Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

John 20:10-15: ”The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.”(please click for passage)

Love lingers. Mary, it seems, could not bear to leave the site where Jesus had been laid in death. Love’s reward is to meet with Jesus, and that was Mary’s experience on this momentous day.

If you have tears in your eyes or in your heart, you are in my prayers today. Sometimes we weep outwardly, and other times inwardly. Some ‘tears’ are not watery; they are more like ‘tears’ at the fabric of your heart. Either way, it remains the case that ”The LORD is close to the broken-hearted” (Psalm 34:18). He keeps all our tears in His ”bottle.” He sees our crying and He cares.

Often we need to weep, and it’s a healing/cleansing thing. Negative stuff can leave our bodies transported down the canal of tears. A cargo of debris gently floats away on the tide. When people dam their tears; when they stifle them with firm resolve, they regularly pay a price, one way or another. It’s not good to ‘bottle it up’. Perhaps,today, you need to ”let it go” – whatever ”it” is.

But on other occasions our tears have to be challenged: ”Woman, why are you crying?” (13, 15). Some of our tears may be wasted on illusions. Our thinking is all wrong and we just need a fresh perspective. We stand in need of revelation.Jesus was not dead, as Mary thought. His body had not been stolen. He was right there, behind her. She just needed the eyes to see. They would then become sparkly eyes.

Perhaps in the church we need a clearer vision than ever that Jesus is alive. It would alter a lot of things if that belief could travel the short (yet terribly long distance) from head to heart.

Selwyn Hughes once said, with regard to negative thoughts, ”Catch them. Challenge them. Change them.” That remains wise and helpful counsel. Not everything we think is true just because we happen to think it. 

The word ‘fear’ has been represented as an acrostic:

False

Expectations

Appearing

Real.

Does the above ring any bells?

”I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).

PRAYER: Lord God, you know where my mind needs changing and re-moulding. You see how susceptible I can be to lies. But sometimes my greatest difficulties are not with outright error, but with negative thinking; imagining ‘ghosts’ in the shadows that do not exist. Please challenge every tear and depressed feeling flowing from a lack of godly thinking. May my mind be renewed continually, for Jesus’ sake.

John 20:1-10:Hot pursuit.(please click for todays passage)

This picture of John (we believe) and Peter, is full of realism. It’s true to what we know of the pair. The younger man eventually outran the older, but how typical of Peter to dive right into the tomb without hesitation. As someone said, there was no ”Shall-we-shan’t we?” No hesitation or deviation. Don’t you just love impulsive Peter?

I was thinking, when you get a sniff of a Biblical truth; a truth about Jesus that you maybe haven’t seen before (or not seen with clarity), you should go after it with all your might. Pursue it. Chase it down. Examine the evidence. Once you are fully convinced in your own mind, let it change your life, and share it with the world. Run after it; and then when you’ve caught it (or more to the point, it has captured you), run with it.

I have just finished reading ‘Wingspread’ – A.W. Tozer’s beautifully written biography of A.B. Simpson, the charismatic founder of the ‘Christian and Missionary Alliance’. While he was still a relatively young man Albert Simpson became very ill, and the medical prognosis was that he wouldn’t live very long. Then he came into contact with teaching about ‘divine healing’. Once he became sure of this for himself, not only did he experience a remarkable healing. From that point onwards it became a significant emphasis in his ministry and that of the movement he initiated.

When John looked into the grave he saw an orderly scene. If grave robbers had called, they would have ripped off the bandages and left them strewn about the place, or they would have taken body, grave clothes and all. But what John saw suggested the body of Jesus had just passed through the clothes (and,presumably, out through the walls). It’s been said that they looked something like a collapsed balloon when all the air has gone out

It was still dusky (1) maybe, but daylight was beginning to dawn for Jesus’ disciples. For John it was a ”bit like falling in love; a bit like sunrise; a bit like the sound of rain at the end of a long drought…the world had turned a corner,out of its long winter and into spring at last.” Tom Wright: ‘John for everyone, part 2’, p.142.

 John 19:38-42: Out of hiding.(please click for todays passage)

Some years ago, I was significantly affected by the writings of John White. He was a Christian and a psychiatrist, and he wrote some penetrating, insightful books about Christianity. His book, ‘The Fight’, remains a classic. I still remember many thoughts and ideas from another book of his, ‘The Race’. In one chapter he spoke about how evangelism is fundamentally about honesty. You are not in hiding. You are a Christian and you are not ashamed of the fact. You don’t wear a disguise. You are who you are. You let your light ”shine” rather than hiding it ”under a bushel”.

This lovely ending to John 19 shows the power of the Cross to put courage, nerve and sinew into timid souls. We are told that Joseph of Arimathea, who was evidently a wealthy man, ”was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews” (38). It is always fear of something or someone that causes a person to keep their faith under wraps. Previously, Nicodemus ”had visited Jesus at night” (39).  That may or not have been about fear. I’m not sure. But now, at a time when the majority of Disciples had run away; an uneasy time when a sense of danger hung in the air, these two men did a loving and brave thing. This was not about courting popularity. There was nothing in it for themselves as far as I can see. But they summoned courage to get the body of Jesus, with ”Pilate’s permission” (38b). They wanted to do the right thing (40b) – to give Jesus a decent burial. It’s a charming story of bravery, love and loyalty. I find in it an abiding to challenge to publicly identify with Christ in faithful witness, and to use what He blesses us with as good stewards. Our material blessings should all be consecrated to the service of Jesus. The tomb was Joseph’s. It would have been a cave hewn out of rock, and would have taken a considerable amount of work to create. But he gave this thing of value to Jesus. It has been pointed out that the spices brought were many times more than Mary’s earlier offering (12:3), and it was thought that she was extravagant. This was the kind of quantity (and quality) you would bring to a King. That is surely the point. These two men, on a united mission of love, agreed with Pilate’s notice, but for vastly different reasons.

Well, this quote seems a good way to prepare ourselves for the wonders ahead:

”John, we may be sure, intends us to remember the last time we stood before a tomb. Jesus wept outside Lazarus’s tomb (11.35), but when they rolled the stone away there was no smell of decomposition (11.41). Wait, John says to us. Watch with me through this sabbath, this quiet, sad rest. Wait for this, the final day, the seventh day, to pass. God rested on the seventh day. So must Jesus. But this whole book has been about new creation. Wait for the eighth day.” Tom Wright: ‘John for everyone’, part 2, p.139.

”It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I want to stand with with you and for the whole world to know that I am yours. Please forgive me for times when I have lacked courage and gone into hiding.

John 19:28-30: His thirst – our satisfaction.(please click for todays Bible passage)

The theme of prophetic fulfilment is threaded through this nineteenth chapter. God has His ways of showing us that He is still ‘on the Throne’ when it appears otherwise (28). When Jesus died, He was in total control: ”…he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” In fact, it looks like Jesus died sooner than anyone expected (33). It reminds me of words He spoke earlier: ”…I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:17b, 18). At the time Jesus said this, there were those who thought He was ”raving mad” (John 10:20). But He did it, as today’s passage shows. When Jesus said, ”It is finished” (30), it was not a statement of resignation. It was a triumphant announcement that everything He came to do was now completed. The single word used here in the original has been translated, ”It’s all done!” (Tom Wright). It’s the word people would write on a bill once it had been paid.

It is wonderful to be able to face our ‘crucifixion’ experiences in life with the conviction that God is in control, and to be sure that there are no accidents with Him (Romans 8:28). We will be able to do this more readily if we are immersed in the Bible , as our Lord was; if we ‘hide’ His Word in our hearts (see Psalm 69:21).

Jesus had also said on another occasion: ”If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37b). I can’t help but think that Jesus knew intense thirst on the cross for the satisfaction of our thirst. ”How marvellous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How marvellous, how wonderful, is my Saviour’s love for me.” It truly is. I remember one preacher saying that in crucifixion a person literally became ”dessicated” – they dried out. The thirst Jesus must have experienced is unimaginable. In fact the same preacher pointed out that this shows that, on the cross, Jesus went to Hell on our behalf. He pointed out that In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the rich man, in Hell, cried out, ”…send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in the water and cool my tongue because I am in agony in this fire.” Tom Wright observes that Jesus, who earlier made the finest quality wine from water (John 2:10), was offered, in His hour of need, a most inferior kind of wine. ”He gave others the best wine, so good that people remarked on it. He himself, at this moment of agony, has the cheap stuff that the lower ranks in the army drank when on duty.” Tom Wright: ‘John for everyone, part 2’, p.130. But He is able to turn our ‘water’ into the finest quality vintage, because of His suffering on the cross. That ‘sign’ back in John 2, points to Jesus’ power to transform, according to Professor Leon Morriss. This water to wine transformation comes from what Jesus achieved at the cross. May we never lose the wonder. May we never grow overly familiar with sacred Calvary. May we never forget the price at which our salvation was bought.

John 19:25-27: True religion.(please click for Bible passage)

Jesus has been described as ”the Man for others”. There is something about pain that can cause a person to turn inward; to become self-focussed. We tend to understand, though, that they need to summon all their energy to get through – to just survive. So the love of Jesus exhibited here is simply amazing. Even at this stage, whilst being in agony, He had a heart for others. He did not close in on Himself. He thought about His mother. He thought about His ‘beloved’ disciple. He made practical arrangements for them.

Paul, in writing to children in the Ephesians church, says ‘ ”Honour your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise – ”that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on Earth” ‘ (Ephesians 6:2, 3). Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father/guardian, was dead. But his mother still lived, and He had her best interests at heart. In death, He honoured His mother. And if someone should protest that the aforementioned  ”promise” didn’t work in Jesus’ case, because He died young, I would want to ask, ”But isn’t He still alive?”

In 1 Timothy 5:8 we read: ”If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” These are challenging words, and not always easy to obey. But we cannot afford to ignore them. Jesus’ dying example points us in the right direction.  He is our pattern, our template for living. Our Christianity must be lived out at home. I realise, however, that it may well be the most difficult place to put the faith into practice.

Tom Wright mentions that this touching scene, full of pathos, has often been reflected in art. He says that he once worked at a church where, behind the altar, there was a large stained – glass window portraying the crucifixion, with Mary on the left and the beloved disciple on the right. He often drew attention to it when preaching at weddings: the man and the woman meet at the foot of the cross.

PRAYER: There is no love like yours Lord Jesus. Thank you for abundantly pouring it on undeserving me. Help me to share your love with all, and particularly with the members of my family.

John 19: 23-24: New clothes.(please click here for todays offers)

This is an example of how brutal and callous people can become.Maybe the soldiers worked so regularly and closely with cruel death that they barely noticed the pain they inflicted. They were just doing their duty. It was all in a day’s work. So they took Jesus’ clothes, and had a gambling session for the ”undergarment” which may have been quite a quality item. We shout at the Bible text, ”How can you men be so heartless?” But they can. We won’t change hard men such as these. Only the mercy and grace of God can.

Yet even as we shake our heads over this scene, we can again see that God is in control. He has not been taken by surprise. This was prophesied hundreds of years earlier.

”One of the most popular of…Biblical prophecies among the early Christians was Psalm 22. That is the psalm from which, according to Matthew (27.46) and Mark (15.34), Jesus himself quoted, or perhaps we should say screamed out, at the moment of his greatest agony: ‘My God, my God, why did you abandon me?’ As that psalm continues its awful litany of suffering, one of the many horrors it describes is the moment when the sufferer is not only stripped naked but suffers the added indignity of seeing people gambling for his clothes. John doesn’t need to do more than give the briefest description of the gambling at the foot of the cross, and to draw our attention to the psalm in question.       He leaves us to think through the implication. Jesus is the fulfifilment of prophecy and sacred song. He is the righteous sufferer. He is the true King. He is the one through whose shameful death the weight of Israel’s sin, and behind that the sin of the whole world, is being dealt with. The King of the Jews is God’s chosen representative, not merely to rule the world but to redeem it.” Tom Wright: ‘John for everyone’, part 2, p.127.

I was thinking, though, that Jesus leaves His ‘clothes’ to all who believe in Him. We can remove the ”filthy rags” of our own righteousness, and be clothed in Christ’s. What a precious gift this is, freely given to those who trust in Christ. There are other ways than theft and gambling to ‘take’ Jesus’ clothes. He wants us to have them.

PRAYER: ”In Royal robes I don’t deserve, I live to praise your majesty.”