simplelife

Reflecting during Lent on the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. (My most difficult post this year.)  --- JESUS WAS NAKED --- As I listen to John's gospel (Chapter 19), I hear how the soldiers stripped Jesus and divided his clothing. I've read the passage many times but today, it strikes me like a blow.  Jesus was stripped naked in a modest culture. Exposed. Shamed as he hung above the crowd, in a way that we cannot imagine. He bore the shame that I have felt. That you may feel. That we all have experienced. Our humiliation displayed for everyone to see, mock, and shake their heads at.   In front of his mother. In front of her friends and his. He hung on the cross, naked for us, bearing every time we have been shamed and humiliated. He did this. For us.  When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garm...

Lent offers the opportunity to examine the qualities of Jesus that make him our role model as well as our Saviour and Lord. --- JESUS WAS BETRAYED --- We have no evidence that Jesus had his head in the sand. He wasn't surprised that someone from his inner circle was greedy enough to take money to hand him over to his enemies. (Or that an intimate friend would verbally abandon him later that night.) This morning, reading the text again, I am struck by this question, asked by Judas of the priests: "What are you willing to give me to hand him over to you?" (Matthew 26:15) Judas had a price for selling out Jesus. Many of us have a price for betrayal as well. We just don't recognize it, while guarding our: Reputation: we are not willing to be shamed, so we don't stand up for what is right or speak up in a group that is mocking Christians and biblical values Security: we don't refuse work that goes against our principles Comfort: we hide behind ou...

At Lent, we consider qualities of Jesus that make him our role model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS IS AMAZING --- When the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that Jesus did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?" Matthew 21:15-16 Though he was humble, Jesus was realistic about who he was and why his heavenly Father had sent him. He did the miraculous and accepted the acclaim of sincere followers of Jesus, though he refused to hear about his divine nature from demons who recognized him. (Luke 8) The religious and political leaders saw the miracles - but were not changed inside. Instead, they felt threatened and hated Jesus. They saw the amazing Jesus and hearing the children acknowledge him as the ...

Lent gives us time to reflect on the values that make Christ our role model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS IS CRUCIFIED --- If you're looking for a radical act of love, here it is. A man lives a perfect life. He is a role model of God's nature - perfectly kind, disciplined, loving, joy-filled, relational, and good.  Which would irritate or flighten almost anyone comparing him/herself to him. None of us could be that righteous. In fact, he makes some people so uncomfortable that they have him killed. By dying, he takes our sentence of death and pays it ... in full. The justice of God is satisfied: the only perfect one has died for all imperfect persons. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no  longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life  I now live in the body, I live by faith in the  Son of God, who loved me and gave himself  for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if  righteousness could be gained through the  law,...

This Lent, we're examining qualities of Jesus that make him our role model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS: DYING FOR OTHERS --- This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ  laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay  down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  1 John 3:16 NIV I'm staggered that someone died for me. Took my punishment after himself being an ideal person -  God-with-us. God-for-us. Now we get to reflect his extreme love to others. Consider setting a feast for someone today, refusing to take offense at what is done to you, or lay aside your own plans to help another person. SELF-ASSESSMENT: In what ways am I willing to die so that others can live?  What practical way can I lay down my rights and my own agenda to bring life to someone else today?

Lent gives us time to examine the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS IS SCANDALOUS --- Jesus couldn't be wrapped up in a neat bundle of expectations. He defies our stereotypes of who God is and how he behaves. Instead of rich, he is poor. Instead of rule-keeping, he tells us God wants a relationship - that of Father - with us. And we consider him shocking and sometimes outrageous, this unimaginable treasure of heaven. Listen to this song, which describes our beautiful, mysterious ... and scandalous ... God. Jesus models the qualities of God that we may find difficult, even when they're simple and plain. No lies. No pretending. No self-absorption. He is the bridge we walk across as we learn to love and know God. SELF-ASSESSMENT: If Jesus came to live with you for a week, what parts of his lifestyle or words would you resist - or refuse? What parts would you embrace? Why? What would you have to change if Jesus mov...

Lent gives us time to examine the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS IS NEAR --- Jesus said to his disciples, “You are those who have stood by me in my trials.”  Luke  22:28 Jesus never claimed to have an easy life. He didn't try to escape hard times, either. He modeled what it means to stand firm, to listen for God's voice in the middle of trials, and to be surrounded by those who love you when all seems dark. SELF-ASSESSMENT: Do you let others come around you i n the storm ? Or do you keep others at arm's length  when life is difficult ? How might you bring others near and share your suffering with them?

Taking time during Lent to examine the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS IS CALM IN THE STORM --- Fishermen take their boats across the lake. They know the wind can come up suddenly, the waves mount, and the boat will be in danger. Strangely, not all fishermen learn to swim. They like to stay in the boat. Some of Jesus' disciples were fishermen by trade. One day, they were rowing Jesus across the lake when a severe storm whipped up the water. They feared for their lives - would today be the day they drowned? But what was Jesus doing? He was sleeping!  The disciples went to  Jesus  and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. Luke 8:24 When the wind kicks up and you are afraid, do what they did: cry to Jesus for help. He brings calm. Sometimes he brings  his presence into the middle o...

Taking time during Lent to examine the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS IS BREAD FOR THE HUNGRY --- Jesus says we should ask this of God:  “Give us each day our daily bread. ” Luke 11:3 We ask God for provision and enough food to supply our needs. But Jesus claims that he himself is the bread of life. He is the nourishment that satisfies our souls and helps us grow into fully human beings. Talking to his disciples, Jesus declared: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:35 Jesus invites us to fill our cravings for meaning and love in a relationship with God. Our hunger is satisfied by eating the soul food Jesus supplies. SELF-ASSESSMENT: What are you hungry for now? Are you substituting food, snacks, and pleasures for your soul hunger?

Lent offers time to explore the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. --- JESUS: SUFFERING FOR US --- Christians are the only people who believe in a God who suffers for them. Other religions demand appeasement or duty.  Rituals of appeasement: "We make sacrifices because our gods are angry with us. The spirits must be mollified by ongoing offerings."  Or religious duty: "We hope our god will take us to heaven if we balance life on earth by doing enough good and avoid the bad." Only the Christian God - through Jesus Christ his suffering servant - takes the burden of sin from the shoulders of his followers. Only this God offers peace and the assurance of salvation. He gives freedom from our past so that we enter a loving relationship with him today and spend eternity in his presence. Such generosity (and such suffering on our behalf) is hard to grasp. The prophet Isaiah put it this way: Who has believed ou...