Monthly Archives: April 2007

Today was when Jesus initiated what would become known as Communion, giving the bread and wine in commemoration of His upcoming sacrifice. His disciples were unable to accept that their friend and Teacher was about to die. Jesus even asked God if there could be any other way. I think that, in His mortal body, He was afraid.

I drove past a church today with a sign in front that proudly proclaimed an Easter egg hunt. Throughout the country this weekend, there will be traditional “sunrise services” and breakfasts and egg hunts and (I think I’m going to vomit when I write this word) “egg-stravaganzas.”

We’ve turned this whole thing into a joke. Easter is a joke to us. It’s a sickeningly sanitized, wannabe holiday observance of something that shook the fabric of the universe.

Do we honestly think that Jesus gives a crap about our egg hunts and chocolates and Easter bunnies? American church is so fake.

I found this article a few minutes ago. The scientist’s statement is as interesting to read as are the comments that follow. What do you think?

Today mentions that it was approaching the Passover, and huge feast and time of commemoration for the Jewish faith. The religious leaders were still focused on killing Jesus, but were freaked out about doing it. Judas is possessed by Satan, and forumlates his plan with the religious leaders to arrange Jesus’ arrest.

All I could really take away from this today was that He knew what was coming. He knew they were plotting, He knew even that Judas would turn Him over to the authorities, He knew what was about to happen…He knew.

I’ve heard and read a lot of people turn this into some sort of guilt response (how can you not follow Him after that), but I don’t even want to go there, because a guilt response is a fake response. I just want to appreciate it today…appreciate His action for its true significance. It’s become trite in today’s culture. It’s a symbol we wear around our necks, or place on top of church buildings. We forget what it’s about. We get used to it. It gets common.

I’m not sure how to keep it from becoming that, but I’m looking for a way.

The divisions into days aren’t necessarily given in the Scripture, here…I’m actually taking them from a scholar’s division, and that may be wrong, because some of the references in these two chapters that are attributed to Tuesday seem to encompass more than one day.

In any case, if we believe that this all happened on one day, then today we find Jesus teaching. We also find the religious leaders trying to trap Him, catch Him saying something contradictory, only to find that He always answers them in a way that they cannot refute. Jesus has a couple of long oratories in these chapters. The one that weighed most heavily on me this morning was the last one in Luke 21. Some scholars call this the “apocolyptic discourse,” because Jesus was talking about the “end times.” I’m not going to bore you with all of the debate that surrounds this passage, because in the end its all a bunch of theological junk. But what really hit me this morning was that Jesus knew what was coming. He knew He was going to die in a few days. That was the whole purpose of His coming, and He was focused on telling those who would listen what to expect.

When we claim to follow Christ in today’s culture, we’re looked down upon. We tend to call that persecution, although that really is an insult to people in other countries who actually die because they’re Christ-followers. In America, we’re frequently laughed at and referred to as “intolerant.” Jump across the pond, and people are tortured and killed for claiming the Christian faith. American Christ-followers really can’t call what we endure persecution.

That was what He was telling them was going to happen. Many of the members of the first church were killed. In fact, of the twelve original apostles, history records only one who wasn’t martyred for his faith.

There was so much more at stake then. In our culture, we lose our passion for anything so quickly. I was talking with someone about that last night. I get bored incredibly fast. I’m constantly changing things in my day to day life just to shock myself awake. If I feel myself begin to fall into a routine, I change it immediately. I think a lot of Believers get locked into routines, and lose their passion way too quickly. They get tired of following a cause.

Isn’t that the problem, though? We’re following a Person, not a cause. If I accomplish anything this week, I would like to get in touch with the Person again, instead of allowing this fall back into the trap of religious repetition.

In Luke’s Gospel, this day is accounted for in only four verses. They are striking verses, though, because Jesus pitches a fit. He goes into the temple to find people selling and doing business there, He basically accuses them of being theives, and He kicks them out. Then He hangs out all day teaching, and the religious leaders of the day are really, really wanting to make Him go away, but all the people that were there were way too interested in what He was saying for them to be able to get by with it.

I wonder, if Jesus came into any of our churches today, if He would be that upset? After all, He writes the letters to the churches in Revelation, and the problems of those churches can be said to be symbolic of our junk today. So I wonder what that junk would be, specifically? We can’t generalize or stereotype, because certainly every community has its own struggles. But, don’t you think, in general, that we have a lot of problems in our church culture? Like the fact that we run it as a business? That we advertise? That we have the Jerry Falwells of the world who get on television and say stupid, judgmental, ignorant things that show hate instead of Christ’s love? That we love to isolate ourselves in our precious little glass bubble and not interact with people? That we argue about stupid, petty theology instead of loving, and giving, and sharing?

That we somehow think that church is a place we go to instead of something we are?

I have to think that He would be disappointed with us. All of us. Because we claim to know what He said, but we don’t do it. And worse, we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that we do when we are in fact doing the opposite.

I’m glad He’s not as judgmental and hating as we are.