What Matters

Palm Sunday 2008

Kings make triumphal entries into cities.  It's the way things are done.  Buts as we come to expect, Jesus does the unexpected.  His Way will always be radically different as he is a radically different king.  Listen in to find out more... Download palm_sunday_2008_8am.mp3

Journal: Mark 11: 12-19

My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (v 17)

God loves the whole world.  Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists and Agnostics.  Pagans, Hindus, follower of Tribal religions.  God's love is for all.  The Jewish people were to be a beacon to that love.  But God's inclusive vision became an exclusive religion.  And before we point the finger, how readily does that happen in modern-day Christianity?

Too easily we define ourselves by what we are against rather than what are for; who is 'out' rather than who is 'in'.  We are hopelessly divided over matters of doctrine (often obscure) and matters of 'faith', which more often than not are about cultural biases rather than spiritual convictions.  God must look upon us and weep sometimes.

God loves us as we are and loves us too much to leave us as we are.  God's house, our church, should always be a place where people can 'come as they are', rather than who we would like them to be.

God, help us to more faithfully reflect your radically inclusive love.  Strip away any pretense at being 'good' in order that we might be more loving.

Journal: Mark 11:1-11

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields (v 8)

Passover time was party time.  Jerusalem and it surrounds would be teeming with up to 3 million people from all corner of the then know world.  The Jewish diaspora was already widespread.  It was a time pregnant with political and religious expectation.  Celebrating the miraculous exodus of Israel out slavery in Egypt centuries earlier, when would God similarly deliver first century Jews from the tyranny of Roman occupation.  Would it be this year?

Jesus has spent most of his public ministry up to this point in rural and regional Judea and Galilee.  Now he was entering the centre political (Roman) and religious (Jewish) power.  He was also entering a scene heavy with expectation.  Was he the One the prophets foretold?  Was he the Messiah - the One who would save?  The people responded wit shouts of acclamation and actions worth of a king.  We know form the story that unfolds that there acclamation was like vapor - it would disappear on the wind.  Nevertheless they knew that Jesus' presence demanded a response.  And it always will.

When you come marching into my world Lord, what is and will be my response?  Will it be acclamation, ignorance, indifference?  Or will it be the surrender your Lordship requires?

Jesus, you are my Lord.  May my knee always bow, my tongue always confess, my life always bear your cross until that day I see you face to face.

Journal: Mark 10: 46-52

The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." "Go", said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road (v 51b-52)

The story of Bartimaeus does not end with the recovery of his sight.  It ends with him following Jesus along the road.  The recovery sight was more than physical; it lead to a spiritual awakening that manifested in discipleship.

John Newton proclaimed of his life before Christ, 'I once was blind...' And after, 'but now I see!'  More than anything else I need to scales to fall from my eyes that I might see Jesus.  And seeing Jesus that I then might follow him just as Bartimaeus did.

Father, thank you that you have revealed yourself to me in the person of your son, Jesus.  Continue cure my spiritual blindness in order that I might see Him more fully and then follow more completely.

Journal: Mark 10: 32-45

Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I and baptized with? (v 38)

Jesus predicts has betrayal and death and the disciples squabble over who will have the choice seats in heaven.  Strange really - or is it.  Countless Christians over this last century have suffered and even died for their faith, and we Christians in the comfortable West indulge in debates over inconsequential things.  The Way of Jesus is the way of the cross.  This Way is the same no matter what place or culture we are born into.  For some the death Jesus calls us to is 'just' death to our own rebellious, selfish way of living.  For too many it is that death AND physical death as well.

So Jesus' question confronts me as much as it did James and John.  Can I accept the suffering my faith may ask of me?  Am I prepared to be baptized into death in order to be raised to new life?  Too easily I seek for comfort rather than the cross.  But it is, paradoxically, through the same cross that I and we discover the life we long and were created for.

God, may my way be your Way - the way of the cross.  May I accept whatever cup you ask me to drink, knowing that you have gone before me and will strengthen me for any challenge.

Journal: Mark 10: 17-31

Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me. (v 21)

Here is one of the most poignant stories in the gospels.  The man seemed desperate to know the Secret he assumed Jesus knew - that is how to receive life now and beyond the grave.  Implicit in his request is a dissatisfaction with his current life that was marked by two things - rigid adherence to the law and great wealth.  Jesus calls the man to leave the latter behind and to follow him.  He can't.  The tentacles of his riches have so consumed him he is immobilized.

Before we follow, we must leave behind.  Jesus said, 'then come, follow me.'  What I need to leave behind will be different to what another will need to turn their back on.  What we leave behind is that has power over us - love of money, pride, unbelief - the list is endless.  We leave behind that which has effectively been god of us in order that we might walk with Jesus towards the One True God.

Jesus, help me to both leave behind and to come and follow you as I seek the life your kingdom promises.

Journal: Mark 10: 13-16

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it (v1 15)

What was it about children that Jesus was seemingly idealizing?  Children implicitly trust those in authority, like parents (unless of course that trust has been abused).  Perhaps Jesus is pointing not so much towards our designation as children so much as he is reinforcing God's character as Father.  Unless we come to God as a trusting child comes to a parent - acknowledging God's superiority and our dependence - then we will never taste the kingdom life he invites us into.

I struggled for a number of my teenage years to come to God as my Father.  It was not that my dad was a bad example - I had and still have a great relationship with him.  It was I think my struggle to understand that my Father accepts me just as I am, with all my sinful blemishes.  I labored under the misapprehension that my Father could only welcome me if my life was right and in order.  Thank God this is untrue!  My Father accepts me for who I am - a sin-stained child of His - and loves me enough to change me day by day into the image of his son.  Wow!

Thank you Father that you accept me, love me and embrace me as a precious child.  Thank you that your love changes me.

Journal: Mark 10: 1-12

Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate (v 9)

There are some parts of the Bible that if it were up to me would not be there.  This is one of those.  Jesus blacks and white denunciation of divorce does not leave me or us much wriggle room.  Not attempts at contextualizing or marginalizing Jesus' words can remove the indelible impression they leave; Jesus hates divorce.  And if Jesus does, so should we.

Divorce rates in the church is as rampant as they are in our culture.  They demonstrate that we are more 'in the world' than we would like to think.  A biblical response to such a calamity is not to ignore the challenge, but to do all we can to buttress and support marriage.  Marriage is worth fighting for because marriage is a covenant between a man a woman and God.  And covenant matters because covenant is the fundamental language of God.  God expresses his love for creation through covenant - including most especially the new and eternal covenant that Jesus inaugurated.  God does not break his covenant commitments.  Neither, lightly, should we.

God, help me to care for those who have or are enduring the pain of divorce, at the same time fighting with all the strength you can give me to protect and enhance marriage.

Journal: Mark 9: 42-50

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other (v 50b)

Salt is fundamental to human existence.  The Roman philosopher Pliny said that a civilized life is impossible without salt.  So when Jesus uses salt as a metaphor for the way we relate to one another he is saying something both important and profound.

To season our relationships is to make sure they are marked by those things which enhance them, just like salt enhances the flavor of food.  What enhances relationships?  Patience, gentleness, self-control, kindness and so on.  Sound familiar?  Paul says in Colossians that we should 'let our conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt...' (4:6)

Father, help me to season my conversations, my relationships with the fruit that comes from the indwelling of your Spirit in my life.

Journal: Mark 9: 30-41

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (v 35)

Our culture is built around being first.  First with our grades in school.  First in our capacity to earn money.  First in our ability to have the biggest house/car/symbol of success.  Winner are grinners.  In the immortal words of Ricky-Bobby, 'if you're not first, you're last.'

Our win at all costs attitude was not foreign to Jesus' day, or even to his disciples.  Embarrassed, they are caught out in a rather demeaning conversation as to who would be/was the greatest.  Jesus radically reverses the order of things for them and for us.  Greatness is not measured by success; it is measured by servant-hood.  And for servant-hood we have the ultimate example in the way Jesus both lived and died.

The church has been polluted by the 'health and wealth' approach to faith.  It is a load of crap - heresy that sounds great but is built on a pack of lies foreign to the Way of Christ.

God, help me to take up my cross and follow you - not just once, but daily.  May my life be defined by servant-hood rather than success.