Good Morning Friends,
A lot has happened during Holy Week in our storyline and a lot more is getting ready to happen. We have read about Palm and Passion, Death and Resurrection, Betrayal and Denials, and now the gift of the Holy Spirit as we continue the journey to Pentecost and continue to unpack the depth of the experience of Jesus and face up the reality that we need to repent for our role in his death. Like Peter it is easy to deny our complicity. Like John we love Jesus. Still, we may want to put all the blame on the Jews and Romans. But not so fast. There is the resurrection and its Grace that changes everything. I hope you grasp the importance of this event in human history for it is often forgotten even in the days after Easter. In the days to come we will unpack the experience through the eyes of Peter and John. Few passages of scripture harmonize in a way to give us depth perception into the experience of the resurrection. But it is too good not to believe and too important to deny. So, Has Your Experience Of Holy Week Prepared You For A Joyous Relationship With Jesus?
Scripture: Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified. “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
Acts 2:36-41 (NRSV)
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
John 20:11-18 (NRSV)
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:20-26 (NRSV)
For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind. From where he sits enthroned he watches all the inhabitants of the earth—he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds. A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
Psalm 33: 4-22 (NRSV)
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”
Luke 22:42 (NRSV)
Message: The first truly Christian sermon was offered by Peter who gave an elucidation of Jesus’ works, Jesus’ death, Jesus’ resurrection, and Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of God. But Peter, in today’s text, unequivocally accuses his hearers, including us, of being responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. And this, I think, is meant to be understood in the context of the call to repentance that immediately follows. The point Peter is making is this: even though the Jewish leadership were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion and the crowd went along with them, and the double-speaking Roman Governor, who, while washing his hands and proclaiming Jesus righteous, handed Him over to be crucified… and even though the Roman soldiers played their part too, we are all just as guilty. Yes, the very person who denied Jesus three times on that awful day is asking people to repent for he had been restored by the risen Lord and thus had every right to call others to repent so that they too might be restored. Likewise, the eleven, apart from John, had all runaway and had plenty to be ashamed of and yet were standing with Peter in the power of the Spirit. And this Spirit convicted them. And here is the point of it all, in a culture that tells us that we should get what we want and what we are entitled to, and that we ought to live our happiest, best life, it goes against the grain to dwell on something sorrowful. And yet, we are invited to take a journey through the last days and hours of Christ’s life for a purpose of understanding. Much like a Tenebrae Service, we join the crowd huddled on the sides of the streets, and we stand at the foot of the cross, and we look at a sealed grave. Friends, we are there for it all in our mind, and guilty as sin and in need of forgiveness. Now we are to use the experience of Holy Week, sadness and joy both for a Holy purpose, not just individually, but collectively. In this way we experience the continued joy of resurrection and its power in us. In this way the stone is rolled away from our eyes, and we can see.
And So, God wants to see and be in relationship with us and sometimes there are those life changing experiences that are so dramatic that we know that life has changed forever, and these should spur us on to hear and see in a new way and act on what we hear and see. For example, things changed after Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and the pandemic, and of course more importantly after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These types of moments in which we are challenged define us. They can be spiritually powerful personal moments that define us as well. The thing is that our experience of Holy week, our seeking and finding of Jesus, continues to change us. Here we realize that the very same Jesus who was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven was declared by God, in the outpouring of the Spirit to be both Lord and Christ. Here we realize that we are guilty because we are all sinners. And here we hopefully listen to the instructions Jesus gives us to repent and receive forgiveness in the grace of confession and baptism. Here we are to learn from the greatest of all teachers, Christ, what it means to be a Christian and live a life of abundant joy in a community of love, restored, forgiven, and assigned to serve in the Trinitarian power of the resurrection.
Pray we be spirit filled in our personal relationship with God but also in our personal relationship with each other. Pray therefor that we devote ourselves to each other so that the party can go on…. Pray we bring our needs to Jesus. Pray we break with customs and save the best for last. Pray we have a personal relationship with Christ but also a collective one. Pray we rejoice in the transformation of frowns into smiles…of fears into hope…of sorrow into joy. Pray we experience the joy of the abundance of new wine in Jesus. Pray we drink freely of that which has been poured out in us. Pray therefore we take ownership of the needs of others to hear the Good News and encourage each other in the joy of our life together. Pray we realize that the very same Jesus who was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven was declared by God, in the outpouring of the Spirit to be both Lord and Christ. Pray we realize that we are guilty because we are all sinners. Pray we repent and receive forgiveness. Pray we learn from the greatest of all teachers what it means to be a Christian. Pray that God gives us passion and purpose where there is pain. Pray that we allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truths of Scripture in our daily walk with Jesus. Pray that we learn that the best way to face the future in the first place is to look for the face of Jesus in those we love. Pray we be as one because Jesus prayed that we would be.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 