Day 16.  Hope’s Foundation

by John Mason | Feb 27, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 24:36–49[1]

36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence. 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

HOPE’S FOUNDATION

Every generation gets caught up in the titanic warfare between good and evil. People today are cynical about politicians, the corporate world (represented by Wall Street), as well as the traditional church. Luke 24 gives us cause for hope – hope for a better future. It is not a hope that is based on a speculation or a feeling, but one that is grounded in the events of the death and resurrection of just one man, Jesus Christ.

Luke 24 describes three scenes following Jesus’ death. In each scene three themes are evident: fear, doubt and deep-down joy.  In Luke 24:37 the disciples were startled and frightened; in 24:38 they were troubled and questioning; in 24:41 they were still disbelieving but nevertheless deeply delighted.

The disciples were perplexed as to what the events of the last few days meant. Now, when they saw Jesus they were terrified: was it really him or was it just a ghost?  Jesus understood their fear and their doubts: ‘Look at the scars on my hands and feet,’ he says. ‘Touch me. A ghost does not have flesh and bones. Fetch me food to eat’.

In each of the scenes in Luke 24, the Scriptures and Jesus’ own words provide an explanation of what has happened. In this third scene these two elements are brought together, as we see in 24:44 – “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Jesus is saying that even his own words before his crucifixion did not rest upon his own ungrounded assertion.  Everything he had taught and done had been written in the Scriptures. His words and actions, including his death and resurrection, could be said to be expositions of the Old Testament law and the prophets. The authority of those Scriptures is the same as the authority with which Jesus speaks.

THE RESURRECTION-A GLORIOUS MESSAGE

Luke 24 is not simply the story of a dead man who came back to life. It is not just a myth of a dying and rising god. It is not simply a fairy-tale that has an unexpected, delightful ending. This is the story that fulfilled God’s ancient words and promises – of his Messiah’s shameful death by crucifixion under the curse of a broken law, suffering the pains of God-forsakenness. Luke 24 was the fitting outcome for the innocent man who had cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ The resurrection of Jesus has no significance without his death. It cannot point to forgiveness unless sin has been dealt with. The resurrection is a glorious message because it makes sense of the life and death of Jesus. For the first disciples it had seemed that Jesus’ death was the end of all their hopes. But then they discovered the news that it was in fact the ground of all their hopes – amazing and wonderful news, the power and promise of which is reaches out to for you and me today.

You may want to consider:

1.   the striking elements about the scene described here: what does it tell us about Jesus?
2.   the implications of Jesus’ response (24:39 and 43) – then and now;
3.   the explanation that Jesus gives here (24:44 – 48) of the main purpose of the events surrounding his life, death and resurrection; consider further the implications of his words.

Let me encourage you to pray:

© John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Day 15.  Hope’s Enigma

by John Mason | Feb 26, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 23: 32–43[1]

32 Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.  And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

HOPE’S ENIGMA

The scene around Jesus’ cross was gruesome. He was naked, exposed to the curiosity of the crowd and the frivolity of the soldiers. “If you are the king of the Jews,” they taunted, “save yourself.”  In the midst of this vicious and degrading scene there was irony, for above Jesus’ head Pilate had ordered the charge against him to be written — ‘King of the Jews.’ The extraordinary thing is that Jesus did not curse his tormentors. There is no spirit of revenge. Instead we hear a prayer – “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing”.  

Some suggest that Jesus was praying only for the soldiers, but if that were so he would have said, ‘Father, understand them,’ not, ‘Father forgive them.’ They were only carrying out their duty.  It is more likely that Jesus was praying that God would forgive the ignorance of all – ignorance of who he is and what we do as ignorant and foolish people. Furthermore, he was praying not just for the crowd, for Pilate or the soldiers, but also for us.  

The scene that follows is most instructive, for it shows us that the most important decision we need to make in life has to do with our relationship with Jesus. The first criminal chose to die without him, disparaging the God who had allowed his death. He was contemptuous of Jesus and blasphemed him. He chose to die as he had lived, totally rejecting anything to do with God.

However, the second criminal chose another way to die. This man’s life was no better than his colleague’s: he wasn’t religious or good by any means. He said so himself. Yet something about Jesus seems to have struck this hardened criminal. It may have been the contrast between Jesus’ prayer for his tormentors and the bitter hostility of his colleague. It may have been the righteousness that was so evident in Jesus that awoke this man to his guilt before God, or the tenderness and good will evident in Jesus that allowed him to hope that his prayer would be answered: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” His words are strikingly simple. In some vague way he understood that Jesus really is God’s king. He took the crucial step of asking the king for a place in his kingdom. It was an eleventh hour repentance. His faith may have had faith no bigger than a mustard seed, but Jesus’ response would have reached the depths of this dying man’s soul: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” To die with Jesus is very different from dying without him.

You may want to consider:

1. the attitudes of the various groups and people there: why doesn’t Jesus pray, “Father, understand them”?
2. the different attitudes of the dying men on either side of Jesus: do you agree that their attitudes reflect the two fundamental differences that exist in the human heart when people die?  
3. the meaning and implications of Jesus’ words, “Today you will be with me in paradise”?   

Let me encourage you to pray:

© John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Day 14.  Hope and Grace (Part 2)

by John Mason | Feb 25, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 15:25–34[1]

25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

HOPE AND GRACE

What of the older son?  The elder brother is portrayed as being in need of just as much grace and transformation as the younger. Discovering the reason for the party which he heard as he returned to his father’s home, he refused to go in. Once more Jesus portrayed the father reaching out to a problem son – humiliating himself in public again. Going out on to the street to meet his elder son, who should have been present as one of the hosts, he was met with the arrogant and cutting words: ‘You have given a party for this spendthrift waster; what have you done for me?’ is the gist of his words. Disdainful of his father’s action, he summed up his response with, ‘I have slaved for you’.

Works? In Jesus’ audience that day there were two groups of people – those who knew they were sinners and those who considered themselves righteous (15:1–2). It is the second group that Jesus had in view as this second part of his story unfolded. He wanted this group to see that they, like the older brother, had not understood the nature of a relationship with God that was based on love. Like the older brother their relationship with God was based on works.

The older son styled himself as a slave or a servant. He always obeyed orders, yet he didn’t understand what it was to be a son in his father’s home. He saw himself as hard-working and industrious, but he was blind to what it meant to be a son and heir. Consider his father’s comment in 15:31: “Son”, literally, ‘my boy’ (it’s a term of endearment) “You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours”.

Like his younger brother, this son did not really know his father. He had failed to understand the privilege and the position that he held. He had failed to see that his father was open-handed and generous. All he needed to do was ask: he would have been given what he needed, because he was his father’s son.

PRODIGAL SON

This story, often called the parable of the prodigal son, is in fact a story of two lost sons.  The younger had been self-seeking, totally self-indulgent, wanting everything now. Not only had he virtually wished his father dead, but he had squandered everything he’d been given.

The older son had seemingly been the model son. He’d remained with his father and he’d done everything he’d been asked to do. But though he was a son, living under his father’s roof, he didn’t live in a son/father relationship.  It was more like a slave to master relationship. He saw himself as a servant and the nature of his relationship with his father as being based on good behavior and the quality of his work.

The elder brother serves as a powerful warning to us. There are many good and upright, sometimes churchgoing people who are like the older brother. They reckon that they have a right relationship with God because of the quality of their lives. They would say that they have lived moral lives and are known for their integrity at work and for their support of their church and people in need.

Jesus is saying that it is false to think that by our efforts we are good enough for God – to be sons and daughters of God. A son or a daughter can only be a member of a family when he or she is born or adopted into a family. To that extent it is out of their control. Works have nothing to do with it. Because all of us have broken our relationship with God, he has to be the one to restore it. Because he is passionate about rescuing us, he has done everything that is needed.

This is the point of the humiliation of the father in the story. It foreshadows the Son of God putting aside his status, allowing himself – he had voluntarily agreed to do it – to be nailed to a cross on that first Good Friday.

You may want to consider:

1. the place of ‘works’ and ‘law’ in our relationship with God;
2. the warnings we need to heed from the older son;
3. the implications of the extraordinary grace of God in your life.

Let me encourage you to pray:

©John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Day 13.  Hope and Grace (Part 1)

by John Mason | Feb 24, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 15:11–24[1]

11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

HOPE AND GRACE

Jesus’ story of the two lost sons is amongst the greatest of all stories. It is one of the most vivid pictures of the extraordinary riches of God’s grace towards men and women.

One way or another all of us want to enjoy and benefit from the good things of life while keeping God at a distance. This is true of both of the sons in the story that Jesus told here.

By asking his father for his inheritance now, the younger son makes an outrageous request: it is as though he was saying to his father, ‘Dad, I wish you were dead’. His request and his later actions reveal that he has no interest in his father or any sense of responsibility towards him. Yet the father shows extraordinary generosity.

As the story unfolds, the younger son squanders his inheritance on extravagant parties with good-time friends. Inevitably, he finds himself without money to live and without friends to call upon. In desperation he takes a poorly paid position feeding pigs. This is a twist that emphasizes the extent of the young man’s poverty. He, a Jewish man, under the laws of kashrut, for whom pigs were not clean food, could only find work feeding pigs.

Resolving to return to his father he was willing to admit responsibility for having lost the money: “I have sinned before heaven and before you…” In asking his father take him back as a ‘hired servant’, he reveals his sense of unworthiness (15:22). He didn’t even feel worthy to be re-instated as a son.

However he had not understood the nature of his Father’s love.

GRACE

Grace. The father did the totally unexpected. Like most fathers, he was aware what his son’s character was, and had no doubt what he had done, but he still loved him. He had been watching for his son’s return. When word came that his son indeed was coming home, he ran down the road to greet him. He was heedless of the scorn he would receive, for in running he was making a public spectacle of himself. A man in his position would always walk with dignity. Not only that, he was running to embrace the black sheep of the family who had formerly rejected him.

When he reached his son he threw his arms around him and kissed him. Overcome by this totally unexpected welcome, he said, ‘Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Period.

REPENTANCE

Repentance. The son had planned to add, ‘Treat me as one of your hired servants’. But now he saw that this was not appropriate. He realized that he’d never really known his father and that he had not understood what it was to have been his father’s son. His father loved him beyond measure. He saw that now. His father was prepared to do for him what he had not expected and certainly did not deserve. His father had given himself publicly, humiliatingly, for his sake.

Jesus wanted his hearers, and each one of us, to understand that the father is like God. God has given most of us many good things to enjoy. But we, like the son, have become so preoccupied with the good things of life and our own lives in general, that we forget God. Jesus wants us to see clearly and without a shadow of doubt that God loves each one of us, far more than we can ever believe. Our problem is that we become too absorbed in our own affairs.

With this parable, Jesus foreshadows another and far greater dimension and expression of God’s extraordinary love. The shadow of his cross begins to emerge. It is in and through the cross we see the greatest act of public humiliation anyone has ever demonstrated in history, for there, God in Jesus Christ stepped into our shoes and died in our place.

But the story does not stop there.  Before the younger son could catch his breath, his father was busy ordering new clothes, shoes and a ring – the best of everything. An elaborate and expensive feast was prepared and the father tells us why: “For this my son was dead, now he is alive, he was lost but now he has been found” (15:24). The wayward, rebellious boy who deserved nothing good from his father was to be reinstated as a son. In Luke 19:10 we Jesus’ words about himself and his mission: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost”. The younger son had not just regretted his folly, but in turning back to his father and admitting his failure, he had been truly repentant. Through his father’s extraordinary and undeserved love, he is reinstated as a ‘son’. He sees that to serve as a ‘hired slave,’ to try to work his way back in to his father’s good graces, was both impossible and unnecessary.

You may want to consider:

1. the lessons to be learnt from the younger son;
2. the implications of the extraordinary grace of God in your life.

Let me encourage you to pray:

© John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.