on death

over the past weeks, i’ve found myself in a contemplative mood.  i believe it’s due to a number of factors, which i will get to later, but for now, here's a small peek into my thoughts.  at first, it was difficult to put a finger on what i was thinking about, what seemed to be gnawing at the back of my mind, which was keeping me up at night.  then, this morning, as i was driving to work in the fog that engulfs the south carolina lowcountry in the early mornings, i passed by a cemetery that i’ve passed hundreds of times, but today had a spookiness about it in the fog and pre-dawn twilight.  i love old cemeteries,and believe they have a unique beauty to them, but today the creepiness overpowered the beauty.  if you’ve ever been to the lowcountry, you will know that the area has an “otherworldly” appearance about it, even in the bright daylight, more so in the darkness.  it is truly a place of inspiration for writers of the eerie and the macabre.  large live oaks spread their branches like tentacles, twisting and groping the surrounding spaces, casting dark shadows underneath them, choking out the life of the undergrowth, leaving the ground below them barren.  hanging from the branches are massive clumps of spanish moss, which oddly enough are neither spanish nor moss.  they drip like some sort of alien symbiote, giving the landscape a ghostly appearance.  these elements today transformed a cemetery into a ghastly scene ripped straight from the pages of a stephen king or edgar allen poe story, or perhaps from one of the spooky movies that fill our television screens during the month of october.  even with my windows up, and passing by at 55 miles per hour, in my imagination (which, if you’ve read my books, you know can be very vivid!) i could even smell the damp and decay coupled with the sulphur smell of the nearby tidal creeks.  it was then that i realized what had been occupying the recesses of my mind:  death.

now, i urge you to do two things before you go trying to diagnose me or calling the white coats to come and put me in a padded room to protect me from myself:  first, stay with me through this walk through the dark; and second, give me a chance to explain what i mean.  death is a topic that intrigues me, and in my recent moment of clarity, i realized why.  my jobs as a hospital chaplain and navy chaplain have forced me to come face to face with death and all of its rippling effects on those it touches.  whether it was sitting at the bedside of someone with terminal cancer, awaiting death’s temporary triumph, or knocking at the 13 doors of families to inform them of death’s cruel stealing of their loved ones, death is always just a few steps ahead of me.  i have a coffee cup that is shaped like a skull that i refer to as my memento mori cup, latin for “remember death”, meaning to remember your own mortality and to make the most out of every day.  after all, as chuck palahniuk said, “on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”  for me, this was both a personal reminder to not squander time, but also that everyone i meet is also somewhere in that dash between their birth date and death date, and the urgency of the gospel becomes that much more profound.  after all, we are not guaranteed another breath.  every second of every day, someone leaves this life who still had plans for tomorrow.  but, the depth of humans’ unique relationship with death was not something that had dawned on me until this morning. 

in the month of october, western society likes to focus on all things scary due to the lead-up to halloween.  i’m not here to discuss halloween and its origins or whether or not you should celebrate it in whatever manner you choose (halloween, all hallows eve, fall festival, harvest festival, trunk or treat, trick or treat, etc.), so don’t come at me with any of that discussion.  however, the origins of halloween and other similar holidays (all saints’ day, all souls’ day, dia de los muertos, etc.) are based on humans’ encounters with death.  as a matter of fact, if you boil it down and reduce it, the majority of fears are based on a fear of death.  we watch scary movies, and what’s scary about them?  the fact that killers, monsters, creatures, or any of the other unknown or unseen entities with malevolent intent out there could bring about our demise.  ghost stories scare us because they are encounters with those who have already died, and could possibly cause us to die.  fear of heights?  yep, it’s the fear of falling which could possibly kill us.  we use things like skulls and crossbones to elicit fear in people, to cause them to stay away from something that could potentially kill them.  pirates used skeletons to coerce compliance out of their victims, communicating that to cross them would mean death.  the paradox is that we like things that scare us or make us feel close to death because it makes us feel alive!  that’s why we like those things that scare us, such as scary movies, haunted houses, or riding roller coasters, because there is safety in the fear, a brush with death without actually touching it.

humans have a fear of the unknown, and death is no exception.  we do whatever we can to avoid it.  trillions are spent each year on pharmaceuticals meant to prolong our lives and stave off death.  we come up with every safety mechanism imaginable to prevent our deaths through accidents.  we avoid talking about it, referring to it as “passing away” or “passing on” or even “falling asleep.”  for some of you, even reading about it in this essay makes you uncomfortable.  even for the Christ-follower, death is an enigma, an enemy that is somehow inexplicably on our side.  there are a few reasons for this.  the first is the simple fact that we were never meant to experience death, and it only became our reality because of adam's sin, therefore it is foreign to us.  the second is because even though we have an idea of what awaits us after we die based upon what we read in Scripture, there is still a mystery to it.  we only have an inkling, but no real idea of what it is truly like.  it is like trying to describe the beauty of a sunrise to someone who is blind.  our words fall woefully short, and unless the blind person sees it for themselves, they will never truly comprehend what a sunrise is actually like.  so there is still that element of the unknown, and thus our apprehension concerning it.  one of the most profound things ever said to me was by a patient named claude.  claude had been in and out of the oncology floor of the hospital where i worked, and had beaten cancer two previous times, but the third time proved to be the final battle.  he was nearing the end, and knew it was coming, and he called for his wife, his pastor, and for me to come to his bedside during his last moments.  it was there that he said something that cut me to my core:  “i don’t know how to die!”  he was not afraid of death, but he didn’t know how to let go of the love of a wife, the joy of kids and grandkids, for something that he knew was greater that awaited him (he was a devout Christ-follower!) but he couldn’t quite picture.  and that is all of us!  for the believer, we know that death is not the end, and we find ourselves like those that the apostle paul mentioned, “loving this present life more than the next.”  so we run from death.  we fear it.  we fight it off.  but in the end, the sin that infects this world like cancer kills us. 

you see, the events of the past weeks such as writing and publishing my latest book containing the story of a serial killer stalking victims, my turning 50 all the while seeing obituaries of people my age or just a few years older on social media, knocking on the door of yet another wife to tell her that her husband is not coming home, or even my nightmares of knocking on a door to make that notification and having the door opened by my wife on the other side, are all tied to that knowledge that death is there, crouched like a ravenous animal, waiting to pounce.  the thing is, i’m not frightened of it.  apprehensive?  of course!  avoiding it?  with every ounce of my being!  you can tell that by the small pharmacy i load into my daily pill rations every week!  and there’s nothing wrong with that!  it’s okay to not necessarily fear death, but be afraid of dying.  we all have ways we would like to go if given the choice, and those usually involve something painless, peaceful, such as dying in our sleep, on our terms, and our timeline.  but God doesn’t work that way.  Scripture tells us that each of us has an appointed time to die, and instead of that bringing us despair, it should bring us joy, for to be absent from the body is to be with the LORD!  that doesn’t mean we are to go chasing death like some in the early church, it just means we are to live our lives with urgency and purpose, glorifying God in everything we do, including dying!  some of the most powerful testimonies have been how a person glorified God in their very death!  thousands came to Christ through the martyrdom of His followers.  i watched medical staff experience the grace and mercy of God through the witness of how His saints spent their last days praising Him!

this year, during the “spooky season”, don’t let the excitement of being scared create a spirit of fear within you!  we can be afraid of dying, but we are not to fear death.  that’s what we are to avoid as Christ-followers!  after all, as Scripture tells us, “death, where is your sting?  grave, where is your victory?”  or, as one of my favorite songs says, “where is the enemy?  i can feel no bite.  where is the enemy?  when death is on my side!”

it is also important to remember that death is not a friend, despite the poets proclaiming otherwise.  it is inevitable, yes, but it should not be something people seek.  while Christ has defeated death, it is still a tool of the real enemy, the one who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.  he and his little minions are the ones behind the suicide epidemic of today.  their goal is for you to turn your eyes from the true source of peace and the One who provides and instead despair and see death as a respite for the problems that plague us on a daily basis.  in talking with those who have attempted suicide, they share similar stories of voices inside telling them to do it until the moment they actually do, and once they do, the voices go silent.  the man who famously jumped from the golden gate bridge and survived tells of how the voices got louder and louder, becoming deafening, until the moment he let go of the rail.  at that moment, they left him to suffer the consequences of his choice alone.  it was because they had achieved their goal:  destruction of a life, a life that is precious to God, a life that Christ died to redeem.  most importantly you have to remember that the devil and death are both defeated foes, regardless of how loud they scream and yell.  death is not the goal, but it's also not the end.  

consequently, if you are not a follower of Christ, be afraid.  be very afraid.  for there is a second death for those who are not redeemed in Christ, and that should be something that terrifies you, even more so than the worst entity hollywood can come up with on a television screen!

characters of CHRISTmas revisited: Christ’s genealogy

 it’s been a while since i wrote on here, but sometimes i do have the occasional writer inspiration.  today’s entry comes courtesy of my amazing wife, who, when she heard i was preaching last week encouraged me to write a new sermon instead of being lazy and reusing one of my CHRISTmas sermons i’ve preached before.  keep in mind that i don’t have as much time to prep as i would if i was in a pastoral job, but i acquiesced to her suggestion and began the task of selecting a passage.  God directed me to focus on the genealogy of Christ, and if you know me at all, this would truly be a challenge.  normally when i get to genealogies in the Bible, my tendency is to zone out until all i see is words, words, words, and then skip past the rest until i get to the story.  however, God being God, He proved to me how valuable they are in this simple genealogy of Jesus in matthew!  keep in mind there are two different genealogies, one in matthew and the other in luke.  we’ll get to the reason for that in a minute.  but the genealogy contains a whole list of people to be included in the characters of CHRISTmas, as they are important to the narrative of that first CHRISTmas!  a note of warning:  this is a longer post than usual because there were a lot of people in the genealogy, and even though i’m not covering everyone, there is still a lot to cover!

to set the background, you have to remember that until Christ was born, there was 400 years of silence from God.  no books of Scripture were written during that time.  when lori and i watch tv series, and there is a gap between seasons, the first episode of the new season usually starts with a recap of previous episodes, reminding you of what happened to get you caught up and ready for the new season.  think of the genealogy as the o.g. series recap.  matthew is writing to the jews and recapping the jewish history all the way back to abraham, through king david, and ending with joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.  you might ask, why would matthew take the time to do the genealogy of joseph, if Jesus wasn’t his offspring?  well, if you study jewish history, you would know that the jews placed great importance on the patriarchy, and Jesus was joseph’s legal son according to jewish law.  matthew’s intent was to connect Jesus to both the jewish people through abraham and judah, referencing the prophecy in genesis 49:10; and to david in order to establish Jesus’ right to sit on the throne as King, referencing the prophecy in jeremiah 23:5-6.  an important note is that matthew wasn’t fawning over king david like the majority of jews of that day.  his genealogy showed the culmination of the monarchy in king david, and then the downfall, illustrating the failure of the earthly monarchy, and the need for the Messiah who would be the heavenly King beyond reproach.  matthew also was a first-hand witness of how the jews treated Jesus, so this genealogy was to make a convincing argument to the jews of the first century  that Jesus actually was the promised Messiah. 

that being said, who were these people included in the genealogy?  matthew didn’t include everyone, but used a writing trope of the day, using hebrew numerology and focusing on the number 14, which was the number of david (d=5 + v=4 + d=5), so he had intent with the people he included.  he clearly intended to show Jesus was not of the typical aristocracy the jews were used to.  one of the striking things about his genealogy compared with typical jewish genealogies was the inclusion of women.  this was not an accepted practice of the day, and men of the day looked down on women.  it is reported that a common prayer of men of the day was thanking God that they hadn’t been born “a gentile, a slave, or a woman.”  matthew was clearly stating that Jesus came to change that, and there was a place for women in the Kingdom of God.  however, the women he chose to include were sure to raise an eyebrow with the jews of the day.  The first was tamar, and her story can be found in genesis 38.  a short synopsis is that she was married to er, the eldest son of judah.  er was killed by God for his wickedness, and tamar had not had a child with him, so according to levirate law, his brother was obligated to marry her and provide her with a child.  this duty fell to onan, and let’s just say he shirked that duty (it’s quite scandalous!  go read it!) and God killed him for it.  judah, not being the most upright father, falsely blamed her for his sons’ deaths, and refused to give his third son to her as a husband.  she decided to take matters into her own hands and disguised herself as a prostitute and propositioned judah, who then slept with her and got her pregnant.  but she kept an insurance policy in the form of his staff, seal, and cord, and later when he found out she was pregnant, he ordered her to be burned for prostitution, at which point she showed him that she had his staff, seal, and cord, showing he was the father.  the second woman was rahab, who was a canaanite prostitute that hid the hebrew spies in jericho and helped them escape.  here is another woman associated with scandal in being not only a prostitute, but a gentile!  another gentile woman included in the genealogy was ruth, a moabite.  the fourth woman included was not named specifically, but referred to as the “wife of uriah the hittite.”  this is clearly referring to bathsheba, the gentile woman king david had brought to his palace because he saw her bathing on the rooftop, and then took advantage of her.  these were all women of scandal, yet matthew included them in this genealogy!  charles spurgeon said, “Jesus is heir of a line in which flows the blood of the harlot rahab, and of the rustic ruth; he is akin to the fallen and to the lowly, and he will show his love even to the poorest and most obscure.”  

who else was included in the genealogy?  instead of picking the most upstanding people and conveniently leaving out the evildoers, matthew was completely transparent in who was in the line of Jesus.  if this was today, calls to “cancel Jesus” would be prevalent!  the usual jewish heroes were in there, but even they had their flaws.  first, we see abraham, who doubted God and fathered a child with his wife’s servant.  jacob is also in there, who deceived his father and stole his brother’s birthright.  as mentioned before, judah was included, and it’s already been established that he was a pretty lousy father, and he evidently was ok with visiting a prostitute, and considering he had once sold his brother into slavery and lied to his father about it, saying that he had been killed by a wild animal, it’s safe to say that he was not a shining example of morality.  king david is in there, and we know that he was an adulterer and murderer, and a horrible father, whose own sons fought a war against each other.  we later see boaz, who is called the “kinsman redeemer,” and was a prototype for Christ.  but we also see the ugliest of the line, including uzziah, whose story is told in 2 chronicles 26, where he grew arrogant as king and tried to burn incense in the holy seat so God struck him with leprosy.  we see jeconiah, the son of king jehoiakim, an evil king who God cursed because of his evil, stating that none of his descendants would ever sit on the throne of david.  this was why it was so critical that Jesus not be blood related to joseph, and why matthew reiterated that mary was a virgin (and not just a “young woman” as some have claimed) and that joseph did not have sex with her until after Jesus was born.  this would liberate Christ from the curse of jeconiah, qualifying Him to occupy the throne of david.  it also was a fulfillment of prophecy from isaiah 7:14, which says, “behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.”  a sidenote here is that luke included the bloodline of Jesus through mary all the way back to adam, but through david’s other son nathan, showing that Jesus was also blood related to david. 

there are others mentioned that we have no records of, other than this genealogy.  it doesn’t mean that they aren’t important, because matthew included them.  just that there was no significant historical event tied to them, so they are simply placeholders with their own stories and lives. 

so what is the purpose of the genealogy?  what can we learn from it?  much!  after all, 2 timothy 3:16-17 says that “all Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”  while it is tempting to skip over genealogies, they are included for a purpose, and we can learn from them.  first, it established the prophetic qualifications of Christ, separating Him from other false Messiahs of the day.  an interesting note is that there are over 300 prophecies concerning Christ in the old testament.  a group of mathematicians calculated the probability of one person fulfilling just eight prophecies is 1 in 10 quadrillion, or 10 to the 17^th power!  that is like covering the entire state of texas in silver dollars, placing a black X on one of them, and then sending a blind man in to collect a silver dollar and him picking that one!  the odds of one person fulfilling 48 prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 157^th power!  there isn’t even a name for that number!  by comparison, scientists have theorized that there are only 10 to the 80th power atoms in the entire universe!  the odds of one person fulfilling all 300 plus?  impossible except for Christ!

a second thing we can learn from the genealogy is that no matter who you are, what’s been done to you, what you’ve done, or how insignificant you think you may be, God can still use you!  God used cheaters, liars, adulterers, murderers, victims, kings, servants, men and women, and even the most insignificant of people to bring forth His Son!  another thing we can learn is that God rewards the faithful!  rahab was a foreign prostitute, but God used her because she was faithful.  God rewarded ruth because of her faithfulness to naomi and to God!  others, such as abraham and david, despite their flaws, were still faithful to God.  

the genealogy shows that God can work through the most wicked of people to accomplish His purpose.  it is an example of romans 8:28, where God says, “all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.”  so when you look around at the evil that men do, and are tempted to despair, take hope that God is still at work, and can work through their wickedness to accomplish His purpose.  this is true with leaders, with coworkers, with the most evil in society.  God is all-powerful, and He is always at work, even when we don’t see Him working.

the genealogy tells us who the gospel is for!  it is filled with interesting juxtapositions of characters:  royalty and commoners, sinners and righteous, women and men, jews and gentiles, victors and victims, known and unknown.  up until Jesus’ day, anyone not a jew was an outsider, unclean, a gentile.  God including moabites, hittites, canaanites, and women in the genealogy demonstrated that the Gospel was open to all!  Jesus embodied this in His ministry when He spent time with women, with publicans and sinners, and with samaritans!

finally, the genealogy tells us that no one is beyond redemption!  Christ came to save sinners, and this couldn’t be more evident in the people that were included in His family tree!  none of them were beyond grace and mercy, and Jesus took their shame and their sin upon Him when He died on the cross!  He also did that for you! 

so this CHRISTmas, be encouraged!  Christ’s birth was an expression of good will toward all on whom God has found favor!  you are loved, so much that God sent His only Son to die for you!  he was born of flawed people, and God used them to accomplish His purpose!  He can also use you! 

holy week: Christ's intentionality in His burial

the Messiah is dead.  it is day seven of holy week.  the disciples are in hiding.  judas is dead.  the chief priests and elders are gloating.  the romans are going about life as usual.  just another dead criminal to keep the jews in their place.  all looks to be lost.  but even in His seeming defeat, Jesus has orchestrated everything according to His divine plan.  this applies even to the details of His burial.

Jesus is dead.  make no mistake about that.  there are those that say that He merely passed out from shock or exhaustion, but scholars and scientists have refuted this fact time and again based on both Scripture and historian accounts.  but this is just the setup to the climax of history.  as i've repeatedly mentioned, everything that is included in Scripture is important (yes, even the "begats" in the old testament!), and this is even true in the details of His burial.  first, we see that Scripture says, "He was dead and buried."  this seems like an odd statement to us today.  after all, when referring to people who died, we don't say they died and were buried, unless it's in an obituary giving the reader a location of their grave.  but in everyday conversation, we don't say, "my grandmother died and was buried."  we simply state, "my grandmother died."  so why did Scripture include this statement?  there are a few reasons.  in documents from the ancient near east, and throughout Scripture, we see that statement included, and it was meant to signify that the person really was dead.  in those days, they didn't have autopsies or coroners to verify death, and there were no death certificates drafted to verify that a person really was deceased.  burial was meant to affirm the death of someone.  so when Scripture says that He was dead and buried, it was meant to verify to the reader that Jesus was truly dead.  after all,  you don't bury someone who isn't dead.  the writers of Scripture included this statement to counter ahead of time any arguments that Jesus didn't truly die.  they realized that people would be skeptical, so they wanted to be sure and leave no doubt that Jesus actually died and subsequently rose from the grave.

the second detail in the account of His burial is that He was placed in "a new tomb in which a body was never laid."  in order to understand the reason for this detail, you have to look at the burial practices in first century palestine.  in those days, a body would be prepared and laid in a family tomb, which was cut out of the rock.  it would be prepared with fragrant oils and spices to cut down on the smell during the decomposition process, and then left in the tomb for a year.  stones would be piled in front of the entrance to keep scavengers away, and after a year, the family would go in and collect the bones into a limestone box called an ossuary, and would be either relocated and buried, or if the tomb was large enough, collected in the back of the tomb.  if multiple people died in a family within a year, there would be multiple bodies in a tomb at one time.  so by the gospel writers saying that there were no other bodies within the tomb, it was also giving credence to the resurrection.  it was not a case of mistaking His body for another within the tomb.  it was also due to Jewish ceremonial laws.  anyone that came in contact with a dead body would be considered unclean.  the Messiah would have to be placed in a tomb with no other dead bodies for Him to be considered ceremonially pure throughout His burial and resurrection.  

the other reason for the gospels mentioning He was buried in a tomb, was to establish that He had a designated burial place.  in those days, criminals who were crucified were usually taken down from the cross and thrown into a ravine and left for the animals.  if a family came and requested a body, they were allowed to take the body and bury it, but they were not allowed to have a funeral or mourners.  Jesus had all of these details pre-ordained ahead of time to make sure that every detail was taken care of to refute any possible argument against His resurrection.  

have you ever felt like you were defeated, like things couldn't get any lower?  this appeared to be the lowest Jesus could get, having just suffered the most painful and humiliating death, and then having to be buried in a borrowed tomb with no one around to mourn His death.  but even in despair, God had a plan, and that plan is always perfect.  so remember, when things look to be hopeless, and you think that God has all but forgotten about you, even in those moments when you are at your lowest, He is already working the details to take care of you when you come out of the low.  

An example of a tomb entrance near where the tomb of Christ is located.

The interior of a family tomb.

The place where Christ was laid.

holy week: tenebrae - a service of shadows

 good friday.  the day of the crucifixion.  for today, instead of a normal post, i wanted to share with you a service called tenebrae, which is a service meant to remember the cross and Jesus' sacrifice.  this service is normally done in a large dark room, with different people reading each station of the cross.  it is meant to symbolize the Light of the World slowly being extinguished.  i encourage you to watch it, and as you do, listen to each station.  and remember.  without the cross, there is no Resurrection Sunday.  without the cross, there is no sacrifice for sins.  without the cross, we have no hope for salvation.  so watch, as you pray, "lead me to the cross."

holy week: the intentionality of Christ in the passover meal

 day five.  there is so much to unpack on this day that essentially a whole book could be written just on the events of maundy thursday.  from the annointing at bethany, to Jesus' washing the disciples' feet (a task usually reserved for the lowest of servants), to the passover meal menu, the conversation at the table, and depending on whether you follow the jewish or the western calculation of a day, you could include gethsemane, peter's and judas' betrayals, the abandonment of the disciples, the arrest in the garden, and the trials before the sanhedrin.  i encourage you to take some time and study each of those aforementioned topics, because there is so much to unpack and really brings a greater understanding of Christ and His ministry.  due to limited space, i would like to focus on a part of the passover meal that many people do not completely understand:  the elements of the Lord's supper.

in our western traditions of mini crackers and shot glasses of grape juice, or perhaps a styrofoam wafer with a cross stamped on it and an ornate chalice with juice or wine in it that everyone shares, we miss the prophetic aspects of those elements, because we do not celebrate the passover in the same manner as Christ.  as said before, it is important to remember that Jesus and the disciples were jewish, so they would have celebrated the passover in the jewish tradition, which is why it is useful for us to try and look at the events of the gospels through the lens of judaism.  the early catholic church, in an attempt at differentiating itself from judaism (Christianity was originally considered a sect of judaism), removed many of the jewish elements from the observance of the faith, and modified them to make them unique.  many protestant denominations are guilty of the same thing when it comes to catholicism, and have removed anything they see as pertaining to the catholic church, such as lent, advent, and tenebrae (which i will discuss tomorrow in a special video).  the problem with this blanket approach at distancing, is that there are important details in the practices that are shunned that add meaning to the faith, and we end up missing out on.  the passover meal, specifically the Lord's supper, is one of those practices that is full of prophetic symbolism, even more so than we see in our pre-packaged communion kits.

the first element is the bread.  the bread was a reminder to the jews of the manna God provided for them in the wilderness after the exodus from egypt.  the bread used was a form of unleavened bread that was cooked using a grill.  leaven was meant to represent sin in the jewish faith, so unleavened bread was used for the passover meal to represent the absence of sin.  this is an important detail when we look at who the bread represented.  there were three pieces of bread used during the meal, which we now know were meant to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  during the meal, one of the pieces of bread, called the afikomen, was removed from the other two, broken in two, and wrapped in a clean linen napkin and then hidden in the house.  this was a prophetic symbol of Jesus' death and burial.  the children would then go look for the afikomen and the one that found it would bring it back to the father in exchange for a prize, symbolizing the prize of salvation.  the father would then serve the afikomen to the family.  so when the gospels say that Jesus took the bread, the jewish Christians of that day would understand that it was talking about the afikomen, or the bread representing the Son.

the second element is the wine.  during the passover meal, there were four cups of wine used:  the cup of freedom, the cup of deliverance, the cup of redemption, and the cup of praise/thanksgiving.  these were all meant to remind them of an aspect of the original passover:  freedom from slavery, deliverance from the pharoah, redemption of the people through the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, and praise and thanksgiving for God's provision for the jews.  when Jesus took the cup, He was using the cup of redemption, which is why He says, "this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."  He was reminding them that He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  the disciples had not yet grasped fully that Jesus truly was going to die.  they had repeatedly doubted, and even tried to contradict His statements of His coming death, so He was reminding them of this again.  from that point on, after the events of the coming days, when they would eat the passover meal, these details would be forever solidified in their hearts and minds!

this year, whether you use a prepackaged communion kit, a common eucharist cup, or whether you use grape juice (welch's or great value brand) or wine, as you take of the elements, remember these details.  keep in mind that the passover meal, specifically the Lord's supper, was started hundreds of years before Christ was born, and was, and is meant, to tell the story of His sacrifice for the sins of the world, which includes your sins, and mine.  and give thanks for a God who loved us so much, that He would give His only Son to die for our high treason against God, so that we might have fellowship with Him, and get to spend eternity in His presence!

The road in Jerusalem where the upper room was located.

holy week: the intentionality of Christ's inaction

day four.  Jesus has spent the last two days teaching at the temple and on the mount of olives, and has angered the majority of the chief priests, elders, scribes, pharisees, saducees, and other temple officials.  but on day four, nothing is mentioned of Jesus' activities.  some say that the annointing at bethany at simon's house occurred on the fourth day, because Scripture is vague on which day that happened, but most scholars postulate that it happened on thursday given the context of the different accounts of that event.  only luke says rather generically that he taught in the temple during the day, and on the mount of olives at night, but doesn't mention anything specific He taught on that day, unlike other days, or even explicitly says he taught on wednesday at all.  therefore, compared to the other days, it seems that little to no information is given of Jesus' activities.  while we may not know what Jesus was doing, we can imagine that He was likely spending time with those He loved, or preparing for the coming days, but at reading, it seems as if He was disconnected.  there is no mention of Him teaching, or healing, or even preparing.  even though He knew the terrors that were awaiting Him in the coming days, He was choosing to be away from the people, the temple, and jerusalem.  

so why the inaction?  what we do know, is that on that day, the chief priests and elders were plotting to have Him killed.  while earlier during the week, they wanted to wait until after the week was over because of the festival, and feared a riot from the people, their attitude had clearly changed.  we know that they likely met with judas that day and made the deal with him, giving him 30 pieces of silver, the cost of a slave, to betray Jesus at a time when He was away from the crowds.  Jesus knew this was happening, as He brought it up at the last supper when they celebrated the passover meal.  yet we don't read about Him doing anything to circumvent this series of events.   

think about what He could have done.  many think that He was helpless to stop it, but He had a number of courses of action He could have taken.  He could have left and went away from jerusalem.  we know He was likely at bethany, which was a few miles west of the city.  it would have been very easy for Him to leave and go to any of the surrounding countries like His parents did during the slaughter of the innocents.  or, since He had a large following, He could have rallied the crowd to come to His defense before the temple officials were able to fully enact their scheme.  there is a reason that they were afraid of the crowds.  in that day, uprisings were common, and many such uprisings had occurred in the years prior.  during one particular uprising, the romans arrested those responsible and crucified them along the road leading into jerusalem, and then poured pitch onto the bodies and lit them on fire to be used as torches to light the road, and to act as a deterrent to future uprisings.  Jesus' entry into the city on palm sunday was an indication of the people's attitude towards Him, and saw Him as the Messiah that they mistakenly misunderstood as a militant warrior that was to lead the rebellion that would overthrow the romans and liberate them.  He even had a couple of militants as disciples.  we know that peter was willing to fight to defend Jesus, as we see him drawing his sword and striking the high priest's servant when they came to arrest Jesus.  He also had simon the zealot as a disciple.  the zealots were an activist group that were known for their passion for restoring israel, and were directly involved in many of the uprisings throughout the area.  we also see that the disciples came from backgrounds that would have made many of them formidable men to face in a fight.  fishermen were strong and rugged men during that day.  so He had no short supply of people that could lead an army should He so choose.  He also could have gotten the romans involved against the temple officials.  there was no love lost between the jews and the romans, and the romans placated the jews by allowing them to worship in the temple, but truth be told, they would have much rather done away with the temple and the jewish faith to establish the roman pantheon as the dominant religion.  Jesus had gained favor with some of the centurions through the healing of the centurion's servant, as well as with jarius, who was an official in a local synagogue, after He healed his daughter.  so he could have used those connections to alert them of the plot, and had them arrested.  pontius pilate, the governor of judaea, was tasked with getting the uprisings under control, and he would have been keen to know of a plot to arrest Jesus that would have led to a possible uprising among the people.  he no doubt would have been aware of Jesus' presence, given the large crowds present at both His triumphal entry, as well as following Him at the temple and the mount of olives to hear Him teach, and would have had spies watching Him to make sure He wasn't organizing an uprising.  once he saw that Jesus was simply teaching, he would be more concerned with a plot against Him that could have led to an uprising, as we see he was clearly concerned about when he chose to let the people decide to release barabbas instead of Jesus.  if the crowd would have been swayed the other way, you can be assured that he would have gladly had the temple officials arrested to placate the crowd and prevent having to report another uprising to his superiors.  of course, being God incarnate, Jesus simply could have used His divine power to stop all of it at any moment.

yet even though He had a number of actions He could have taken, He chose to not do anything, when he still had enough time to act.  why?  it was because He knew the greater plan that was in motion, and that there was no other way for mankind to be redeemed.  it was for this reason that He became obedient unto death, even death on the cross.  

as flawed humans, it is hard to trust God when we go through difficult times and it seems as if He is not helping.  though we may cry out to Him for deliverance, we only receive silence in return.  paul even referenced this when he said that he had a "thorn in the flesh" that he cried out to God three times to be delivered from it, but received no such deliverance.  it is easy to look from our finite minds at the apparent theodicy around us and say, "If God is truly good and all-powerful, then why does He allow bad stuff to happen?"  the answer can be found on wednesday of holy week.  despite having the unlimited power to deliver Himself from the crucifixion, He allowed the will of God to continue, even though it meant His suffering and death.  because ultimately, the eternal consequences of any other outcome paled in comparison to the salvation of the world.  God's will is always perfect, and even when He chooses not to intervene in the unpleasant experiences of our lives, we have to trust that His divine plan is fulfilling the promise of Scripture that assures us of "all things working together for the good of them who love God and are called according to His purpose."  so while the journey may be unpleasant and difficult, the final destination is worth the trip.

holy week: the intentionality of Christ prophesying about the temple

 it is now day three of holy week.  a full day has passed since the triumphal entry.  the crowd has not yet turned on Jesus.  we know this, because mark mentions that the people were "delighted at his teaching."  the chief priests and elders and scribes have been unsuccessful at finding fault with Jesus and his teaching.  oh, they were plenty mad because they knew that the parables He was teaching were all about them, but there was nothing they could do.  they feared the people, which is another reason we know that the crowd had not yet turned on Jesus.

we know that He was teaching in the temple, which was a common theme in His ministry, because this was the social center of the city.  you would commonly find crowds in the temple, and even more so now during the week of the passover, as worshippers were making preparations for the big day.  in Jesus' day, passover week would be akin to our CHRISTmas week in the western world.  the city, and consequently the temple, would have a significant increase in visitors.  this was why Jesus would spend this week in jerusalem.  due to the large crowds of people, we also see Him teaching on the side of the mount of olives, which was a short distance from the eastern gate and the temple, as mentioned earlier.  there were many lessons that He taught these few days, but one in particular is mentioned in all of the gospels:  the destruction of the temple.  most of His messages this week were on the kingdom of God, and the last days, including the signs to look for.  but then, as the disciples were leaving the temple, they made a point to comment on the beauty of the temple.  Jesus responds, not by agreeing with them, but by saying that the temple would be destroyed so thoroughly that not one stone would be left upon the other.  while the disciples thought that Jesus was referencing last days' events, He was actually commenting on the idolatry of the temple itself.

in order to understand how the temple had become an idol, you have to have a brief understanding of the history of the temple.  prior to having a temple, which was the housing for the ark of the covenant, a tent tabernacle was set up and moved around with the ark during the israelites' wandering in the wilderness.  king david acquired the land where abraham took his son isaac to be sacrificed for the purpose of building a permanent temple to house the ark of the covenant, but due to his many sins, God took this task from him and it was passed down to his son, solomon.  solomon, during his building campaign, took david's vision for a temple and upscaled it, building a lavish temple complex that was considered a marvel of the time.  this was done in the 10th century b.c.  in 586 b.c, the temple was destroyed during the sack of jerusalem by the babylonians, and the jews were sent into exile.  the ark of the covenant disappeared, and much debate has occurred as to its whereabouts, whether it was captured by the babylonians, destroyed, or hidden by secret societies before it could be captured.  in 513 b.c., after the jews were allowed to return to israel, a new temple was rebuilt, though not to the scale of solomon's temple.  this would be rectified in 20 b.c. by herod the great.  herod was considered a half-breed jew, due to his edumean heritage, and was also seen as a roman sympathizer.  he was put into power by the romans, and in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the jews, he decided to rebuild and greatly expand the new temple.  herod spared no expense in building the temple, having the walls covered in gold and jewels.  it was the pride of the jewish world.  this is the temple that Jesus taught in, and that the disciples were commenting on that third day of holy week.

so why was this included in the gospels?  Jesus was making a statement about the temple, but it was not meant to be in passing, nor simply a prophecy of the last days, which was what the disciples initially thought.  He had already made statements about His body being a temple, and being destroyed and rebuilt in three days, to which the jews replied that it took 46 years to build.  the problem with the temple, was that it had become an idol to the jews.  they began to see the temple as a sort of "good luck charm," and because God's presence dwelt in the temple, it gave them special protection.  it was said that jerusalem could never fall as long as the temple was there.  as mentioned in the previous entry, the jews placed more importance on the temple building itself, and the rituals that took place inside, than they did the God that the temple was built for.  Jesus was again reminding the disciples that He had come to fulfill the law, and the need for the temple was to be no more.  this was made evident during his death when the thick veil to the holy of holies was ripped into, allowing all men direct access to God the Father through Christ.  it is important to note that the prophecy came true in 70 a.d., when the romans sacked jerusalem during titus' reign.  the romans not only destroyed the temple as a message to the jews, but they also took every stone from the temple with them for the gold and jewels that were in the walls.  this made the prophecy come true down to the detail about stones not being left on top of each other.  the only thing left is the retaining wall for the temple mound, which is now what we call the western wall, or the wailing wall.  

for us today in the western world, it can be argued that the same attitude exists as did in the jews, with the church building becoming almost an idol to itself.  we have forgotten that the Church proper is not a building, but the collective body of believers.  we have relegated worship of God to one day a week, in multi-million dollar buildings adorned with lavish accoutrements, much in the same way as the temple during Christ's time.  during covid, we saw a shift in attitudes towards the church building, but unfortunately that attitude also shifted towards the Church body.  people not only abandoned the building, but the gathering of believers as well.  this misguided belief that the church building and the Church body was the same thing has caused a drastic decline in church attendance.  meanwhile, in countries like ukraine, we see believers gathering together in underground bunkers to worship.  in closed countries like china and iran, we see believers gathering together in secret to worship.  however, in the western world, we have the errant belief that worship somehow consists of a style, a ritual, or a building, or that worship is entirely a personal endeavor.  we have placed our own personal preferences above the commands of God, thereby making an idol of a building, a style, a preference.  anytime we place any thing above God and His commands, we have created an idol.  we would all do well to remember Jesus' teaching on true worship and the temporal nature of a building, and instead choose to worship Him in spirit and in truth, as part of a daily practice, as well as a regular corporate gathering of believers.

  

The western wall of the old temple foundation, now called the wailing wall.

  

In this picture you can see the dome of the rock, sitting on top of the temple mound.