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 Luke 24:1-6a: Prepared spices (see also 23:55,56).(please click for todays passage )

The women prepared their spices to anoint the body of a dead Jesus (or so they thought). But on the first day of each new week, the church gathers to meet with the risen Lord Jesus. What a privilege! But here’s my question: do we ‘prepare’ our ‘spices’; our perfumery of praise and worship? Or do we just roll out of bed, down the aisle and into a pew?! What we do at ‘home’ (23:56) can have a significant impact on the public worship of the gathered church.

We say we believe in every member ministry (‘the priesthood of all believers’, as it is sometimes called). We have a conviction that every member of the church is a minister.

Now if I expect the service leader to prepare…

…and if I expect the musicians to prepare…

…and if I expect that the preacher will be prepared…

Why would I then exempt myself from the need for heart preparation? Because I, too, am a minister of the church.

When we gather to meet with the living Lord Jesus we bring something. Our emphasis is not on getting but on giving. What will we bring? It can only be what we have (1 Corinthians 14:26).

Prayer: Lord, I pray that the public worship of the church will be enriched because of the contribution I bring. Help me to prepare my heart in private.

 Luke 23:50-56: A model disciple?(please click for todays passage)

How should we respond to Christ crucified? Perhaps Joseph of Arimathea shows the way. To some degree he is a model disciple:

He had courage: Joseph had the bravery to identify with Jesus at a time when it was no doubt tempting to maintain a low profile. The atmosphere must have felt full of danger and menace, but by Joseph lifted his head above the parapet;

He was prepared to sacrifice: Joseph gave his own prepared tomb to Jesus. We should not miss the loving generosity behind his action;

He demonstrated practicality: he used what he had to serve. Do we?

‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.’ 

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for dying in my place. May my whole life be a cross-shaped response to you and all you have done for me.

 Luke 23:44-49: ‘…the sun stopped shining.'(please click for todays passage)

‘The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.’ (John 1:5).

What was occurring in nature, to some degree reflected what was happening with Jesus, ‘the light of the world.’ When He died, for a brief time, you might say that His light ceased to shine in this world. He had said previously:

‘While I am in the world, I am the light of the world’ (John 9:5). 

For a very short time He would be put out of the world, before shining again in all His brilliant, dazzling glory. Like with a self re-igniting candle, the light was only temporarily blown out, but the divinity of Jesus still burned, ready to explode back into life and light on the third day.

‘We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s light.’ (John 9:4,5: The Message).

But through what looked like tragedy – the extinguishing of the light – the way was opened up to God. Different kinds of people were powerfully impacted. The impact lives on today…and will, for all eternity.

Luke 23:26-31: Cry for yourselves.(please click here for todays passage)

The life and death of Jesus were to be dramatised on ITV with Robert Powell in the lead role. It was a heavy duty, big budget production and a large swathe of the population were going to be viewing. ”I’m sure I’ll cry when He dies”, I heard someone say. But unless you are prepared to become a disciple and carry the cross, you should weep for yourself. The reality of judgment should reduce us all to tears. Those who reject Him must recognise the seriousness of their action. It is not enough to simply be moved by the story of His death.

In the story of Simon of Cyrene we have a picture of conversion. Life is going on as normal. It’s another ordinary day. Then suddenly you find yourself carrying the cross. Everything changes. You did not expect to find yourself doing this, but now it is the dominating reality in your life.

 Luke 23:1-5: Innocent.

Jesus was crucified on trumped up charges. In terms of human justice it was a travesty. Legally it was a stitch up. Pilate knew it, and it is important to take note of his repeated assertions of Christ’s innocence: ‘I find no basis for a charge against this man’ (4). He never shifted from that viewpoint. But morally he was too weak to carry through what he knew to be right. He caved in under pressure. The Roman Procurator was a ‘reed’ swayed by the wind.

So Jesus died:

• Because of false charges;
• Because of a feeble, fickle ruler who had jelly where his backbone should have been;

But here is the real reason:

‘For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God…’ 1 Peter 3:18.

Prayer: Thank you dear Lord Jesus, for your innocent suffering on my behalf, so that I can have a clean slate and an open relationship with Father God. Thank you for being my substitute in death and judgment. I am in awe, and deeply grateful.

Luke 22:63-71: None so blind…(please click for todays passage)

As I read these verses I asked myself, ‘Who really was blindfolded here?’ (64; cf.67,68). The opponents of Jesus were wilfully blind. They had set themselves against the truth (70,71). There was (there is!) solid evidence that Jesus is who He claimed to be – the Son of God. But they were not interested.

‘There are none so blind as those who will not see.’

In our witness today we face the same reality. Satan has put a supernatural blindfold around the world: ‘…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). Thankfully, as Paul goes on to say, this darkness can be overcome as the gospel is preached (6). The God who, at the beginning said, ‘Let there be light’, can shine in hearts to ‘give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ It’s a miracle every time it happens. A new creation takes place.

And let it be said that the opposition of spiritually obtuse people does not alter the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord ( Luke 22:69). He reigns over all.

What humility, though, to allow Himself to be so ill-treated and insulted for our sakes. He could have blasted them all away with just one word.

Prayer: ‘Oh make me understand it, help me to take it in, what it meant to thee, the Holy One, to bear away my sin.