Life of Christ 96
We find ourselves,
today, just about halfway through our study of the life of Christ. We are
substantially more than halfway through Jesus' earthly career, but this is because
the Gospels devote about half of their space to the first two and half years of
Jesus' ministry, and about half of their space to the last six months. Thus,
the second half of this blog series will focus on the last six months of Jesus'
life, plus the Resurrection and then Ascension.
This six month period is
noticeably divided by Jesus' attendance at three separate feasts in Jerusalem.
The first, which usually takes place in October, was the Feast of Tabernacles.
It celebrates the successful Jewish exodus from Egypt, and involved the Jews
building and living in temporary booths. It lasted a week. The second, what we
know of as Hanukkah, is called in the Bible the Feast of Dedication. It takes
place, as you know, over an eight day period in December, and commemorates the
cleansing and restoring of the Temple under the Maccabees. This feast was not
called for in the Torah, as the other two were, but was widely observed in
Jesus' own lifetime and that has continued down to ours. The third feast, commonly
called Passover, commemorates the Jews deliverance from the death angel sent to
punish Pharaoh and the Egyptians. This takes place over seven days sometime
around April.
We have seen, recently,
that Jesus has avoided Judea and Galilee so as not to provoke an early
confrontation with Israel's political and religious leadership. Thus, He spent
large portions of His last summer traveling outside of Israel, and training the
Apostles to lead the infant Church after He was gone. Over these last six
months, though, He will reverse course, and insert Himself directly and
repeatedly and openly into the very center of Jewish religious life. He will
give His last witness to His own claims, and this will result inevitably in His
own death.
Leaving Galilee, Jesus
and His Apostles now head toward Jerusalem in October for the Feast of
Tabernacles. Most of the time, out of ethnic prejudice, the Jews in Galilee
traveled the long way around Samaria on their way to Jerusalem, but Jesus had
delayed His departure (John 7.2-10), and now He needed to take the direct route
through Samaria. Wisely, He sent someone on ahead of the group to prepare for
the night's lodgings (Luke 9.51-52). Unfortunately, the Samaritans in this
particular village refused to extend their hospitality (Luke 9.53), rudely
leaving Him and His entourage literally out in the cold.
There is lurking in this
little known story some wonderful truths about the life and ministry of Jesus
Christ. First, I see that a spirit which delights in judgment is not a Christ
like spirit. Judgment follows sin as surely as night follows day (Psalm 9.16),
but the fact of and the coming of this judgment is a sobering thing. It isn't
to be one in which we take delight, or are eager to see come to pass. The
classic example of this, in our day, is the Westboro Baptist Church. They take
great delight in hurling epithets of hatred and in calling for more death and
destruction. The truth is that my God, even my Old Testament God, delighted in
mercy (Micah 7.18).
The streets of my city
are filled with tens of thousands of gang members. These thuggish punks think
nothing of meting out violence to all and sundry in their pursuit of money,
respect, and fame. Judgment will come on such violent men, but when it does,
and they die in a hail of bullets from a passing car, we as God's people are to
take no delight in that. That tatted up Latin King or Black Gangsta Disciple,
who now lays prostrate on the pavement and soaked in his own blood, was somebody's
son. Somewhere, a mother weeps tonight. Somewhere, another soul has been deeply
stained with murder. And, even more tragically, 'in hell he lift up his eyes,
being in torments' (Luke 16.23). We ought to long for, pray for, work for, and
look for repentance and mercy, not condemnation and judgment.
Secondly, when Jesus
comes, He doesn't destroy your life; He rescues it.
One of
the reasons that people reject Jesus Christ is they are afraid that He will
change their life. And they like their life. They like their bar hopping, pub
crawling, liquor drinking, dope smoking, porn watching, partying, fornicating,
me-first live how I want to live lifestyle. They like their rock concerts on
Friday night, and their weekends at the beach. They like their Mardi Gras
parades and the French Quarter in New Orleans. They like their quick trips to
Vegas, their blackjack at Harrah's, and the floor shows with the naked ladies.
They like their Sunday's on the golf course, and a round of beers in the club
house afterwards while the dirty jokes fly. They like their sports leagues,
their bowling leagues, their impeccably groomed lawns, and their book clubs
discussing Fifty Shades of Grey. They like their season tickets, their
booze-soaked tailgates, and gawking at the Dallas Cowgirls. They like their
happy hours, their wine tastings, and their night caps. They like their big
cigars, their hard lemonade, and their Saturday nights with pay-per-view. They
like their karaoke, their pretzel nuts, and their hail-hail-the-gangs-all-here.
They like their conspicuous consumption, their walk in closets, and their
personal shopping assistants. In short, they like their sin-infested, decadent
lifestyle and they think Jesus is going to destroy their life if they yield to
His claims.
The
truth is that Jesus doesn't destroy anybody's life. He saves it. 'The thief
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly' (John 10.10).
Yes,
when Jesus comes in, you find yourself trading in your tobacco, your alcohol,
your gambling, your hedonism, your foul language, your dope, your fornication,
your country, rock, and hip hop, your ungodly friends, and your selfish,
pleasure mad, money wasting existence for a King James Bible, a fistful of
tracts, thirty minutes a day with God, saying Amen during the preaching, modest
dress, tithes and offerings, Bible studies, pot luck dinners, tears at the
altar, hours of volunteer work, and a church family full of old ladies, crying
babies, and snot nosed kids - and you'll love it.
You
will look at your old life and see not fun, but heartache; not laughter, but
sorrow; not real friends, but false ones; not the good life, but a living
death. You will see wasted time, wasted opportunities, wasted treasure, and a
wasted life. You will see a desperate loneliness, a suicidal sadness, an
aimless existence, and a bitter resentment badly covered up by a lust for wine,
women, and song. You will look at that, and shake your head in disbelief that
you ever thought that was where true happiness was.
You
will look at your new life, filled to the brim with the abundant blessings of
joy, peace, gratitude, love, companionship, family, forgiveness, comfort,
happiness, purpose, care, faith, friendship, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
grace, mercy, and meaning and marvel at just how wonderfully Jesus saved your
life.
'He
that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it' (Matthew 10.39). Jesus didn't come to destroy men's lives, but
to save them.
Did the
father destroy the prodigal son's life when he welcomed him back home? No, he
saved him, in every wonderful sense of the word. Don't run from Him into a
selfish pleasure-mad existence. You can't get no satisfaction there. Turn
toward Him, yield to Him, and let His eternal life bring to you the abundant
life.
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