OnFire #99 A Bad Day?

Hi Folks:

We've been having with maple sap. Last year's experiment didn't yield much, but this year's is going much better. Our neighbour, Robert, let us tap some of his big trees, and two are producing almost two litres of sap on a good day. We boiled most of one day for about 2 cups - now I know why it costs so much. Our production is very small - 14 trees, but this is as much as I can handle without actually having to spend much money.

Last week's OnFire touched a lot of people. I don't know why it happens when it does, but I thank God that something I wrote helped.

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Some laughs for you. You know its a bad day when...

... you wake up to the sounds of a news crew outside

... your income tax cheque bounces

... your twin forgets your birthday

... your horn gets stuck as you follow a motorcycle gang on the highway

I thought you might enjoy those. I was thinking about bad days as I thought about some of the things people say about Jesus. Easter is the prime season for people to talk about Jesus, as it should be. However, there is no shortage of half-truths about him.

The one I'm thinking of is that Jesus died because he ticked off the religious and political leaders of the day. I hear this said quite often. It usually goes something like this. "Jesus was a good teacher who said the wrong things and got himself killed." Technically, its hard to argue. The religious leaders were jealous of Jesus and feared for their power and authority over the people. Scripture tells us many times that they plotted to killed Jesus.

What gets me, however, is the spirit of the statement that Jesus got himself killed for saying and doing the wrong things. It makes it sound like Jesus' death was nothing more than a bad day, gone reeeeeeally, reeeeeally bad. Kind of reminds me of the squirrel I saw one day while I was out walking. It ran up to the side of the road and stopped at the edge. I could hear a car coming behind and thought, "Good, now it won't get run over." Unfortunately, it had different thoughts and took off across the road just as the car went by. Bad day for the squirrel.

This is not what we see in scripture. What the Bible shows us is that Jesus was well-aware of his mission to die on the cross. He was conscious of it, taught his disciples it would happen, they understood it, and so did others.

Jesus started teaching the disciples about his coming death early in the gospel of Mark. In 8:31, we read, "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again." We've been concentrating our study in Mark, but there is a parallel passage in Matthew 16:21.

Peter understood the implications. A dead Messiah didn't fit into his view, so he took Jesus aside to rebuke him, to which Jesus replied, "Get behind me, Satan." (Mk 8:32; Matt 16:22-23)

This wasn't the only time Jesus told his disciples he would die and be raised again. On many separate occasions he said it. Check out 1) Mk 10:32-34 (parallels Matt 20:17-19; Lk 9:21-22); 2) Lk 9:21; 3) Lk 13:31-32; 4) Jn 2:19-22.

Other people heard Jesus say it and they understood what he meant. In Matt 27:62-65 we discover that the chief priests and Pharisees convinced Pilate to secure the tomb because they had heard Jesus say he would die and rise again.

Why is this important? I'm glad you asked. All of this shows Jesus' awareness and consciousness of his task and mission in becoming flesh. He came to die for us. His death was no accident. He did not naively get caught in the politics of the day. He set a course and followed it, even though he knew what it would mean.

That leaves me with two thoughts. First, it makes Easter mean a lot more than if he simply got caught in a socio-political firestorm. Rather, Paul tells us, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) That was no accident, it was what he intended.

And second, I am called back to what I was thinking about last week when I wrote about taking up our crosses. Jesus took up his cross on purpose. This underscores for me how we need to do the same. Willingly, intentionally, not accidentally.

Was it easy for Jesus? He just did it, like nothing was involved? Hardly. I seem to remember him praying in the garden, "Take this cup from me." But he also prayed, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." That's 100% commitment.

Bad day? No way.

I hope this helps. Be OnFire,

Troy

March 20, 2007