John 20: 19-31

When Jesus appeared to his disciples on the evening of the first day of the week, He gave them the responsibility for taking His message of God’s New Creation to the entire world. When Jesus breathed on them, it invokes memories of Genesis 2:7 where God “breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” Now the disciples have received New Life in Christ.

Because you cannot give responsibility with also delegating authority, Jesus gives His disciples the authority to forgive sins. This delegation immediately follows the imparting of the Holy Spirit. It is not by their own power or wisdom that the disciples will forgive sins. It will be by and through the power of the Holy Spirit. If they are to be granted power to forgive, then they also have the power to not forgive. This is not the power to establish rules about what’s sinful and what is not, as the Pharisees had done with their legislation of Sabbath rules. God’s establishment of His New Creation came by and through the crucifixion of Jesus. It is by the blood of Jesus that sin and death have been defeated. The issue of sin was not a trifling matter for God before Jesus’ crucifixion and it is certainly not a trifling matter now.

Sometimes we joke about the Doubting Thomases of the world; however, Brother Thomas gives us two huge stones for the foundation of our faith. First, it is Thomas’ confession of faith that fully incorporates all that John’s Gospel has presented in Jesus the Messiah. When Jesus urges Thomas to make a leap of faith, Thomas responds, ““My Lord and my God!” Yes and Amen, Jesus is our Lord, Jesus is God.

Secondly, Jesus responded to Thomas’ affirmation by pronouncing His blessing on you and me: 

“Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Let us rejoice this day in the ninth Beatitude!

What word or phrase in these verses

attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

Reading for 10-Apr-12       1 Tim. 1:1-20

We will not read John 21 tomorrow because when we began reading the New Testament on April 25, 2010, the day after Easter, we began with John 21.

John 20: 1-18

He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!

Such will be the liturgy that opens Easter worship services in thousands of churches around the world.

Too often, these powerful affirmations are left echoing in sanctuaries without any impact on our world. Why? Because it is one thing to announce Jesus is risen, with your friends, in the safety of a sanctuary; it is another to make the truth of these powerful affirmations the way of your life.

As followers of this Risen Jesus, we are seeking to make the Life in Christ our way of life. In the devotional experience, Everyman’s Way to the Cross, which follows the fourteen Stations of the Cross, Christ speaks these words at Station Fourteen:

“So ends my mortal life. But now another life begins for Mary, and for Mary Magdalene, for Peter and for John, and you. My work as a man is done. My work within and through My church must now commence. I look to you. Day in, day out, from this time forth, be My disciple, servant, saint.”

The closing meditation then reminds us that Jesus’ life was not complete until He crowned it by His death. Our way is not complete unless we crown it by our life.  Jesus has promised us: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” With this assurance Jesus commands us: “Go now!  Take up your cross and with your life complete your way.”

JESUS IS WAITING FOR OUR RESPONSE

What word or phrase in these verses

attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

Reading for 9-Apr-12         John 20:19-31

John 19: 17-42

John doesn’t supply incidental details about Jesus. John’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial is full of details that point to the fulfillment of scripture that Jesus is God’s Messiah.

Fifteen times in this Gospel John mentions Passover; three times in chapter 19. He mentions the soldiers used hyssop to extend a sponge soaked in wine to Jesus. God commanded the Jews to use hyssop branches to brush the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts (Exodus 22) and Hebrews 9 tells us that it was hyssop branches Moses used to confirm the Covenant God made with the Jews. (Exodus 24) John wants us to know that Jesus is the Passover Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. He wants us to know Jesus confirmed the New Covenant by his own blood.

John identifies three people at the foot of the cross. Mary, Jesus’ mother was there. Her sister, Jesus’ aunt was there. John was there. Decades after the crucifixion, groups opposing Jesus’ resurrection claimed that Jesus never died. John provides, by name, five eyewitnesses to Jesus’ death. John tells us that Jesus was pierced in the side and that blood and water flowed from the wound. Jesus was dead. Joseph and Nicodemus, the other two named eyewitnesses, placed Jesus’ dead body in the tomb and used a huge amount of oil and spices, enough for a King’s burial.

When Jesus was crucified, Pilate placed a sign on the cross proclaiming Jesus as King of the Jews. The sign was in three languages: Hebrew, Latin and Greek. These languages covered a vast part of the known world, fulfilling the prophecy that Israel’s Messiah would be proclaimed to the entire world. The soldiers gambled for Jesus’ clothes. This was prophesied in Psalm 22. Jesus prayed from this same Psalm when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

John wants us to know that this man who was crucified, dead and buried was the Messiah of God; the One the scriptures promised would come and save Israel, save the world.

Jesus was laid in a tomb so that He could spend the seventh day in a Sabbath rest. But, Jesus isn’t through. The first day of the new week is coming. Sunday promises to be the first day of God’s New Creation.

What word or phrase in these verses

attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

Reading for 8-Apr-12         John 20:1-18

John 19: 1-16

The irony of the conspiracy to murder Jesus increases yet again. Pilate, who has absolute authority over Israel, vacillates. He is indecisive and fearful. At first he toyed with the priest; if they wanted to crucify Jesus he would let Jesus go, just to spite them. Then Pilate senses there is more being played out than he understands and wants to distance himself from the proceedings. Enter the ultimate irony. The priests, who were completely under the authority of Pilate, manipulate Pilate to do their bidding. Pilate capitulates but the cost to the priests and the crowd is expensive beyond measure. They have repudiated their God by claiming they have no king but Caesar. They have crucified the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me.” (Exodus 20: 2-3)

Thus the words of the Prophet Isaiah were fulfilled:

“. . . it was our pains he carried—

   our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

   that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

   that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

   Through his bruises we get healed.

We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.

   We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,

   on him, on him.

 He was beaten, he was tortured,

   but he didn't say a word.

Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered

   and like a sheep being sheared,

   he took it all in silence.

Justice miscarried, and he was led off—

   and did anyone really know what was happening?

He died without a thought for his own welfare,

   beaten bloody for the sins of my people.

They buried him with the wicked,

   threw him in a grave of a rich man,

Even though he'd never hurt a soul

   or said one word that wasn't true.

(Isaiah 53: 4-9 The Message)

What word or phrase in these verses

attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

Reading for 7-Apr-12         John 19:17-42