body and blood

 

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many."

Mark 14:22-23

In this way Jesus made sure we would never forget Him or the work He came to accomplish. We are not commanded anywhere in scripture to celebrate Christmas or Easter. But we are commanded by Him to remember Him regularly through this simple meal. The Lord's table was set up by Him at Passover for His disciples to focus on His redeeming work. This is the mission of Jesus in the gospels -- to seek and to save the lost. And this is what the bread and the wine are placed before us to remember, celebrate, and proclaim until Jesus comes again. Communion commerates His death atoning for our sins.

Having been in Christmas celebrations, I now pause to reflect on Christ's sacrifice. This is exactly why  we sing "the King of Kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone Him." Jesus was born to die for sins, taking our punishment upon Himself, so that by faith we might accept His work for us and be forever saved. And the bread and wine of communion are the physical reminders of His sacrifice.

The manger would lead to a cross, and the cross to an empty tomb. And these three are the vivid parts of the story of Jesus our Lord, showing our need for Him to come as our Savior and to give us the glorious new life that we can enjoy in Him! As as we meet together as His followers, we have in common the reality that His blood saved each of us. Remembering Him at His table -- the bread His body, the wine His blood -- we remember God with us, and for us, in Jesus.

stay awake!

 

Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

Mark 13:35-27

These are Jesus' words to His disciples as He is headed toward the events that will lead to His crucifixion and resurrection. The main teaching He focuses on is the surprising imminence of His return again to earth. Jesus makes a big deal about His disciples being ready and "awake" at His return. It is even more poignant given that in just a few hours He would find His disciples sleeping at the moment of His betrayal (Mark 14:37-42).

I've always been intrigued by the fact that Jesus spent so much time explaining details of His second coming to the disciples as He prepared to go to the cross. It is as if He wants to bolster them doctrinally to withstand the shock, pain, and humiliation to come. And I have to say that Jesus emphasizing eschatology at a time like this in the gospel narrative has kept me a dispensationalist in the premillennial camp for all my life. I have good friends who aren't there, but I think the easiest hermeneutic taking the text at what it says leads me to conclude that Jesus is talking about a coming for His disciples, followed by the great tribulation, followed by Him coming to establish His kingdom and to rule and reign over all the earth. A simple reading of the texts, particularly these words from Jesus, convince me to reject covenant theology's cut and paste job with interpretation regarding eschatology.

So as I head into a New Year, it is good to "stay awake". The Master of the house may return. The voice that announced this truth to His disciples on the night He was betrayed is the same voice that predicted His own death and resurrection that accomplished salvation for all who believe. It is equally authorative on eschatology. And I will believe Jesus when He says He will return for His own and it will be a total surprise. I must stay awake with that thought. My obedience to Jesus must not grow slack.

the hardest thing about prayer

 

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Mark 11:25

God wants His grace to transform the way we relate to people. Grace isn't just about healing our lives with God's power. It's about healing hurts with other people right now. And it is to be as constant in our hearts as our prayers are to be. Jesus instructs His disciples to offer forgiveness to people who don't even ask for it! How hard is that to do? I find it really difficult. I have to stumble through all kinds of self-justifying sinfulness to repent of pride and do so. Yet Jesus links forgiveness before prayer with effectiveness in our own prayer lives, indicating that we cannot pray well if we harbor an unforgiving attitude toward any other person.

How many of us want God to answer our prayers? I'd think all of us do. So according to Jesus, we better first pray with an attitude of forgiveness toward anyone we may be harboring resentment toward or anyone with whom we have a current conflict. Gracious forgiveness must flow into our most difficult relationships if we expect to find God's answers to our prayers. And really, aren't a lot of those prayers about our relationships? It makes sense that when grace does this, our hearts change, our God works in us, and the answers come. To find grace we must also release God's grace to change our hearts as we pray forgivingly. Christians have to be forgiving people. We can't be bitter. We can't be fighters. We must be people whose relationships pour out grace. And that starts with the hardest kind of prayer: forgiving prayer.

...the brightness of His rising

 

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you,

and his glory will be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Isaiah 60:1-3

Jesus certainly was an unexpected way in which these promises to Israel would be made known. He is the light of Israel and of the world. He is the glory of the LORD, revealed in humanity for all of us to know, worship, and love. God did "rise upon" Israel and the world, with the dawn of redeeming grace in Bethlehem so very long ago.

Jesus came to earth and His life has been a light to the world ever since. The beauty of God's love, sending His only Son, to die for sin and be raised to life, is known because that light that still shines in this dark world. God's light will be seen in the gospel. Jesus calls the world to know Him, to believe that the light is here, and to know the stunning brilliance of God's glory through forgiveness of sins, new life in Christ, and the worship of the Lord.

Dawn on every day since the birth of Jesus has been filled with a new light. It is radiant with the hope of the gospel and the love of God in Christ. And in the light of Jesus, all is as it should be, for He is coming again to rule this world in truth and grace... to make the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love!

Christmas Light

 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:5

Jesus came as the light of the world. Sin made this world a dark place. It was dark when Jesus arrived as that baby in the manger. It is still dark. But darkness never has overcome the light of Christ. The gospel shines brightly with the good news of eternal salvation and abundant life in Christ. That will never change. Since Jesus has come to us, darkness cannot win. That is what we celebrate when we light those Christmas lights!

There is darkness in the world but Jesus outshines it all. There is the darkness of human suffering by war: Jesus, Prince of Peace, outshines it. There is the darkness of sickness and physical pain: Jesus, our healing, outshines it. There is the darkness of pornographic lust and sex trafficking: Jesus, Lover of our Souls, outshines it. There is the darkness of human injustice, homelessness, and displaced refugees: Jesus, the Judge of all things, outshines it.

No darkness can overcome what Jesus has already done by His advent here. No darkness nor death can undo the saving work of Calvary or the glory of the resurrection. No darkness can undo that Jesus has already arrived, that He has died for us, or that He has risen from the dead. No darkness can stop what God has already done. Light has invaded the earth. No time of earthly pain or sorrow will be more intense than eternity with Jesus or His presence in His people right now! Jesus is the light of the world. Light the Christmas light by proclaiming His good news in the darkness! Our King is here! Don't fear the darkness! Our King is here!

oppression, longing, & deliverance

 

And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

2 Kings 25:9-10

With the trauma of the fall of Jerusalem the punishment of the Babylonian exile set in for the Jews in Judah. All the residents of Jerusalem that survived the siege were led away to Babylon, all weeping with the painful memories of dead loved ones, burned homes, a destroyed and ransacked temple, and broken down city walls. It was a painful time with little hope.

But we look back on the biblical account and realize that God cared for His people by the Exile. He kept them safe, and as the book of Daniel recounts, many Jews thrived in the captivity. In Babylon (and later Persia) they would rise to positions of prominence. Among them were Daniel, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah. They would obey God and by kept until he was ready to return them to their land again. They would serve as priests, prophets, queens, and court officials. And the Jews would emerge from their captivity with a stronger commitment to God and His Law and with a real, new hope.

They'd come back with Messianic hope. Once back in their land, the Jews would create thriving cities again, but would stay politically weak, eventually to be dominated by Alexander the Great, and then by Rome. But even these events could not diminish the hope of a Messiah to come Who would lead them back to the glory of David's reign.

It was to this culture that God sent His Son. Jesus was born to a people under oppression. He was born to a nation aware that they were not truly free. And He would show them the first freedom and the best deliverance was from sin's tyranny. The oppressed and the oppressors would turn against Him, but only to ultimately fulfill God's plan. Jesus would deliver us by His death and resurrection, and God would use oppression and longing to bring about deliverance.

from Bethlehem

 

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Luke 2:4-5

From Bethlehem came forth

The Ancient of Days

newborn child

cradled in manger hay

Messiah mild

in that little town

of Bethlehem

In Judea's countryside

arrived a Savior

Jesus was born

God's righteous favor

that Christmas morn

in tiny village

of Bethlehem

The city of David

gave a new Prince

the world's King

Who'd go from hence

making the nations sing

born in the town

of Bethlehem

From Bethlehem

was born Jesus

victorious Lord

come to save us

as God's Word

predicted He'd come

from Bethlehem

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose coming forth is from of old,

from ancient days.

Micah 5:2