Lord of my Sabbath

And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Luke 6:5

Jesus said this controversially profound claim to be the God in control of the Sabbath... He is the One to Whom the Sabbath was devoted. He said this to His accusers who were very upset that His disciples had snacked on grain on the Sabbath. This was to all Jews the holy day of rest from all work in worship to the God Who gave the Sabbath command. And there were two responses to the Sabbath Law of the Old Testament.

The first response was that given by strict observers who policed any possible hit of physical labor and promptly sought to penalize offenders. They focused most on the actions performed and NOT necessarily the God being worshiped. The accusers were in this first camp.

The second kind of responses was to simply enjoy the day of rest and to focus most on being with the Lord to Whom to Sabbath was devoted. By stating His position as Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus was advocating for this second focus, and also assured His accusers that the Old Testament allowed for the spirit of the Law to govern Sabbath-keeping. His disciples were right to be with Him most on that day. This put the attention on the God Who asked for the Sabbath, not just rules to make it a worrisome event.

I write these words thinking hard on the concept of Sabbath rest. I am on day 28 of a 90 day sabbatical, and so far in this first month, though I have not really worked in pastoral ministry, I’ve been incredibly busy. Maybe too busy at times. I’ve traveled for an extended family get together. I’ve traveled for leisure. I’ve had numerous medical appointments to deal with what I’m now seeing are the effects of years of burnout. I’ve worked on car maintenance and lots of home maintenance that has been neglected for years... with more plans to do even more things to the house. And I see that I need to do less of this and more honoring of the Lord of my sabbath sabbatical. 

Jesus... You are Lord of my Sabbath. Forgive my neglectful disobedience. I tend to pour myself into the next task more than rest in You. Save me from becoming legalistic about the whole thing as well. I want to walk with You, through the grain fields, picking grain, snacking along the way, and just enjoy the presence of my Lord.

Amen

familiarity and contempt

And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?”

Luke 4:22

This is the response of the people who knew Jesus from His infancy. Here in His home synagogue, among the friends and family with whom Jesus had worshiped every Sabbath from boyhood, Jesus proclaimed His mission, framing His claim directly from Isaiah 61:1-2. There is no mistaking what Jesus was claiming. He announced to His hometown that He had come to fulfill the call of the Messiah.

Their initial response seems encouraging: they marveled at His gracious words. But then they struggled for context. How could the Messiah be the man they knew simply as the son of Joseph, the simple carpenter? They knew His preaching was good and all, but really... the Messiah coming from such blue-collar contractor roots? Could the Messiah be that plain and simple to them?

Jesus knew what was bubbling under their question. He let the tension out in Luke 4:23-27 as He described ways in which the Old Testament showed prophets being rejected in their “hometowns”:

And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

The point from the prophetic illustrations was to show that God’s miraculous work still continued despite the rejection by Israel. When prophets were rejected in Israel, God gave them miraculous ministry among the Gentiles. Jesus claimed that the Nazareth synagogue would do the same thing, but His ministry would extend beyond their fickle feelings about Him.

By the time we get to Luke 4:28-30, the worship service that welcomed Jesus suddenly became a riotous mob trying to kill Him for blasphemy. This is not the way we expect a church service to conclude! But Jesus calmly walked away, right through the midst of the lynch mob that was powerless to stop God’s plan for saving the world. He went on to the next town... to another synagogue... where His teaching and miracles continued the Messianic mission He had just announced.

Simeon’s blessing

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation

that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory to your people Israel.”

Luke 2:29-32

And with these words the aged Simeon could find the deepest blessing of his long life. He had been given a unique purpose that the Lord had revealed to Him by His Holy Spirit. He was told he would live to see the Messiah. And the old man believed God and waited. He regularly prayed at the temple for that day. Now, holding the infant Jesus as He was dedicated in the temple by His parents, the old man’s purpose came to fruition as he blessed the Lord in poetic verse. He blessed God as He held his own Savior, the God-Man Himself, a tiny baby in Simeon’s wrinkled old hands. He experienced the coming of salvation for the world, and Simeon gushes out a thankful prayer for what Jesus would bring to all the people of the world.

Simeon’s blessing foretells the impact of the gospel. Jesus brought salvation. From the very start it was not hidden. Here in the temple in Jerusalem, a cosmopolitan city of Jews and Gentiles, the light of the revelation of God Himself and the glory of all Israel had arrived, shining now in a baby, Who would grow to be the man Jesus and Whose impactful teaching would change the world. His death and resurrection would show the love of God globally and provide all the deliverance anyone would ever need for eternal salvation and for day to day living.

Singing Simeon’s song with him today, I can rejoice in a salvation I know in Jesus. His light shows me my way, and Jesus is my glory today and always!

catching nothing

Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

John 21:3

The disciples had seen Jesus crucified and buried. And now twice they have encountered Him in His resurrection body. Returning to Galilee, it appears that they were ready to return to their old occupations. Peter makes up his mind to return to the old nets and six others decide to go fishing with him. And the revived Simon, Zebedee & Sons Fishing Company strikes out on their first new expedition in three years. They are blanked. Zilch. No fish. No fun. Their nets are empty after an entire night of fishing. This never puts fishermen in a happy place.

Yet right at dawn, Jesus appears on the shore, tending a coal fire with fish and bread for breakfast. He gives them the world’s most obvious fishing advice. Jesus suggests that they fish the right side of the boat, and when they do so, they catch such a net load of fish that they could not even bring the ridiculously heavy net up into the boat! That’s when they finally recognized Jesus.

Simon dives right into the lake and swims the hundred yards to shore while the rest of the crew slowly make their way back in the boat, dragging the miraculous haul of fish in with them. Once Peter knew it was Jesus, he gladly chose his Master over a net filled with fish. He caught nothing without Jesus. But the full net with Jesus still did not satisfy. He was done being a fisherman. Peter wanted to be with Jesus. Catching nothing, then catching more than he had ever expected, both paled in comparison to his Savior. It took these experiences to restore Peter from failed fisherman to committed, gospel-preaching disciple.

children of light

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.

John 11:36a

Jesus knew He was the light of the world and He urged His disciples to live in His light. Belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior turns us into His “children of light” in this world. The world was a dark place in need of the light of Jesus when He spoke these words. The world is still in a dark place now, in need of the followers of Jesus to shine the light of the gospel in every corner of human activity and to live in the  light of Jesus in order to dispel the darkness.

The light shines in my life and illuminates the darkness that resides in my own heart. The lamp of God’s Word shines, pointing always to my Savior, and the gospel brings forgiveness and the capacity for new holiness where once only dark stumblings were  possible. Thank God for His light. It is glorious.

The darkness of the world around us only creates more darkness. There are occasional glimmers from humanity, but those are always brief and quickly snuffed out by the suffocating gloom of self, sin, and a system that is opposed to God. Without the gospel and without children of light shining it, the world would be without any light at all.

Jesus,

Thank You for being the light. I pray I may be a son of light shining with my words and deeds in my corner of the world. And I pray that Your church will always be shining gospel light strongly until You return.

Amen

Entrance

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 10:9

There is only

one way

to true peace.

There is only

one way

to find hope.

There is only

one way

to rest.

It is through the door.

It is through Jesus.

And when I

enter in

to His peace...

Jesus forgives me.

And when I

come to

have His hope...

Jesus assures me.

And when I

relax

in His rest...

Jesus secures me.

He is the door

to all that is good...

The way to all this is Jesus.

the love God wants from us

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31

Jesus not only summarized the Law well with this answer, but He also told us what God sees as the most important outcome of our belief in Him. To believe in God is to love God unreservedly with all your being. It is not just a mental assent to a fact. It is a personal commitment to a relationship that places your will, in love, subservient to the supremacy of your Lord. And this is what God has always wanted from His people.

But this love also values people whom God has made in His image. We worship God in love. We care for our neighbors as we care for ourselves in love. The life God wants to see in us when we believe in Him cares for our fellow man and completely orders our priorities around loving God well.

And in these two great loves our lives are enriched and eternally occupied. They give us the joy our hearts crave. We will love God forever. Because men’s souls are everlasting, we can love people in this life, and into our eternity. And this is what our hearts were made to do. This will make us the most happy. Our ultimate pleasure can be found in living by Jesus’ summary of what God wants from us: Believe in God... love God with all you have... love your neighbor as yourself. The gospel gives us all this when we trust Christ Who loved us supremely and gave His life for us so we can live this way.

Don’t be dull to the wonder of the gospel!

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

Mark 9:30-32

The disciples were bothered by the first exposure to the gospel in the teaching of their Master. While He was with them, He foretold in detail the events of His death and resurrection. He did this on more than one occassion in the gospels as we read them. Jesus was clear on His mission. He knew that He came to die for sin and to be raised again the third day.

It was the disciples who were fuzzy on all this. And though they got the dire aspects of the prophecy (Jesus would die), they were too afraid, and really too self-consumed (see the immediate context of Mark 9:33-37 where they immediately argue about which one of them is the greatest) to get what was going to happen. It wasn’t until the events actually took place that they clearly understood the gospel that Jesus spoke to them.

We can be dull to the gospel. The gospel should invite questions, discovery, and wonder. And Jesus wants us to delve into the glories of the salvation He has brought about for us. How we need to allow that wonder to draw us into the gospel rather than to live in our petty, selfish thoughts of self-importance! The gospel changes all of that! Jesus brings new life so we can be raised to new life by His death and resurrection. That is the greatest thing ever! How can we ever get over that?!

rejecting God’s commands

“You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”

Mark 7:8-9

Human beings have been masterful at supplanting the command of God with our own replacements ever since the first sin in Eden. We fell for the devil’s lie that replaced God’s command with “something more” and ever since then we have been doing this ourselves when confronted with the necessity of obeying the Word of God. We have done this using both religion and irreligion. We have done it claiming lip service commitment to God, but truly valuing our legalistic works over His generous grace. We have done it setting our own selves up as the divine authority through humanistic attempts at redefining righteousness. We have done it by trying to convince ourselves that sin really isn’t something that bad.

Jesus confronts this “replacement soteriology” head on with the Pharisees and scribes. He condemned their concentration on legalistic human traditions as a rejection of the commands that God had given to them. He told them they emptied God’s commands of their true power by exalting their traditions above the Word of God, making themselves the final authority on what was right, and not God.

Lord,

Save me from my attempts at self salvation. I really reject the gospel with any thought that I will make myself better. I need the work of Jesus and the word of Jesus to save and change me from this tendency I have to replace God’s Word with my tradition. My only hope is Jesus. Human thinking cannot save me!

Amen

unstoppable resurrection

Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

Matthew 27:65-66

This was the attempt by the enemies of Jesus to protect against the fear of a faked resurrection through a stolen body. The Jewish authorities actually did everything they legally could to STOP the resurrection of Christ. In so doing, they made the actual resurrection a much more compelling truth. They got a contingent of Roman soldiers from the governor to guard the tomb and they sealed the door of the tomb with a large stone, setting this guard over it. The stone was sealed and watched.

And the next time we read about that stone in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 28:2), the stone has been rolled back from the tomb with an angel casually sitting on top of it! The guards are nowhere to be seen, and Jesus has risen from the dead, just as He said! They may have tried to stop it, but no way could they stand against the plan of God to raise His Son from the dead and complete the gospel for our salvation!

This completion of Jesus’ saving work was unstoppable because it had been God’s plan, revealed all through scripture, to accomplish our salvation forever. His love for us is unshakeable. Our redemption if full and complete and death is no longer the end of us for what our sins deserve. We have new life... eternal life... abundant life in our resurrected Savior Whom no stone could hold in a tomb and whose resurrection was unstoppable. And the new life He gives is also unstoppable. He will complete the good work He starts in us until they day when we stand before Him in resurrected bodies like His. Praise Him!

stronger than heaven and earth

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Matthew 24:35

And with this statement from Jesus, His words are stamped with a final, unending, unshakeable authority. What Jesus said and did lasts forever. And in that authority is the foundation upon which to best build a life. If Jesus’ words are stronger than heaven and earth, if they are indeed the words of eternal life, than my life, focused and centered and built on the truth of the gospel can be firm. I can trust Jesus forever. The earth will be destroyed and a new earth will replace it. The heavens also will be remade after burning into oblivion. But the words of Jesus will last always, beyond the universe itself. In times of shifting uncertainty, inundated with bad news every hour it seems, I realize that certain destruction is what this world is destined for. It is God’s Word that is stable beyond that.

Lord Jesus,

I trust You. Your words are truth. Your words are life. Your words last even though this world and all in it will pass away. And on these words, I will confidently place my faith. I need Your ageless divine stability in my aging human fragility.

Amen

on mission... for salvation

“See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Matthew 20:18-19

Jesus knew the mission. He was never confused or surprised by either His wild reception by the crowds, or His vicious rejection by the religious elite. He knew He came to provide the redemption mankind needed. And He knew His arrest, beating, crucifixion, and eventual resurrection on the third day would accomplish this. He predicted it all to His disciples before the events even took place.

So the gospel is not the result of any misunderstood agenda. Jesus came to provide the atoning sacrifice demanded by a holy God. He knew this. He taught this. He predicted this. He lived every part of His ministry in order to do this for us.

Jesus,

I read Your words to Your disciples and I marvel at Your calm readiness to do what was needed to save Your people. My eternity is secured by this great love. Your commitment to go to Jerusalem, knowing the cross would await You, had my salvation in mind. And I praise You, Lord, for being my Savior, for living to love us, and dying to save us. Rising the third day, You made death no longer the powerful end, but instead, the gateway to being with You in paradise! That is beautiful! Thank You, Lord!

Amen