Sunday: Life

While at one of my least-favorite places recently (the mall), I witnessed a painful experience of a young man around the age of 12.

A group of boys about the same age approached this boy and a companion at one of the crosswalks.  At first, it looked like they were all part of the same gang - no matter - the larger group began teasing the other two who looked a bit heavy for their age.  "Loser!" the gang called out, holding their hands up at their foreheads making an "L" with their thumb and first finger. 

The two boys yelled, "Stop!" and started to run, clumsily, to be frank.  The others didn't pursue them, but continued to yell "loser!" at the boys while laughing.

It all happened so quickly and at such a distance where nothing could be done.  The only thing left was to think how sad; sad for the boys who would quite possibly carry the label with them for the rest of their lives, and sad for the others who would, no doubt, be emboldened to repeat their verbal assaults on others.

Labels can be a hard thing to carry.  Labels like "Loser" can establish or reinforce one's sense of self-worth.  Labels can also be easy to carry, when status is sought. 

Another label is a symbol of life.

What if someone stepped in and said, "Yes, 'loser' starts with an 'L,' and so does 'loved.'"
What about "lost?"  How about "lead?"

The cross turns the label of "Loser" around to "Loved."  Loved by God who cares about us so much that there is victory over death.  Victory over abuse.  Victory over addiction, loss, and betrayal.  He, Jesus, bore all these things for us.

Isaiah 53:5 says, "But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed."

Through Jesus's resurrection, our identity is with him.  He is our Savior, King, and brother.

And we also identify with Jesus's suffering.  When we trust him in the midst of our trouble, we can have peace - a peace that surpasses all of our trials.

I love reading the "Faith Hall of Fame" found in Hebrews 11 and 12.  Toward the tail-end of these verses where Paul says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."  How wonderful!

Saturday: Shock

If you were a Roman the day after Jesus was crucified, your day was probably business as usual.  After all, just another one of those rebels was hung out as a warning to the others.  And, by the way, there were others that needed to be hunted down and taught a lesson.

But if you were a follower of Jesus, your Saturday would be very different.  "How could this happen?  We thought he was the Son of God!  Now what do we do?  He was supposed to deliver us from the Romans!  Everything was going so well until yesterday!  This wasn't supposed to happen!"  It's so quiet, yet the disciples were scattered and fearing for their lives.

"God, where are you?"

Not much is written about Saturday, but we can certainly relate.  When God is quiet after a crisis or tragedy, we feel lost, scared, and alone.  Confused.  Shocked.

Saturday in life is a day that follows a great blow to our lives.  Someone becomes ill or dies suddenly.  We lose a job.  A spouse leaves.  An addiction is discovered.  A crime is committed.   How can God let this happen?

The day after Jesus died, I'll bet the disciples and Jesus followers were shocked and confused.  Yet God, in his time, had another plan that wasn't yet visible....

Friday: Nailed

A cross worn as a piece of jewelry - a reminder of who we belong to.  Do we wear the cross, or should we be nailed to it?

If we truly believe that Jesus is who he says he is, we need to heed Luke 9:23:  "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me."

In this day, where we're "blessed" with success, comfort, and possessions, we naturally want peace.  Images of violence are unattractive for most of us and our media tends to filter what we are subject to seeing.  Avoiding images of what Jesus's beating and death were like leads us to think that he wen to his death brave, confident, and as a king.  We know, however, from historical records and from the Bible that he (being fully human) felt our pain.

Jesus suffered a brutal death, and the moments leading up to it were full of anxiety, brutality, and emotional suffering.

First, Jesus was crushed with grief to the point of death (Matthew 26:38) to the point of appearing that he was sweating blood - the stress and worry of what he would go through caused capillaries to rupture.

After his arrest, Jesus was beaten with lead-tipped whips (John 19:1) and his skin was spilt open with other tools of torture, including stick-type whips that split his back open.  He was beaten badly enough that he wasn't recognizable, having his face bloodied and swollen, and the rest of him beaten to the point where he could barely walk.  In fact, another man had to carry the cross with Jesus for a time on the way to Golgotha.

The heading in my Bible "Jesus is placed on the cross" lead me to believe, at first, that he was carefully laid in place, like setting a dinner table when, in fact, he was nailed to the cross with spikes, arms stretched wide, with nothing to support his feet.  He would not be able to stand to take the weight off of his arms to allow him to breathe, yet there was just enough of a step to allow him to suffer, standing only as long as he could bear the pain in his feet and legs, only to collapse and put the weight back on his hands, arms, shoulders, and chest and resume his suffocation.  In fact, when those being crucified didn't die fast enough, according to the soldiers, a mallet was used to break the legs to prevent any "cheating" of standing to breathe.

As Jesus death was upon him, he said, "It is finished" and died.  Not only was his life on earth finished, but our debt of sin was paid.

So here I sit, at my computer, writing down a few thoughts.

Just a few minutes ago, I read several news reports of a recently-discovered prison (or prisons) in Egypt where our Christian brothers and sisters are being beaten, tortured, and killed for their faith.

What's our responsibility then, if we truly believe that Jesus is who he says he is?  Suffered the torture and death he did in order to save us from God's wrath?  Our lives are so short - we have limited time to devote to God and others.  History has an expiration date.

First, we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We must do all we can in our power, through prayerful action, to help our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We have knowledge that they are being tortured and dying.  Now we must act, pressing for human rights upon those who hold others captive for their beliefs.  Our representatives cannot ignore this if we are truly who we say we are as a nation.  We as believers cannot ignore this if we truly believe.

All of us deserve to be nailed to the cross that Jesus was nailed to.  The thing is, he did it so we wouldn't have to.  So that we would be in right standing with God; blameless.

His command is clear: We are to put our own self-actualization aside and love and serve.

God Doesn't Lie

At times, it's easy to let ourselves be deceived into diverting our attention away from God's promises and our true identity in Christ.

Hebrews 6:18-19 tells us that God keeps his promises.  Through Christ, God promises that we are part of his family.  We can rest assured, literally, that we belong to Him.  We are in his arms.

"So God has given both his promise and his oath.  These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.  Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.  This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.  It leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary."

Remember a short time ago, Galatians 2:20 was posted:  "My old self was crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

We have God's promise that Christ lives in us; those who believe.

We also know that we can believe God's promises.
- God loved and chose us to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  He adopted us into his family through Jesus Christ.

- We know from eyewitness accounts (like John and many others) that Jesus lived, was crucified, and was seen again after his resurrection.  This is fact, not fiction.

- We know God is good.  For instance, he loves me more than I can even love my own children!  If my daughter asks for bread, would I give her a stone?  No!  We can count on God being good to us, because he loves us.

"Father, thank you for reminding me of who I am in and through my faith in Jesus Christ, who loved me and died for me, even while I sinned.  Thank you for your promise of my true identity - I am yours, living in the dangerous security of your life for me.  Would you forgive me for taking my eyes off of you?  For allowing my self to be deceived into forgetting who I really am?  I accept your forgiveness and bow to your will for me.  Amen."

Thank you, Mr. Ortberg

It's amazing at what a 3rd reading of a book will do for you.

As I prepare my heart for Easter (we also prepared our hearts for Christmas too!), I've been focusing and meditating on Bible verses having to do with the price Jesus paid to save little ol' me.  In addition, a 3rd read of John Ortberg's book, Who Is This Man? revealed stuff I missed before and had to share it.

Did you know there are no stories of a higher-status person washing the fee of a lower-status person?  We never read of a rabbi washing his diciples' feet, except this rabbi, who, by the way, said he was the Messiah.  (Jesus also washed Judas' feet just moments before Judas left the upper room to pay a visit to the Sanhedrin)

Within a few hours, Jesus would be arrested, convicted, and executed as a criminal.

The next time I go into a restaurant, I'll ask myself, "Who, in God's eyes, are the great ones?"  Betcha it's the servers, bus-ers, and waitstaff.

I never realized it before, but Paul was beaten to a pulp in Phillipi before he told his accusers he was a Roman citizen.  Why didn't he claim to be a Roman and avoid the whole painful ordeal?  Ortberg states that Paul knew that the Christians (as they were called) would suffer for their faith.  Paul could have avoided the beating, but he knew "lower-status" persons (the Christians and many of whom were not even considered citizens) would not be able to pull out the get-out-of-jail card.  Paul humbled himself and took his licks.

Just a few pages earlier, Ortberg explains what status was in the Roman culture, laying out the hierarchy of the elites.  Funny, those in togas had the highest stature, showing all with their flowing robes that they were above others; walking past the slaves and lowly ones of society.  To earn status, there was always a climb up the ladder, to gain more, even having higher status if one owned and used horses for transportation.

In the corporate world today, I noticed the suits and ties; the "game faces" and competitive stares - and wondered, have we really improved since the days of the Roman Empire?