journey onWord with us

Within the last hour my wife and I completed a twelve-hour road trip to finish our vacation. It was a great time with our daughter, but a long day of driving. And so rather than write words that may not make sense, I am sending you an archived article from our ministry. Our full confidence is in the fact that God is in control, and therefore there is someone who may need to be encouraged by this article. So please read the words in a very personal way!

Do you ever wonder how much value you add to the lives of those around you?  I certainly have. Another question you may have asked is, “Am I doing anything that has eternal significance?” We all want to add value, and as Christ-followers it’s only natural to want to make an eternal impact on others. In that desire, our tendency is to focus on our weaknesses and what we can’t do rather than accepting God’s special design and purpose for us. I am writing this article for anyone who has ever had those, “What can I do?” or “Am I making any difference?” negative thoughts. Place yourself in Edward Kimball’s position and realize that God can take your small gestures for Him and multiply them exponentially.

Edward Kimball was a Sunday school teacher from Boston. I am so excited for you to hear this story that started with his faithfulness. I am not sure where the writing originated, but the content is simply profound.

Edward taught Sunday school at his church because he felt called to invest himself in the lives of young boys and men. To get to know his students better, he would often visit them during the week where they lived or worked. One Sunday, a challenging teenager showed up in his class. The boy was seventeen, a bit rough-hewn, poorly educated, and prone to outbursts of anger and profanity. Edward considered how he might reach this boy, and one day decided to visit him at the shoe store where he worked for his uncle. Kimball passed by the store once, trying to get up the courage to speak to the boy.

What would he say, he wondered, and how would he be received?  Finally, he entered and found the boy in the back, wrapping shoes and putting them on the shelves. Edward went to him, put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and mumbled some words about Christ’s love for him. Apparently his timing was just right, because right there in the shoe store, the boy was moved to commit his life to Christ. This teenager’s name was Dwight L. Moody. He grew to become the most successful evangelist of the nineteenth century, preaching to an estimated one hundred million people during his lifetime and traveling perhaps a million miles before the time of radio, television, automobiles, and air travel!

But wait … the story gets better! Moody (in 1879) led a young man named F. B. Meyer to Christ, who later became a minister. Meyer was instrumental in J. W. Chapman’s conversion to Christ, who later started a ministry to professional baseball players. One of the players, Billy Sunday, started working with J. W. Chapman in his evangelistic efforts. Billy Sunday would go on to become, perhaps, the greatest evangelist of the first two decades of the twentieth century.

One of Billy’s revivals (during the 1920’s) in Charlotte, NC was so powerful that one of his associates (who accepted Christ at one of his crusades) was asked to come back a few years later to hold a second series of meetings. And wouldn’t you know it; on one of the final nights of that crusade another young teenager came down the aisle to commit his life to Christ. The young man’s name was Billy Graham!

With one single act of obedience and a few mumbled words, a humble school teacher became God’s instrument to reach untold millions.  Why not you?!  Your story belongs to you and God. It does not need to read like Edward Kimball’s in order to matter for the kingdom.  Be open and sensitive to God’s prompting, and then be obedient.  God can and will use you!

Before sharing today’s article, I want to personally thank one of our team members, Mark Robb for again writing articles during Holy week. One article in a week is challenging, but writing well-thought-out articles for eight straight days is a labor of love. I trust you were blessed as I was by his work.

Today, I had the opportunity to play golf with complete strangers. We had fun and enjoyed each other’s company. On a few holes, I was on top of the world (the golf was easy and the sun was shining). But on a few other holes, my happiness turned sour (the golf was hard and frustrating). Sounds like life!

Happiness is such a fleeting emotion. It is not unusual to be on top of the world one day, and a valley-dweller the next. Circumstances can, in a breath of time, give us a jolt of emotional bliss or bring sadness to our spirit. We all know life is not about happiness, but it’s a normal response to crave it. There is something in all of us that desires to have a good day, to hear good news, or to just feel good about life. Even the Declaration of Independence declares, that the “pursuit of happiness” is a right. Although we will never live a perpetually happy life, we can have a perpetually joyful journey. Happiness always is not realistic, but rejoicing always certainly is!

Our counsel to rejoice comes from a man who was a prisoner in Rome. Paul was under house arrest when he wrote the book of Philippians. He wasn’t a man given to happy talk, but rather a man controlled by a true sense of joy that rose above any circumstance. It is one thing for someone in a good place to instruct others to rejoice, but it is far more meaningful to speak of rejoicing from prison. Under the inspiration of God, Paul gave the Philippian Christians words that still ring true today.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4

All believers in Christ have the same opportunity for joy that Paul challenged to the Philippians. He made his point with obvious impact by repeating the word rejoice twice. If joy were an emotion like happiness, then we could assume that the feelings of joy would come and go, just like happiness.

“But joy is not a feeling; it is the deep-down confidence that God is in control of everything for the believer’s good and His own glory, and thus all is well no matter what the circumstances.”
The John MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Philippians

It is sad, but true. Most believers don’t live with a deep-down confidence that God is in control. I would be less than genuine to proclaim that I have mastered the choice to live perpetually with joy. Studying this passage of scripture shows that rejoicing was to be a continual, habitual practice. We can rightly assume that God, through Paul, told the Philippians to live with a heart of rejoicing. Is the challenge to us as Christ followers any different today?

Living with a deep-down confidence that God is in control leads to a life of rejoicing. Circumstances will not always be good, but God always is. Our problem is that we believe intellectually that God is in control, but refuse to personally experience what He has made available. Accept today by faith, that God’s design for you is a perpetually rejoicing heart. It will take choosing His truth over your emotions, but the results are worth it.  We may crave happiness, but what we really want (and need) is joy!

We have arrived at the most significant “day after” in history.  Everything changed that first Easter Sunday, and then the sun rose again on the very first day of “What now?”  In the shadows of the completion of God’s plan of redemption for all mankind, I would like to call attention to a personal story of redemption in the life of one of Jesus’ closest friends in this world.

There is no single character in the Bible who I can more deeply relate with than Peter.  Peter was a glorious mess.  In his sold-out self, he was everything I desire to be in following Jesus.  In his broken self, he was everything I can so easily recognize in myself.  And in his most visible failure I see every well-meaning, yet broken promise I’ve ever made to God.  “Even if all fall away, I will not,” Peter said in Mark 14:29.  He continues in the very next verse, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”  I can feel the immense weight of those moments and words with every fiber of my being.

As darkness blankets Golgotha, the curtain in the temple tears in two, the earth violently rumbles and shakes, and the last breath leaves the lips of our Savior, we expect it to be as He shouted … “It is finished!”  Jesus took the incalculable weight of the sins of all, for all time, on His own body and died as their only ransom.  Sin’s power and Peter’s wretched denial – they are over, it is finished!

Yet, this is nowhere near the end of Peter’s, Jesus’ or my (our) story.  Jesus died and was buried, yes. But He rose again, and He lives!!  In His rising, Jesus broke the power of death.  In His rising, He completed the work of redemption and its glorious gift of life.  In His rising, He erased the period at the end of Peter’s story.  Peter denied, the rooster crowed, and Satan began the work of locking Peter up in the prison of that single sin.  But there was more story to be written, and very soon the angels would begin it again as they announced Jesus’ resurrection to the women who had gathered at His tomb.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Mark 16:6-7

Whom should they tell?  “… go, tell his disciples and Peter.”  In the immediate aftermath of Peter’s denial, God began the work of pursuing and restoring him.  It was neither a random detail or flippant mention of Peter’s name as the angels said “go, tell.”  It was an intentional and purposeful step Jesus took in Peter’s direction, and He wasn’t finished yet.  Jesus appears to His disciples several times between His resurrection and ascension into heaven.  On one of those occasions, He specifically turned to Peter and asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  Peter quickly answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus asked again, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  Peter answered once again with the same words.  Then Jesus asks a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  This time Peter seems a bit injured, but answers “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” (Conversation from John 21:15-17)

Was Jesus looking to make sure Peter loved Him?  Were His repeated questions an attempt to make an example of Peter?  I am certain Jesus did not need Peter’s assurances, and I do believe Jesus’ questions were making a statement — an intentional and meaningful statement to Peter and to us all.  Jesus sees through to Peter’s heart and knows the holes which remain from the devastating denials.  With the very same question asked intentionally three times, Jesus heals the holes, speaks His forgiveness, and fully restores Peter.  A broken servant, a healing Savior … what a perfect picture of who we are and who He is.

For me, there is no more enduring story when I think on the person of Peter.  Whenever I recall it, the countless instances of God’s forgiveness and restoration in my own life are replayed.  I am reminded of how deeply He loves me (and you).  I am reminded of the scandalously personal nature of God’s amazing plan of redemption.  Praise God that Peter’s story is also my own.  May we never forget how beautifully and bountifully Jesus loves, forgives, grants grace and restores.  He leaves the 99 to go searching for the one who is lost.  He sees the holes which need healing.  He knows us and calls us by name.

It has been our great privilege to walk into and through Holy Week with you.  I pray you see Jesus, and see yourself, more truly and completely.  And now, in the spirit of that first Monday after, may we begin anew in following our Savior!

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark…

I believe I’ll never experience Easter morning the same way again … ever.  At 1:11 in the afternoon on Saturday, April 15th, my entire mindset on Easter morning shifted.  This is my second fundamental shift in as many days.  God is so good.

Yesterday, I sat down to write about Resurrection and I prayed.  “Father, help me see Jesus more truly and completely in writing today.  Please show me as I read.”  Mark chapter 16 was originally planned as our reading for today.  We have been reading in the book of Mark all week.  Chapter 16 is all about the Resurrection.  So, of course, Mark chapter 16 should be our reading for Sunday.

Mary Magdalene’s name is mentioned first as chapter 16 begins.  She is at the head of the list Mark notes of the women who went shopping on Saturday evening for the spices they would need to anoint Jesus’ body properly the next morning.  This whole presumption is interesting to me.  Perhaps, in a future year, I will investigate this more fully.  I understand that Jesus’ body was hastily prepared for burial the day before because sundown was quickly approaching, and there was an urgency to burying Him before the Sabbath.  But did the women just expect they would walk up to or into the tomb and be allowed access to Jesus’ body?  Perhaps it was simply their deep love for Jesus, or maybe they just didn’t know what to do in their grief and decided to do the thing they knew.  I believe we can all relate to that in our own experience of grief?

In reading further, Mary Magdalene is mentioned again … as the first person Jesus appears to after rising from the dead.  Isn’t that just like Jesus, to appear first to a former prostitute and give her the honor of being the first to tell others He is Risen?!  My thoughts and heart began to settle on this interaction between Mary Magdalene and Jesus.  But there was a problem.  Mark chapter 16 says nothing about the details or nature of their meeting.   In fact, it simply says He appeared to her first, she went and told the disciples, and they didn’t believe her.  So, I sought other references to the story, going first to the gospel of John.  John’s gospel tells the story beautifully.  And as I begin reading, I remember writing about this before.  I remember being struck by the moment Mary hears Jesus say her name.

Mary encounters a man after turning to leave Jesus’ tomb.  She is overcome with grief.  She doesn’t recognize the man, but thinks he is the gardener.  The man asks her why she’s crying.  She questions Him in return, and then … He calls out her name.  Instantly, she knows it’s Jesus!  Something about His voice.  His voice.  Oh, that’s it!  His voice.

Yet, God had another reason for sending me to John’s account of Resurrection day.  And it was not to land on the story of Mary or to expound on the deep significance and application of “His voice.”  For a reason I do not recall right now, I returned to the beginning of the chapter.  I believe I was trying to confirm timing for an opening paragraph that was going to read something like one I wrote back in 2014 …

The bright, brilliant Light has broken through the darkness on Resurrection morning, and He is Risen, as He said!

But as I began reading, I stopped dead in my tracks after verse one.  Wait … did I just read that right?!

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

No way!  While it was still dark?!  Mary arrived at the tomb and found the stone had been rolled away while it was still dark?!  In all the years I have been writing about Resurrection morning, the hope and promise (and resurrection itself) were all associated with the breaking of the dawn.  The bright, brilliant Light shows up and ends the darkness.  But that’s not what happened, and that’s not what happens in our own lives.  In so many ways, our lives echo the truth of “while it was still dark.”  At the moment of genuine belief, faith and salvation, the light does not forever displace the darkness.  There are many reading today who persist in faith, yet are deeply entrenched in a season of darkness.  They are waiting and praying for the brilliant light to break, or they have experienced the temporal victory of darkness — the times when their prayers for healing were answered on the other side of eternity, not in the here and now.  If Jesus’ resurrection waited until after sunrise; if His power over sin and death in this life were only true after dawn had broken, then what do we do when ours hasn’t?  What do we do when the clouds in our season of suffering obscure the sunrise that we know happened, but that we can’t see?

I LOVE the discovery (after so many years of reading the story) that Mary found the stone rolled away while it was still dark.  I LOVE the true knowing that just happened as I read and experienced verse one.  I SO see Jesus walking out of the tomb into the darkness that will hold sway over this world until He visits it again.  I see the intention.  I see Him having a conversation with the darkness.  I see Him having a conversation with mine.

Jesus broke the power of sin and death.  And just as He does not manipulate our choices, He has not forever displaced the darkness with light … yet.  If, this morning, you woke again to your own darkness; if, today, you do not see the sunrise that everyone around you seems to see … know this!  Jesus rose again into the darkness.  He has forever conquered it, but he rose again into it.

Jesus did not wait for dawn to break.  You can trust Him when yours hasn’t broken yet either.  Hold on.  Take Heart.  Trust.  Cast your worries, burdens, failings, false hopes, resolve, promises to never do that again and anger on Him.  And in the casting, find that it is all part of the “stuff” He took to the cross and paid for a couple of days ago … and forever conquered in walking out of the tomb.  I pray you experience the bright, brilliant Light today.  I pray that you feel the warmth of the Son on your face.  But even if you don’t … He is Risen!

There is no shortage of homonyms in the English language.  These are words which sound and/or are spelt the same way, but have different meanings.  I remember the first time I heard someone call this week, “Passion Week.”  I was sure I didn’t know enough to correct them, but it sounded so odd to me.  Was this week so dominated by Jesus’ strong emotions and resolve that it warranted that name?  Holy Week, I never questioned.  That makes perfect sense.  But, “Passion Week”?  It did not take much research to find the other meaning of “passion,” and no time at all to begin using it in reference to Friday (I am slower to get on board with the reference for the entire week).

It is Jesus’ passion I see most clearly today.  Although, maybe not in the way you’re expecting.  I see and feel Jesus’ suffering today; I absolutely do.  But what I see and feel even more is His intense and compelling love.  I believe my prayer to see Jesus more truly and completely today has resulted in a fundamental shift from seeing His agony to seeing his agape – the highest form of love; pure and true love that is of and from God.  This kind of love is not expressed romantically.  It is not brotherly.  It is unfailing, benevolent, unwavering and a supreme act of will.

From the Garden to Golgotha, Jesus’ will is tested.  God’s plan of redemption will demand His all.  At every turn, Jesus chooses the cross.  And be sure of this, there is no one else who “causes” the cross.  Perhaps, one of the most stirring and clear reminders of this was Jesus’ response to Pilate when the Roman governor demanded an answer to the question, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer.

“Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded.
“Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”
John 19:10 (NLT)

Jesus responds quickly and clearly:

You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above.
John 19:11a (NLT)

And there it is.  This is God’s plan of redemption and Jesus’ clear choice.  No power exists in this narrative apart from what God himself gives.

I am reminded of Jesus’ good shepherd discourse earlier in His ministry:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.  The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.
I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again.  No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.
John 10:11-18 (NLT)

No one takes His life.  He sacrifices it voluntarily.

The brutality of Jesus’ suffering was not the gauge of His love for us.  It was His unwavering choice of the cross.  From the moment of His miraculous birth, Jesus’ life was on a collision course with the cross.  This is why the Father sent Him.  He chose it willingly.  All for us.

The following is an estimated timeline of Friday in the last week of Jesus.  We pray you find this is helpful as you prepare for bed tonight, wake tomorrow morning and travel through your Friday.

Thursday (our definition of the day)
6:00-11:30pm
Passover Seder – Jesus and his disciples
11:30-1:30am
Garden of Gethsemane

Friday
1:00-1:30am
Confrontation in the garden; Jesus arrested.
1:30-3:00am
Trial 1: Annas, former Jewish High Priest for 16 years; Jesus receives initial physical abuse.
Trial 2: Current Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin Court; Jesus bloodied by abuse.
3:00-5:00am
Imprisonment at Caiaphas’ palace.
5:00-6:00am
Trial 3: All the Jewish elders, including the High Priest, scribes and whole Sanhedrin. They decide to ask the Roman government to kill Jesus.
6:00-7:00am
Trial 4: Hearing before Roman governor Pilate, who declares, “I find no guilt in this man.”
7:00-7:30am
Trial 5: Hearing before Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great who had jurisdiction over Galilee; Jesus refused to answer any questions so Herod returned him quickly to Pilate.
7:30-8:30am
Trial 6: Pilate repeatedly tried to release Jesus but the Jewish leaders continued to object. Pilate physically tortured and beat Jesus beyond recognition seeking to satisfy the Jewish leaders. However, the Jews still demanded that Jesus be crucified. Pilate resists but eventually gives the order to execute Jesus.
8:30-9:00am
Pilate’s Roman soldiers take Jesus into the court (“Praetorium”) and continue to mock and torture him, including driving the “crown” of thorns into his skull.
9:00am-12:00pm (the “third” hour)
Jesus forced to carry his own cross to Golgotha
Crucifixion
Jesus and the Criminal
12:00-3:00pm (the “sixth” hour)
Darkness covers the land
Jesus hangs on the cross for 3 hours separated from his Father.
3:00pm (the “ninth” hour)
Jesus dies.
Earthquake, temple veil torn in two
Soldier pierces Jesus’ side
before sundown
Jesus is buried.

As the sun sets on our Thursday, the orthodox or ancient Jew welcomes their Friday.  It is this truth which places Jesus’ final Passover meal in the center of our focus today.  i have written extensively in past years about the astonishing significance of this particular Passover Seder, but today our eyes are fixed squarely on Jesus.  In answer to my prayer before writing today, i am overcome with the care Jesus lavishes on His disciples today.  From His intention and thought in preparation, to His posture and profuseness in serving, Jesus pours every ounce of Himself into those He gathers close in His final hours.  All of this before giving Himself over to those who will shout “Crucify!”

The disciples ask Jesus where He would like to celebrate the Passover Seder.  He chooses two disciples to travel to Jerusalem and gives them these instructions:

“As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.”
Mark 14:13-15 (NLT)

There is nothing cursory or arbitrary about His instructions, or the plans the Savior had already taken care to complete.  The large room that was already setup?  Man, it must be AWESOME to have divine power!  And this was just the prep.

As all the disciples gather to enjoy this last meal with Jesus, John’s gospel says this…

Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. [a]
John 13:1a (NLT)

The footnote ([a]) to that final phrase reads:

and now he showed them the full extent of his love.

What Jesus does next is get up from the table, take off His robe, wrap a towel around his waist, pour water into a basin and bend low to wash the feet of His disciples … to show them the full extent of His love.  This pattern of Jesus (born in a stable, first act in His earthly ministry is to retreat to the desert to be tempted by Satan himself, rode into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey) is repeated in the posture He takes to show His disciples the full extent of His love.  It is the same posture He will take later by praying with such intensity that He begins to sweat blood.  The same posture in being whipped by the Roman guards.  The same posture in carrying His cross.  The same posture in showing you and me the full extent of His love.

His care repeats in the way He deals with Judas (“Hurry and do what you’re going to do.” None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant. – John 13:27b-28 NLT).  It repeats in His response to the repeated failures of His inner circle to keep watch as He prayed in the Garden.  It repeats in His willing surrender to the guards who come to capture Him, and His merciful healing of the young guard’s ear severed by Peter’s sword.

This singular man (God-man) at the center of a redemptive whirlwind, soon to carry the full weight of every sin for all time and friend of sinners cares deeply, intentionally and lavishly.  With all that was closing in on Him, He never took His eyes off them.  Oh, how He loves.  Oh, how loved them.  Oh, how He loves you and me.

I have a confession.  As I sat down to write about Wednesday, I didn’t do as I promised I would.  Remember this from Sunday’s post on His gaze?

“On each occasion of sitting down to write this week, I will begin with a prayer that I see Jesus more truly and completely.”

I guess I was excited to get started?  Or maybe subconsciously I felt I didn’t need to do that today.  I mean, it’s Wednesday.  It’s the day “she did what she could.”  It’s the day she broke open the jar — broke it, so it was completely poured out for Him.  She kept nothing for herself.

Two years ago, I wrote:

“If eternity has a gate, on the other side of it I wish to hear Jesus say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  On this side, I wish to hear, “He did what he could.”

I know Wednesday.  I love Wednesday.  I see Jesu….  Wait.  I was just about to write, “I see Jesus clearly today.”  But, do I?  As I poured over all I had written about this day in previous years, all at once I discovered something fairly shocking.  In all I have written and all I have emphasized about the day, Jesus is nearly absent.  I know all about the significance of the house where Jesus was dining (Simon the leper).  I know all about how it would have been scandalous for a woman to approach the table to do anything other than serve.  I know all about the extravagance of the oil, the sacrifice in breaking the jar, and the anger expressed by the guests … but where is Jesus?  Certainly, I have mentioned His quick and meaningful rebuke.  Of course, I have noted the significance of the scandalous and lavish act of anointing.  But have I ever stopped to truly and completely see Jesus amid all the activity and significance of the evening?

It wasn’t an accident that I stopped after writing the first two sentences this morning.  It was not as I had convinced myself, that I simply had so much in my head to write that I just wouldn’t have time to finish, so I’ll just stop for now and finish later.  The Spirit had another prompt waiting.

As I stood in the shower and the water poured over my head, I was prompted to pray.  As the sensation of the water pouring down over my face flashed the image of the oil pouring down over my Savior’s, I realized that I had not yet seen Him truly and fully in that day or scene.  And so I prayed as I had promised on Sunday.  “Father, help me see Jesus more truly and completely today.”  The answer came quickly.

As the water flowed over me, I saw Jesus arriving at Simon’s front door and heard the deep gratitude in His voice as the Creator of the universe thanked His host for opening his home to Him.  I see Him greeting each guest, telling stories at the table, smiling and laughing as genuine friends do.  I see Him not bat an eye when the unnamed servant woman approaches Him at the table.  I see Him not flinch when the jar of pure nard is broken open.  I see Him close His eyes and bow His head slightly as the oil flows freely through the woman’s fingers.  In accepting the invitation of Simon and the anointing of the unnamed woman, Jesus receives their good gifts freely and graciously.  He invites them to be part of the story God is writing … the story of mankind’s redemption.  He does not insist on walking this road alone.  There will be a part that only He can walk, but that is not yet, and it is not tonight.  Tonight, He reclines at the table of His friend Simon and receives an anointing from a treasured daughter of his Father.

How hard is it for us to be served?  How uncomfortable do we get when someone tries to do something for us?  We may swallow hard and allow it, but how quick is the urge to repay or reciprocate?  We’re more comfortable when we receive something earned or serve someone else.  But how well do we receive another’s gift (or grace)?  I have learned this good lesson in my life — to not rob another of the joy of giving.  I see this in Jesus as He arrives at Simon’s home and bows His head as the oil flows.  To allow someone to serve Him and become part of the narrative of God’s redemptive work … this is the Savior’s gift of love.   This is His great capacity for receiving.

Thank you, Father, for the morning prompts.  Thank you, Father, for the precious gift of your Son.  May we see Him and receive Him more truly and fully today.  May His capacity to receive forever change ours.

It’s truly a tall task to take on the totality of Tuesday.  There is SO MUCH that can be written of Jesus’ experience of this specific day in His final week before giving His all.  It’s no wonder the religious leaders would be plotting, and soon shouting for, His death.  At every turn today, Jesus had their number.  It started right out of the gate as they challenged His authority.  Instead of giving them a direct answer, Jesus confounds them with a “for those who have ears to hear” sort of scenario.  He often used those words at the end of His stories (parables) to emphasize that His teaching was not intended to inform those whose hearts were hardened against Him.  In challenging the religious leaders that morning with His question about John, He revealed their hardheartedness in their non-answer.  They calculated and postured.  He refused to answer directly, because they truly weren’t asking a question.  Their hearts were hardened toward Him, and the truth in His answer would have fallen as a seed on the footpath (from His parable of the good soil in Matthew 13).  Jesus’ refusal to answer directly mirrors His explanation of why he teaches using story near the end of the parable of the good soil:

That is why I use these parables,
For they look, but they don’t really see.
They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.
Matthew 13:13 (NLT)

Jesus follows up His non-answer with a story meant to teach those who had ears to hear.  Thus began a pattern of challenge and story which continued throughout the day.  How incredibly disgusted the religious elite must have been by the time the sun set on their Tuesday.  Repeatedly they tested and tried to trap Him, and repeatedly He confounded and amazed them.  His stories are central on this day, but it is His singular deviation from the pattern of challenge and story that has me seeing Him most clearly today.

At some point during His Tuesday, Jesus takes a seat near the collection box in the temple.  The temple looks dramatically different than it did just the day before.  He observes all who come to offer their gifts of money.  There is no indication of how long He sat observing, but there was one gift He had been anticipating.  He knew who the woman was.  He knew she was coming.  He was fully God.  At the proper time, He took His seat and began waiting for her.  Can’t you just see it being the one thing He’d been looking forward to all day?

Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.
Mark 12:41 (NLT)

The HCSB translation describes them as “two tiny coins worth very little.”  Yet, here is how the One who spoke the world into being describes her gift:

“I assure you: This poor widow has put in more than all those giving to the temple treasury.”
Mark 12:43 (HCSB)

In observing her gift, Jesus calls His disciples over and calls attention to what just happened.  Any other person, sitting as Jesus, did would have called over their friends to point out the most prominent person … the most extravagant gift.  Jesus did as well, it’s just that His definition of prominence and extravagance are far different.  Jesus says the worth of the widow’s gift is more that everyone else’s … combined!  Her two tiny coins in kingdom currency are worth more than the full store houses of this world.

And then Jesus says something of this widow that He will say of another servant woman tomorrow … she gave all that she had.  He says it this way:

“… she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed—all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:44b (HCSB)

Sitting in the temple that day, the One who was about to give His all for us, called attention to another who gave her all for Him.

The pattern of Jesus’ life seems to speak to the power of one.  The number of times He spent time with, served, healed, forgave just one is significantly greater than the times he did so for crowds of many.  On this day when the crowds far outweigh the one, how much more beautiful is this tiny moment between the poor widow with her two tiny coins and her Master?  On this sacred Tuesday, may the One who gave His all recognizing the one who gave her all challenge us with whether we are giving our all.