The Best News!

Christ himself suffered for sins once. He was not guilty, but he suffered for those who are guilty to bring you to God.

1 Peter 3:18 

 

I don't know about you, but I like good news.  I'll go out on a limb here and say you do too.   Think about this for a moment, God knows EVERYTHING about us, even the stuff we think we can hide from Him, and God loves us anyway.  THAT is some good news.

 

Not only does God love us, but He also sent His Son, who was perfect, to this earth for the purpose of enduring the torment we deserve for our sins.  Why? So we would be made pure in the eyes of God.  THAT is the best news ever!!

Learning Is Essential

Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Matthew 9:13 

 

 Who was Jesus addressing with this statement to "go and learn"?  The Pharisees!  They had criticized Him for eating with the tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus reminded the Pharisees that we don't go to the doctor unless we are sick.  Then Jesus tells them to go back and study Hosea 6:6 and figure out what the prophet was saying.

 

I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that the Pharisees were quite a prickly bunch who were not TRULY concerned about the people they were supposed to serve.  The Pharisees seem to only be able to provide arrogant criticism and haughty attitudes. Oh and watch them get bowed up if you try to correct them.  I also believe that Jesus got a chuckle out of annoying the Pharisees.

 

What does the passage Jesus quoted mean?  "I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices."  What does that mean? Well, let's take a look at this and see.

 

Sacrifice - a physical act which can be completed without much thought and can become just another ritual which has lost all meaning.  We can sacrifice out time by doing activities at church, we can sacrifice our money by giving it to the church, any physical act we can generate without much thought can be a sacrifice.

 

Love - is an action that comes from within us. It is a conscious decision.  When we CHOOSE to love the "unlovable" we are reminding ourselves that some probably unlovable to some, and we remind ourselves that Jesus loves us so much that He died for us.  Love is an internal decision that is expressed outwardly.  Love cannot be done by ritual, as sacrifice can.  

 

When we learn the difference, we will begin to have a greater appreciation for Jesus' love for us.

Listen to the Hammer Ring!

 Along the way they came on a man from Cyrene named Simon and made him carry Jesus’ cross. Arriving at Golgotha, the place they call “Skull Hill,” they offered him a mild painkiller (a mixture of wine and myrrh), but when he tasted it he wouldn’t drink it.

After they had finished nailing him to the cross and were waiting for him to die, they whiled away the time by throwing dice for his clothes. Above his head they had posted the criminal charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews. Along with him, they also crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left.

Matthew 27:32-38 

As today is Good Friday, let's take a look at a couple of things:

     FIRST, according to Roman Law, any person could be ordered to carry a burden for a limited distance.  So Simon of Cyrene was ordered to carry the cross of Christ because Jesus' had been beaten so badly that He could not continue.  

     SECOND, it would not go well for the soldiers who had beaten Jesus if He died on the way to His execution.  Executions were very Public Events where the might of Rome was put on display to subdue the conquered.

     THIRD, the nails used to hold a prisoner to the cross was a spike about 7" long and they were actually hammered through the wrist because the hand would not be able to hold the weight of the body.

     FOURTH, the guards actually offered Jesus a mild sedative/painkiller so Jesus would be drugged into submission.  Jesus didn't need to be chemically subdued, Jesus willingly was crucified.

     FINALLY, while the soldiers were waiting for the prisoners to die, they would gamble for the possessions of the condemned right in front of them.  This was yet another insult and shame because the family of the condemned person was not allowed the possessions.

When I was younger, I read a poem that comes to mind when I think of Jesus' sacrifice to save me and claim me as His own:

Listen to the hammer ring

and rejoice!

Listen to the hammer ring

and thank Jesus!

Listen to the hammer ring

knowing He's taken everything

that was against us

and nailed it to the Cross!  

How Much Do We Care?

Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. ² A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. ³ Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. ⁴ But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, ⁵ “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” ⁶ Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.
John 12:1-6

As we go through this week leading up to Easter, let's take a look at some of the interesting things about Jesus' life during this week that we often overlook because we don't really understand or they seem to be mere footnotes in history.

In this passage, Jesus is at the home of the same Lazarus whom He raised from the dead.  Martha prepared a dinner in Jesus' honor and Lazarus ate with Him.  Now Mary, who had sat at the feet of Jesus and listened intently to Him teach.  As the they are eating, she takes a HUGE jar of EXPENSIVE perfume and washes Jesus' feet with it and then dries His feet with her hair.

Okay.....saddle up......'What's so big about dabbing a bit of perfume on Jesus' feet?'  Well, in Jesus' time, the feet were the most unclean part of the human body because people and animals tended to leave everything in the roadways, so as one is traveling from place to place the feet stepped in all sorts of detritus. Which is why one of the hallmarks of a gracious host was to make sure the traveler had their feet washed BEFORE entering the home.  Mary not only washed Jesus' feet, she washed them with an entire pound of perfume that cost a laborer an entire year's salary.  How many of us would give up a year's wages to perform a single act of graciousness to Jesus?   

Mary also dried Jesus' feet with her own hair.  Now she has washed the journey's crud from Jesus feet with this expensive perfume, and now she's wiping with her hair which would perfume her hair as well as pick up much of the road gunk from Jesus' feet.  How many of us would be so humble as to take care of someone with in such a way?

Enter Judas (yes, THAT Judas), who complains about the "wasting" of this perfume which he claimed could be sold and the money used to help the poor.  Well, let's consider this for a moment.  IF Mary had surrendered this perfume to be sold, because of the cost, selling it would be a challenge.  Not to mention the fact that John pulls no punches when he calls Judas a thief.

Beginning to get the picture? 

Finally, yes I'm almost finished, Mary made a sacrifice by doing the unthinkable while Judas' only act was to complain.  Are we Mary or Judas?