Thursday, April 14

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Theme for the Day: Counter-Cultural Christianity

The world is not impressed today with rich, successful Christians, who give thanks to God for blessing them with health, wealth, and prosperity. Instead, the world is impressed when Christians love their God so much that they give their riches away. For disciples, the all-satisfying gift is not what Jesus blesses us with; he is the all-satisfying gift himself. When a disciple knows this, then everything else becomes rubbish and the greatest treasure, the greatest gain is Jesus. And when disciples treasure their Lord, they will live differently in the world. They will live counter-cultural lives that magnify God. Why should Christians live counter-culturally? Because the culture is not Christian.

The early Christians stunned the world by the loving, counter-cultural way they lived in the pagan world. One pagan, Roman Emperor Julian (A.D. 332-363), noticed their spreading faith and noted with frustration that more and more pagans were converting from the gods of Rome to the Christian God, Jesus Christ. He wrote that the Christian faith has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them. Why did these men and woman risk their lives to live this way?

J. Oswald Sanders writes, A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution. Jesus was not a person of caution and neither should his followers be. Paul was not a man of caution, but he was a man who committed everything he did to the Lord and let the Holy Spirit lead him. He began and ended his work under the leadership of God. When disciples live under the leadership of God they risk for the cause of God because they have a childlike faith in the triumph of God’s love, believing that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Johann Sebastian Bach, a musical composer of genius in his day, began each composition with the initials J.J. and ended them with S.D.G. These initials stand for “Jesus help me” and “Soli Deo Gloria,” meaning “to the glory of God alone.” When we begin and end each day of our lives and all that we do in them in the Lord, we need not be cautious but can be bold for God. Here are some verses of Scripture that affirm this truth of discipleship:

·         If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples (John 15:7-8).

·         Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

·         In [Christ Jesus our Lord] we have boldness and access [to God] with confidence through our faith in him (Ephesians 3:12).

To be Jesus’ disciples we need to abide in him, rely on his grace, and ask boldly for his guidance. God’s way of reaching the world was to incarnate himself in Jesus. Jesus calls us to reach the world for him by taking his message to all people. Because the way we live helps communicate that message, our lives need to reflect that message and Jesus himself. We are not the message; Jesus is the message. A disciple of Jesus does not want his life and his behavior to blunt the message but to present it with passion and authenticity. Perhaps no better place does Jesus lay out how we are to live and what we are to look like than in the Sermon on the Mont, especially in the beatitudes, our topic for tomorrow.

Self-examination, repentance, prayer, and worship:

Before you pray, take some time to reflect on your faith. Perhaps there are areas of doubt that are bothering you. Speak honestly to the Lord about these doubts and ask him to increase your faith by strengthening you with his truth, and then pray a prayer like the following:

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, guiding us into all truth, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord,. Amen.

Spend time in family or individual worship as found on the back cover before studying the Gospel of John below.

Study: John 12:1-11, Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany

 ¹Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ²So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. ³ Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, ⁵"Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" ⁶He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. ⁷Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."

The Plot to Kill Lazarus

 ⁹When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, ¹¹because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

Reflection Questions:

1)  Jesus tells Judas to leave Mary alone because he wants her to keep the ointment for the day of his burial (five days later). But there was no time to anoint his body on Friday before sunset. What do you feel about the fact that the Son of God not only suffered a painful and humiliating death, but was not even given a proper burial?

2)  Initially there was only going to be one death: the death of Jesus. Now there is a plan to kill Lazarus as well. Sin grows and spreads. Paul writes that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). What is the truth about the faith of the chief priests?