the end of Lent 2014
So, Lent is over. I did not even write from Maundy Thursday onwards. Did I make it through Lent? or- how did I make it through Lent? The same way I made it through today or last Monday, or January the 8th…
by God’s Grace alone.
Did I keep lent well? Well, I did something different, considered God’s work in my life and this world, and I’ve had fun doing this. I didn’t actually mortify the flesh.
Thanks for reading.
Spoiler:
Oh yeah, if you were wondering, Jesus gets killed – but it is not the end of the story – some women go to the tomb where he was buried, but his body was not there… Read about it if you will.
This bread is my body
Eating the passover with friends: Blessed be God, who brings forth bread from the earth.
This bread is my body.
Soon God will bring forth the living bread (he who will die) from the earth.
The immortal dies for us.
Speaking of Authority (or do you think that he was speaking of us?)
“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
One son refuses Father’s will,
But later relents.
The other agrees,
But does nothing.
Be sure to examine
Truth you see and know.
When you have truly seen,
Do not hesitate
To change your mind
And believe Him.
The temple is his rightful place
In the temple,
his rightful place,
a demand:
By what authority do you operate?
Jesus replies:
Let me ask you a question.
Hedging their bets,
they return answerless.
If I won’t level with Jesus,
we can’t even have a conversation.
Matthew 21:23-27
Cursing Trees and Hurling Mountains – Not Quite What I Had in Mind
Cursing fig trees and hurling mountains into oceans – Jesus said that we will speak such acts if we have faith and no double minds.
I’m unsure…
But fruitless trees feed themselves, and obstacles impede and divide.
Your will be done.
And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
upset my money tables
Trust Jesus to upset any system whereby I think that I can provide myself with my daily bread with no thought to him and his agenda.
We are to be people of prayer – relationship with him, but we spend our time fretting about the gifts he has given us, rather than spending our time with him, the giver of life and all good gifts.
I noticed that in this section some people were getting upset at the wonderful things that he [Jesus] did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Matthew 28:15 ESV
And Jesus entered the temple
and drove out all
who sold and bought in the temple,
and he overturned the tables
of the money-changers
and the seats
of those who sold pigeons.
He said to them,
“It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’
but you make it a den of robbers.”
And the blind and the lame
came to him in the temple,
and he healed them.
But when the chief priests and the scribes
saw the wonderful things that he did,
and the children crying out in the temple,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
they were indignant,
and they said to him,
“Do you hear what these are saying?”
And Jesus said to them,
“Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants
and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-17&version=ESV
Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem
Here I am Lord, sitting before you, cleverly trying to read or think or write some right things without even noticing that you are here.
Is that wise? Is it sin?
Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem. They didn’t recognize what would bring peace; you were there with them.
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see how you are with us.
English Standard Version (ESV)
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
-Biblegateway.com
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday – Jesus was getting rave reviews. He was topping the popularity charts. He had his sights on Jerusalem – and looking ahead to what was to come.
Good enough lent
A week or so ago I wrote a little on The good Lent and failing at lenten observance. I like the piece that Alastair Sterne of St. Peter’s Fireside has written about giving up Lent for Lent.
Alastair writes that in lent we may be feeding
In Lent, as in all of christian life, we walk in a delicate balance between discipline and the tendency towards legalism, between works and grace. As the Duo Salmond and Mulder sang: “We’re all stumbling heavenward we’re flying like a crippled dove”. May God bless us all in our efforts, and through his unmerited favour.
Jesus be in all
Doing the right things for life and godliness takes lots of time. Invitations often fall prey to routine responsibilities and shoulds.
Following Jesus, I listen and choose to follow his way.
Worship, work, exercise, chores; Jesus be in all.
joynwonder 