Passion Week
Oddly enough, today is BOTH the day that marks the beginning of Christ's passion and the beginning of the basketball passion known as March Madness. Just an aside.
Thursday: We all know what happened that day almost 2,000 years ago. The Son of God had His last supper with his disciples, went to the garden to pray in anguish, and then was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver by someone very close to him... taken to the temple courts to be mocked in a series of bogus trials... all of us who are even remotely familiar with the story of Christ or have seen Mel Gibson's movie know about this.
Backtrack to my Sunday... in Upstreet we were talking about Jesus dying on the cross for us with our kids last Sunday. The question that we posed to the kids before going into large group was this: "What would you do if you were all-powerful for a day?" Now, I really liked this question, especially as it creates in me a lot of thought... and it was a good question to pontificate with 5th graders who, in their school, consider themselves fairly all-powerful as it is :-). I mean, I'd do a lot... you know, if I were all-powerful. I would flex my muscles a little (or a lot) for what I believe is good.
The crazy thing is... the bridge between our "what would we do if we were all-powerful" and the passion is that Jesus IS all-powerful! Amazing. What HE did with his power... he laid it down and became a substitute for us. He gave us exactly what we needed... a savior who would pay for the sins we committed and then turn around and beat death. At the end of the day, this meant going to a cross.
Fast forward to today... I am reading through Matthew in my quiet times right now, and got to this passage in Matthew 10 where Jesus gives his disciples power to heal and sends them out to the towns in Israel to preach about the kingdom. One phrase caught me....
"... and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him."
What? Judas... the 30 pieces of silver guy? was out there healing people and preaching about the kingdom and doing ministry? Him? To bring clarity, the other synoptic gospels have the same account of Him being sent out...
"and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." - Mark 3:19
"and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor" - Luke 6:16
Beyond being all-powerful, we know that Jesus knew peoples' hearts, so He KNEW what was in this guy's gut and the act that he would eventually do. However, He was still a huge part of Christ's ministry on earth. That's a lot to get your head around... I mean, how can anyone who has both SEEN Jesus heal people and also been given authority BY Jesus to heal people then go and sell Him out like that? Crazy.
What is even more impressive, though. Is how WELL Jesus treated Judas as one of His disciples. I mean, he was in, and was taught the same as the others (save the big three) and was called to the same ministry as the others. Jesus even called him a friend and loved him the same as the others. What is impressive is all of that stuff that Jesus taught about loving your enemies and praying for those that persecute you... He did with one that was in His most intimate counsel and the others' probably had no clue what was going on.
Crazy, huh? Well, if loving our enemies with love and grace was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us. You know, there are some like the Apostle Paul (formerly Saul) that responded to grace by becoming great... unlike sadly, Judas' fate was more tragic than that :-(.
Grateful for grace! :-)... come through the pierced hands of the all-powerful son of God humbly giving up His perfect life for mine. Happy Resurrection Week! :-)
Chris <><
Thursday: We all know what happened that day almost 2,000 years ago. The Son of God had His last supper with his disciples, went to the garden to pray in anguish, and then was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver by someone very close to him... taken to the temple courts to be mocked in a series of bogus trials... all of us who are even remotely familiar with the story of Christ or have seen Mel Gibson's movie know about this.
Backtrack to my Sunday... in Upstreet we were talking about Jesus dying on the cross for us with our kids last Sunday. The question that we posed to the kids before going into large group was this: "What would you do if you were all-powerful for a day?" Now, I really liked this question, especially as it creates in me a lot of thought... and it was a good question to pontificate with 5th graders who, in their school, consider themselves fairly all-powerful as it is :-). I mean, I'd do a lot... you know, if I were all-powerful. I would flex my muscles a little (or a lot) for what I believe is good.
The crazy thing is... the bridge between our "what would we do if we were all-powerful" and the passion is that Jesus IS all-powerful! Amazing. What HE did with his power... he laid it down and became a substitute for us. He gave us exactly what we needed... a savior who would pay for the sins we committed and then turn around and beat death. At the end of the day, this meant going to a cross.
Fast forward to today... I am reading through Matthew in my quiet times right now, and got to this passage in Matthew 10 where Jesus gives his disciples power to heal and sends them out to the towns in Israel to preach about the kingdom. One phrase caught me....
"... and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him."
What? Judas... the 30 pieces of silver guy? was out there healing people and preaching about the kingdom and doing ministry? Him? To bring clarity, the other synoptic gospels have the same account of Him being sent out...
"and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." - Mark 3:19
"and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor" - Luke 6:16
Beyond being all-powerful, we know that Jesus knew peoples' hearts, so He KNEW what was in this guy's gut and the act that he would eventually do. However, He was still a huge part of Christ's ministry on earth. That's a lot to get your head around... I mean, how can anyone who has both SEEN Jesus heal people and also been given authority BY Jesus to heal people then go and sell Him out like that? Crazy.
What is even more impressive, though. Is how WELL Jesus treated Judas as one of His disciples. I mean, he was in, and was taught the same as the others (save the big three) and was called to the same ministry as the others. Jesus even called him a friend and loved him the same as the others. What is impressive is all of that stuff that Jesus taught about loving your enemies and praying for those that persecute you... He did with one that was in His most intimate counsel and the others' probably had no clue what was going on.
Crazy, huh? Well, if loving our enemies with love and grace was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us. You know, there are some like the Apostle Paul (formerly Saul) that responded to grace by becoming great... unlike sadly, Judas' fate was more tragic than that :-(.
Grateful for grace! :-)... come through the pierced hands of the all-powerful son of God humbly giving up His perfect life for mine. Happy Resurrection Week! :-)
Chris <><
Comments