Seasonal Note: I’m beginning a new Three-Year Lectionary based on the Lutheran Book of Worship 3-year lectionary (for public worship), "Prayers of the Day..." (Propers), p. 13-41, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978. It is based, with only minor variations, on the Revised Common Lectionary, used by many denominations, including the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches:
http://www.commontexts.org/
and:
http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/usage.html
The daily readings are the Propers (Lections) for the following Sunday, so that the daily devotions can prepare us for worship. Additional lections are from Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, "Scripture lessons for Matins and Vespers," United Lutheran Church of America, General Rubrics VIII. Scripture lessons for Matins and Vespers, p. 299 - 304, Philadelphia, 1918.
The previous 2- year Bible Study based on the Lutheran Book of Worship, Daily Lectionary for personal devotions p.179-192, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978, is available at:
http://shepboy.snow.prohosting.com
Please Note: I will post weekly by Saturday, noon, (with God's help), Pacific time (UTC-8:00) for the week of the Church Season which begins on Sunday. Please scroll down for the desired day, or save the week to your desktop/hard drive.
5 Lent - Sunday
March 9, 2008
Ezekiel 37:1-3 (4-10) 11-14 -- Dry Bones
Psalm 116:1-8 -- Deliverance from Death
Romans 8:11-19 -- Life in the Spirit
John 11:1-53 or 11:47-53 -- Resurrection of Lazarus
Ezekiel:
“The hand of the Lord” was upon Ezekiel and transported him to a valley (or plain) filled with very many (human) bones, and the bones were very dry (long dead). The Lord asked Ezekiel if those bones could live again, and Ezekiel acknowledged that only the Lord knew.
The Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. Ezekiel was to declare that God said God would cause breath (or wind, or spirit* to enter them and they would live. God promised that he would reassemble the bones, connect them with sinews, cover them with flesh and skin, and cause breath to enter into them and they would live. Then they would know that God is Lord. As Ezekiel watched God did as he had promised, and the bones became a great living multitude, and stood on their feet.
Then the Lord told Ezekiel that the bones represented the people of Israel (then in exile in Babylon). They felt like their bones were dried up and cut off from their land and their hope. The Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to them (the remnant of Israel in Babylon), “Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel, and (then) you shall know that I am the Lord… and I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land” (Ezekiel 37:12b-13a, 14a). Then they will know that the Lord has spoken, and has done as he promised.
Psalm:
The psalmist testifies that he loves the Lord because the Lord heard and answered the psalmist’s prayer. So the psalmist will call on the Lord as long as he lives.
The psalmist was in danger of dying and was in distress and anguish. Then he called upon the name of Lord and asked the Lord to save his life.
The Lord is gracious and merciful and he protects the humble. The psalmist testified that when he was brought low, the Lord saved him. Now his soul has comfort and rest, knowing that God has dealt generously with him. “For thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling” (Psalm 116:8).
Romans:
Paul was discipling new believers as Jesus had commanded his disciples to do (Matthew 28:19-20, after they had been “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8; Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-13; 9:17-18). Paul taught that if the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9), who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells within a believer, they will also be raised to eternal life from physical death.
So “born-again” Christian disciples are obligated to live according to the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and not according to the desires of their physical bodies (which are contrary to God’s will; Romans 8:5-8). Those who live according to the flesh will die in their flesh; but believers are to put to death the desires of the flesh by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit so that they will live eternally. All who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of God.
Believers have been delivered from slavery and fear, and have received adoption as sons and daughters of God. When we experience ecstatic prayer and praise in worship the Holy Spirit is testifying with our spirits that we are children of God, and if we are God’s children, we will share in the inheritance of God with Christ, and share in Christ’s glory, provided that we share in Christ’s suffering for the Gospel.
John:
Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha of Bethany (two miles from Jerusalem) were close friends of Jesus. Lazarus became gravely ill, and Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus. When Jesus received the message, he remarked that Lazarus’ illness would not be fatal, since it was to glorify God and God's Son.
Although Jesus loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, he delayed coming to them for two days. When he knew that Lazarus had died, he told his disciples he was going to Judea (from Galilee). The disciples cautioned him that the Jewish authorities were seeking to stone Jesus to death. But Jesus said that he must accomplish his work while he could.
When Jesus arrived Martha went out to meet him, and Mary stayed at the house with a large crowd of Jews from Jerusalem who had come to console them. Martha believed that Jesus would have prevented Lazarus from dying if he had come sooner, but still believed that God would do whatever Jesus asked.
Jesus told her that Lazarus would rise again. Martha declared her faith in resurrection of the dead at the Day of Judgment. Jesus said that he is the resurrection and the life; those who believe in him, will live, even if they die (physically) and those who live and believe in Jesus will never die. Jesus asked Martha if she believed what he had said, and Martha declared that she believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, whom God promised to send into the world.
Mary was summoned and the mourners followed and all went to the tomb where Lazarus had been entombed. Jesus asked that the stone closing the entrance be rolled away, and Martha said that Lazarus had been dead for four days, and there would be an odor. Jesus told her to believe and they would see the glory of God.
Jesus prayed aloud to God, and then called to Lazarus to come out. Lazarus came out, still wrapped in grave cloths, and Jesus told the people to unbind him and set him free.
Many of the Jews who witnessed the miracle believed in Jesus, but some went and told the Pharisees (Jewish religious authorities). They gathered the Jewish high court to discuss the matter. They were afraid that everyone would believe in Jesus and that the Romans would destroy the Jewish temple and nation.
The High Priest, Caiaphas refuted this, saying that it was advantageous for one man to die for the people, and that the nation would not perish. This was God’s prophetic Word, given him because of the High Priest’s office. From that day the Jewish authorities plotted to kill Jesus.
Commentary:
In Ezekiel’s time only a few individuals who trusted and obeyed God were chosen by God to be his prophets and had a personal relationship with God. Through that relationship God showed Ezekiel what God was going to do, and gave him God’s Word to declare to the people.
God promised to revive his people, even though they were long dead and dried up (spiritually), and that he would give them not only the breath of physical life but the “mighty wind” (Acts 2:2) of the indwelling Holy Spirit who would cause them to be “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) to spiritual, eternal, life. Then they would know that God is God alone, and Lord of all.
The Lord told Ezekiel that the dry bones represented the remnant of Israel, in exile in Babylon. Israel felt long-dead and cut off from the Lord and their Promised Land, but God promised to raise them from their graves in Babylon and restore them to the Promised Land.
God fulfilled his promise to Israel in exile, historically, but God’s Word is eternal and is eternally true; it is fulfilled over and over, as the conditions for its fulfillment are met. The Church is the New Israel, the New People of God, and God’s promise through Ezekiel applies as much to us today.
God promises to raise us from physical death to spiritual, eternal life, through the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit, which we receive only through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus gives the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 1.31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
The psalmist testifies that those who call upon the Lord in sincerity and truth will be heard and answered. The Lord delivered the psalmist from death and the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). When the psalmist learned to look to the Lord to provide help and security, his faith was rewarded, and he grew spiritually, knowing that God had been generous and had delivered him, so that he could take comfort and rest in God.
Paul (Saul of Tarsus) is the prototype and example of the “modern,” “post-resurrection,” “born-again” disciple and apostle (a messenger; of the Gospel) of Jesus Christ, as we all can become. He was confronted by the Spirit of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-5), he repented and asked Jesus to be his Lord, and trusted and obeyed Jesus (Acts9:6-9), was discipled by a “born-again” disciple (Acts 9:10-17), was “born-again” by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 9:18-19), and then began to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission to his disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), to be carried out after they had received the indwelling Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8).
The Apostle Paul was discipling new believers. Those who are “born-again” by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit will be raised from physical death to eternal life just as Jesus was.
The purpose of the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is that we will trust and obey the Holy Spirit. Those who live according to the guidance and empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit will live eternally, and that eternal life begins now, in this temporal world. Those who live according to their fleshly desires will not receive the indwelling Holy Spirit and spiritual “rebirth,” and will die eternally in their flesh.
It is possible to know with certainty for oneself whether or not one has been “born-again” (Acts 19:2). The indwelling Holy Spirit is a personal relationship and fellowship with the risen Jesus and with God the Father John 14:21, 23). The presence of the Holy Spirit within us testifies that we are God’s children, are in Jesus Christ, and have eternal life.
Jesus didn’t come to Bethany until Lazarus had died because he wanted to show that there is going to be a resurrection of the dead and that he has the power to raise us from physical death to eternal life. Those who believe (trust and obey) Jesus will live eternally even though they die physically, and those who live spiritually now in this temporal world by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit will never die eternally.
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise through Ezekiel to raise God’s people from the grave. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring God’s people home to the “Promised Land” of God’s eternal kingdom in heaven. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to put God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9) within us. The Holy Spirit will give us eternal life, and through him we will know God and know that God is the only God, and that God’s Word is always true and always fulfilled.
Some who hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ will receive and accept it with faith and joy, but some will reject it and fear it. The Jewish religious leaders felt threatened by the Gospel. Their worldly status and career seemed jeopardized. They weren’t willing to give up their fleshly desires and their worldly success to receive eternal life in paradise.
Because they rejected Jesus, their worst fears were realized. The Romans did destroy their temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Jews were scattered throughout the world, and the nation of Israel ceased to exist, until reestablished following World War II.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
5 Lent - Monday
March 10, 2008
Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16 -- Prayer for deliverance
I seek refuge in you, O Lord! May I never be put to shame; deliver me by your righteousness! Hear me and rescue me quickly. Be my rock of refuge and a strong fortress to save me.
Yes, you are my fortress and my refuge; lead me and guide me for your name's sake! Deliver me from the snare that has been hidden for me. “Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou has redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God” (Psalm 31:5; compare Luke 23:46).
O Lord, be gracious to me, for I am in distress. My body and soul are worn out with grief. I have spent my life in sorrow and sighing; my strength fails me and my bones waste away in my misery.
All my adversaries treat me scornfully, and I am a horror and an object of dread to my friends and neighbors. When people see me in the streets they avoid me. I have passed out of memory like one who is dead; I have become like a broken pot. “Yea, I hear the whispering of many – terror on every side! -as they scheme together against me to take my life” (Psalm 31:13). But my trust is in you, O Lord; you are my God. My circumstances are in your hand; deliver me from the power of my enemies and persecutors! “Let your face shine on thy servant; save me in thy steadfast love!
Commentary:
This psalm is attributed to David, who experienced threats and persecution by his enemies during his lifetime, but he trusted in the Lord and was delivered. The Lord is a strong fortress to those who take refuge in him. There is no real security in any one or any thing other than the Lord. When we trust in the Lord for our refuge and strength he is able and faithful to deliver us from every enemy and danger. Nothing, including physical death, can defeat us (Hebrews 2:14-15). When we commit our lives to trust and obey the Lord he will lead and guide us daily by his Word and his Holy Spirit.
There have been trying times in my own life when I have been in similar situations, and can relate to the psalmist's cry for help and deliverance. When we experience trouble, our friends seem to disappear. Even our own family members may try to avoid us. They don't want to share our worries and troubles.
I waited until I experienced disaster, when my own worldly resources were exhausted, before I turned to the Lord. If I had been following the Lord in obedient trust I would have saved myself a lot of grief and worry. The Lord doesn't cause our troubles; sinful people do, including ourselves. But the Lord uses those experiences to teach us that he is the only real security there is. He wants us to learn that he can and wants to save us and bring us safely through. As we experience his gracious help and deliverance we grow in faith, so that the next time we experience trouble we will have confidence in the Lord.
This psalm is the psalmist's personal testimony, and it is God's Word inspired in the psalmist by the Lord. God's Word is eternally true and is fulfilled over and over as the conditions for its fulfillment are met. The psalm is also prophetic, and it was fulfilled in Jesus (compare Psalm 22). His enemies plotted to take Jesus' life and he was scorned and rejected by his own people as he was taken to be crucified. He was surrounded by people who murmured against him as he was dying on the Cross (Matthew 27:38-43).
Jesus declared on the Cross that he was committing his spirit into God's hand (Luke 23:46), trusting that God had redeemed Jesus from death. On Easter morning the world witnessed God's redemption of his perfect servant and only begotten Son, the Messiah, the Son of David (1 Corinthians 15:3-9).
Jesus' mission on earth was to become the only sacrifice acceptable to God (Acts 4:12) for the forgiveness of our sin (disobedience of God's Word; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right), but also to show us by example how to trust and obey God's Word, and to demonstrate that there is existence beyond physical death.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
5 Lent - Tuesday
March 11, 2008
Isaiah 50:4-9a -- The Lord’s Servant
The Lord God has given me the ability and knowledge to speak as though formally educated, so that I am able to sustain those who are weary. The Lord has given me spiritual hearing, and I was not rebellious nor did I turn away. I submitted my body to those who struck me and pulled out my beard. I didn’t resist those who publicly shamed me and spat in my face.
Because the Lord helps me I have not been confounded. I have steadfastly endured abuse, knowing that I will not be put to shame because God is close by and he vindicates me. Let my adversaries and those who contend with me stand up and draw near. Watch and see! “The Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty (Isaiah 50:9a)?
Commentary:
God’s Word is eternal and is fulfilled over and over as the conditions for its fulfillment are met. This prophecy described the prophet’s experience at the time, but also foreshadowed and foretold the Messiah’s treatment much later, and it describes the treatment that all the servants of the Lord will experience by worldly people hostile to God.
Israel was called to be God’s servant, but they turned away from that call. They weren’t willing to give up their status and position in the world and endure suffering for God’s Word. The Church is the heir to that call to servanthood. Jesus came to teach us in word and example how to be the Lord’s servants, trusting and obeying God’s Word in the face of hostility.
Jesus was criticized in his own hometown for wisdom he hadn’t received by formal training (Matthew 13:54-58). Jesus trusted and obeyed God’s Word to the point of brutally physical death on the Cross; he didn’t rebel or turn away. He gave his back to those who struck him, publicly shamed him (Matthew 27:27-31), and spat in his face (Mark 15:19). His own people declared the sinless Son of God, the promised Messiah, God’s “anointed” Savior and eternal King, guilty of blasphemy for making himself equal with God (Matthew 27:11-12; compare Colossians 2:8-9; John 19:7; 20:28; Matthew 27:51-54). Jesus was wrongly convicted, but was vindicated by God by Jesus’ resurrection.
Compare Jesus’ vindication by resurrection with what happened to the Jews as the result of their rejection. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D., the Jews were scattered throughout the world and Israel ceased to exist as a nation, until the Jews began returning following World War II (compare Matthew 27:24-26; Luke 23:26-31).
The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), the Spirit of Truth within Jesus’ disciples (John 14:15-17), who teaches us all things and brings to our memory all that Jesus taught (John 14:26). He opens the minds of his disciples to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). The Holy Spirit gives Jesus’ disciples what to say at the moment it is needed (Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12). Only Jesus gives the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
If we seek to understand the Scriptures with the intention of trusting and obeying God’s Word, the Lord will give us spiritual hearing, knowledge, and understanding. If we are willing to testify to the Gospel he will give us what to say (Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12).
We must be careful not to try to do the mission of Christ and the Gospel in our own human strength and ability (Zechariah 4:6). We must wait within the Church, the “New Jerusalem” on earth, until we have been “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8), before we go out into the world (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8). We must seek and follow God’s will and direction, and he will make it known to us. I have personally experienced and testify to these truths.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
5 Lent - Wednesday
March 12, 2008
Philippians 2:5-11 -- The Example of Christ.
Let us have this understanding which we have in Jesus Christ, who was, in divine nature, God, but surrendered all that and took on the nature of a servant and was born in human nature and likeness. In human form he humbled himself and became obedient to God unto death even in its most agonizing form on the cross. “Therefore God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
Commentary:
Jesus is fully human through his physical birth, but fully divine (Colossians 2:8-9), possessing God’s nature and having pre-existed with God in heaven before Creation (John 1:1-3-14). Jesus is the only “begotten” (Matthew 1:20-21; Luke 1:30-35), Son of God. Jesus’ word is the Word of God, (John 14:10, 24) with the creative force of God’s Word. Jesus commanded the dead and they rose to life, he commanded the forces of nature, and the forces of evil, and they obeyed him (Matthew 8:27; John 11:43-44; Mark 1:23-26). Jesus could have commanded us to acknowledge and serve him as our Lord, but Jesus was careful to allow people to decide for themselves who Jesus is. That is why he often referred to himself as the “Son of man” (for example, Matthew 9:6), which is true and scriptural (Daniel 7:13), without forcing a conclusion regarding his divinity.
Jesus put all his divine glory and power aside, humbled himself and became the servant of God and the servant of mankind according to God’s will (but not according the will of mankind). Jesus gave his body as the only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sin (disobedience of God’s Word; Acts 4:12; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Jesus became the sinless Passover lamb (John 1:29; Exodus 12:1-13), whose blood saves us from the destroying angel of God.
Because he was perfectly sinless and obedient to God, God raised him from the dead to eternal life and has given him the name above all names. Jesus is the name of the eternal Lord of heaven and earth. There is no other name in heaven or on earth or under the earth (the realm of the dead) by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12; Matthew 28:18); there is no other way to come to knowledge and fellowship with God; no other way to know divine eternal truth; no other way to receive eternal life but through Jesus (John 14:6).
Jesus is the light of spiritual enlightenment and divine truth (John 1:9). The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17), is the Spirit of the risen Jesus, the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9), the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17), who teaches Jesus’ disciples all things and brings to our remembrance all that Jesus has taught (John 14:26); he opens the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures (Luke 24:45). The Holy Spirit is the only source of spiritual understanding that we have, through obedient trust in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
In this lifetime we have the freedom and opportunity to seek and come to knowledge of and fellowship with God (Acts 17:26-27), only through Jesus Christ. Jesus has promised to come again in great glory and power to judge “the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5), in both the physical and spiritual senses. Realize that this will happen within our lifetimes, because at the end of our life, for us, time will stop and we will be at the Day of Judgment. If we have been “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit by obedient trust in Jesus Christ we will have eternal life in God’s heavenly kingdom. If we have rejected and refused to trust and obey Jesus we will spend eternity in eternal destruction in Hell with all evil (Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
In the Day of Judgment, every knee, of everyone who ever lived, will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). In that Day, Jesus will command us, and we will have no freedom or choice but to obey. In that Day there will be no opportunity to change our eternal destiny.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
5 Lent - Thursday
March 13, 2008
Matthew 26: 1-16, 20-75
Jesus and his disciples had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast, where Jesus knew that he would be crucified. According to Mark this would have been the fourth time Jesus had told his disciples what would happen (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:32-34; Matthew 26:1-3). In Jerusalem, Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve original disciples of Jesus, arranged to betray Jesus into the hands of the Jewish religious leaders (Matthew 26:14-16), who were plotting to kill Jesus (Matthew 26:3-5).
At the feast of the Passover in the upper room, Jesus knew who would betray him and gave him a last chance to change his betrayer’s eternal destiny (Matthew 26:20-25). Then Jesus instituted what is called the Last Supper, Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, the New Covenant of grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ, to replace the Old Covenant of Law. The New Covenant was to be sealed by the sacrificial feast and the body and blood of Christ, sacrificed on the cross.
After they had eaten, they went to the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to pray, as was Jesus’ custom. Jesus told them that after he had been stricken, his disciples would be scattered as God’s Word foretold. Peter declared that he would not fall away, and Jesus replied that Peter would deny Jesus three times that night. Peter declared that he would not deny Jesus and was ready to die with Jesus and so said the others.
At Gethsemane, Jesus took Peter, James and John, his closest disciples, off a short distance, and telling them that he was sad and troubled, he asked them to keep watch while he went off by himself to pray. Three times Jesus prayed asking that if possible, he be spared from his destiny but accepting it if it were God’s will, and three times he returned and found them sleeping. He told them to keep alert and pray that they would not stumble into temptation. The third time Jesus returned to the three sleepy disciples and told them to wake up, because Jesus’ betrayer was at hand.
As he said that, Judas arrived leading a large group of priests and elders, Roman soldiers and temple police* armed with swords and clubs. Judas greeted Jesus as “Master” and kissed him, as a pre-arranged signal. One of the disciples drew a sword and cut off the High Priest’s slave’s ear, but Jesus told the disciple not to resist, and Jesus instantly healed the slave’s ear. Jesus asked the mob why they had come out to arrest him in an isolated spot in the middle of the night, when they could have done so in public in daylight in the temple (compare John 3:19-21).
The disciples fled, but Peter followed him to see what would take place. Jesus was taken to the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest, and Peter entered the courtyard, where Peter denied Jesus three times, as Jesus had prophesied.
Commentary:
God has intended from the beginning of Creation to establish an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly choose to trust and obey God. Creation has been designed to allow us freedom to choose whether to obey God or not, and to learn by trial and error. We have all sinned (disobeyed God’s Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and fall short of God’s righteousness (doing what is right, good, and true according to God’s Word). The penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23)
Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and salvation from eternal destruction (Acts 4:12, John 14:6). Jesus Christ has been built into the structure of Creation from the very beginning (John 1:1-5, 14).
God’s Plan of Salvation (which see, sidebar, top right) has been designed so that no one is worthy of forgiveness and salvation on his own merits, so that God can give salvation as a free gift, to be received by all who believe in (trust and obey) Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9).
God’s Word (the Bible) has been progressively revealing his plan of salvation. He expelled Adam and Eve from the garden because they disobeyed God’s Word, and from then on the Bible is the record of God’s plan to redeem us from sin and to restore us to paradise and his eternal kingdom in heaven.
Jesus’ physical ministry, death, and resurrection are the fulfillment of God’s Word promising a Savior (the Messiah, Christ) and eternal King. Jesus knew God’s plan and purpose and he trusted and obeyed, even to death on the Cross.
Jesus knew all along who would betray him, but even after Judas had agreed and been paid to betray Jesus, Jesus gave him a last opportunity to repent and be saved (Matthew 26:21-25). Jesus also knew who would desert him and who would deny him, and after his resurrection he forgave and restored them (John 21:15-17).
He revealed himself to them, and fulfilled his promise of the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8; Acts 2:1-13). Peter was transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, from a coward who denied Jesus three times to the most menial servant of the High Priest, into the bold evangelist of the Gospel (Acts 2:14-36).
Jesus’ physical body had the human instinct for survival, and he would have been glad to avoid dying on the Cross, but it was God’s plan, necessary, to make it possible for us to be forgiven and restored to fellowship and eternal life with God. Jesus had the supernatural power to have avoided his execution, but he allowed himself to submit to his enemies in order to accomplish God’s will. Jesus healed the servant of the very people who were trying to destroy Jesus.
In a sense we have all crucified Jesus, because we have all sinned and have made his sacrifice on the Cross necessary, to forgive us, save us from eternal destruction, and restore us to eternal life and fellowship with God in paradise in his eternal kingdom in heaven. All we need to do to receive it is to accept it through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
*The Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, Ed. by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, John 18:3n, p. 1310, New York, Oxford University Press, 1962.
5 Lent - Friday
March 14, 2008
Matthew 27:1-54 (55-66) -- Jesus’ Trial
In the morning after Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court of seventy priests and elders, presided by the High Priest, ruled against Jesus, to put him to death. They bound Jesus and took him to the house of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
When Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he tried to return the money, thirty pieces of silver that he’d been paid for Jesus’ betrayal, to the chief priests and elders, confessing that he “had sinned in betraying innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4), but the religious leaders were not concerned with Judas’ spiritual condition. So Judas threw down the money in the temple and went and hanged himself.
The religious leaders used the money to buy a field in which to bury Gentiles (non-Jews), because it was blood-money and could not legally be accepted in the temple treasury. Thus the prophecy of Zechariah 11:12-13 was fulfilled. (In Jeremiah 32:6-15, Jeremiah was told by God to buy a field, although Judah was about to go into Babylonian exile, as a testimony that people of Israel would return and again own property in the Promised Land).
Pilate asked Jesus if Jesus was king of the Jews, as the Jews had alleged, but Jesus replied, “You have said so.” But when the members of the Sanhedrin made many charges against Jesus, Jesus made no response, so that Pilate wondered what was going on.
As an act of political patronage, the Roman governor was accustomed to releasing one Jewish prisoner during the Feast of Passover, so Pilate asked the religious leaders and the crowd which had gathered, whether they wanted Barabbas, a notorious robber, or Jesus, released. Pilate realized that the Jews were accusing Jesus out of jealousy (because he was popular and influential with the people). His wife had warned Pilate that she had a disturbing dream about Jesus (and that Pilate should not get involved in Jesus’ death).
The Jewish leaders stirred up the crowd to demand Barabbas’ release. Pilate asked them again and they repeated the demand. So Pilate asked them what they wanted Pilate to do with Jesus and they demanded Jesus’ crucifixion. Pilate asked them what Jesus had done to deserve death, but they just kept demanding Jesus’ crucifixion.
Seeing that the crowd was on the verge of riot, he took a basin of water and washed his hands in the view of the crowd and declared that Pilate was innocent of Jesus’ blood, and that the crowd was responsible. They replied, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25; and so it indeed has been!). Then Pilate freed Barabbas, and had Jesus flogged with a multi-thonged whip, and handed him over to be crucified.
The Roman soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and put a red robe on him, a crown of plaited thorns on his head, a reed in his hand. They knelt before Jesus, mocking him, and hailing him as the King of the Jews. They spat upon Jesus and took the reed and hit Jesus’ head with it. Then they stripped the red robe from him and redressed Jesus in his own clothes and led him off to be crucified.
Commentary:
The Jewish religious authorities had turned Judaism into their own personal “empire,” for what they could benefit from their office in personal power and status. They used “religion” to serve themselves, instead of serving God and God’s people. So instead of recognizing and acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah (Christ), the Son of God, they were jealous and felt threatened by Jesus’ power, authority and popularity with the people.
The Jewish priests and elders were responsible to God to care for God’s people, physically and spiritually, but they were unconcerned with Judas’ sins of betrayal and suicide, and indeed, had encouraged them. They comprised the Jewish Supreme Court, but they subverted God’s law to condemn the completely sinless Messiah to death.
The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead, but they wanted the secular Roman government to do it for them. Pilate saw their motivation and he was smart enough to try to avoid doing what even he saw was a miscarriage of justice.
Pilate wanted to do what was right, allowing the Jews to execute Barabbas who was a criminal, and freeing Jesus who was innocent, but the Jews wouldn’t accept that. The Jews were trying to get the Romans to do their dirty work, and Pilate was trying to avoid personal guilt for the shedding of Jesus’ blood, which the Jews took “enthusiastically” upon themselves.
Jesus made no claim to be a political king (John 6:15; 18:36). It was the charge brought by the Jews against him which they hoped would justify Jesus’ execution to the Roman governor.
This Creation has been designed by God to establish an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly choose to trust and obey him. Jesus is the “anointed” (Messiah and Christ each mean “anointed, in Hebrew and Greek respectively) eternal Savior and King. God has designed this temporal world to allow us the freedom to choose whether to trust and obey God or not and the opportunity to learn by trial and error that God’s way is our best interest. Jesus has been “built into the structure” of Creation by God’s design (John 1:1-3, 14).
We have all sinned (disobeyed God’s Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10), and the penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and salvation from eternal destruction (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
God’s Word is eternal and eternally true; it is fulfilled over and over as the conditions for its fulfillment are met. God knew that, given the freedom to choose, we would be rebellious and disobedient. He knew that when he sent Jesus into the world his own people would hate and kill him, because Jesus made them look bad, revealing their sinfulness.
God’s Word foretold more than five hundred years earlier through the psalmists and prophets what would happen to the Messiah, and the Jews fulfilled those prophecies, unconscious of what they were doing (for example, compare with today’s text: Isaiah 50:6-9a and Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16 from this week, 5 Lent, A-year, Monday and Tuesday, above).
Consider the consequences of the Jews’ invocation of guilt for Jesus’ crucifixion upon themselves and their children (Matthew 27:25). Because the Jews rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah, Savior and eternal King and had him executed, God lifted his favor and protection from them, and the result was that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. The people of Israel were scattered throughout the world, and Israel ceased to exist as a nation until re-established following World War II.
Where was God during the Holocaust? Where were the Jews when Jesus was crucified? I don’t believe that the Jews are irrevocably lost, but I am convinced that the only way that they will be saved is by accepting Jesus as Messiah and Lord (Romans 11:13-31; John 14:6; Matthew 23:37-39; Luke 13:34-35).
In a sense we are all guilty of crucifying Jesus, because we have all sinned and made Jesus’ sacrificial death necessary for our forgiveness Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). The Jews are no more guilty than Christians or unbelievers.
In many ways the Christian Church today, particularly in America, is in a very similar position as Judaism in the time of Jesus’ physical ministry. Many ordained and lay people in the Church act as if the Church were their personal enterprise conducted for their benefit. Many do not fulfill their responsibility to God for the spiritual and physical wellbeing of their fellow Christians. Christians, whether ordained or lay, are to correct the erring, seek the straying and restore the fallen. How many congregations don’t care what their members and leaders do as long as they tithe and show up on Sunday? How many use the Church to accomplish their own agendas and use scripture to justify their own behavior?
In our time, in American Democracy, the Church should hold the government accountable for the spiritual and physical welfare of the people, but we have witnessed the reversal of that standard. The State wants the Church to assume the responsibility to help those who have become casualties of corporate greed, political manipulation, and a widely separated two-class system; and the Church, in too many instances, has become the advocate of the State for the secular status quo.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
5 Lent - Saturday
March 15, 2008
Matthew 27:1-32-66
After being condemned to be crucified, and flogged and mocked, a Centurion and a few soldiers marched Jesus and two condemned criminals out to the place of execution at Golgotha (meaning “the place of the skull). They compelled Simon of Cyrene, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’ cross. At the place of execution they offered Jesus wine mixed with gall (a bitter substance) but when Jesus tasted it he wouldn’t drink it. After they had crucified Jesus the soldiers cast lots (like rolling dice) to determine who would get Jesus’ clothing. They had put a sign over Jesus’ head which said “Jesus, King of the Jews.”
They crucified the two other condemned robbers, one on each side of Jesus. Then they sat down to keep watch. The place of execution was outside the city walls near the road in and out of Jerusalem, and people passing by mocked Jesus’ claim to rebuild the temple in three days, and taunting him to come down from the cross, if he were truly the Son of God. The chief priests, scribes and elders taunted him saying that though he saved others he couldn’t save himself; if he were the King of Israel he should come down from the cross, and then they would believe in him. Since he claimed to be the Son of God, let God save him, if God chooses. The crucified criminals (at least one; see Luke 23:39-43) also taunted Jesus.
From noon until three there was darkness (perhaps a solar eclipse). At three, Jesus cried out quoting and fulfilling Psalm 22:1. In Aramaic, Jesus’ language, “Eli,” meaning “my God” sounded like Elijah to bystander, and they thought he was calling Elijah (who was to come before the coming of Messiah; see Matthew 17:10-13). One put vinegar (spoiled wine) on a sponge and raised it on a stick to revive Jesus, and others waited to see if Elijah would come and save Jesus. “And Jesus cried again in a loud voice and yielded up his spirit” (Matthew 27:50).
At the moment of Jesus’ death there was an earthquake. The veil of the temple (separating the holy-of-holies, the presence of God, from the people) was torn in two from top to bottom. Rocks were split, tombs were opened and the dead were raised to life and appeared to the people of Jerusalem. The Centurion and those with him saw the earthquake they were frightened and said that Jesus was truly the Son of God.
Many Galilean women of the followers of Jesus were there looking on from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of “little” James and Joseph, sons of Cleopas, and Salome, the mother of James and John, sons of Zebedee.
At evening Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man and disciple of Jesus went to Pilate, the Roman governor, and asked for the body of Jesus, and Pilate granted it. Joseph wrapped the body in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in Joseph’s own new tomb, which had been hewn from rock, with a great round stone to close the entrance. The two Marys witnessed the entombment.
The next day (Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath), the Jewish religious leaders went to Pilate and asked that the door to the tomb be sealed and guarded, so that Jesus' disciples could not steal the body and claim a resurrection. Pilate gave them permission and they did as they had said.
The enemies of Jesus tried to thwart any claim of resurrection, but though they sealed and guarded the tomb they were unable to prevent Jesus’ resurrection. Though they claimed that Jesus’ followers might try to fake Jesus’ resurrection, it was they who promoted the fraudulent claim that Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body, in spite of their efforts to prevent it (see Matthew 28:11-15).
Commentary:
Jesus’ resurrection was witnessed and testified to by over five hundred people (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Not only that, but every truly “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) Christian disciple since, beginning with the Apostle Paul (a.k.a. “Saul of Tarsus;” Acts 9:1-21), has personally experienced the risen and ascended Jesus Christ, and testifies that Jesus is risen from the dead and is eternally alive.
The Bible is the true, eternal, Word of God. Jesus is the fulfillment embodiment and example of God’s Word in human flesh (John 1:1-3-14). What God’s Word prophesied about the Messiah was fulfilled. Psalm 22 is just one example of Messianic prophecy, and was fulfilled at the Cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus began to quote it on the Cross with verse one (compare Matthew 27:46). The bystanders at the crucifixion mocked Jesus (Psalm 22:7-8). Verses 14-18 describe what Jesus experienced on the Cross. They pierced Jesus’ hands and feet (Psalm 22:16b); they divided his clothes and cast lots (Psalm 22:18). Psalm 22:22-31 is what Jesus accomplished for the world.
Psalm 22 is attributed to David, which would mean that it originated about a thousand years before Jesus. The Jewish method of execution was by stoning, according to God’s Word, the Covenant of law. Crucifixion was a Roman execution, which was not practiced until Judea became a Roman province around 63 B.C.*.
The enemies of Jesus tried to kill him but he rose from the dead. They tried to claim that the disciples perpetrated a hoax by stealing Jesus’ body, although they had been allowed to seal and guard the tomb. They claimed that if Jesus came down from the cross they would believe in him, but Jesus came up from the grave instead and they still refuse to believe. The Roman soldier, a Gentile, saw the disturbances of nature and believed, but not the Jews.
They misunderstood what Jesus said about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days. Jesus was referring to the temple of his body (John 2:21) which contained the fullness of God’s presence and spirit within Jesus (Colossians 2:8-9; John 1:32-34). But the earthly Temple was destroyed spiritually by the Jewish religious authorities by rejecting Jesus, and physically destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., because God had lifted his favor and protection from the Jews. Jesus did indeed restore the New Temple, which became the Christian Church, and the New Covenant of grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) through faith (obedient trust) in him, in three days, when he rose from the tomb.
The tearing of the temple veil at the moment of Jesus’ physical death showed that the old way, with God’s presence separated from the people was ended. Jesus is the new and only way opening into God’s presence, accessible by all who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; see God’s plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
Jesus didn’t call himself God’s Son directly; he usually referred to himself as the Son of man, which is true, but allows his hearers to decide for themselves who Jesus is, with a hint from Daniel 7:13-14. It was the Jewish religious leaders who said that he called himself the Son of God. Jesus’ word is the Word of God (John 14:10, 24), with the creative force of God’s Word (Matthew 8:27; compare Genesis 1:3. John 11:43; compare John 5:28-29). He could have declared that he was the Son of God, and we would have no choice but to believe, but that is not his purpose and intention. There is a day coming when he will command, and we will have no choice but to obey (Matthew 25:31-46; Philippians 2:9-11).
The Jewish religious leaders had criticized Jesus for violating the Sabbath, but saw no problem with contacting the Roman secular governor, sealing and posting guards at the tomb of Jesus on the Sabbath.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
*from the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
