Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Have a blessed Good Friday.

By his wounds we are healed.

Holy Thursday

When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet." 

                John 13:12-14

Finding Paradise On a Cross

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Luke 23:39-43

According to the prophet Isaiah, the messiah would be “numbered among the transgressors.”

And so it was that Jesus was crucified between two criminals, one on his left, the other on his right.

The contrast between the two criminals could hardly be greater. The first had no fear of God and no sense of personal guilt. He joined the jeering crowd and “hurled insults” at Jesus.

The second was of a different mind. He reproved the cruelty of his companion and acknowledged Jesus’ innocence. Then turning to Jesus, he offered these words: “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” For this simple act of faith he gained entrance to paradise.

What a picture of the redemptive power of the cross! Like the thief we, too, are in need of God’s forgiveness. Like the thief whose hands and feet were nailed to the cross, we, too, are incapable of offering any good works to atone for our sins. And like the thief we, too,  if we commend ourselves without reserve to mercy of Christ, will discover paradise on a cross.

Have a blessed Palm Sunday!

The Vine and Its Branches Pt. 2

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself,

unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

John 15:4

The Parable of the Vine and Its Branches teaches that Christianity cannot be reduced to a system of beliefs or ethics. The essence of Christianity, rather, is entering into an intimate, spiritual union with God through Jesus Christ, a union not unlike that of a vine and its branches.

The key to experiencing this union was summed up by Jesus when he said:

Abide in me and I in you. What did he mean?

In The Message Eugene Peterson translates the phrase as follows: Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. That’s what it means to abide in Christ. On the one hand, it means to live your life every day in fellowship with Christ; to orient every aspect and activity of your life to his presence and will.

On the other hand, to abide means to allow Christ to make his home in you. We do this by exercising spiritual hospitality, that is, 
by giving Christ access to our whole self – our thoughts, feelings, decisions, and relationships. When we are truly “at home” in Christ and he is “at home” in us we are living in a fruitful union with Christ.

Make your home in me just as I do in you.

The Vine and the Branches Pt. 1

I am the vine; you are the branches.

John 15:5

Many of the deepest mysteries of the Christian life are revealed in Jesus’ Parable of The Vine and Its Branches. As Andrew Murray wrote, “If you would know Jesus study the vine.”

The parable features three main elements: the vine, the gardener, and the branches.

Jesus himself is the True Vine, the divine reality we seek. His purpose is to bear much fruit and through it bring the new wine of the kingdom into the world.

Every vine needs a gardener to plant, cultivate, prune and finally, to receive its fruit. Jesus wants us to know the Father is the gardener. The Father has planted Christ, the True Vine, in Earth’s soil through the incarnation. 

We, Christ’s disciples, are the branches. Here is both our humility and our dignity. Separated from the vine a branch is nothing. It withers and is cast into the fire. But united to the vine it shares in all the vine is, has, and does. Everything a vine is to a branch Christ is to us. And as the branch is dependent on the vine, so also the vine needs the branch. Without the branch the vine can bear no fruit.

This is true Christianity. It’s not merely a belief system; it’s an organic spiritual union, like that of a vine and its branches. The vine and the branch united in a fruitful relationship -- this is our promise and potential in Christ.

Renewed Strength

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

                                             Isaiah 40:31

Cars run out of gas. Batteries run out of power. Human beings run out of strength. Each one of us, then, needs access to a source of renewable energy. Food and rest restore the body, but where do we find inner strength?

The well-known words of the prophet Isaiah are quite literally a godsend: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Few words are more contrary to contemporary American culture than Isaiah’s prescription for renewed strength. Waiting, it seems, just isn't in our DNA. We are the people of the quick-fix, consumers demanding instant gratification. We are forever stepping on the gas in our rush to move forward.

What we need to learn, according to Isaiah, is the art of waiting upon God, a spiritual discipline insisted on in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

This waiting should not be equated with inactivity. Rather it is a positive act of entrusting our hopes, expectations, and plans to God. It is a prayerful exchange of our wisdom for God’s, our timing for His. It's the art of offering prayer and thanksgiving while simultaneously practicing the virtue of patience.

The rewards of such waiting are magnificent: renewed strength and wings like eagles.