciples to simply take it.  It didn’t belong to them but just take it anyway.  Jesus told His disciples that if anyone questioned them, they should just say, “The Lord needs it”.  Someone did indeed ask them, and the disciples answered as instructed.  And apparently, that was all they needed to say because Jesus did indeed go riding into Jerusalem on that very donkey… that borrowed donkey.  So, what exactly is going on here?  I’ve read here and there that Jesus might had pre-arranged this with the donkey’s owners, that maybe they were friends of His, or possibly one of His followers.  But I think that that thought might possibly be missing an important point. 

            The Shema is a familiar Jewish prayer found in Deuteronomy, that begins with, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  The Shema is the cornerstone of Jewish prayer and continuing on in Deuteronomy, the Shema contains the commands both to hold the Law in your hearts and also to “Impress [the law] upon your children” and so, from the very earliest times in Judaism, children have been taught the Torah.  Sutton tells us that, “Rabbinic literature is filled with references to schools and schooling and to teaching and learning taking place at all levels, and for all ages from the youngest children through adulthood.” [1]  The earliest Jewish records attest to schools being built at the time that the Israelites were just entering into The Promised Land during the time of Joshua and just after Moses had died.  This is somewhere on the order of 3500 years ago.  Education in the Torah has been a passion of the Jewish people since the beginning and so, even the most average inhabitant of first century Jerusalem would have been well versed in the Law and the Prophets, and as a people under the thumb of the Romans, longing for their Messiah to free them from their current captivity, the apocalyptic verses of prophets such as Zecheriah would have been well known, if not downright popular.  Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” 

            And so, here we have Jesus, who has attracted a lot of attention, healing people, driving out demons, preaching with authority, and now, folks are hearing that He has raised someone from the dead.  Already, people are thinking that perhaps Jesus will declare Himself King, and the disciple’s request to the owner of the donkey to borrow the animal because “The Lord needs it” would have almost certainly brought to the mind of the donkey’s owner that Zecheriah passage, and almost certainly would have fanned the flames of the anticipation of Jesus’ declaration of kingship.  I can’t imagine that the donkey’s owner, in his excitement to play a part in this extraordinary Biblical event, didn’t tell everyone he saw about this Jesus who just borrowed his donkey, and his enthusiasm could possibly have contributed to the size of that immense crowd that welcomed Jesus as He rode that donkey into Jerusalem.

            But there is something that our excited friends in first century Jerusalem were missing.  I’d like to read a short passage from Revelation 6.  “I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”  I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”  This, according to Revelation, is a future event; a part of the end times where the kingdom of heaven will finally be inaugurated among humankind.  But it surely sounds to me a lot more like what our first century Israelite friends were expecting of their Messiah.  But they didn’t get what they were expecting, did they?  In fact, their expectations were quite far removed from the reality of a loving, patient, compassionate, forgiving, king who came not to conquer, but to be a gentle and loving persuader of willing hearts.

            And truthfully, they probably should have known that something was up.  You see, in ancient times, a conquering king would enter the city on a horse, probably carrying a sword or a spear, and he would have been accompanied by a large entourage, soldiers and horsemen and archers.  But when a king came in peace… when the king’s intentions are benevolent, the king would enter the city not on a horse but on a donkey.  The ancients didn’t share our modern opinion about donkeys as being dumb and obstinate creatures.  They regarded Horses and donkeys both as noble animals.  But the horse was an instrument of war and the donkey was an instrument of peace.  Everyone knew that when the king was entering the city on a donkey it meant that he was coming in peace.   

            But we can’t entirely blame the folks in Jerusalem for their expectations.  Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was carefully planned to fit exactly the messianic prophecies.  We’ve already spoken about the Zecheriah reference to the donkey, and we note that it was a young donkey upon which no one had yet ridden.  This also had meaning as the fact that the donkey was unridden meant that the donkey had been set apart for this exact holy purpose.  Also, according to Zecheriah the Messiah would enter Jerusalem by way of the Mount of Olives and so our story tells us that Jesus began His procession on the Mount of Olives.  And it was at this point that the disciples began singing, with others joining in the song as they joined the procession.  And the song that they sang was “Baruch Ha’ba B’shem Adonai, a phrase that we translate as “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”.  But there is more to this than meets the eye also.

            Baruch Ha’ba means “welcome”, but it is a welcome with a blessing attached to it.  In first century Jewish weddings the rabbi would greet the guests and the bride and groom with Baruch Ha’ba.  As the bride and her bridesmaids, waiting for the groom, suddenly saw the groom approaching, the bridesmaids would greet the groom with shouts of Baruch Ha’ba.  The book of Revelation speaks of the church as being Christ’s bride.  According to Baysinger, “This scripture certainly sounds like it is a welcome given to the bridegroom by the bride. Come Bridegroom! Baruch Ha’ba B’shem Adonai.” [2]

            And so, through His actions, Jesus has left no question in the minds of the people of Jerusalem that He was entering the city as a king.  And now, the task for the Jerusalemites, and for us, is to determine exactly what kind of king Jesus is.

            So, let’s take a look at one more thing.  Way back at the beginning of Advent, we had a discussion about preparing the way.  We spoke about the meticulous preparations that preceded a visit by the emperor, making sure that the roads and accommodations were perfect.  And the emperor would have arrived in a grand procession, surrounded by dignitaries and elite military units.  Even if the emperor came in peace riding a donkey, it would still have been an occasion of great pomp and dignity, and also almost certainly there would be tokens reminding the people of the great wealth of the emperor.  Jesus began His procession in Bethphage, a small and very poor town on the outskirts of Jerusalem situated on the Mount of Olives.  With His ride into Jerusalem originating in this poor town among the common people, Jesus entered Jerusalem with a motley collection of very blue collar disciples.  This was not a procession extolling wealth and privilege, this was not a procession extolling power and influence, this was a procession that, for anyone who had been paying attention (those with ears to hear?) reflected exactly the life and ministry of Jesus as He had ministered to the poor and the marginalized, lifting them up to a position of dignity and fellowship with God and with others. 

            And so, we see that not only did Jesus plan His entrance to fulfill the prophesies about the coming of Messiah, He also planned His entrance to send a strong message about just what kind of king He is to be. 

            In five short days much of that crowd in Jerusalem would go from shouts of “Baruch Ha’ba”, to shouts of “crucify Him”!  The crowd was expecting a different kind of king.  The crowd was expecting a king who would bring triumph to the Jewish people, who would dispatch the hated Romans and restore the glory of King David to Israel and to the Jewish people.  I think it is safe to say that when Jesus was arrested and publicly beaten as if He was a common criminal, the people were disillusioned.  “This is no king”, they thought.  This is just another pretender, another wannabe.  To all but a few, the miracles, the healings, the exorcisms, even the raising of the dead are forgotten in a sea of disappointment because the Messiah wasn’t who they THOUGHT He should be.

            We don’t get to follow God on our own terms.  When God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He identified Himself as ἐγώ εἰμι (ego eimi).  We translate this as “I Am”, but a better translation would be “I will be who I will be”.  In both the books of Job and Habakkuk, God rebukes those who question His actions, essentially asking them “who do you think you are to question the author of the universe?”  But surprisingly, in neither of these instances was this a response that God made in anger or in frustration.  It was simply God trying to help us to understand the depth and the breadth of His holiness; trying to help us to understand what it means to trust Him… to truly trust Him.  And a huge part of that trust is about us believing that God always has our best interests at heart.  That all that He does is done out of love for His beloved children.

            And only when we get to the point where we can begin to understand THAT, will the way that Jesus entered Jerusalem begin to make sense.  Only when we begin to trust God’s plan implicitly, can we begin to understand the actions of a loving, compassionate, and forgiving king whose entire objective is the reconciliation of His beloved children to Himself.  A conquering king rules through force, through intimidation and coercion, through fear and threats of violence.  But God rules through love.  God’s rule takes place in our hearts when we are willing to align with Him, when we choose to follow His call to become people of love and grace and compassion ourselves.  And when we share His love with the world, teaching the truth of a king who comes having justice and salvation.  A king who comes humbly, riding on a donkey; a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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[1] Robert E. Sutton, AMIT Children.org, https://amitchildren.org/ancient-jewish-education/

[2] Leisa Baysinger, OurAncientPaths.org, https://www.ourancientpaths.org/post/baruch-ha-ha-b-shem-adonai

When the Signs Become Unmistakable

April 6, 2025

            There is a British company that sells perfume, and I’m not going to advertise them here, but their flagship, non-custom perfume is called, “Imperial Majesty” and it sells for $215,000.00 an ounce. I wish I was kidding… I’m not.  If we don’t count the million-dollar custom perfumes that they make that come in solid gold and diamond encrusted bottles, I believe it is the most expensive commercially available perfume in the world.    Compared to perfumes like these, the perfume that Mary used in today’s story is somewhat of a bargain. 

            Nard is an extract of oil from the Nardostachys Jatamansi plant (maybe?).  This plant grows only in the Himalayas, and only at altitudes above 10,000 feet, so it’s not hard to imagine why this perfume, harvested two miles up a mountain, and transported 3,000 miles on foot, might have been a bit pricey in 1^st century Palestine.  Nard is light red in color and very thick, more of an ointment than an oil, and it has an extremely strong, yet pleasingly fragrant aroma.  In the first century, nard was almost always mixed with other, inferior oils to lower the cost, which is why our text today makes it a point of telling us that the nard was pure and not diluted.  The pound to which our text refers was a Roman measure and was not weight but was volume and it was equivalent to what today would be about 12 ounces, and anyone who has bought perfume or cologne can tell you that enough perfume to fill a soda can is a LOT of perfume.  In fact, Judas was kind enough to do the math for us and determined that the perfume was worth about 300 denarii.  Since a denarius was a standard day’s wage for a common worker, that means that Mary’s nard cost nearly a year’s salary.  The median annual income in the United States in 2024 was $80,610 just to give us a point of reference.  So, Mary’s nard was not quite as expensive as Imperial Majesty, but it was still some pretty darn expensive perfume.

            Our story today tells us that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Jesus’ dear friends were giving Jesus a dinner in His honor, not too long after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.  We read that Lazarus was reclining with Jesus at the table and that Martha was serving.  Back in Luke 10 we had another dinner at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and perhaps you remember that Martha was upset with Mary because Martha was doing all of the work while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened.  Jesus told Martha that to take the opportunity to learn at His feet was one of the “few things [that] are needed – or indeed the only one”.  And yet here we find that Martha is again serving.  But I think that we need to understand that people are different and that they have different ways of doing things.  Martha saw her gift to Jesus as being one of service.  Her preparations and her hosting of the meal, and her desire to make everything perfect was her gift to Jesus.  Or as modern counselors might say, serving was Martha’s language of love.  It’s for this very reason that God gives different gifts to different people, that all of the different needs in this world, and in the world to come, may be filled by those who feel drawn to, and indeed enjoy serving in that particular way.

            But Mary’s language of love is different.  And she who has sat at Jesus’ feet and listened appears to have understood what His disciples had yet to figure out.  Mary appears to have understood the truth about the fact that Jesus was soon to give up His life for the life of the world.  And so, Mary, in an act of unimaginably extravagant love, takes what is probably her most valuable possession, a container of that incredibly expensive nard that we just talked about, and poured the entire container over Jesus’ feet.  And as if that wasn’t enough, she then let down her hair and wiped His feet with her hair.

            And before Judas even said a word, I can assure you that every single person at that table with the possible exception of Jesus, was shocked.  A woman’s long hair was said to be her glory, and Jewish women wore their hair long.  But traditionally, a Jewish woman’s hair would be uncovered and let down only for her husband, and so, Mary’s choice to uncover her hair, to let it down, and to wipe Jesus feet with it was not something that was generally socially acceptable, and so it almost certainly would have raised some eyebrows.  However, Klink tells us that, “Evidence from the ancient world suggests that a lowering of one’s hair in this manner could be a sign of extreme gratitude and an expression of humility.” [1]  Extreme gratitude may be an understatement as Jesus had just recently raised Mary’s beloved brother, Lazarus, from the dead.  But I do believe that there is more to this story than just gratitude over Lazarus. 

            Last week in the story of the Prodigal Son I explained how the word, “Prodigal” can mean “having or giving something on a lavish scale” and I remarked that our story wasn’t really about a prodigal son, but about a prodigal father; a father who had offered lavish and undeserved love and grace to his son.  And so, the question becomes, to a God who gives so extravagantly to us of His love and His grace, what is our proper response?  Time and time again, Jesus tells us that He wants all of us.  In Mark 8 Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, let [them] deny [themselves] and take up [their] cross and follow me. For whoever would save [their] life will lose it, but whoever loses [their] life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”  Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell everything he had, and of course Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.  And so, our call, of course IS to make Jesus our treasure.

            In light of that call, we have to ask ourselves, what is OUR appropriate response to God’s extravagant love?  For Mary, it was to love extravagantly in return… to give extravagantly in return.  Carter and Wredberg tell us that, “The example of Mary forces us to consider what a right response to Jesus looks like.  If we really see Jesus for who He is – the almighty, infinite God of the universe who condescended to take on human form so that He could die a brutal death in the place of His rebellious creatures – if we understand His beauty – that He is the all-satisfying wondrous, joyful God who promises to give peace, blessing, and satisfaction in Himself to those who come to Him – if we get this, how can we possibly withhold anything from Him?”  Is there anything in our lives that is more meaningful to us, more valuable to us, more impactful upon our lives, than God’s gracious love and forgiveness? 

            This isn’t a stewardship sermon.  I have no interest in talking about material gifts today.  I am talking about what we give of our lives.  I am talking about Martha serving at the dinner because that is what she loves doing, and that is what she does best.  It is her gift, and she gives it joyfully, pouring out her love for Jesus in her service.  Lazarus was one of Jesus’ closest friends and as Jesus’ soul was troubled over the events that would transpire over the next two weeks, His dear friend reclined at the table next to Him giving his love, support compassion, and friendship.  This is what Lazarus loves to do and what he does best.  It is his gift of love being poured out for Jesus.  And of course, Mary gives her extravagant gift.  And it is also an act born of love and devotion. 

            And so, we have to ask, what shape does our love and devotion to Jesus take?  I would imagine that most of us know what our gifts are.  What do we love to do?  What brings us joy?  Those things are the gifts with which God has blessed us, and those things are the most appropriate gift for us to return to the One who has given us everything.

            As the fragrance of Mary’s perfume permeated the house, a dissenting voice arose.  “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” Judas asked.  “It was worth a year’s wages.”  Judas might have had a point.  Selling the perfume would have been able to help a lot of people and probably help them pretty significantly.  But a parenthetical statement in our text tells us that Judas didn’t actually care for the poor, he just wanted the money in the disciple’s treasury so that he might be able to help himself to some of it.  But that fact didn’t make his question entirely invalid.  And it doesn’t really help us that Jesus responded with an answer that was somewhat cryptic.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

            And there are two things in Jesus’ statement that we need to address.  The first is the comment about His burial.  And we first must realize that Mary wasn’t washing Jesus’ feet, she was anointing them.  In the ancient world, one was anointed to set them apart for service in a particular role, almost always a really important one like a king or a prophet or a priest.  And anointing was almost always done on the person’s head.  There are, however, extremely rare historical examples of anointings of people’s feet.  And in the ancient world, this was considered to be an act of extravagance.  And so, in the story that we have just witnessed we have Mary, making an extravagant gift, in an extravagant manner, and doing so with extreme gratitude and humility.  In her heart, Mary has anointed Jesus as king; a coronation that will happen on Calvary in two short weeks.

            Jesus’ gentle rebuke of Judas pointed to the different ways that Mary and Judas viewed the extravagance of Mary’s gift.  Judas valued the gift in terms of its financial worth; how much could have been raised by selling it and what potential good may have been done with those funds.  Mary valued the gift as the best and most appropriate offering she could make to her Lord and Savior.  For her, it wasn’t about the value of the perfume, it was about the value of Jesus in her life and the gift that she was able to give, especially in light of the fact that it appeared that Mary had at least some level of understanding of Jesus’ impending sacrifice.

            The second thing that Jesus said is a little problematic.  “You will always have the poor among you” Jesus said.  Over the centuries, this passage has been misinterpreted by some as being an excuse not to help the poor, as if Jesus is somehow being dismissive of the need to care for “the least of these”.  But here, Jesus is echoing the words of Deuteronomy 15:11 that says, “There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land”.  R. C. Sproul explains, “Jesus’ words here may sound callous, but He was not saying the poor should be ignored.  Rather, He was saying that the opportunity to serve Him in a tangible way would not last for long, while ministry to the poor would always be in demand.” [2]

            Yes, Mary’s gift was extravagant, almost beyond measure.  Not everyone has the resources to gift Jesus with something that expensive.  But every one of us has been blessed with gifts of the Spirit, and every one of us has the capacity to give of that gift extravagantly and lovingly.  Today, let us let Mary’s gift be an example, an inspiration, as we each ask ourselves what could be our own extravagant response to the love and forgiveness that God has so abundantly showered upon us. 

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 526

[2] R. C. Sproul, John, Pg. 205