aSacredRebel

Doubt?

¹⁹It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” ²²Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.” ²⁴Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵The other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.” ²⁶After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!” ²⁸Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.” ³⁰Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. ³¹But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name. (John 20:19-31, CEB)

This translation gets closer to what Jesus was recorded saying to Thomas. In the original text Jesus says, “καὶ μὴ γίνου ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός” And in Greek you would put an a in front of a word to negate it. Jesus said to Thomas, “and do not be unbelieving but believing.” or “and do not be untrusting but trusting.” or “and do not be unfaithful but faithful.” In the version most of us heard or read growing up it was translated as do not doubt but believe. As is doubting was the opposite of belief! I doubt all the time but still believe. I doubt that the world will be loving, but I believe that God is always loving and working through us we can be loving too.

We have come to understand questions as bad and doubt as unfaithful, when questioning and doubt is what leads us to deeper faith, trust and belief.

So question and wonder. Also notice that Thomas didn’t do what he said he had to to believe, when his questions were answered he believed.

Don’t let anyone tell you it is unfaithful to question or doubt. Keep on believing.

Love People. Love God.

judge

⁴⁴Jesus shouted, “Whoever believes in me doesn’t believe in me but in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. ⁴⁶I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in me won’t live in darkness. ⁴⁷If people hear my words and don’t keep them, I don’t judge them. I didn’t come to judge the world but to save it. ⁴⁸Whoever rejects me and doesn’t receive my words will be judged at the last day by the word I have spoken. ⁴⁹I don’t speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me regarding what I should speak and say. ⁵⁰I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I say is just as the Father has said to me.” (John 12:44-50, CEB)

How many of us judge other people? I think if we are honest we will all say that we judge other people.

Jesus here says he doesn’t judge people. Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge the world, but to save it.

So if Jesus doesn’t judge, who are we to judge?

We should love everyone, as God loves us. We do not deserve the love God gives us, because we are all sinners and all have fallen short of what God needs us to be to be in a relationship with God, but Jesus came and lifted us up even when we didn’t deserve it. So we should not tell someone else that they are sinful and can’t be with God. We are just like them.

Don’t judge, love.

Love People. Love God.

Filled and speaking

²³After their release, Peter and John returned to the brothers and sisters and reported everything the chief priests and elders had said. ²⁴They listened, then lifted their voices in unison to God, “Master, you are the one who created the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. ²⁵You are the one who spoke by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? ²⁶The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers gathered together as one against the Lord and against his Christ. ²⁷Indeed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with Gentiles and Israelites, did gather in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸They did what your power and plan had already determined would happen. ²⁹Now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with complete confidence. ³⁰Stretch out your hand to bring healing and enable signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, your holy servant.” ³¹After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence. (Acts 4:23-31, CEB)

God gives us all the confidence we need to speak God’s love into existence.

We are filled with the Spirit and guided in truth to speak for all to see God’s love.

How can we be silent?

God will fill you with the Spirit and use your life to show others God’s love.

Love People. Love God.

Who added?

⁴²The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. ⁴³A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were united and shared everything. ⁴⁵They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. ⁴⁶Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. ⁴⁷They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47, CEB)

The believers, or followers of the Way, devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles’, to the community, to eating together, and prayers. Awe from God filled the gathering.

They were together for meals and held each other up. They prayed and learned together.

They worshipped God and learned about who they were as individuals and together in God.

And because of all of this, these believers added new believers to their ranks every day. No that isn’t what the passage says. It says, “The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.” God added to their number because they were doing/being who God needed them to be.

Learn from God, be with God and the community around God, pray and eat together. Then be amazed at what God does!

Love People. Love God.

Morning

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb. ³They were saying to each other, “Who’s going to roll the stone away from the entrance for us?” ⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away. (And it was a very large stone!) ⁵Going into the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right side; and they were startled. ⁶But he said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. ⁷Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.” ⁸Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. (Mark 16:1-8, CEB)

When the time of rest was done in the morning, just after sunrise, 3 women took spices and went to finish the preparations on Jesus. I find it interesting that Mary, Jesus’ mother is not called that, but is called, Mary the mother of James. Why not Jesus? Do they really think that Jesus is dead? Did they not hear what he said to the disciples? And Mary isn’t the mother of the dead bur of the living.

And if they heard what Jesus said, that he would rise again from the dead, why were they worried about the stone?

All of this just plays into the whole gospel of Mark and the original ending of the 3 running from the tomb in fear and saying nothing to anyone because of fear. The book doesn’t end because the story doesn’t end there, and we have hope in the way the women react, because we don’t get what God is up to and God still works through us as God did the women.

Share the love you’ve been given.

Love People. Love God.

Victory!

⁵⁰This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom. Something that rots can’t inherit something that doesn’t decay. ⁵¹Listen, I’m telling you a secret: All of us won’t die, but we will all be changed— ⁵²in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will blast, and the dead will be raised with bodies that won’t decay, and we will be changed. ⁵³It’s necessary for this rotting body to be clothed with what can’t decay, and for the body that is dying to be clothed in what can’t die. ⁵⁴And when the rotting body has been clothed in what can’t decay, and the dying body has been clothed in what can’t die, then this statement in scripture will happen: Death has been swallowed up by a victory. ⁵⁵Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death? (⁵⁶Death’s sting is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.) ⁵⁷Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁵⁸As a result of all this, my loved brothers and sisters, you must stand firm, unshakable, excelling in the work of the Lord as always, because you know that your labor isn’t going to be for nothing in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, CEB)

People will read this and get all hung up on the flesh and blood and rotting bodies. Like yesterday with the what will we look like in the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. It doesn’t matter.

What matters here is the victory.

Death has no victory over us, because death of this flesh body is a step in the fulfillment of the kingdom.

Jesus bought for us a body that will last forever and what that is or what it looks like doesn’t matter. What matters is it is done.

So tell others of the love God has for you and for them!

Love People. Love God.

What will we look like…

³⁵But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” ³⁶Look, fool! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. ³⁷What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. ³⁸God gives it the sort of shape that he chooses, and he gives each of the seeds its own shape. ³⁹All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. ⁴⁰There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory. ⁴¹The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory). ⁴²It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead: a rotting body is put into the ground, but what is raised won’t ever decay. ⁴³It’s degraded when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in glory. It’s weak when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in power. ⁴⁴It’s a physical body when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised as a spiritual body. If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵So it is also written, The first human, Adam, became a living person, and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. ⁴⁶But the physical body comes first, not the spiritual one—the spiritual body comes afterward. ⁴⁷The first human was from the earth made from dust; the second human is from heaven. ⁴⁸The nature of the person made of dust is shared by people who are made of dust, and the nature of the heavenly person is shared by heavenly people. ⁴⁹We will look like the heavenly person in the same way as we have looked like the person made from dust. (1 Corinthians 15:35-49, CEB)

What will we look like in the fulfillment of the kingdom of God?

Does it really matter? We will not have our same bodies because these current bodies decay and rot and the bodies we will have in the kingdom will never rot. So we will look like our earthly selves but will be of the type of the kingdom dwellers.

But really does it matter? Is this something we should be concerned with? Knowing that our lives will never end, because the death of the earthly body is a step in our existence to the fulfillment of the kingdom, and what we look like in the kingdom doesn’t matter here and now. What matters is we know that the promise is real and we help others see they can be a part of the promise also.

Love People. Love God.

Nothing…

Is this really the ending to the gospel of Mark? I mean seriously, it is Easter Morning, we know Jesus is alive and the tomb doesn’t hold him, but the women overcome with terror and dread fled the tomb and said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

Now someone else thought this was a lousy ending to Mark too, and so they added verse 9 – 19 to the sixteenth chapter of Mark. They didn’t like the way Mark ended this. But if honestly the women went away and told nothing to anyone how do we know what happened?

Well it is all in the Gospel of Mark, which is not a complete story, but the beginning, like Mark says in verse 1:1 “The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son,”

The gospel of Mark is merely the beginning of the good news, not the end all be all of the completion of the good news.

Mark starts the story that is still going. Jesus is still working and showing us God’s love every day!.

So go, but not in fear and terror, but in love and share the great news that Jesus Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah!

Love People, Love God.

Sweet Sound of your name…

Early in the morning of the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. ²She ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him.” ³Peter and the other disciple left to go to the tomb. ⁴They were running together, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and was the first to arrive at the tomb. ⁵Bending down to take a look, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he didn’t go in. ⁶Following him, Simon Peter entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. ⁷He also saw the face cloth that had been on Jesus’ head. It wasn’t with the other clothes but was folded up in its own place. ⁸Then the other disciple, the one who arrived at the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹They didn’t yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying. ¹¹Mary stood outside near the tomb, crying. As she cried, she bent down to look into the tomb. ¹²She saw two angels dressed in white, seated where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and one at the foot. ¹³The angels asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She replied, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.” ¹⁴As soon as she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t know it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.” ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, for I haven’t yet gone up to my Father. Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them, ‘I’m going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸Mary Magdalene left and announced to the disciples, “I’ve seen the Lord.” Then she told them what he said to her. (John 20:1-18, CEB)

In the days of Covid it has been easy to see someone and not know who they are because of the masks, but have you ever seen someone you know, and had no clue who they were when you saw them?

It is actually easy to understand here how Mary doesn’t know Jesus. I mean she saw him die on the cross and helped to put his body in the tomb. She knows he is dead and she is distraught with anguish and sorrow. She is so overcome with emotion that she probably really can’t see straight. So it is really understandable that she doesn’t recognize Jesus. But then Jesus says her name…

Oh the sweet sound of your name from someone who dearly loves you. What I wouldn’t give to hear my mother or father say my name again. But to hear my wife or children call out my name makes me happy. Can you imagine really how Mary felt? Distraught with anguish and sorrow and then she hears the voice of Jesus and sees him and knows it is him and she is now overcome with joy and elation! What a day.

Listen, and I bet you can hear Jesus saying your name.

Love People, Love God.

Suffering Servant

¹³Look, my servant will succeed.
    He will be exalted and lifted very high.
¹⁴Just as many were appalled by you,
    he too appeared disfigured, inhuman,
    his appearance unlike that of mortals.
¹⁵But he will astonish many nations.
    Kings will be silenced because of him,
    because they will see what they haven’t seen before;
    what they haven’t heard before, they will ponder.
53 Who can believe what we have heard,
    and for whose sake has the Lord’s arm been revealed?
²He grew up like a young plant before us,
    like a root from dry ground.
He possessed no splendid form for us to see,
    no desirable appearance.
³He was despised and avoided by others;
    a man who suffered, who knew sickness well.
Like someone from whom people hid their faces,
    he was despised, and we didn’t think about him.
⁴It was certainly our sickness that he carried,
    and our sufferings that he bore,
    but we thought him afflicted,
    struck down by God and tormented.
⁵He was pierced because of our rebellions
    and crushed because of our crimes.
    He bore the punishment that made us whole;
    by his wounds we are healed.
⁶Like sheep we had all wandered away,
    each going its own way,
    but the Lord let fall on him all our crimes.
⁷He was oppressed and tormented,
    but didn’t open his mouth.
Like a lamb being brought to slaughter,
    like a ewe silent before her shearers,
    he didn’t open his mouth.
⁸Due to an unjust ruling he was taken away,
    and his fate—who will think about it?
He was eliminated from the land of the living,
    struck dead because of my people’s rebellion.
⁹His grave was among the wicked,
    his tomb with evildoers,
    though he had done no violence,
    and had spoken nothing false.
¹⁰But the Lord wanted to crush him
    and to make him suffer.
If his life is offered as restitution,
    he will see his offspring; he will enjoy long life.
    The Lord’s plans will come to fruition through him.
¹¹After his deep anguish he will see light, and he will be satisfied.
Through his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant,
    will make many righteous,
    and will bear their guilt.
¹²Therefore, I will give him a share with the great,
    and he will divide the spoil with the strong,
    in return for exposing his life to death
    and being numbered with rebels,
    though he carried the sin of many
    and pleaded on behalf of those who rebelled.
(Isaiah 52:13—53:12, CEB)

The Suffering Servant passage from third Isaiah is a great passage. There is so much here we could talk for days.

I am usually struck by verse 53:5
He was pierced because of our rebellions
and crushed because of our crimes.
He bore the punishment that made us whole;
by his wounds we are healed.

He was pierced for our rebellions and crushed for our crimes. For the things we did that went against God and neighbor he was hurt and crushed for them. He paid for what we should have paid for. He bore what we should have and gave us a new wholeness that we didn’t even have before.

And by his wounds we are healed. The King James Version of this part is By his stripes we are healed. By the stripes of his flogging 39 times with a cat of nine tails, because 40 would kill you. bones and pieces of wood and rock for sharp tearing shrapnel at the ends of the nine leather strands on each whip. His strips were many and I can safely say he bled for our iniquities. His stripes healed you. He suffered for you.

On this day, that we call Good Friday, remember the way of Christ that led him to be tortured and crucified, and how he did that all for you.

Love as you were and are loved.

Love People, Love God.