Moments

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he told his disciples, “You know that the Passover takes place after two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill him. “Not during the festival,” they said, “so there won’t be rioting among the people.” Matthew 26:1-5 (CSB)

How the day turns dark. 

Those joyful memories we have of Jesus, healing, eating, sharing. The lives transformed. I imagine the laughter, and time together with those whom he loved. I picture Mary, swaddling him as a baby, and being by his side for all of his life. But the corruption of the human heart—yours and mine—comes into clear view from this moment on. 

The first story after Adam and Eve, is the story of Cain and Abel. It is a story of insecurity and violence. I heard recently that the heart reaches out for connection every 8 seconds or so. That means, that nearly constantly, and subconsciously, the human self is desiring to be with those around them. We’re regularly throwing out and searching for signals from others that we are desired, and wanted, loved and accepted. It’s the lifeblood of our system, that is rooted in the imagery of the Garden. We’re made for constant intimacy with God. Perpetually. And when then severance took place, we were left with a deep wound of insecurity that we needed to fill with other things. The jealousy of Cain for Abel was Cain’s insecurity that he was not loved. Not worthy. It is part of the lie that Satan sows within us, that our true self—that name and purpose whispered to us by our Father—is not real and is cut off. 

God does not love you. Satan whispers. God is not there. He continues. 

You’re on your own. 

We might pretend to be well-adjusted, but that inner child exists within all of us. To cope with the abandonment we’ve created mechanisms to deal with our insecurity and doubt. Inner parts that compensate. 

We fill it with sugar. 
We fill it with euphoria. 
We fill it with action. 
We fill it with busyness. 
We fill it with accomplishment. 
We fill it with Instagram.
We fill it with politics and news.
We fill it with sex and pleasure. 
We fill it with our egos. 

And, when something threatens our defenses, it threatens us.  

Our misshapen subconscious identities are alert and prepared to defend us and themselves at all costs. Further than we realize when it comes down to it. All the way to violence.  

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:1-3 (CSB)

And this is the end result. The perfect image of innocence—love itself—walked among us, and instead of receiving it, we were threatened by it, and chose to kill it. 

I see this everyday. Every. Day. In myself and in others. We want the blessing, but don’t want to do the work. We want the cure, but not to die to ourselves. We prefer the sickness, with waves of comfort. It’s how we learned how to deal with the world around us. It makes us feel safe. 

Jesus says to live is to give up everything, and follow him. And we spend our time accumulating and earning. 
Jesus says to live is to serve. But our ambition yearns to climb and be promoted. 
Jesus says to even look lustfully is infidelity. And we plaster it on billboards. 
Jesus says we must turn the other cheek and pray for enemies. But we cheer for justice and fairness. 
Jesus says always tell the truth, no matter what. But we pick and choose how we say and to whom depending on whether it benefits us. 
Jesus says worry is of the enemy. But we concern ourselves with everyone and everything. 

We don’t want God. We want to kill God and be told that we’re okay, and loved. Because God threatens us. 

And we conspired against him.

Until we acknowledge that it us in the crowd in the spectacular passion in the coming days, these moments will have little significance for us. 

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and f of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.’

“Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?

“Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46 (CSB)

There’s a throne room scene in the book of Daniel that is a prophetic vision of the final days.It’s Daniel 7:9-14, and while it’s too long to post here, it’s really, really worth (necessary) reading as a backdrop to what Jesus is talking about here. In it, the Ancient of Days enters the scene coming before the thongs of people, surrounded by all nations,  including the great many rulers who are seated at the front of the audience chamber. The whole scene is alight with haunting images of glory and power with the Son of Man (human) entering to receive the crown alongside the Ancient of Days. It’s a coronation scene, as the Son of Man is given all authority, and dominion, and power by the Ancient of Days and all nations bow before him. After the coronation, all the tyrannical beasts and its followers — those that rebelled against God (Ancient of Days) — are also judged and destroyed. 

It’s a stunningly beautiful, or chillingly haunting scene, depending on how you look at it. (If you haven’t stopped this yet to go read it, do it now, I’ll wait.) It’s evocative, and supposed to be. Here is true power. Here is true judgment. Nothing else will bear before that throne. 

Again, this is one of those moments in scripture where C.S. Lewis gets it dead right. You don’t get to claim Jesus a good man with good moral teaching and not believe what he says. He is either really the Lord, a liar, or lunatic. Why? Because he is talking about himself in the middle of the scene. Ordinary, nice people don’t do that. And, in keeping with yesterday’s theme, as these are the final moments before he is betrayed, what he says is severe. This is not the nice-guy-Jesus we see in the memes. 

In that final moment, and at that final judgment, do you want to be in or out? He is asking.

Now, fire and brimstone sermons have fallen out of favor, and probably rightly so, as they are manipulative, and brutal, and tended to be used to control. But if your heart doesn’t skip a beat at this text, you haven’t been listening to Jesus, and when he said it, I’m sure you could cut the tension with a knife.

Jesus continues, those who are in, will do as I say. Those who are out, will do what they say. 

And what is this thing that they are supposed to do? Love others. 

The stranger. The foreigner. The tired. The sick. The lost. The hungry. The prisoner. The orphan. 

Whether or not you like this, it’s what he says. As a result, this text has been a motivating text for Christians for millennia to act with a social conscience. They stole babies that were being killed out of the garbage heaps of Rome. They started orphanages and hospitals. They took care of widows and orphans (James 1:27) ran clinics for the chronically ill, cared for the victims of the plague when others were terrified, and fought for political rights of the vulnerable and oppressed. People don’t do this under normal motivations. It was this passage that compelled them.

Following Jesus isn’t just saying the right thing, or even believing the right thing. As said by the book of James, even the Demons believe God and they shudder (James 2:19).Rather, It requires a response of the will. It requires obedience. Because love is not a feeling or emotion. Love is not a belief. To love, is to will the good of the other, in prayer, in action, and in word. And, as I’ve said before, if we want to be with God, in the end, we must be like God. Which is to internalize this reality and to allow him to transform us to act and be like him. There is no other way. 

It’s still our choice. Love, and the Kingdom of God are never forced upon us, but again, this is what Jesus’ Kingdom looks like. 

If you don’t like God’s Kingdom, you can have your own.

Perhaps, better quoted by Lewis again, 

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”

“Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son —except the Father alone. As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:36-44 (CSB)

These are the final teachings of Jesus just before he is betrayed, and they turn quite ominous. Obviously, given his own dark fate. There is an eternal element to his teaching. It’s not all philosophy of living, or wisdom literature. His whole life is not just fishing in Galilee, else the Gospels would read quite differently. Rather, his life speaks about things of eternal consequence.

I have the (mis)fortune of being with many people near the end of their lives, and near the end, you begin to see the things that truly mattered in life. I mean really matter. We all know most of them already, although like addicts we continue to chase the things that don’t matter at all. Money. Power. Status. Ego. Vanity. Business. It should go without saying, but none of these things matter. They really, really don’t.  In fact, some of the worst divisions late in life emerge because of each of them. 

By the end, you begin to see the culmination of the choices around which a person makes in his or her life. Who still surrounds you? Who stands by your side? Who mourns your passing? In mid-life, you can still fake it to some extent. Maybe your job, your charisma, or your wealth makes you popular enough to be in demand and wanted, to a certain degree, but near the end, no one cares anymore. Especially when you become a burden. Most will leave when it’s hard to be with you. The real awareness of this truth, I hear, begins at retirement when once we picked up the phone and people responded, fewer do when we have less influence. It doesn’t come back. I remember passing one miserable, barren door in a hallway filled with cards and flowers in a retirement community on my way to see someone else. I asked who he was, and someone said, “Oh, that’s a retired General. No one comes to see him at all.” 

He commanded many, and now he was all alone. And this is effervescent next to what Jesus speaks about. He gives us the deep weight of our eternal choices, in a somber moment in his own life. He reminds us that the choices we make aren’t just important for our funeral or our legacy, but bears eternal weight. A forever kind of thing. That he treats this ominously ought to bear to its significance. We ignore Jesus and sanitize the cross to our own peril. If God is love, then the absence of God is the opposite of love. It’s the worst despair anyone can imagine, beyond the worst Hollywood movie. It’s what leads Jesus to where he will go. And those who continue to rebel against God, will get their ultimate desire — to be without him (Revelation 20:11-15). For love can never force. Never obligate. But brutal abuse and rebellion is not welcome in the coming Kingdom.

This is not what you want! Jesus warns those around him. But it is the consequence of your choice. Despite the Father doing all that he can to draw us back in, some Prodigal children stay prodigal. As he looks to his disciples just before the garden Jesus says, be careful that you make the right choices. For the things we chase in this world will fade away, and quickly. Gone in a snap. Life itself is over in a moment’s notice. But life with (or without) God continues on, forever. 

There’s an urgency and a sadness to this plea, as he himself faces his own final choice. Don’t assume you have time! We always assume we have time. Time to take a vacation. Time to rest. Time to enjoy, We talked about this one before . Time to reconcile with those whom we have hurt. Time to set things right. And time to reorder our lives and to be made right with God. 

We don’t. He says. In the snap of a finger it will all change. And those who chose God and his desires will go on, leaving behind the others to their own choices.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’ Matthew 7:21-24 (CSB)

The time to choose is now. 

Then he said to them, “How can they say that the Messiah is the son of David? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms:

The Lord declared to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.’

David calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can he be his son?”

While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.” Luke 20:41-47 (CSB)

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I think it’s fair to say that the religious authorities did not like Jesus. At this point the crowd still did though, so it was a tough tension for them. 

Let’s be clear, no one likes losing authority and influence. Not a single person. And when someone is brash enough to pull up to your own territory and threaten it, it is going to evoke a response. But this isn’t some Republican upstart campaigning in a Deep Blue state, this was a people who had been temporarily given authority with a purpose. They were representing God. At the beginning of this chapter we see the parable about the vineyard owner for a reason (Luke 20:9-19), and it really needs to be read to understand this rebuke. Jesus is challenging those who, in authority, are in authority on behalf of God. It’s a vassal authority. And the parable is clear: how would God feel if not only did the people reject the warnings about their waywardness (Prophets that came before Jesus), but were they also to kill the very beloved son that he sent. 

Jesus knew what they were going to do to him, and was showing it to them before they even did it. There is always the opportunity to repent, and the ability to restrain oneself from an inappropriate course of action. In many ways, it’s amazing that Jesus was as tolerant towards them as he was, although he will go on to warn everyone to beware of this sort. 

But today’s text represents a very challenge to the authority that they claimed to represent, and foreshadows the great debates about the nature of Jesus that would emerge over the coming centuries. The temple authorities, and indeed most of Israel, were looking for a Messiah that would save them with political force. The term Messiah is the same as Christ in Greek, and is simply Hebrew for “anointed one”. Plenty of people were anointed in the Old Testament, but most specially, Priests, Prophets, and Kings, with the most notable being the Messiah (or Christ in Greek) David, who was the epitome of Israel’s Golden Age. It is from these anointed ones that the current temple establishment got their authority, and it was one like them that they were looking for to save them from Rome. 

But Jesus makes a bold statement about himself. Whose son is he?  Meaning from where does he draw his authority? In a shocking statement, he quotes a Psalm (110) where David (the author) refers to someone as Adonai (Lord). The text literally says Yahweh said to Adonai (my Lord), sit at my right hand. In other words, David said God told his Lord that he had full authority. Jesus is a master of this type of semantics (of course). He understands the religious authorities specialized in using scripture to their advantage, and were going to use it to attack him. Instead, he uses it to point to who he really is, thwarting the attack, and giving another opportunity for repentance.

The Psalm was a prophetic text referencing him. David was calling Jesus “Lord”. This should have been a dumbfounding proclamation. It means the authority Jesus brought was the very authority that gave the Scribes, Priests, Prophets, and Pharisees the anointing that they had. If they saw this, they would be bowing down instead of challenging. But of course, their hearts were hard, and they were resistant. 

The danger for us is the same. Jesus is “Lord” over all parts of our lives. Everything. All of it. And yet, we claim authority over many dimensions of it refusing to allow him in, from our finances, to our free time, and from our personal decisions, to our sex lives. And yet, Jesus stands before us asking us to recognize who he is. He is the very one who created us. We can harden our hearts, and refuse to hand over authority (as this troupe did to their own demise). Or we can recognize the authority of Jesus, and realize that he is the true Messiah and Lord referenced in scripture, longing to lead us back to life and health. Which will we be? The Scribes he warns about in the chapter, or the disciples who drop everything and chase after him? It’s really the only choice we have to make. 

One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”

Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer. Mark 12:28-34 (CSB)

There are over thirty thousand Christian denominations. Thirty thousand! Once we started to split, we just didn’t stop. What started as major theological differences, quickly escalated into preferences about music, children’s program, and preaching styles. The one major prayer Jesus had about the church was not that we get him right, but that we stay one (John 17:17-26) and it’s the one thing we did with utter abandon. 

The various denominations and churches look at each other with incredible skepticism. I had a person call me to ask me if he could rent out our space to start a church once. I asked him, “why don’t you just come join us instead of starting another?” I told him we already had three (then four) churches on the same block. His response amounted to the fact that they were the faithful remnant, and all other churches had gone astray. I politely declined his generous offer.

 A friend of mine reminded me that all Protestants need to be continually rechecking their protestations and asking themselves, are we done protesting yet? Someday, we’re going to have to tell the Lord why we were so willing to divide his body, something that should have been done only under unbelievable duress (if at all). 

The difficulty with the divisions are, of course, churches now reflect consumer choice, and there are churches that accommodate and appeal to literally any theological or spiritual desire. And so, while I have adopted a relative Generous Orthodoxy (following the Book by the same name by Brian McLaren), there are some bodies that no longer resemble churches at all, but lean more towards political organizations, rock concerts, and/or the United way with vestiges of prayer. 

In the ancient world, when Christians were trying to find each other (as Christians are obligated to gather with each other – Hebrews 10:25) they would use symbols to identify whether or not they could trust one another. In deep persecution they needed to make sure they knew who the other was. This is where our fish symbol emerged, as an undeground symbol for gathering. 

I have a few markers that I need to recognize in another to know if I can fully trust, some essential, and then progressively less important. Firstly, and most importantly, I need a church to obviously recognize that Jesus was God incarnate and that he died and bodily rose from the grave. You’d be surprised how many churches (and clergy) even within our own denomination this immediately cancels out. In effect, they have to subscribe to the Nicene Creed, or the last major agreement of the church before the divisions, without crossing their fingers. Although less firm, I also need them to be sacramental as both the early church, and the New Testament were devoutly so. You cannot read the Gospel of John (or really most of the Epistles) and not realize that Jesus was calling the church into a sacramental reality. Church without communion is better properly attested to as a bible study, and while there is a time and a place for a bible study, it’s not what the early Christians risked their lives to do with each other (Acts 2:42).

There’s room for ecumencial relationships beyond this, but these are a few of my core essentials. I’ll obviously disagree with others at this level, including about scriptural interpretation and authority, but these are my bare essentials for deep cooperation. 

Even with this, it’s possible to agree on all of this, and not come to agreement about what our ends or the purpose of what Jesus came to accomplish are. It’s a little like operating within the Temple. You might agree across the board on appropriate means of sacrifice, clothing, timing, and authority, but in the end, you lose sight of the goal. Jesus chided many scribes and Pharisees for this loss of vision, essentially using the temple system as an end in and of itself. The same could be a warning for us. We can get church and our theology perfectly. We can be absolutely attuned to everything we are supposed to do, but miss the greater point of what it is doing for us, both now, and ultimately later — to make us loving creatures who are more attuned to God, and our neighbor. The rest is useless if love  is not the goal (Just look at 1 Corinthians 13 as a warning). 

Here is a man who gets it within the system. He is able to see beyond the trappings of the temple, and his heart is attuned to what God is doing, and Jesus is deeply pleased. Many such scribes and Pharisees will become wonderful followers of Jesus in the coming months. The system isn’t all bad. May the same be true about us. May we not get lost in the trappings of theology, or church, or scriptural interpretation so much that we lose vision on God’s goal in our life, through the Holy Spirit, and ultimately into eternity: To show us, and make us into creatures of love. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:23-28 (CSB)

Jesus sure hasn’t learned the art of how to be a polite guest. He rolls into down, and lays it down. Anyone would likely be furious with someone like him, he’s an agitator. Remember, he’s been in town maybe a day or two, and he’s talking about how bad the locals are. They loved to be called by special titles like Father, they love to be honored in the streets, and have special seats at the front of the synagogue. Worse, they loved to make it difficult to participate, keeping people on the outside. They loved to load burdens on others, and expectations, and rules, but didn’t do them themselves. All this from the same Chapter in Matthew’s Gospel. 

Jesus is livid. Angry. He didn’t come to listen, or practice yoga with this lot. He didn’t preach tolerance for differing views, or that we’re all one under the sun. He came to condemn: 

Snakes! Brood of vipers! How can you escape being condemned to hell? (v33) 

He says something similar elsewhere: 

Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Matthew 10 :34 (CSB) 

Or this:

I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze! Luke 12:49 (CSB)

There are many others. The nice contemporary version of Jesus is super tolerant, and abiding. A great listener, and loved the opinions of others. It’s a nice vision, it’s just not a scriptural one. The problem with wrong ideas is they hurt people. Really hurt them.What good parent tolerates terrible ideas and practices that hurt their children, or lead them astray? 

It’s why he says this, 

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Matthew 18:6 (CSB)

And this: 

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:18-20 (CSB)

The law was good, and was established to keep people from hurting each other, and to keep them separate from surrounding cultures. Obviously we’re not good at practicing it, but it doesn’t make it bad. Being brutal to people who fail, or pretending on the outside we’re good, while on the inside we’re rotten makes us hypocrites. Using the law to raise ourselves up while pushing others down fails the primary purpose of it, which was to lead us to love each other and God with everything that we have. Jesus is mad because it’s like the Pharisees love the rules for their benefit, and to burden others, but have forgetting what the point of them is all about!

Jesus will eventually give us the ability to live righteously even beyond the law  (via the Holy Spirit). But the first thing he does is throw aside and challenge those bad ideas which hurt people. This is carried on thematically throughout the New Testament, especially within the Epistles. It’s also why the church (should) continue to care about sound doctrine. Bad doctrines hurt people and should be challenged. But the end of doctrine is never doctrine. It’s not about sitting in special clubs sparring over theological minutia. Rather, doctrine, or truth is merely a compass that points towards the fullness of life in Christ, who leads us to wholeness and life. 

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God. You don’t care what anyone thinks nor do you show partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius. “Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them.

“Caesar’s,” they said to him.

Then he said to them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. Matthew 22:15-22 (CSB)

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If you are practicing your Lenten Disciplines, then congratulations as you’ve just passed the half-way point. Today is day 21 on our 40 day Journey, with the final 40th day being Holy Saturday, the day before Sunday. Remember, Lent is not about perfection, nor about your own spiritual might, so be merciful to yourself if you’ve fallen short. In some ways, failing your Lenten discipline can be a humbling reminder that the weight of the Gospel does not fall to us. Bear on, and offer up failure with humility to God’s glory.

Now onto our 21st day. 

Let’s be honest, the Pharisees didn’t really care about giving money to Caesar. In fact, they actively opposed him, and longed for military victory over their perceived Roman occupier. Nor were they genuinely interested in Jesus’ opinion about the subject. The people who were genuinely interested tended to come quietly, with less loaded questions. Real seekers don’t goad. 

No, this was a trap, with the intention of either refuting Jesus’ teaching authority, or aligning him as a treasonous rebel. In each case, they would be ultimately victorious, convincing both the high priest Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate to destroy him. 

Have you ever argued with someone like that? Someone who is so convinced that they are right, that they try to catch you up in a rhetorical trap rather than actually trying to listen and grow? They have their responses formed before you’re even finished speaking. The internet, and our political discourse is filled with these kinds of despicable “gotchas”, with the sad fact that we are often blind to them, or worse we take pleasure in them when they represent our positions. This was clearly the case here. That the Pharisees would side with the Herodian (people they despised) to ensnare Jesus is an indicator that they are so deep into their own echo chambers, into their love of power and authority, that they aren’t interested in seeing the truth. 

How often the church and Christians fall into this same trap. We’d rather be right, or rather maintain political power than follow the Lord. Wouldn’t it be better to be wronged, Paul cries out! (1 Corinthians 6:7)

Jesus of course fends off the trap in typical Jesus fashion. He gives an answer, so evasive but true, that no one can argue. The Herodian would not be able to accuse him since he said to give to Caesar what is his, but neither would the Pharisees, since, truly, all things belong to God. It was a non answer. If they were open, it would have revealed to them their own ploy. It should have brought repentance and genuine connection. However, they obviously were not open, as they simply left amazed that they were so utterly humiliated. 

Now be honest with yourself, are you ever this way? Are you so convinced of your politics, or your theology, that you only try to convince others and never stop to allow God to affect you? Could you actually be wrong? Certainty is dangerous territory. I don’t mean trust — faith can move mountains, we just realized yesterday. I mean certainty. Certainty is a closed system. It’s a final judgment and determination, and it leaves little room for God. 

When I stand before the Lord someday, I’d far rather declared to him, “I don’t know, please show me,” than try to convince him, “I’m right, and here’s why.” 

Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.” Mark 11:20-25 (CSB)

I’d rather not have this text in the Gospel, if I’m honest a it leads to Christian Science, or to the health and wealth Gospel. We’ve seen preachers on TV proclaim riches in the name of Jesus Christ, all the while swindling the flock. “Send in your money, and we’ll double your harvest.” 

Predatory preaching. 

More to the point, it redirects the subject of emphasis from being God to being us. If you can’t wilt that fig tree then you just don’t trust enough. Like it’s a Jedi mind trick that you really have to sense to accomplish. 

This becomes problematic quickly. The cancer is your fault, the loss of a loved one was due to a lack of your faith. Your ship hasn’t come in because you didn’t pray enough.

But it is there. Just like Jesus telling his disciples to go out and heal. Just like, during the feeding of the five thousand, when Jesus first tests his disciples by telling them to feed the crowd first (Mark 6:37), suggesting that they were able to do the very same thing he could do. It suggests that this is a reality we can operate in. 

Jesus isn’t a magician. In fact, magic is outlawed in scripture (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). What he is is fully human, as Adam was before his fall. He has man in perfect union with God, described by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This is important for many reasons, but not the least of which being that in that perfect harmony with the Father—in that communion—the father and the son, man and human, interact conjointly. The son responds to the father, and the father to the son. Meaning, the will of the son is so rooted in the will of the Father, that the father senses and responds to the wishes of the son. So, in keeping with the will of the Father, if Jesus responds to something of nature (material), the Father responds, in part because the son wouldn’t ever act of order from the Father’s will to begin with. 

It’s not like he’s asking for a mansion, a pile of gold, or power. Therefore it’s the delight of the Father to respond. This is faith. There’s a completeness to the union that is entirely trusting. 

The most amazing thing about this, is this is our end. Jesus is the figure, or author, after which we are all being moded — that which we are all becoming. The beautiful Hymn in Colossians indicates that it is in, through, and for him that we exist, and to be like him is our end, as humans in union with God. Therefore, in such a union, nature does respond to us, because our faith in God is so complete. To fully be immersed in the will of the Father means that we will and can tell a mountain to move or a fig tree to shrivel. The key point being rooted in the Father’s will. For these actions all glorify God, and not ourselves. Again, it’s not magic, but an invitation into a full relationship with a God who responds to our heart, and teaches us to do likewise. 

Oh to have faith like that! And yet, someday, we shall. 

Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read:

You have prepared praise
from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?”

Then he left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. Matthew 21:12-17 (CSB)

In yesterday’s text we saw Jesus enter by the way of the eastern gate. God was returning to his city and his temple, and he’s not happy with the state of things. 

The temple was the heart of Jewish worship. In it sins were forgiven, God was rightly worshiped, and lives restored. I’ve sometimes wondered about this text, and how it was fair. For the purposes of sacrifice, Jewish people had to come from all over Israel to rightly worship in the temple, bringing with them their ritual sacrifices of rams, bulls, and pigeons. It’s difficult to drag a bull a hundred miles, so people would bring coins and exchange it for the required animal at the temple, for a small price of convenience. 

What part of this made Jesus angry? The commercialism? The opportunism? The laziness? Or did he not really care about the sacrifices at all, and the temple was really to represent something different? 

Maybe it’s that the actions became so rote, that instead of conjuring the desired response, people thought they were accomplishing what they needed to do simply by doing their basic duty. 

We already saw that God didn’t care about sacrifices, he wanted transformed hearts. Worse that people commercialized the roteness. Religion, especially the sort that appease consciences without requiring much in return have always been good business. Most people want their life choices affirmed by God, and to be sent away with a blessing. Few love being told repentance and a change of life is in order.

I wonder how Jesus would feel if he walked into any church in America?  

The Jerusalem temple would ultimately be destroyed by the Romans, with all that’s left being the Western Wall, or the “Wailing Wall”. But Jesus had a different vision for his temple. Tear this temple down and I will raise it up in three days (John 2:18-21) Jesus cries while overturning tables in John’s gospel. The ultimate temple he’s talking about didn’t have walls. It didn’t have money changers, or pigeon sellers. It was himself. 

And this temple would be incorruptible. Its worshipers would also come to it to rightly worship, and receive forgiveness, and to have their lives restored. But this temple wouldn’t and won’t be found in a building. Rather it is in the Holy Spirit dwelling within us that draws us to Christ and allows these things to take place. Don’t you know that you are the Temple of the Lord? Paul cries to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). 

Yesterday we saw the prophecy given to Ezekiel that God was indeed coming back to his temple. This temple will not be destroyed or corrupted, because God himself is forming himself in his people. His mercy seat is upon His Spirit which rests in you. Don’t subject God’s holy temple to profane or disreputable things! But allow it—you—to be the very ministry of reconciliation to those who need and don’t yet know God. For this is the very temple that Jesus came to rebuild.

When he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples and said, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’”

So those who were sent left and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

“The Lord needs it,” they said. Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their clothes on the colt, they helped Jesus get on it. As he was going along, they were spreading their clothes on the road. Now he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:

Blessed is the King who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven!

Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.” Luke 19:28-40(CSB)

In some ways, I find this particular moment as sad as what will follow in the city. 

Jesus knows.
He knows the cheers will fade. 
He knows the celebration will end. 
He knows the cries of hosanna will turn to cries to “crucify him!” 

All within a week.

How quickly the mob shifts its opinions.
How quickly it lusts for blood. 

How taunting those looks of celebration must have been for him, the lauds of great glory. It’s the welcome of a King, but the whole things was backwards, intentionally. Instead of a war horse, he rode a poor colt. Instead of an entourage, his gangly group of disciples. Instead of arriving through the Western or Northern Gate where the Emperor or Kings would enter, he came through the gate facing east. 

Little did they know who was actually returning. 

He led me to the gate, the one that faces east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice sounded like the roar of a huge torrent, and the earth shone with his glory. The vision I saw was like the one I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like the ones I had seen by the Chebar Canal. I fell facedown. The glory of the Lord entered the temple by way of the gate that faced east. Ezekiel 43:1-4 (CSB)

Just before Babylon decimated Jerusalem, Ezekiel has a vision of God leaving the temple, and then leaving Jerusalem by the gate facing east, heading past the Mount of Olives. The temple was the very heart of Judaism and Jerusalem. God sat within it, on the mercy seat, between the cherubim in the Holy of Holies. And Ezekiel sees him leave, predicting the fall of the city. But he has the above vision some time later. At the right time, God would come back to his temple (tomorrow’s reading), by way of the Mount of Olives, through the gate facing east again.

God’s long absence, had finally come to an end. And yet, the great tragedy was, they didn’t recognize who he was. For they wanted a different kind of King. A different kind of ruler. And so they would brutally, and horrifically, kill him.

They often wanted to replace God with a King (1 Samuel 8:7). Are we any different? We all frequently prefer worldly power to the servant God. I imagine Jesus looking at them in this moment as he would look at me. He sees me for who I am, and yet he comes.

Let’s read the whole famous John 3:16-21 quote again, and see if we see it in different context in light of this: 

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”