Good Morning Friends,
People like to remember happy times and significant events. Memories are precious; they keep us connected to people, places, and events that have shaped us and influenced our lives. We may wish we could forget some things, but even life’s unpleasantries like war can offer lasting lessons learned through adversity. At the Last Supper Jesus shared a meal with His disciples and then led them in the ancient observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread… Passover. Jesus, the Master Teacher, used this opportunity to plant an important memory in His disciples gathered in that upper room. Jesus shared this meal for their benefit and for ours. As Jesus raised the bread and the cup in thanksgiving, He added new significance to this ancient ritual. Luke records that Jesus told His disciples to observe the Passover “in remembrance of me.” Jesus took an old symbol and filled it with new meaning. Similarly, today we look at what, in some translations, is the second shortest verse in the Bible. We consider not the brevity of the passage but the deeper meaning of the event regarding Lot’s wife. So, on this day sandwiched between Veterans Day and Thanksgiving we ask, Why Not Substitute The Transformative Truth And Love Of Christ Into Our Memories?
Scripture: Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them —it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.’ Then they asked him, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.’
Luke 17:26-37 (NRSV)
Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Luke 22:19-20 (NRSV)
But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they said, ‘Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.’
Genesis 19:16-17 (NRSV)
But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:26 (NRSV)
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward. Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
2 John 1: 4-9 (NRSV)
Message: When Jesus told His disciples to remember Lot’s wife, it comes as a surprising command, but if Jesus wanted to have his disciples to remember her, there must have been a good reason. The reason that it is so astounding is because this I believe was the only person recorded in Scripture that Jesus ever told anyone to remember aside from himself. He did not tell them to remember Moses, or Abraham or Isaac, though he may have demonstrated it. We are told in scripture to remember the Sabbath but there was no specific request to remember any of the Judges or Prophets, or Kings, even though by the telling of stories Jesus helps us to do just that. Surely there is more to it than Jesus wanting his disciples to remember Lot’s wife because she started on a journey but did not make it. Maybe it is a moral warning and a directional command to not look back when God is in the process of offering us salvation. Interestingly Lot’s wife’s name is never given in the Bible. And on this day, it reminds me of the tomb of the unknown soldier. Like the Woman from Samaria at the well, no name is given. I think that by remembering people in a way links the facts of their lives to their impact on the present and helps us to learn, but also becomes a holy moment, for Jesus had likened the disciples to salt. We are salt. A literal interpretation of this saga only touches on the edges of its profound truth. For here the noun salt becomes a verb salt and the teaching of the Master continues. As Lot’s wife turned around, perhaps in loving concern for others, and took her eyes off the task at hand, she sinned against God’s command, and she was turned into a block of salt…the representation of countless dried tears of those who have been lost. This seems too harsh a judgement, but then life is not fair is it. Perhaps friends, it is not just a remembering of facts but a remembering of them within the Covenants of God and our very emotions that engages God in the remembering of us. When life is not fair this might be the only thing that keeps us sane. Perhaps Lot’s wife is an example of those who try to keep their life and end up losing it. Perhaps it is a thought for this day as many remember those kidnapped in Gaza and those both Palestinian and Israeli being held captive by Hamas and its violence. So as we did last weekend, we remember all those willing to give up their lives so that others might live. The wars continue. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight is a miserable creature. There are some things worth fighting for that make a difference. And some of them require us to become true spiritual veterans of the cross.
And So, remembering is a central aspect of a biblical faith and it is an active participatory concept that is very different from a typical act of reminiscing for it requires our imagination and insights and emotions. And it might take the form of the active remembering of the Hebrew God’s goodness to them in the action of delivering them from bondage in Egypt though a Passover meal. Or it might take form as we grind the broken bread (his body) in our teeth and taste the bitter taste of the wine (his blood) that lingers on our throats as a remembrance of Jesus and his death through the Lord’s Supper. Or it might take form as we remember all the times God’s grace helped us to keep moving forward knowing that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love. Similarly on this past Veteran’s Day and with all that is happening in Gaza and in the Ukraine, it reminds me of the battle we have for men’s and women’s souls and the power of prayer as one of the best weapons at our disposal and often the last one used in the fight…not just one used on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. We are to have specific targets of prayer but also develop a lifestyle of prayer as natural as breathing continually. Friends, so goes our prayer life, so goes our relationship with God, so goes the war. Have the courage to deepen and strengthen your prayer life in the battle for your soul and others. Realize that the reason we have freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the freedom to assemble and the rights to a fair trial and to vote is because others have been willing to fight for this freedom, but that there is an even more important freedom and right to claim.
Pray we remember all the people we used to be so we might become the people God would have us be. Pray with sorrow for those who never remember the love and truth of Jesus. Pray in the covenants of God. Pray we realize that once we get started on the journey with Jesus, we cannot afford to look back and take our eyes off Jesus. Pray we realize that what is done for the glory of God that lasts will be the memory that stays with us into our very salvation. Pray we realize that godly folk must sometimes flee from iniquity when efforts to redeem fail. Pray we keep plowing forward and not look back even though we still remember what God redeems. Pray we remember in a way that brings past realities into present-day living. Pray we remember in a way that is not speculative and transient but an affectionate and permanent appreciation for the significance of Christ’ redemptive act on the cross that stretches across time to redeem all those remembered by Jesus as one of his own. Pray we avoid deceptive diversions to grab power. Pray we realize that we are Salt and Light alive in Christ. Pray we fight the good fight for the freedom found in Christ. Pray we realize that God is listening and encouraging us to pray powerfully as Spiritual Veterans with authority in the Word of God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 