31. Arrival (2)

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.31: Arrival (2)

Mk 11:1,2 “As they approached Jerusalem….  Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.” 

Palm Sunday has arrived. The crisis is just a week off but Jesus, still totally in control of events, provokes the crowds to hail him as king, knowing it will so anger the authorities that they will be left with nothing but to murder him. It may be dressed up in the guise of a lawful act, but it will be far from that. It will be wilful murder, mankind revealing itself for what it is (as we shall see in the next series, ‘Facing the Cross’.) For now marvel, wonder, and worship the Son of God who has orchestrated these events to bring about his own death as a sacrifice for mankind. Be in awe.

So there we are, the pilgrimage is over; we have arrived ‘at Jerusalem’. Yes, Passover is still a few days away and all the terrible events of ‘Easter’ are still to come, but our time of travelling is over. Now we can just wait for what we know has yet to come. The amazing triumphal entry is about to happen in two days’ time. If we were modern pilgrims, having arrived at our destination, with yet some time ahead of us to witness the ‘big event’ we’ve come for, we would no doubt find a table outside a café and over a coffee remind ourselves of the weeks of walking that have just finished, the events that took place.

Yes, and if it had been with Jesus, we would remember back several weeks to how Jesus had resolutely turned away from his ministry in Galilee and set off for Jerusalem. We might remember how a Samaritan village had made it clear that he was not welcome, and maybe laugh at how James and John wanted to call fire down on them but Jesus just led them on. Then how he had healed ten lepers and then carried on across the Jordan before a little later crossing back over and coming up through Jericho healed a blind man and blessed a chief tax-collector. Then, along the road up to Bethany how the crowd had grown but they stopped short of Bethany and let Lazarus die. At the time that had appeared unbelievable but the end result showed the wisdom of it. And then Jesus had disappeared off for a while and you subsequently found he had retreated to Ephraim before returning to Bethany to be anointed by Mary. And that was it; we had come on to Jerusalem and we are expecting him to arrive within a couple of days, accompanied no doubt by an ever bigger crowd. Yes, it had been an amazing journey.

And as we travelled, being aware that Passover was our destination we had regularly sung the songs of ascent and reflected on the wonder of this experience that was taking us ever nearer to the festival, and we pondered on the marvel of what we were doing, travelling to meet with God at His Temple in Jerusalem.   

Yes, the actual Passover celebration is still a week off and a lot is still to happen and so, as we sit sipping our coffees together – if it was back then having just arrived we might just find ourselves somewhere to stay, somewhere to wait out the remaining days – but if it was today, knowing what is coming we might (as time-travellers) watch with a growing unease and anticipation and observe how the tensions are building up in the city, the Jewish authorities watching angrily for Jesus to arrive, the Roman authorities calling in support troops to bolster the peace-keeping force that was usually there in the city, fearful that Passover was a reminder to this ragbag of a nation that they are about to celebrate the overthrow of another empire centuries back, wondering if any zealot might use the occasion to stir up a revolt, wondering about this zealous preacher from Galilee who they hear is coming with a great band of followers. And then there are the ordinary people, abuzz with the rumours of Jesus who they are anticipating soon.

But here’s the thing, they all got it wrong! Jesus wasn’t going to stir up a revolution, he wasn’t going to use the crowds to create a revolt, he wasn’t going to give the Roman occupiers an excuse to stamp down on Judaism, the Jewish authorities didn’t need to worry about him destabilizing the nation. If there was any destabilizing to be done, it was to be the undermining and overthrow of hypocrisy and untruth and the unreal nature of man-based religion. So how did it all blow up, why did the Jewish authorities react so badly as the feast approached? It was what today we might call ‘a head job’, it was all in the mind, where the battle is always carried out.

Where do ancient and modern petty dictators get provoked? In their mind where insecurities are played upon by Lucifer, where fears are blown up to gigantic extremes, where hostilities break out in aggressive-defensive actions that are completely unnecessary, and Satan laughs. But now, all the time, the one who hung utterly defenseless on a cross at Calvary still works into the world, in the midst of his enemies (Psa 110:1,2), largely unseen, just waiting for the nod from His Father to mount up and lead his troops to wind up the present phase (Rev 19:11-19).  We have just been watching such a small period of his ministry and yet from it we have watched one who was totally in control, biding his time, but bit by bit moving ever nearer to the crisis point we call Easter, to enact in another eternal dimension an eternal Passover sacrifice so that whoever heeds the call, will avoid ‘the Eternal Pass-Over’. Bow in worship and be thankful.

30. Arrival (1)

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.30: Arrival (1)

Psa 134:3 “May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.”

The journey – this annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, carried out by individuals and families from all over the nation, is drawing to an end and concludes the ‘ascent’ with worship and praise, (v.1,2) and an acknowledgment of our need of the blessing of the One we have come to worship, the Creator of all things. In the presence of the Lord, worship is the automatic response in the awareness of our smallness and weakness and His greatness. The culmination of all else we may have learnt and experienced along the way of the pilgrimage, the proof of its value and its reality, is the worship that is evoked in us at the end of it. If we pass by Easter without real worship, we will have failed to take hold of its real meaning. May that not be so this year.

But let’s look a bit more carefully at this short psalm to see what it might say to us beyond the general description above. The call is to ‘praise the Lord’. (v.1a) Nothing unusual there but it then addresses the pilgrim as “all you servants of the Lord” (v.1b) They (and we) come to the Temple to bow before One who is all-powerful, the “I am” of Moses, the Eternal One. Again and again we have seen in these psalms a focusing of Almighty God and subsequently Israel’s relationship with Him. (see Study No. 16 for the list). Whenever they focus on the Lord, it always is to reveal Him as infinitely superior to us. The best the Israelite can do it to recognise themselves as servants, those who are called to do the bidding of the Master. There is discussion about who the ‘servants’ are in v.1. They may be the priests on the evening shift, or they may just be the pilgrims coming to the end of the day of their pilgrimage, coming to serve, minister and just worship God.

For us today, as we approach Easter, if we have caught anything of the approach to the Easter story, and if it has permeated our familiarity with the story, it should (and I don’t often use that word) leave us gasping that all of the back part of each of the Gospels is about the outworking of the Plan of the Godhead, formulated before the foundation of the world (and we should never stop reminding ourselves of that fact stated at least seven times in the New Testament), whereby the perfect, compassionate and grace-filled Son of God blesses his world with healings, deliverances and resurrection, in such a way that it stirs up the evil (Sin) of the world to rise against him and crucify him – and all so that before Justice, all of our sins could be dealt with, carried into death on the Cross, so we may receive forgiveness and cleansing. If that doesn’t leave us marvelling, we’ve just never really comprehended the truth.

But these pilgrims, described now as servants have arrived and, it seems, just can’t drag themselves away from the presence of the Lord. They have travelled many miles, many of them, with an ever-growing expectation, and now as they arrive, it doesn’t matter that it’s night, they stay there, in awe. What more can they do? The psalmist tells them, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord,” (v.2) Lifting hands is a sign of presenting open, empty hands for inspection by God, a sign of coming with vulnerability and accountability as the heart worships. Lifting up hands in this way is a simple submission expression, even as the apostle Paul wrote: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.” (Rom 12:1). Real worship comes from the heart and isn’t just ‘performed’ by songs on a Sunday morning, real worship is not only expressed by a bowing down before the Almighty One, it is also expressed by obedience and availability in everyday life, a giving over as much as we are able, of our complete lives.

And then the psalmist declares his expectation/prayer, “May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.” (v.3) He knows sufficient of the Lord to know that when we come to God Almighty in this manner, we will be welcomed and blessed and for us today, we see Him as our loving heavenly Father as the Creator of all things, things He had made to provide an environment of love for us to live in. So, we might say, worship is a two-way activity; the believers offer themselves to God in humility and in return He decrees goodness over them. When we come to parents who we know love us, we may expect a welcoming hug, a warm and loving embrace. When family come from abroad, family that perhaps we haven’t seen for several months or years, expect and receive that same loving greeting. Is our loving heavenly Father going to give us anything less?

Now you may think I am making ‘heavy weather’ of all of this, but it goes right back to how we feel about God and what we think He feels about us. Do you remember that one man in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents (which he told at Jericho and on his way to Jerusalem – Lk 19:11-) and the third man in the story declared, “I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man.” (v.21) A hard man? Is that how you see God? A hard man won’t welcome you with open arms (Lk 15:20). No, this is a God who, these psalms tell us, would meet with them when they arrived at the Temple, the same God who had delivered them centuries before, the same God we can now call Abba, daddy, (Mk 14:36, Rom 8:215, Gal 4:6) who sent His Son from heaven to earth to buy us back from sin and judgment. A hard man? No way! 

29. Prophetically Symbolic

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.29: Prophetically Symbolic

Jn 12:1,2 “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.”

As we return to observing Jesus moving backwards and forwards, it is like a game of chess being played out. The white king (Jesus) has come down from Galilee with his disciples, settles for a while to the east of the Jordan, then came back up through Jericho, went to Bethany where he raised Lazarus and then went off up to Ephraim for a brief time of seclusion, and now come back to Bethany which appears to be his close-to-Jerusalem-base. Eventually this ‘white king’ is going to be taken off the board – but not yet. There are some other moves yet to be made.

The king moves onto a new square that will have a new significance here in Bethany, here Mary will anoint Jesus. Commentators find themselves with a dilemma when it comes to this Mary. There are, of course, a number of Mary’s who appear in the Gospels. There is first Mary the mother of Jesus. Then there is Mary Magdalene who Jesus delivered and who then became a close follower. There is also a “Mary, the mother of James and Joseph,” (Mt 27:56) whose identity is not completely clear, and there is Mary the wife of Cleopas (Jn 19:25). Then of course there is Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus who we saw first in Lk 10:38- and then more recently in Jn 11 at the raising of Lazarus. There is sometimes confusion about what follows here, and a similar event recorded by Matthew at the home of Simon the Leper (Mt 26:3) and it is suggested that they were two different occasions, but we would suggest instead that there are various facts that suggest it was the same occasion. Observe.

First, both accounts indicate it was in Bethany (Jn 12:1, Mt 26:6).

Second, Matthew clearly indicates it was in the home of some other well-known person (who one suspects Jesus had healed previously but now almost wears the name as a badge of honour), but John doesn’t say anything to the contrary, merely that it was in Bethany where the recent great event of raising Lazarus had occurred and that Martha served (perhaps Simon having been a leper was single but the other family being close friends were there helping out as Jesus had chosen his home to meet in) and of course Lazarus was also there. Mary was then mentioned as anointing Jesus (Jn 12:3) In both cases Judas is picked out as complaining at the apparent waste, and in both cases Jesus rebuked this comment. The confusion sometimes comes because Luke also records an incident of an unnamed woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, but it is clear it is earlier in Jesus’ ministry (Lk 8:1). Also it was in the home of Pharisee who also went by the common name, Simon, but Luke uses it as an illustration in the midst of Jesus’ teaching.

This present incident, yes, recorded by both Matthew and John, has a very different purpose. It is a prophetically symbolic act which, in days to come, others will understand. Again Jesus is playing out the script that has been ordained from before the creation of the world, and it is all going in one direction, his death as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. In a cool, calm and collected manner, the Son of God moves square by square across the board until the authorities will shout “Check-mate!” – but what do they know? Clearly not, as C.S.Lewis put it, ‘the deeper magic’, that would be the resurrection!

There is something else about the significance of the players in this latest cameo that is worth picking up on. We’ve noted already the raising of Lazarus which had caused such a furor and immediately after this present event, crowds start arriving, “not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead,” (Jn 12:9) to which John then adds, “So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him,” (v.10,11) which only conforms what we said in an earlier study about Luke omitting his name in an earlier account. When John writes, decades later, almost certainly Lazarus had by then gone to glory. So, the first point of note, we have the celebrity status of Lazarus drawing the crowds.

But then, is there significance about the home where Jesus chooses to have a meal? Simon ‘the Leper’, as we’ve already suggested is a trophy of grace and yet another living symbol in the locality of Jesus’ wonderful power-ministry. Yet another crowd-drawer perhaps? And there is Mary. Is it significant that she was the one Luke picked out as having sat at Jesus feet taking in all he said? Jesus declares what she has done is a prophetic act, anointing the body for death. Was it that this woman who had clearly been so close to Jesus, had in fact taken in his teaching about what was going to happen to him, and so as an act of loving devotion she is prompted by the Holy Spirit to do this thing for him? Was she, in fact, one of the few people who truly understood what was going on and, at heaven’s bidding, anointed her Lord to carry out the task appointed for him? He is, after all, the Messiah, the anointed one! What a challenge as we near Easter. Can we be those so close to him, who catch the reality of what is happening and thus minister to him our love?    

28. Unity or Divisions

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.28: Unity or Divisions

Psa 133:1 “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

In this fourteenth very short psalm of ascents, the focus is of unity – the ultimate goal of God’s purposes! I know historically I have always seen this psalm starting by speaking of “when brothers live together in unity,” and have tended to feel it was a family thing and indeed our NIV verse above suggests the family of God, but behind this thought is a much bigger one that goes to the very heart of the problems and needs of the whole world. Let me explain.

Division or separation goes right back to the Garden of Eden. Adam blames Eve – separation (Gen 3:12). Consequence – separation from God (fear and then exclusion – Gen 3:10,23). Cain kills Abel who is then banished – separation (Gen 4). The world became full of corruption & violence – Gen 6:11,12 – separation.

Quarrelling among herdsmen so Abram and Lot separate (Gen 13:7-9). And so it goes on, the effect of sin always causing separation, the biggest of which is between mankind and God. But wherever you look throughout the Bible you find separation, even up to godly apostles disagreeing and separating! (Acts 15:36-40). Sometimes there are foolish and ungodly alliances – unity – but unity through evil is never good. No, to find unity, we have to find God.

The words ‘reconciled’ and ‘reconciliation’ speak of a coming back together between God and man, always and only through the work of Christ on the Cross: “while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son,” (Rom 5:10) and ”All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,” (Rom 5:18) with the ongoing result that, “now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” (Col 1:22) All such verses speak of a coming together again, a unity between us and God that has been made possible by Christ’s work on the cross, and the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.  Note before we move on that we too as children of God have this same work of seeking to bring others into the same place of reconciliation, and that the end result of Christ’s work is that we are made holy in God’s sight and free from the enemy’s accusations.

But let’s come back to our starter verse, sung by the pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem and to the Temple to meet with God: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” This living together in unity, speaks of a dimension of community that is missing in the West at the moment, in both the Church and the surrounding world. Because, I believe the West has largely abandoned its spiritual heritage and turned away from the Lord, division and acrimony reigns as we have never before seen it in our lifetimes. I have written extensively elsewhere on the Culture Wars that the West is experiencing that has focused on division and differences.

But then when we look at the Church we see it divided by groups, streams, and denominations, all looking to themselves to the exclusion of others and this divisive spirit is rife. Somehow in the passing of centuries we have forgotten Jesus’ high priestly prayer that, speaking of the Church, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:21) Is it any wonder that the world takes little notice of the Church which has been marginalized and, for many, considered irrelevant to modern life and worthy of little or no interest.

But in this short three-verse psalm the psalmist-pilgrim anchors this thought of unity to pictures familiar in the history of Israel and says it should spread beauty and fragrance just like the anointing oil did running down Aaron’s beard (v.2) or like the dew of the mountains which was there also on Jerusalem bringing refreshing to each new day (v.3a), for where there is this unity, there the Lord blesses. Having this unity is a blessing but it also incurs the Lord’s blessing (v.3b) for it is, in the light of what we considered earlier, the culmination or outworking of the Lord’s reconciling work of salvation.

How good it is to be there as the collected people of God, they are reminded as they sing. As they go up into Jerusalem to the Temple, the Temple is for all of God’s people, and He looks for all His people to come as one people with no divisions, and when that happens, He will bestow blessing on them. For us, may I suggest, we need to put aside all our denominational name-tags that separate us and remember again we are ‘just Christians’, just believers, united with every other believer across the face of the earth. Unity must start at home and with an acceptance of each and every person who gathers to worship Him every Sunday. Let’s work to achieve that and rejoice in it. This is what this potent little psalm does; it challenges us over the life we have within the four walls of our homes, the four walls of our church buildings, and our activity in the wider community and, hopefully, our prayers for our families, our churches, our communities, our businesses, indeed everywhere in the wider world, for this is God’s intent, this is why Jesus died in Jerusalem, to bring unity, to bring reconciliation. Amen? Amen!   

27. The Gathering

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.27: The Gathering

Jn 11:55 “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.”

In following Jesus’ ‘pilgrimage’ to Jerusalem we come nearer to that annual gathering that focused on that very first ‘Pass-over’. Perhaps it is worth reminding ourselves of what happened. In an ongoing confrontation, the Lord challenged hard-hearted, self-orientated, idol-worshipping, demonically-inspired and superstitiously-fearful Pharaoh, to let His people go. When Pharaoh resisted, the Lord brought one plague after another on the land until after the ninth plague He warned that the final plague would mean the death of every firstborn in the land. For Israel to avoid the work of the destroying angel ‘passing over’ the land, each family was required to sacrifice a lamb and dab its blood on the doorposts of their homes as a sign to the angel that they were to be spared.

The symbolism throughout this event is significant in the extreme, which is brought into focus for us by the declaration of John the Baptist. “John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29 & 36 and seen in Rev 5) For the Jews, keeping the Passover was an annual reminder of the wonderful deliverance of the Lord who subsequently called them to be His unique nation (Ex 19:4-6). For us as Christians, Passover becomes Easter.

The name ‘Easter’ has uncertain origins and although some have suggested that it is linked to an English goddess, the Encyclopedia Britannica makes the wise comment that “Given the determination with which Christians combated all forms of paganism (the belief in multiple deities), this appears a rather dubious presumption.” The same applies to Christmas. Putting aside concerns about the origin of the name, what is unquestionable is that it corresponds to Passover, as we have noted numerous times in these studies and the above two paragraphs anchor that belief.

So let’s consider in some more detail our starter verse: “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.”  Time has been passing so it is getting nearer to Passover. Two studies back we noted that Jesus retreated to Ephraim, some thirteen miles north-east of Jerusalem, while the crowds continued to flock from all different directions of the country to gather in and around Jerusalem to celebrate the festival as required in the Law of Moses.

Note that they probably would have wanted to arrive a little while before the seven or eight day festival in order to carry out their ‘ceremonial cleansing”. The first time they needed to do this was at their first encounter with the Lord at Mount Sinai (Ex 19:10,14,15) and the possibility of being ceremonially unclean was seen in Num 9:9-14 & 2 Chron 30:17,18 & Jn 18:28. The Passover was to be held on the fourteenth day of the first month of their calendar (Lev 23:5), with the first month being that month they were delivered from Egypt (Ex 12:2), followed the next day by the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which lasted seven days, when they ate only bread made without yeast, as a constant reminder that that was all they could take when they left because there was no time to let yeast rise in the usual way of making bread, such was the haste with which they left Egypt. That feast was to be a great celebration of that most incredible time that released them from slavery. During that week, on the first and last days, no work was to be done except preparing food (Ex 12:16)

So we may consider our starter verse as a summary verse that paints such a simple but clear and significant picture. Jerusalem and the surrounding districts are going to be full of people from all over the nation, gathered expectantly for the Passover, and now also for Jesus to show himself. Something must happen. What will he do? Is this the moment for the Messiah to be revealed? Perhaps the words that sum up this time are expectancy, uncertainty, and excitement.

The fact that Jesus had been gathering a crowd as he had been travelling recently, performing miracles as he went, especially that one of raising Lazarus from the dead, had stirred rumours throughout these people. He must be going to do something spectacular when he gets to Jerusalem. Yes, a very high level of expectancy. But then, as we read through the texts, we find an equally high level of uncertainty. We’ve already seen the reaction of the authorities in Jn 11:47,48 and his triumphal entrance on Palm Sunday must have accentuated this uncertainty even more. As we wondered before, will he go for the Romans or even the religious establishment who are so clearly against him. But then there was excitement, not only because of the coming festival, but also because of both the expectancy and uncertainty we’ve considered. Be careful, we can get swept up in the anticipation of the crowds but actually miss what God is going to do and thus come out of it confused. Whatever we think He is doing, be still before Him until it becomes obvious. What He does may not be what we expect, when we expect and how we expect. He is God and He does all things right. Trust Him. 

26. The Place of Divine Fulfilment

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.26: The Place of Divine Fulfilment

Psa 132:1,2 “Lord, remember David and all his self-denial.  He swore an oath to the Lord.”

So begins this much longer thirteenth ‘psalm of ascents’ that remembers how David had sworn to provide a place for the Ark – the Presence of God – to rest (v.3-5), yet the Lord had prevented him (2 Sam 7:1-16). The Lord had promised that Solomon would reign after David (v.11,12) and he would build the temple (implied) because Jerusalem was His chosen city (v.13,14), and thus His blessing will be on them there (v.15-18). The psalm thus reminds the pilgrim of why it is good to be there in a place of security and blessing, just as it is for us in the kingdom of Light (Col 1:13). It is all about covenant – the Lord’s promises to them – and us! Very well, having laid out the ‘map’ let’s look at it in more detail

The psalm had the pilgrim remember their history once again, specifically how the ark of God came to reside in the Temple that was still there in Jerusalem. There had come a point in the life of David where he was aware of the presence of the ark but aware that it was still just out in the country while he now resided in Jerusalem that had become his capital city. That felt wrong, and so he made a vow to the Lord (v.1 & 2) to change that, that he would not rest until he found a proper, permanent dwelling place for the ark which represented the presence of God (v.3-5). It had been left by the Philistines when they returned it (1 Sam 6,7) and it still remained there. But now it was back in Jerusalem, now there was the Temple to house it and so the psalm calls to the Lord to meet with them there at that place (v.7,8) where the ark had been brought with great joy (v.9).

But now was a new day, a day when the rule had passed from David to Solomon and then his descendants, but God had promised blessing on them (v.10-12). The fact was that God had chosen Jerusalem and the Temple to meet with His people and so as they pilgrimaged annually there, it was their expectation that, based on that history and His promises, they would be able to meet with Him there. (v.13,14). He had promised to bless it materially (v.15) and spiritually (v.16) and establish the place to which the long-awaited anointed-one would one day come (v.17), so His people would be victorious and glorious (v.18).

Thus the presence of the Temple, the destination of the pilgrim coming to Jerusalem, goes back to the heart of King David to build a temple (although built by Solomon) and it was a constant reminder of God’s covenant with David, an ongoing reassurance for the people of God. So when they eventually arrive at Jerusalem they have a long-established firm hope that they are coming to a place where they can genuinely meet with God – because of their history and because of His promises.

So now, if we bring this into the present, as we journey towards Easter / Passover, we too can be assured that we are not on a fruitless task. We are in our ‘journeying’, our ‘pilgrimage, travelling to a place that reminds us of our history and the promises of God that means we can have the assurance, the very real and genuine hope, that all we are doing on this ‘journey’ will culminate in the Presence of the Lord. But it’s not quite like that is it, for the truth is that every day as we quieten our hearts and sit, waiting before Him, we can know Him. We don’t have to wait until Easter, we don’t have to travel to Jerusalem, we meet with Him and know His presence in our quiet place in our own home. So what is all this talk of journeying, of pilgrimaging all about? It is a daily refocusing our thoughts and our hearts on a daily journey to the place of the Presence of the Lord but the reality of that, the reason we can do this daily – is Easter!

This, perhaps we need to remind ourselves, is what we are doing, turning our eyes on the one reason we can have this assurance we’ve just been talking about, the fact that at Jerusalem – yes, the dwelling place, the focal place, established by David, the ‘man after God’s own heart’ – we will come to a halt and pause in anguish and in thankfulness before the Cross, the one and only reason in all the world and in all of history that we can have confidence to stand in the presence of Almighty, Holy God, and know that we are accepted, loved, chosen, and adopted, and destined for an eternity with Him.

Again and again within the Christian community there is this need to reassure the children of God that they are loved and accepted by God and remind them that the Cross is the sole reason for believing that. For the seeking not-yet-a-believer out in the world, who wants to know if there is a God, what sort of God is He, and if He is this Holy God you speak of, what hope is there for me, the Cross is the answer, the only answer. Ritualistic, man-inspired, self-endeavour-based world religions do nothing to remove fear and superstition from the would-be seeker. It is only when we are confronted by the Cross, the death of the Son of God outside Jerusalem as he carried away the sins of the world in his body (1 Pet 2:24), can we find assurance. Like the pilgrims we have been considering, we need to remind ourselves of the history that is so well attested to, that the access to God’s presence has been established, not in a stone building, but on a cross on a hillside outside Jerusalem where the Son declared, “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30) Hallelujah!    

25. Gauging the right time (2)

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.25: Gauging the right time (2)

Jn 11:54 “Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.”

Back in Study No.19 we considered this truth about Jesus being aware of his timetable, his timing as he moved south, and we noted that instead of going straight to Jerusalem and setting his camp up outside there, so to speak, he went in the opposite direction and in a sense distanced himself from the main goings on in Judea that would have been focused on Jerusalem and set up to the east of the Jordan where he ministered for a while. Then we saw him, almost leisurely it seems, making his way back and up through Jericho and then on to Bethany where he had brought about that spectacular raising of Lazarus from the dead, which had convinced many more to believe in him, while at the same time raising the ire of the religious authorities (which included the Sanhedrin) in Jerusalem.

At this point a marketing advisor, or even an army strategist, might have thought that the time was absolutely right to advance on Jerusalem with a massive army of followers and take the city out of the hands of the faithless religious authorities and maybe even the occupying Roman garrison – but he doesn’t; he does what would bring such advisors to despair, he retreats into oblivion, he moves away quietly from the crowds to a village named Ephraim. Ephraim, Wikipedia tells us, was “located in the wild, uncultivated hill-country thirteen miles to the northeast of Jerusalem, perched on a conspicuous eminence and with an extensive view between the central towns and the Jordan valley.” Note the three things: absence of crowds, isolation of the retreat, and distance from Jerusalem. And perhaps we may add, vision.

The temperature has been raised in the area by Lazarus being raised, so now Jesus just stands back and lets the gossip and rumours fan out through the gathering crowds. But it mustn’t happen before Passover, so he moves out of sight until the time draws near. There are times when the Lord steps back and simply waits because he always knows the right timing.  Be at peace when he appears inactive and just wait with him for the right moment, so when he moves you can be alert and move with him.

In the Song of Solomon there is an enigmatic little phrase that occurs more than once, “do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires,” (2:7, 3:5, 8:4) which we may suggest could be, “don’t mistake erotic desire for love, for real love, that is all about total commitment, takes time to grow.” It speaks about right-timing in the growth of relationships – which are sadly lacking in a large measure today, so that many young people despair of ever knowing real love, just sexual expression.

But the more you think about this sort of thing, the more it becomes obvious that God has built times and seasons into His world. Thus we have seasons and so, those of us who live in climates that equate winter with cold and summer with heat, may despair while waiting for the cold of winter to give way to Spring, but we know that it will eventually.  We watch bulbs pushing up in the bare earth and birds pairing up and making nests. We know that some plants require warmth as well as water to grow and so there is little point trying to grow them until the days start getting longer and the sun is higher in the sky. It’s all about timing that God has built into His world.

And, of course, there is something else about timing that can be seen in the world of science and technology and medicine: science etc., builds on what has gone before and without the centuries, if not millennia, that have gone before, we would not be able to have that which we have today. Knowledge builds with time.

Timing is observed in every area of life. We wait for young people to grow up and mature before expecting them to be able to branch out in careers. We wait for share prices to go in the right direction before buying or selling. Similarly we watch for house price direction before buying or selling (assuming we have the time to wait).

Similarly in the spiritual world we watch for development and maturity before giving responsibility for service and requiring readiness for leadership (see 1 Pet 5:5, Titus 1:6-9) so, for example, an elder “must not be a recent convert.” (1 Tim 3:6) Maturity takes time to develop. Now when it comes to approaching Passover and the Lamb of God being sacrificed for the sins of the world, for that to come about, it required the sinfulness of mankind to feel so threatened that it would rise up and do the unthinkable and destroy the one who has been only bringing love and goodness for three years in the north in Galilee. Perhaps we have become so familiar with the facts of Easter that we have lost the sense of just how awful and how terrible it was, an act of malicious, spiteful, wanton murder, carefully brought about, the seeds of which had been there from the early days (see Mk 3:6) and which had been festering below the surface for the three years of his ministry. Now was the time to provoke it, to incite Sin to show itself, come out into the open and kill the Son of Man. 

24. Calmed and stilled

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.24: Calmed and stilled

Psa 131:1,2“My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have calmed and quietened myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.”

There is a sense in which what we have been following, Jesus coming south to Jerusalem, produce an end result that is seriously disturbing. We saw how he raised Lazarus from the dead, thus stirring the crowds and then subsequently the authorities of Judaism in Jerusalem to act to bring about his death. His purposeful actions of all these things worked towards the Cross. Surely we cannot but feel disturbed if we catch the reality of this, that the glorious Son of God who left heaven (see Jn 6) and lived on earth, where at about the age of thirty started revealing the love of his Father for the people as he healed, delivered, and straightened out lives, we must have at least a glimmer of the awfulness of what this was leading to.

We keep on reminding ourselves that that is what all this is eventually leading to. Indeed as we read about the authorities yesterday and the high priest prophesying about Jesus’ death, it becomes ever more real what is about to happen, what this is working towards – and that is not good. It is disturbing, it is uncomfortable, it is horrible, and it is only not those things, if we have become so familiar with the Cross that we have lost its terrible nature and, even more, the awfulness of this happening to a man who did not deserve it!

So it is in the light of all this that we arrive at this three-verse twelfth ‘song of ascents’ that can act as a calming relief as it draws the pilgrim into a totally calm and peaceful attitude before the Lord as they approach Him. Like a child utterly content and at peace and secure with its mother, so as they recite or sing this short psalm, so they come to peace before Him. This pilgrimage should lead us into a place of peace in the Presence – despite the end result! Let’s look at it more closely.

Humility declared: The psalmist-pilgrim (David) comes in humility to the Lord, determining not to let pride in any way exalt him beyond who he really is, as he recognises his smallness and his need for comfort: “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.” (v.1) Perhaps we might put it in our own words, “Lord, I’m not going to let foolish conceit boost me up and I’m not going to have ambitions beyond that which you’ve called me to, I’m not going aspire to insights that only you can have, I want to hold a right perspective about myself before you.”

Stilled, Comforted & Content: With these opening words he has calmed himself down and settled himself snugly in the will of God, rather like a young baby snuggles close up to its mother and is utterly content: “But I have calmed and quietened myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.” (v.2)

A call to hope: “Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and for evermore.” (v.3) Hope here is a sure confidence and having come himself to a place of peace and contentment, he wants that for his people also, so it is a call to the pilgrim to come full of trust in the Lord with a confidence or sense of peace for the future that is grounded in the Lord and His all-wise and perfect will and purposes.

Now there are various things that flow out of these thoughts. First there is that thing we’ve noted a number of times before, that the world can be thoroughly unsettling and disturbing. But there is something more when we see it in the context of the pilgrimage that draws closer to the Lord. It is a truth that the closer to the Lord you come, the more conscious you become, not only of your own shortcomings, but increasingly you become aware of the negatives of the fallen world around is.

My wife and I pray together every day. Initially it was thanks for the new day and seeking blessing on our lives and the lives of our family. But then you start praying for the needs that you know about, of your wider family and friends, and then you find yourself praying for your church, and then the wider church, and then your country, and then war hotspots around the world, and you suddenly find you are praying for places you’ve never prayed for before (or thought much about) all over the world. But the danger about all this is that it is easy to lose focus and perspective and get taken up with needs and problems and difficulties and it is at this point that Paul’s teaching to “not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” (Phil 4:6) comes into play, especially the reminder to pray with thanksgiving. Thanking focuses us on the Lord’s goodness and although the world is fallen, Jesus is working into it. He is STILL Lord! So as we pilgrimage closer and closer to the Lord, we may become more aware of the world’s shortcomings, but we must balance that with an increasing awareness of Him, that He IS working into it, and we must learn to come to peace in Him. So, be still before Him and regain that sense of His presence, now. 

23. A ‘Publicity Event’?

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.23: A ‘Publicity Event’?

Jn 11:45 “Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”

As we have been going along on this journey with Jesus, I have been trying, bit by bit, to lay down a foundation for the idea that all the way, Jesus is gathering more and more followers who will eventually come with him into Jerusalem and so raise the spiritual temperature and anger of the authorities of Judaism so that they would almost feel forced to act against him and have him killed, unwittingly fulfilling the plan of God laid down from before the foundation of the world, for His Son to be a divine sacrifice for the sin of the world. Now nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and in this respect our starter verse so understates what took place but is a brief summary of the end product of it. It is important to understand the impact of what took place at Bethany and its place in the chronological order of the way this ‘pilgrimage is working out.

So let’s put it in chronological context first. Jesus has been travelling down from the north, picking up followers as he went, seeing him heal various people and listening to his teaching. The crowd had built up when they crossed over to the east side of the Jordan when he ministered for a while. Then as Passover was drawing ever nearer, he crossed back over the Jordan and coming up via Jericho, he performs another miracle of healing, wins over a bunch of tax-collectors and no doubt others who the authorities might have branded in our modern terms as ‘the low life’ and then headed in the direction of Bethany and Jerusalem.

But he pauses up at one camp-fire stay and delays going any further when he is brought a message that his friend Lazarus is dying. (Jn 11:3-6). Now it is clear that that little family was well known locally for we read, “many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother,” (Jn 11:19) and they are there clearly witnessing all that was taking place when Jesus arrived eventually (see v.31,33, 36,37) and Jesus is aware of this as he prays,‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” (v.41,42) It is about as blatant declaration of his intentions that you can get, even though disguised in a prayer clearly heard by others.

What then follows reveals the desired effect: “Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. ‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” (v.45-48). They are not merely jealous about Jesus who again and again showed up the spiritual poverty of their religion, but they are fearing the repercussion and possible reprisals by the Romans if there is a local uprising caused by Jesus. In fact that was exactly what happened about forty years later.

So, to sum up, this raising of Lazarus from the dead, is such a clear miracle on the doorstep of Jerusalem, so to speak, and at a time before Passover when crowds are gathering from all over the country, that it cannot but help draw a tremendous following. This can be nothing less than a strategic act by the Son of God to raise the ‘spiritual temperature’ of the already ‘hot’ and expectant Jerusalem and the gathering crowds – sufficient to stir the religious authorities into action. This is Jesus using ‘good’ to raise the opposition against him for what has to come.

But John doesn’t leave us wondering how much it is stirring up the authorities, he knows what went on: “Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ‘You know nothing at all! You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.” (Jn 11:49-53)

Isn’t that amazing, that God even inspired the self-concerned high priest to prophesy and there were obviously those there in the Sanhedrin (see the earlier verses) who remembered these things in detail and conveyed them to John. Later John would describe himself twice as “the other disciple who was known to the high priest”. (Jn 18:15,16) Somehow John had some connection that allowed him subsequent knowledge of what had gone on previously in the Sanhedrin. So here we have the picture, getting clearer by the moment, of Jesus being in complete control of events, playing on the fact of news about him building and building within Jerusalem, slowly but gradually building to a crescendo to stir the authorities into action: “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23). God working, knowing how sinful mankind reacts. Amazing! 

22. Realities of my salvation

Lent Pilgrimage Meditations No.22: Realities of my salvation

Psa 130:3,4 “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”

In the previous meditation we considered being available and being willing to pause up on our big goals (or ambitions, perhaps) in life and, be like Jesus and just be there – as we pilgrimage through life – for those we encounter on a daily basis, so we seek to avoid missing the opportunities the Lord may be putting before us. But such talk, I am aware, raises feelings of inadequacy and maybe even fear in some of us who raise the two obvious objections; first, who am I, I’m a nobody, so who am I to venture out like this and then, second, “I wouldn’t know how, so what is expected of me?” They are very real, very common, and very understandable; in fact there are elements of these found in that famous conversation at the burning bush between Moses and God (Ex 3 & 4). It is at this point that our next psalm of ascent brings perspective so rather than focus on those questions directly, let’s come at them via the teaching of this next psalm.

In this eleventh ‘psalm of ascents’ the pilgrim realizes afresh the point of Easter-Passover, deliverance that comes through forgiveness. We were a fallen people whose failures in life could not be counted, but instead of counting, God simply comes and forgives whoever will heed His call and sets them free with forgiveness. The point of the sacrificial system was to deal with the sin of the pilgrim and set their conscience free – forgiven. And so it is with us and Jesus. Hallelujah!  What a picture to be held onto as we approach Easter.

OK, you read it in one paragraph but let’s try and take that in more fully. The opening two verses show the emotion that the truth that is about to be observed, brings: “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” (v.1,2) It is a plea to be heard, a plea that is necessary when we truly face what we are like without God. The apostle Paul wrote, “everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God’s plan.” (Rom 3:23 JBP) It’s a message that occurs in many forms many times in the Bible, so when the truth of that really strikes home, it produces the anxiety that is conveyed in these first two verses.

But then there comes an amazing thought – somehow this Holy God does not sit there in heaven keeping a tally of our misdemeanors for, “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?” (v.3) i.e. if God was looking for our sins, not one of us would be in the clear. This is followed by a second amazing thought: “But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” (v.4) God is in the business of making forgiveness possible.  For the psalmist in their day, the sacrificial system was God’s means of the repentant sinner showing that they were truly sorry. For us today, believing in the sacrificial death of the Lamb of God, the Son of God, Jesus, and coming with a contrite heart is the way through to receiving His forgiveness.

But life is to be more than sitting in a little abject heap before the throne of God, He has made us for more than this, He has made us to become children of God, recipients of His goodness, His power, and His presence, so the psalmist declares, “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (v.5,6) Knowing what he knows, he can simply wait on the Lord to receive all of God’s blessing. Indeed he exhorts all Israel to wait, with a sure hope that His redemption will be forthcoming: “Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” (v.7,8)

So how does all this relate to what we were saying earlier about being available to be a blessing to others, and the reasons we may feel we cannot be that? Well the psalm made us face the fact that we are all in the same boat, if we may put it like that. Every one of us in the church is a redeemed sinner, and outside the church they are unredeemed sinners waiting to hear the good news. The truth is that, of ourselves, none of us is qualified for this but ‘in Christ’ we all are. We are all recipients of his Holy Spirit and so Christ can lead and guide us and enable us to be a blessing to others.

What does it take to love others? Simply to see ourselves as who he has made us – children of God – and to see others as those who would love to have a loving arm put round their shoulders (figuratively if not literally), lifted up and encouraged, blessed with loving acceptance, with no demands made of them. Remember Jesus taught, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Lk 6:31)   If you are unsure how to go about blessing others, think how you would like others to treat you, how you would like them to show their acceptance of you, what you would like them to be doing for you (perhaps simply starting by listening to you), what you would love to hear them saying to you? It’s very simple, so perhaps the starting point is to think about these things in this last paragraph, and then you are ready to be available to the Lord for Him to use you to bless others. Ready?