Saturday 19th April

It had all been going so well.  There had been miracles, there had been healing there had been provision.  Excitement and challenges by the bucketload and lifechanging teaching which had turned them upside down.  There had been travel, weddings, parties, and intimate times of close friendship.  There had been tears, but much more laughter - it had all been fantastic.

And now it was all gone.  In the blink of an eye. And it had gone disastrously horribly wrong.  All the promises now sounded hollow.  All the hope for a better brighter future had vanished.  Everything on which
they had invested their lives had come to nothing - or worse - had put them in immense danger.  They couldnt go back to their previous lives and there was nowhere to run.  It was a disaster.

And the strange thing is that from that day forth it didnt get any better.   From that day on they were hunted down and killed.  Scattered to the four corners of the globe.  Perseucted and misunderstood - there really was no happily ever after for any of them.

I have several friends who have had a horrible time this past year or so.  They have gone from having happy together lives,  good jobs, solid marriages, nice homes to losing it all in the blink of an eye.   It can happen to any of us at any time - through accident or illness, through death or an affair or redundancy.  And if it happens to you after years or decades of everything being safe and sunny then the shock can be almost as bad as the catastrophe.    The disciples didnt know what was going to happen next.  All they knew was Jesus had died and everything He had promised had apparently come to nothing.   They had not just lost an amazing friend they had lost hope.  Losing hope is a terrible thing.   On that Saturday in the upper room there was no point in saying ' Listen guys Im sure this will all work out for the best' - they had believed the evidence of their eyes and that evidence was overwhelming.   Sometimes the evidence before our own eyes is overwhelming too.  We lost our job, we got cancer, our spouse had an affair, we lost our house, our child got sick.......  there is no arguing with the facts.  Sometimes life is very hard and none of it seems to make any sense.

But what the disciples didnt know and couldnt see is that God was not dead.  He was busy.  Active.  Not just on behalf of His friends the disciples but on behalf of us all.   He was defeating Satan ( and who knows what that might have looked like)  and visiting spirits imprisoned in Noahs generation
1 Peter 3
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all,were saved through water,

Im not sure what that means - does it mean that all the people who were drowned in the flood without chance to repent were given that chance by Jesus?  Does it mean that He walked through Hell declaring His victory to all those evil spirits which had rejoiced at the near annihilation of the human race in the generation of Noah??  I dont know.  And it doesnt really matter because what I do know is that on that Saturday after the crucifixion the most awesome process was underway - unbeknowns to the disciples.

My friends who are suffering hard times at the moment cant see what God is up to behind the scenes.  Some of them cant even trust that He is doing anything at all.  They have been so disappointed and hurt and feel He has let them down so utterly.  I guess the disciples could identify with that.   And the irony is that despite what Jesus did next, life for the disciples wasnt about to get any easier.  The resurrection brought power to stand through the trials, bear the persecutions, survive the shipwrecks and testify right up to the brutal deaths. But it changed everything forever.   They could not go back to life as it was.   Life just got a whole heap tougher.  But a whole heap more exciting and powerful.

So if it all looks bleak and hopeless and depressing - if God seems to have abandoned you and everything on which you built your life has crumbled........ remember the disciples in that room that weekend and trust that any minute now there is going to be a knock on your door to tell you that there is hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YByT6wfdhJs

Good Friday 18th April

Barabbas.

Bar  - Son of

Abba - Daddy

Barabbas - the son of the father.

Jesus stands beside Pilate.  Pilate can find no wrong in him and does not want to sentence him to death.  He thinks of a legitimate and legal way of getting Jesus off the hook when he remembers that on high days and holidays he is allowed to release a prisoner.  He is sure the crowd, who only days ago were laying down palm branches and shouting Hosanna, will choose Jesus over a murdering insurrectionist.   But he hasnt counted on the Pharisees spreading their venom.   So when he asks the crowd who to release they shout  BARABBAS!    Give us the son of the father.   Release the son of the father.

Jesus stands there listening to them shout it.   We want the son of the father!   Knowing that He, the Son of the Father,  has been utterly rejected and that He will take the punishment Barabbas was due.  Barabbas goes free - presumably to return to his life of rebellion and violence.  He is never mentioned again and we have no idea whether he paid the slightest bit of attention to Jesus from the second he was released from prison.  So why is he there?  Is he really necessary to the timeline of what happens to Jesus on that Friday?

No.  Not really.  Except that Barabbas represents the epitome of what Jesus was doing as he stood there before Pilate.   He was an innocent man and the true Son of the Father prepared to willingly die a horrible death so that a guilty murdering son of the Father could go free.   With no suggestion that anything was owed.   With no expectation of thanks or gratitude or devotion.  Merely motivated by an overwhelming love and sense of justice.  Barabbas is mankind - all of us - you and me.  And whether or not we believe it or accept it, the fact is that on Good Friday Jesus stepped up to take the place of every guilty one and set us free.

I wonder what happened to Barabbas.   I wonder if he realised that he had been given a miraculous second chance - a second life - and if he decided to make the most of it.  Or if he just went straight back to the life he had before ; (Matthew refers to Barabbas only as a "notorious prisoner". Mark and Luke further refer to Barabbas as one involved in a stasis, a riot. John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as alēstēs ("bandit"))  Was he even aware of who Jesus was?  Was he in the crowds who watched him carrying the cross to Golgotha later that day or did he go home to his family and friends without giving Jesus a second thought?

It is interesting that the first two people Jesus releases from a death sentence are both criminals.  One gets physically released but probably never attains spiritual freedom.  The other - the thief on the cross - is forgiven his sins and promised paradise with Jesus, but still has to die a gruesome death.  Who benefited more?  We are all going to have to die.  We might be aged twelve and die in a ferry accident or be aged ninety three and die peacefully in bed.  We might have to suffer pain or lose our faculties.  But what really matters?  Surely it is knowing that we are forgiven and that we are promised paradise with Jesus.

Thursday 17th April

Two things stand out about the Thursday of Holy week.   Foot washing.  And a new commandment.

Foot washing was something practical and necessary I suppose in a country where everyone wore sandals or similar and there was no tarmac on the roads :-)  Jesus makes a point of taking a towel and adopting the stance of a servant in order to emphasise the point that in the Kingdom of God there is no such thing as master and slave.   We see the reaction of the disciples - most notably Peter - to this outrageous breaking of the cultural rules but Im left wondering about the reaction of the servant whos job it was to do the foot washing.  I wonder how he/she felt watching Jesus , the Master, doing the very job he/she was supposed to be doing.   I bet they never washed another foot again after that without thinking about Jesus.   He had somehow given great worth and value to a job which had previously been considered so menial as to be not worth noticing.

Thats one of the many brilliant things about Jesus.  The more you look at Him the more you see His love.  When I am doing the menial thankless tasks of life - washing the bathroom floor, changing the beds, dusting - the jobs which no-one ever notices until they havent been done and for which no-one ever thanks you - I can picture Jesus taking up the mop and joining me.  Nothing is beneath Him and everything has value.

Then there is the other outrageous thing He does at the Passover meal.  He gives a new commandment.

If we stop to think about that for a moment - for the Jews the commandments given to Moses are the basis of everything on which their relationship with God is built.  Moses is the great prophet, the saviour and

deliverer and God has spoken to him face to face and given him the rules by which His people are to live.   The thought that anything could be added to the ten commandments and the laws must have been utterly shocking.  What was Jesus saying??   A new commandment?   ( John 13: 34)

The new commandment takes the 'old commandments' and catapults them into a new league.   The commandments of Moses were about minimum standards of behaviour I suppose.  Dont steal, dont murder, dont lie ...  keep these rules and you will be able to live together as a society under God.   But Jesus sets a new standard - that of love;  serving, giving, humble, kind love.   As He has loved us.   Impossible of course.  Unless He is living in us.

Wednesday 16th April

Judas betrays Jesus

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.

3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. 4 So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.  Luke 22

This is the day in the Christian calender when we remember Judas approaching the priests and promising to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  I have mixed feelings about Judas..... I suppose that's what he is there for in the story.  To provoke deep and searching questions.

The passage above says that Satan entered Judas........  Im supposing that Judas had a choice in that matter. Satan doesnt get in unless we let him in - Judas made a conscious decision to go with the voice which was telling him to sell out, just as Eve did right back at the start.   Satan always hones in on our weak points in order to gain a foothoold.  With Eve it was the doubt she already had in her mind about what God had really said.   With Judas it was politics and economics - he was always really more interested in money than in godliness, and power rather than peace.

Im sure that Judas managed to convince himself that he was doing the right thing.  Im sure he believed that if Jesus's hand was forced He would declare His kingdom and get on with ousting the Romans.  He had seen enough miracles to know that Jesus could get Himself out of any trouble.  He had already walked away from a crowd wanting to throw Him over a cliff.  He had faced down the Pharisees with clever arguments so many times.  There was no way Jesus wasnt going to come out on top this time.

On the other hand Judas was always the odd one out in the group of the disciples.  He wasnt called by Jesus like the others had been, he just sort of turns up.   He doesnt understand the heart of Jesus - as the treasurer he is always more concerned with the finances than the bigger picture.  He scorns Mary for pouring out her expensive ointment on Jesus's feet because he can see how the money would have been better spent.   he is a social activist not a worshipper.   He doesnt recognise that Jesus is worthy of lavish praise above all else.

Am I guilty of this too?  Is the church more concerned with operating foodbanks than worshipping Jesus?  

Controversial?  Yes of course.   Im sure we can do both.  But if it comes down to a choice between the two the worship of Jesus is always going to be the more valuable thing to do.  Because, as Jesus says, the poor we shall have with us always and God is always concerned to look after them.  He has the hairs on their head numbered and has promised to meet all their needs.  Our job is first and foremost to worship Jesus.  To pour out our lavish, extravagant, wasteful worship over His feet.   Judas didn't get it.

Not only was he not a worshipper but he didnt trust the plan.  He thought he could manipulate Jesus, speed up the process, give God a helping hand .   Been there, done that, got the t shirt. :-)  Of course God knew and had it all worked into the plan - as He always does.  He doesnt need our help and He often isnt doing things the way we think He should.  But if we can learn anything from Judas it's that plotting to get our own way doesnt end well. 

Tuesday 15th April

A non christian friend of mine went to watch the Noah film this week.   I have to confess to having been put off from going to see it by the various reviews etc slating it as an unbiblical piece of fantastical nonsense.  And somewhat violent and gory.

But my friend - who is rather anti Christianity and with whom I have had a few heated discussions over the years - came straight home from the film and got out a bible to read the Genesis story for himself!  And he was enchanted by the whole thing.  He came online to talk to me about it and tell me how appealing he found the idea of a creator.  He was very impressed by all the animals in the film and for the first time it dawned on him that Adam and Eve were vegetarians  :-)   We had a really good discussion about the serpent - is he really Satan and if so what does this mean? - and the fact that because of Adam and Eve's decisions God had to kill an animal to cover their nakedness.  Thus starting a whole story of sacrifice which was only to be brought to a conclusion in Jesus on Good Friday.

I wonder how many other people who have gone to see Russel Crowe doing his thing on the big screen will be prompted to think more deeply about God things.   Probably thousands.  Hundreds of thousands.  Because God never misses a chance to speak to people.

Ive changed my mind about going to see the film now.  I shall go, because I wont be able to answer the
questions if I dont know what its about.   I wont be able to correct the errors in conversation with friends if I havent actually seen it.  It surely has to be a good conversation starter and if it gives God a toe in the door to people who otherwise would slam it in His face then its got to be worth following up.   So when I go I shall not watch it with a teacher's red pen in my hand scoring through all the theological and biblical errors.  I shall go with a prayer in my heart that whatever its weaknesses and inaccuracies God will use it for His glory.  If my atheist friend can be enchanted and wooed by God through the story of the flood then anything is possible  :-)

Monday 14th April

In church yesterday we were reminded that during Jesus's final week in Jerusalem he stayed with Mary Martha and Lazarus at Bethany.  (Matthew 21:17 and Mark 11:11-12) It was a couple of miles outside the city and a place with which Jesus was familiar and felt comfortable.  Im glad he spent those last few days with His friends.  The disciples were His friends and we know that He loved them and had a special group of three out of the twelve with whom He seems to have been particularly close.   But He had something different with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  I think He had family.

I like to think of Jesus being able to retreat to the comfort and familiarity of a cosy home during what He knew was to be His last week on earth.  I can envisage Martha cooking and fussing about making Him meals and attending to His every need.  I like to think of Mary asking Him questions and learning as much as she can - listening to Him telling about His day - the people shouting Hosannas, the moneylenders in the temple, the attitudes of the Pharisees and His ongoing conversation with His Father.   I like to think of Him sitting outside in the evening with Lazarus with whom he shared that special bond.  I hope they were able to joke and have a laugh and relax at the end of the day.  Because Jesus was not only the Son of God.  He was also a man.  An ordinary bloke.  Who got tired and lonely and hungry and sad.   He needed His friends that last week and Im glad they were there for Him.

We all need our friends when we hit tough times.  And tough times sometimes tell us who our friends really are.   Many of us will have a lot of aquaintances , work colleagues, school gate Mums, pub or cafe going chums.  Then there are the Facebook friends, the people on our Christmas card list.  The ones we are really genuinely happy to hear from now and again but dont think about that often in between times.
And then there are the soul mates.  The do or die friends.  The handful ( if you are lucky or have lived long enough) who would give you their kidney if you needed it.  The ones who will tell you honestly if they think you are marrying  the wrong person.  The ones who you know without a shadow of a doubt love you every bit as much as you love them.   I do hope you have those sort of people in your life.  I have a few in mine. My life would genuinely be very much the poorer without them.  They are a blessing.  I need them and they need me too.

Friendship is often forged in times of adversity. People show their commitment and love and true character when the chips are down - difficult times either bring out the best or the worse in us I suppose.  Friends are the people you can tell when things are really bad - when you have messed up - when you cant cope - when you just dont have the answers.  They are the ones who will cry with you and know how to make you laugh with a look or a word or an obscure reference to some shared experience from years back.

Jesus's friends weren't perfect.  They didnt understand Him, they let Him down and denied Him and were generally a bit hopeless during that last week.  But He didnt give up on them.  He forgave them graciously and they were the first ones to whom he appeared after His resurrection.  Our friends arent perfect either.  They will let us down sometimes and not be there for us on occasions when we need them to be.  But then we are not the perfect friends either. :-)  What matters is that love covers a multitude of sins and our shared life stories bring us back to a place of deep friendship even when there has been a bump in the road.

Lord, today I am so thankful for my friends.  Thank you for bringing them into my life at the right time and for all the experiences we have shared together.  Keep them safe and bless them.  May they always have a friend at hand when they need one and let me always be happy to share them with others.  Thank you that You know what it is to have friends, to need friends and to be a friend.  Amen

Sunday 13th April

Palm Sunday

Ive just been reading some things others have written about Palm Sunday in order to try to marshall my thoughts - because there is so much to say its hard to know where to begin.

Something I have not really considered before is the attitude of the crowds of people who were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with palm branches and Hosannas.  These were people who had heard the stories of the raising of Lazarus, and many of them will have seen Jesus at work, perhaps they will have been fed on a hillside with bread and fish.  Maybe they are the friends and family of some of the disciples.  The relatives of the many hundreds of cripples and sick people and demonised who Jesus had touched and healed and set free.   This was a crowd who believed in Jesus and who were hailing him as a King.  They probably believed that He was going to overthrow the Roman rule as the Messiah and put an end to the punitive regime of taxes and tributes and crucifixions along the roadsides.   They were a crowd full of hope and excitement and anticipation

Yet a few days later the people were baying for His blood.  Perhaps not these very same individuals, but nevertheless the atmosphere had completely changed and those who had only a few days previously been acclaiming Jesus as King were now nowhere to be seen.  And of course even His own disciples were betraying and denying Him.  What had happened?  How can people change their opinions so quickly?  How can all the testimony and healing and teaching and forgiveness be so easily drowned out by the whispers of the Pharisees?

And would we be any different?

If I had been in Jerusalem that week would I have behaved any differently?  Im not sure.  We all like to think that we are better than your average bod on the street.  But in actual fact we are all made of the same stuff. We all find it easy to get caught up with the crowd - for good and bad.   We can all so easily forget all the blessings and answered prayers and healings and miracles we have witnessed and turn our ears to the whisperings of doubt and the lies of the enemy.   And when others are shouting ' Crucify'  we can sometimes find it hard to raise a dissenting voice and continue to shout Hosanna.

So the challenge for us is to keep our eyes on the King.  To keep singing our endless hallelujahs and not to falter when things suddenly turn from glorious victory to apparent crushing defeat.  To not be deterred when everything on which we have pinned our hopes appears to come crashing to naught.  And to not be persuaded by the whispers of our enemy who wants to turn us from worshippers to disparagers . Because unlike the inhabitants of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, we know the end of the story.  :-)