The Way Of The Cross

Mar 30, 2024

Servanthood, suffering, sacrifice – these are the things we see magnified in this last week of Jesus’s life. They were things prophesied by Isaiah many years beforehand: Isaiah said of the Suffering Servant, ‘He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.’ (Is 53:3) In that very famous prophecy, we read,

‘Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.’ (Isaiah 53:4-6)

 

Jesus experienced suffering and became that perfect sacrifice precisely because of our sin. It was our pain He took upon Himself; He bore our suffering. Because of His suffering and sacrifice, we can know peace; we can be healed. Because Jesus chose the way of servanthood, we can be set free; we can be saved. There’s nothing more we can do but believe and rely on the cross: as Paul said, ‘may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Gal 6:14)

And yet, Good Friday is not the end of the story. There is resurrection ahead. Friday’s here, but Sunday’s coming. Blessing and reward lie ahead; the way of the cross is not our final destination. Make no mistake, though: blessing and reward can only be reached as we choose the Jesus way of servanthood, suffering and sacrifice. Paul wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, but that is only available through ‘participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.’ (Phil 3:10-11) Jesus our Saviour has blazed the way, but He did this by hanging on a cross. ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.’ (1 Pet 3:18) May we embrace the way of the cross and be made alive in the Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Servanthood, Suffering and Sacrifice

Mar 30, 2024

Yesterday we celebrated Good Friday with a fellowship meal (and it was lovely to be able to chat together as we ate, eating together being one of the great ways to get to know people) and a service of reflection and remembrance. Sadly I was so busy that I didn’t get time to take any photos!
In our meeting, we looked at the three principles which in many respects defined Jesus’s life and were certainly evident in that last week on earth: servanthood, suffering and sacrifice.
Jesus did not come to be served but to serve. When His disciples were arguing about who was the greatest and who would sit at His right hand when He came to power, Jesus said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45) The Son of Man, the Son of God, the All-Powerful One, did not come to be served, but to serve. He left His home in glory to take on human flesh (Phil 2:6-7) and in that last week of His life took up the basin and towel to wash His disciples’ feet, an act of service He said we are to imitate. (John 13:1-15)
Suffering is also an inevitable part of life in a sin-stained world. He suffered the pain of rejection, of betrayal by a friend, of denial, of abandonment as well as the physical agonies of being beaten, spat upon, forced to carry the weight of the cross, bleeding from the crown of thorns rammed into His head. Even greater than the suffering of the physical agonies, however, was the suffering of being forsaken by His Father and bearing the weight of the sins of the world. We cannot ever suffer in the way that Jesus suffered, but it is through this suffering that we gain a High Priest who is able to enter into our suffering and therefore can find help in our own times of suffering and need. Hebrews 13:12 says, ‘Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.’ The suffering that Jesus endured in the last week of His life, and the suffering especially which defined Good Friday, paves the way for our own salvation, redemption and sanctification.
Good Friday shows us Jesus dying on the cross, ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ (John 1:29) Sacrifice always involved death; . Peter tells us that we are redeemed ‘with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.’ (1 Pet 1:19) Christ Himself became the sacrifice; John tells us ‘He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.’ (1 John 2:2) The reason Jesus had to die, the reason we needed a sacrifice that was without blemish or defect, was because of the sin which separates us from God. Peter says that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross, and the result of this is that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. (1 Pet 2:24) Now we can have a new life; we were like sheep going astray, but can now, through the death of this spotless Lamb, come back to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. (1 Pet 2:25) Jesus is both the sacrifice we needed and the Good Shepherd who will guide us through life.
Servanthood, suffering and sacrifice defined Good Friday. Because of these things, we are now reconciled to God and free to live as our Saviour did.

Good Friday

Mar 30, 2024

Apologies for the delay in posting this.
Today’s household object is a crucifix and the Bible passage is 1 Corinthians 1:17-25.
The cross has become the symbol of Christianity, because our Saviour died the horrific death by crucifixion which was the Roman means of capital punishment. A symbol of punishment, it is an unlikely symbol, but a crucifix or cross can be found in many churches and households. We often wear a cross as a necklace or pin badge and sometimes have pictures or wooden crosses in a hallway or bedroom. Some have the outstretched arms of Jesus on them; others show an empty cross to remind us not only of the death of Jesus but His resurrection.
Paul reminds us in these verses that the cross is an offensive symbol in many respects, pointing us to death as the only way to eternal life. Today, as we celebrate Good Friday (a day that is good not because death is to be celebrated of itself, but because of what Christ’s death on the cross achieved for us), we bow in humble gratitude before a Saviour whose love for us was so great He endured the pain and agony of the crucifixion to bring us back into relationship with God. Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

Mad March

Mar 28, 2024

March has been a bit mad this year, largely due to the early date of Easter. This month, I’ve had two family birthdays to celebrate (including my own) and have also been involved in four community events, led four additional Lent Bible studies and lunches and baked for my husband’s retirement celebration and Good Friday church meal on top of all the usual things that make up my week! At times it’s been frantic, and I’ve definitely identified more with Martha than Mary as I have cooked chilli con carne for forty people while ferrying grandchildren to choir concerts (to be fair, my husband did the ferrying, but I provided a picnic lunch whilst everything else was going on!) A two-day break in the Lake District for my birthday was an oasis of calm in the flurry of activity that has made up March 2024. As I write, I still have to cook and prepare for a week’s break to celebrate my middle granddaughter’s birthday, but hopefully April will be more ‘normal.’

 

A blog I read regularly by the Church of England minister Jamie Franklin quotes Marcus Aurelius as saying.

‘When the force of circumstances causes you, in some sense, to lose your equilibrium, return to yourself with all speed, and never lose the rhythm for longer than you must; for you will be more in control of the measure if you return to it again and again.’

Meditations, Book VI.11

This is good advice. Some days and weeks are, indeed, busier than others, but there has to be an equilibrium in our lives, a rhythm that includes rest and prayer on a regular basis. Jamie goes on to comment, ‘I must find my rest, my refreshment, my peace, my restoration in God. If I don’t do this, I can make myself very busy trying to get stuff done, but my heart is frozen and my mind is tense.’ Busyness is not, of itself, proof of much except busyness. It’s certainly no indication of success or achievement that lasts. The churches in Thyatira and Ephesus were hard-working and busy, but Jesus found plenty that was amiss with their hearts (see Revelation 2). We need to get our priorities right and live by God’s principles (which includes Sabbath rest for restoration and worship). Only then can we hold on to the ‘one thing’ which Mary found and which Jesus commended to Martha. (Luke 10:38-42)

The Alarm Clock

Mar 28, 2024

Today’s household object is the alarm clock, and the Bible passages are John 13:36-38 and John 16:25-27.

 

Alarm clocks are useful in waking us each morning; nature’s alarm clock is the cockerel! The cockerel (or rooster) features in the Easter story as a warning to us: Peter, full of confidence, proclaims his ability to follow Jesus even to the point of laying down his life, but Jesus is well aware of what is to come and predicts his denial ‘before the cock crows.’ Sure enough, within hours Jesus is arrested, and Peter denies that he even knows the man. It is the cockerel’s crowing which brings Jesus’s words back to his memory and causes him to realise his sin.

Fortunately for Peter – and us – this is not the end of the story. Peter found forgiveness and further service; his sin did not define the rest of his life. The cockerel’s crowing heralds the start of a new day; the Lord’s compassions are ‘new every morning.’ (Lam 3:23) With God, we are given ‘countless second chances’ (‘Second Chances’, Rend Collective); the cross points to God’s forgiveness and mercy.

The Towel

Mar 28, 2024

Today as we approach Maundy Thursday, our household object is the humble towel, and our Bible passage is John 13:2-15.

 

Towels are found in the bathroom, kitchen and toilets, places where we wash ourselves. They can be relatively small (the hand towel) or luxuriously large (the bath sheet.) In our passage today, we see Jesus taking on the role of the humble servant and washing His disciples’ feet, drying them tenderly with a towel. It is an extraordinarily intimate and humbling gesture, and one which Jesus plainly told us we should emulate.

Servanthood is at the heart of the Easter message. Jesus, being in very nature God, took on human flesh and became a servant. He did not come to be served but to serve. Every time we read this passage, we are given a picture of what this looked like. Secure in His identity and knowing His purpose, He was not afraid to humble himself in this way and do a servant’s job. May we too take up the towel of service and be ready to serve God in every way.