Need

When Jesus and his followers approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. Jesus gave two disciples a task, saying to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘Its master needs it, and he will send it back right away.’” They went and found a colt tied to a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some people standing around said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them just what Jesus said, and they left them alone. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes upon it, and he sat on it. Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields. Those in front of him and those following were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest!” Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. After he looked around at everything, because it was already late in the evening, he returned to Bethany with the Twelve. (Mark 11:1-11, CEB)

It is interesting to me that this reading for Palm Sunday is in the season of Christmas, but it does focus on something that is important this time of year.

What do you need?

Now what do you want, but what do you need. There is only one thing in all of scripture that says Jesus needs something. And that something is a colt no one has ridden so a prophecy can be fulfilled. It is the only thing Jesus ever says he needs.

So what do you need?

Love like Jesus

Loving People. Loving God.

know…

Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We have this kind of high priest. He sat down at the right side of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. He’s serving as a priest in the holy place, which is the true meeting tent that God, not any human being, set up. Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. So it’s necessary for this high priest also to have something to offer. If he was located on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest because there are already others who offer gifts based on the Law. They serve in a place that is a copy and shadow of the heavenly meeting tent. This is indicated when Moses was warned by God when he was about to set up the meeting tent: See that you follow the pattern that I showed you on the mountain in every detail. But now, Jesus has received a superior priestly service just as he arranged a better covenant that is enacted with better promises. If the first covenant had been without fault, it wouldn’t have made sense to expect a second. But God did find fault with them, since he says,
Look, the days are coming, says the Lord,
        when I will make a covenant with the house of Israel,
        and I will make a new covenant with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
    on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
        because they did not continue to keep my covenant,
        and I lost interest in them, says the Lord.
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
        after those days, says the Lord.
I will place my laws in their minds,
        and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
    And each person won’t ever teach a neighbor
    or their brother or sister, saying, “Know the Lord,”
        because they will all know me,
            from the least important of them to the most important;
        because I will be lenient toward their unjust actions,
            and I won’t remember their sins anymore.
When it says new, it makes the first obsolete. And if something is old and outdated, it’s close to disappearing. (Hebrews 8:1-13, CEB)

The days are coming when there will be a new covenant and people will no longer teach about God for all will know God.

Well, we still teach about God so this hasn’t happened yet.

But we are still loving the world.

The way we help everyone know about God is how we live.

When we focus on how we interact with God and how we love the world around us, people will come to know God.

When we tell people they are living wrong for God to love them, they will not want to know our God.

Focus on making your life right and loving everyone else. That is how we make God known.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Christ mass

In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom. Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told. (Luke 2:1-20, CEB)

For unto us a child is born.

a child who will change the face of the world.

Even for those who do not believe in him…

Today is the day we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, Jesus from Nazareth, born king of the Jews.

May the light he brings to us ever make your days bright.

May the light he brings to us ever fill your life with love.

May the love he brings to us overflow your life and spill into the community you are a part of.

May you know that you are loved, and help others feel loved.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

lord’s servant

When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. When the angel came to her, he said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you!” She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled ‘unable to conceive’ is now six months pregnant. Nothing is impossible for God.” Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38, CEB)

“I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.”

Mary acts in a way that none of us would. She is simply calm with the explanation of Elizabeth being pregnant and how God was going to make this happen. She doesn’t seem to question any of the societal implications or even ask how any of this would really happen.

I mean she simply says, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” If only all of us could do this when the Lord asks us to do something.

Love like Jesus.

Follow like Mary.

Loving People. Loving God.

witness

When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” So the crowd was divided over Jesus. Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him. The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him?” The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.” The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!” Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said, “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?” They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.” (John 7:40-52, CEB)

Nicodemus is the disciple I hope I can be like?

He went to Jesus under the cover of darkness because he didn’t believe and that interaction changed him. Here he is standing up for Jesus in a semi-public place.

And the next time we see him in the bible he is helping take Jesus’ body off the cross. He went form unbelieving to putting himself completely aligned with Jesus. A transformation all of us should make.

He was worried people would see him and then was publicly supporting a criminal.

I hope I am like Nicodemus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Not an angel

After all, when did God ever say to any of the angels:
You are my Son.
        Today I have become your Father?
Or, even,
I will be his Father,
        and he will be my Son?
But then, when he brought his firstborn into the world, he said,
All of God’s angels must worship him.
He talks about the angels:
He’s the one who uses the spirits for his messengers
        and who uses flames of fire as ministers.
But he says to his Son,
God, your throne is forever
        and your kingdom’s scepter is a rod of justice.
You loved righteousness and hated lawless behavior.
        That is why God, your God,
        has anointed you more than your companions with the oil of joy.
And he says,
You, Lord, laid the earth’s foundations in the beginning,
        and the heavens are made by your hands.
They will pass away,
        but you remain.
They will all wear out like old clothes.
        You will fold them up like a coat.
They will be changed like a person changes clothes,
        but you stay the same,
        and the years of your life won’t come to an end.
When has he ever said to any of the angels,
Sit at my right side
        until I put your enemies under your feet like a footstool?
Aren’t all the angels ministering spirits who are sent to serve those who are going to inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:5-14, CEB)

Jesus is not an angel.

Jesus is the son.

The one and only son, that makes a way for all of us to be a part of the kingdom.

You are a part of the kingdom and a messenger to hope.

Show hope always.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

His powerful message

In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways. In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him. The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. After he carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty. And the Son became so much greater than the other messengers, such as angels, that he received a more important title than theirs. (Hebrews 1:1-4, CEB)

He maintains everything with his powerful message.

What was the powerful message?

I believe it is, Love God and Love Neighbor. Love!

Everything is maintained by love.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Who is around us?

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Human One had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, wondering, “What’s this ‘rising from the dead’?” They asked Jesus, “Why do the legal experts say that Elijah must come first?” He answered, “Elijah does come first to restore all things. Why was it written that the Human One would suffer many things and be rejected? In fact, I tell you that Elijah has come, but they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it was written about him.” (Mark 9:9-13, CEB)

Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they wanted. They did not see him or recognize him.

Who are we in the presence of and we just don’t see it?

Who are we playing host to and we do not know?

We look with our eyes and not the eyes of God. We need to see like God does.

Do not think you know, allow God to work in and through you.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

acted…

“Brothers and sisters, I know you acted in ignorance. So did your rulers. But this is how God fulfilled what he foretold through all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. Change your hearts and lives! Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away. Then the Lord will provide a season of relief from the distress of this age and he will send Jesus, whom he handpicked to be your Christ. Jesus must remain in heaven until the restoration of all things, about which God spoke long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up from your own people a prophet like me. Listen to whatever he tells you. Whoever doesn’t listen to that prophet will be totally cut off from the people. All the prophets who spoke—from Samuel forward—announced these days. You are the heirs of the prophets and the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, Through your descendants, all the families on earth will be blessed. After God raised his servant, he sent him to you first—to bless you by enabling each of you to turn from your evil ways.” While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them. They were incensed that the apostles were teaching the people and announcing that the resurrection of the dead was happening because of Jesus. They seized Peter and John and put them in prison until the next day. (It was already evening.) Many who heard the word became believers, and their number grew to about five thousand. (Acts 3:17-4:4, CEB)

I know you acted in ignorance…

ignorance is different than stupidity.

One can be ignorant and very smart.

We did things when we didn’t know better. That is why people who once spoke against something can change their ways and support that same thing they spoke against. It is called growing and changing to become what God intended.

So do not cling to things of your past, but follow where God is leading you now.

Do not let yesterdays not knowing stop you from being who God intended for you to be.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Who are we fighting?

Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. (Ephesians 6:10-17, CEB)

We aren’t fighting against human enemies. We should not be fighting against other humans. We should not be fighting against other siblings, those created by God, which is everyone.

Our enemies are “rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.” Not humans but spiritual powers.

We should be lifting other humans up and fighting spiritual powers.

Love people. Fight evil.

Loving People. Loving God.