A Maundy Thursday / Good Friday Reflection

Why is it, that despite all the hopes and dreams of the world becoming a better place, wars, injustice and poverty continue?

Why, two millennia ago, did Jesus of Nazareth die – the most unjust conviction ever? He lived a life of unquestionable purity. He was never accused of lying; he showed a selfless service in his compassion for the needy and the outcast; and he never promoted his cause through weapons of war.

Indeed, when Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea at the time, asked him at his trial what he had done, he had responded, “My kingdom is not of this world…” There and then he implied there is more to life than our present experience (John 18:36).

Luke chapter 22 records Jesus’ words at his last Passover meal with his disciples – a meal now known as The Last Supper.

Passover is a special occasion when the Jewish people recall the time God passed over their homes when they were enslaved in Egypt around 1200BC. God had stepped in and miraculously brought about their release from Egyptian rule. Passover became the annual celebration of God’s goodness and grace and the freedom they came to enjoy.

The Passover looks back. On the night of the first Passover, God decreed that every Hebrew household should take an unblemished lamb, slaughter it, and sprinkle the blood on the door posts of their homes. Each household was to have roast lamb for their evening meal. God promised that his angel of death would pass over every household where the blood of a lamb was on the door posts.

But it also looks forward in anticipation of a very different kind of freedom – when God’s promised Messiah will step in and establish his kingdom.

Twelve centuries after the events in Egypt, Dr. Luke records that Jesus carefully prepared a Passover meal with his disciples on the night before his death. It was a time when the Jewish people had once again lost their political freedom. For some six centuries they had been puppets to super-powers and now they lived at the pleasure of the Roman emperor.

Passover signified freedom. And even the gloomiest of Israel’s prophets, Jeremiah, spoke of a new day of hope: The days are coming when I (God) will make a new covenant with the house of Israel … I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

When Jesus prepared to celebrate Passover with his friends, patriotic feelings were running high. Believing people in Jerusalem would have been remembering the exodus from Egypt. When Jewish families gathered for Passover they would say, ‘Today we are slaves. Perhaps next Passover we shall be free.’

The breaking of the unleavened bread is a vital part of the Passover meal. Every Jewish family member around the table knew by heart the words the host would recite: “This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. All who hunger, let them come and eat, All who are in need and let them celebrate the Passover…”

But at the Last Supper Jesus’s words are electrifying. He didn’t say: “This is the bread of affliction,” but rather, “This bread is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance…” not “of the Passover” but, “of me”. He made his body, his dead body, the focus of the Passover meal.

And that raises something else that was strange about this Passover meal. Roast lamb would normally have been the center piece. Peter and John may have prepared the meal, but there is no mention of lamb in any of the Gospel records. Jesus was telling them, and is telling us now, that he is the sacrificial lamb around which the new Passover feast must revolve.

This is reinforced with his further surprising words. For when he took the cup of wine at the end of the meal, he said, “This cup is the cup of the new covenant” (Luke 22:20).

‘The Passovers you have been celebrating over the years,’ Jesus is saying, ‘look forward to God’s new covenant. Well, Passover is about to find its fulfilment. This is the last Passover of the old age and the first Passover of the new age.’

Jeremiah said of the new covenant that God will forgive their wicked ways and remember their sin no more. The self-focused desires of people’s hearts had ruined the old covenant relationship with God. Jesus had not come to save his people from Roman oppression.

Nor had he come simply to restore peace, safety and security, prosperity and a good lifestyle. No. Jesus came to rescue his first followers, and you and me today, from our deepest need – our love of self and our indifference towards God. And he has done it in exactly the same way the lamb had saved the Hebrews on that first Passover night. As he said at the Last Supper, he gave his body and he shed his blood as the Passover lamb to rescue us from death.

The Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once observed, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

Imagine for a moment you were the first-born in a Hebrew family at that first Passover. A lamb had been slaughtered, the blood sprinkled on the doorposts, and you awoke the next day to the sound of wailing from every Egyptian household. For in each of their homes someone had died. You thought for a moment, and then you really woke up: ‘That lamb died instead of me! Because that lamb died, God spared me’.

“This is my body, given for you. … This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,’ Jesus said. (Luke 22:19-20). ‘I will die in your place, to save you from the second death, God’s just condemnation,’ he is saying.

Elsewhere Jesus speaks of wars and rumors of wars in this world. And in another place he says: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him, who after he has killed, has authority to cast you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4-5).

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead authenticates all his words and actions.

In writing a liturgy for the Lord’s Supper that reflected the Bible’s teaching, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who was responsible for the 1552/1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, set out the significance of Jesus’s death as the one oblation of himself, once offered, a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.

Significantly, before we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper – the bread and the wine – we are called upon to truly and earnestly repent of our sins…  with the intention of leading a new life, … and walking in the Lord’s holy ways.

We are to draw near with faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, our one and only Savior (1662 BCP, Service of The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion). Partaking of Communion doesn’t save us. Rather it is our faith in what Jesus Christ in his mercy, has done for us.

In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 12-14 we read: But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

A Prayer for Maundy Thursday / Good Friday. Almighty Father, look graciously upon your people, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Note: My comments on Luke 22 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.

© John G. Mason

GK Chesterton once observed, “On five occasions in history the church has gone to the dogs, but on each occasion it was the dogs who died”. With the 40million Americans who have stopped attending church over the last twenty-five years, Chesterton may well have included a sixth occasion!

Are you interested in playing a part in a gospel movement today?

Over the last three weeks I have been touching on Bible references that are foundational and inspirational in my ministry. References include Exodus chapter 24 – ‘the God who rescues’; Matthew chapter 28, verses 18-20 – ‘the God who mandates his people to make disciples who make disciples’; Luke chapter 10, verses 1-2 and chapter 11, verses 2-13 – ‘the Lord who calls us to prayer’. Another key reference in my ministry is Second Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1-6.

In the opening lines Paul explains why he is passionately committed to the ministry of the gospel. Despite the obstacles, the disappointments, and the setbacks, he says in verses 1 and 16: We do not lose heart. Bracketed between these two statements he writes in an intensely personal way: ‘Why do I bother with preaching? It’s God’s way of bringing the light of Jesus Christ into the lives of men and women’.

Two themes stand out in verses 3-6: ‘Why people don’t believe’ (4:3-4), and ‘Why people do believe (5-6).

Why people don’t believe. In verses 3-4 we read: And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The references to veil and glory show that Paul has in mind a contrast he makes in chapter 3, between the old and the new covenants. There he points out that the Jewish people didn’t understand the Bible; they were spiritually blind, with a veil over their hearts and minds.

In chapter 4 he develops this theme to include all men and women. In the same way that unbelieving Jewish people failed to understand the significance of the Old Testament law, so too unbelievers everywhere are blinded from seeing the glory of God in the person of Jesus. The god of this age is blinding their eyes, he says in verse 4.

Much ink has been spilled in explaining these words. Many commentators view the god of this age as a reference to the power of evil – Satan. However, while in the Parable of the Sower (Seeds), Jesus spoke of the devil taking the seed of God’s word from people’s hearts, he also drew attention in the same parable to other reasons the ‘seed’ of God’s Word doesn’t grow. Let’s consider more carefully what Paul is saying.

And to do this is to appreciate the way Paul expresses himself in the original text. To be technical for a moment, the phrase, the god of this age, is appositional: one idea within the phrase explains the other. The meaning of the phrase is ‘the god that consists of this age’. In other words, Paul is saying that people make this age their god. That is what blinds them.

A similar form of phrase is found in verse 6: The light of the knowledge of the glory of God – which means, ‘the light that consists of the knowledge of the glory of God’.

In verse 4 Paul is saying that it is the idolatrous preoccupation with the material things of this world that blinds humanity to spiritual realities. In a materially obsessed world people are blinded to the reality that there is more to life than the material world.

The eyes of people who lightly dismiss the reality and significance of Jesus Christ are so fixed on life now and the pleasures the material world offers, they are blind to the larger realities of our existence. They fail to see that we are much more than the sum of our parts.

To understand the god of this world this way is consistent with the overall teaching of the Bible. Although people who don’t believe are victims of ignorance, the bottom line is that their ignorance is willful. They choose to ignore the evidence.

And because they have chosen to worship what is less than God, he has given them over to a darkened mind, and so yes, the devil finds it so easy to steal the word of God from their hearts. People are perishing because they choose to turn their backs on God.

How then does anyone come to believe? In verses 5-6 we read: For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servant for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That is how we come to believe: God has made his light shine in our heart. Paul’s reference to God’s utterance bringing about light is imagery drawn from Genesis chapter 1. Turning from unbelief to belief involves an act of divine initiative as awesome and as powerful as the act of creation.

God says to our hearts, ‘Let there be light’ and there is light, and from that moment a new world begins. The implication is thrilling: ‘God is the light’ who has shone in our hearts’. What we see in Jesus is not some magical gift of spiritual insight. It is the miracle of seeing God. It’s so important then, that we introduce people around us to the Jesus of the Gospels.

And this, Paul says, is the focus of his ministry. ‘We don’t preach ourselves,’ he says in verse 5, ‘but Jesus Christ as Lord’. We are Jesus’s servants. It is not my gifts of preaching, my oratory, my charisma, my charm, that wins men and women to faith. Rather, humanly speaking, it is bringing them to a face-to-face encounter with Jesus.

Paul wants us to know that he tells people who Jesus is, what he has done, and why he has done it. He points out that Jesus is not just a great teacher or extraordinary miracle worker, but God walking in our shoes. Jesus is more than a prophet for he is God in the flesh.

Furthermore, throughout his ministry Paul wanted everyone, everywhere to feel the impact of our fatally flawed nature. We are all trapped by self-love rather than love for God. Yet God is not a frowning misery-bags out to get us. He is the Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy. No matter what we have done or not done, he holds out mercy and forgiveness far greater than we ever dreamed.

Furthermore, Paul is saying that as he declares God’s gospel, again and again God by his Spirit takes the veil from blind eyes and hard hearts and enables them to see the glory of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ.

We see why Paul did not lose heart. He understood that God chooses to work through our words that introduce Jesus and announce God’s mercy. Given the flow of Paul’s thought from the end of Second Corinthians 3 into chapter 4, we see that it is God’s Word and the power of God’s Spirit that opens our eyes to Christ. God’s Spirit turns on the light so that we see Jesus. So, we can liken faithful gospel ministry to opening the curtains in the morning – darkness gives way to daylight.

Because God’s miracle of illumination is such a necessary part in people responding to God’s good news, we surely should be praying. In Jesus’s words we considered last week, “Ask, seek, and knock”. Gospel movements come about because God’s people are praying and looking for opportunities to introduce others to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you read The Jesus Story: Seven Signs? It’s available from Amazon using the link below. I’m praying it will be a useful book that you can simply pass on to others who don’t know what to believe.

When they’ve read it, talk with them about TheWord121 (www.theword121.com). It’s a great read through all of John’s Gospel – over coffee or in small groups.

Let’s pray that God in his mercy will awaken his people and bring about a gospel-led regeneration of lives.

Prayer. Merciful God, who created all men and women in your image and who hates nothing you have made, nor would have the death of a sinner, but rather that they should be converted and live; have mercy on all people everywhere and take from them all ignorance and hardness of heart and contempt of your Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to your flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of your ancient people, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

© John G. Mason

I have a question: What do you think of prayer? When you pray, do you pray with purpose and confidence? I ask this because prayer is integral to our partnership with the Lord – and not least in our gospel promotion.

In Luke chapter 9 we read that Jesus sent out the twelve on a mission to Jewish people. And, in chapter 10 we learn that he sent out seventy to both the Jewish and non-Jewish peoples. He not only wanted the disciples to know that the news of the kingdom of God is for all people, but also wanted them to understand they weren’t sufficient in number to do the work by themselves.

Even seventy would not be enough. The first task for the disciples was to pray for colleagues: “The harvest is plentiful,” Jesus said, “but the labourers are few; pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2). Prayer is essential if we want to play our part in fulfilling Jesus’s mandate to make disciples of all nations.

In this third in the series, ‘God’s Great Passion’, let’s focus on prayer, especially as it relates to gospel mission.

In Luke chapter 11, verses 2 through 13 we read memorable and significant words from Jesus on the subject of prayer. He not only teaches the disciples a ‘model’ prayer which we call, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, but he also makes three very specific promises found in verses 9 and 10: “Ask, and it will be given you; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Furthermore, on either side of these promises he uses two parables or metaphors to answer two questions we sometimes ask: ‘Can God be trusted to hear our prayers?’ (verses 5-8); and second, ‘Can I trust God to have my best interests at heart?’ (verses 11-13).

In verses 5-8 Luke records Jesus’s parable, often known as ‘The Friend at Midnight’. The parable falls into the category of sayings that have an underlying, unspoken question: ‘Can you imagine…?’ ‘Can you imagine a man talking like this to a friend in need?’ Jesus asks.

The key to understanding the parable is found in the word in verse 8 usually translated: impudence’ or boldness. Let me suggest this is one place where our English translations are unhelpful.

The late Dr. Kenneth Bailey brought new and helpful insights to the parables from his work in the Middle-East. He pointed out that the word translated boldness or persistence in verse 8, is a composite. In its basic form the noun has a negative meaning: shame. However, when a prefix is added, as here, there is an important shift to a positive meaning: avoidance of shame.

A careful reading of verses 7 and 8 reveals that the pronouns me and my in verse 7 refer to the householder who is in bed, not the man knocking at the door. Furthermore, the flow of verse 7 into verse 8 and the pronouns he and his, also refer to the householder.

The syntax and the narrative impact of the story has the sleeper in bed as the focus – not the man who is knocking on the door. If the sleeper, the householder, refused to get up and act, he would bring shame to his name.

The unwritten laws of mid-eastern hospitality, which are an important sub-text of the parable, required a man to get up and help a neighbour in need. If he didn’t, not only would he be shamed, he would also bring dishonor to the whole village community.

‘Can you imagine,’ Jesus is asking, ‘anyone saying to a neighbour in need, even at midnight, ‘Get lost. Don’t disturb me’?

In this parable Jesus illustrates an important line in his model prayer: Father, hallowed or honored be your name … In the parable Jesus tells us that it is God’s very nature to hear and respond to our prayers. If he didn’t, he would bring shame to his name.

God’s honour, God’s integrity, God’s name is at the heart of the way he will not only hear but he will also act. Central to the prayers of Moses and Daniel is the humble but bold request that God will act for the sake of the honor of his name (Numbers 14:13-19; Daniel 9:3-19).

When we begin a prayer relationship with God the Father we open the door to untold blessings. “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you,” Jesus promises (verses 9-10).

‘Can we trust God to give us good things, or is he fickle?’ we might ask. Jesus anticipated our question and assures us that God not only listens, but always has our best interests at heart. Two metaphors illustrate this.

In verse 11 Jesus says: ‘The most violent thief can be kind to his son and the most mercenary-minded father can be generous to his daughter. Is God any less open-handed?’ Jesus asks.

And in verse 12 he addresses our concern about God’s goodness with an illustration from good parenting. Parents don’t give their children things that are bad for them. We need to trust that God is good and wise in the way he responds to our prayers. He is neither capricious nor malicious and will not spoil us with over-indulgence. Just as a loving father will give good gifts wisely to his children, God uses his discretion as to how and when he will act in answering our prayers.

Prayer is a precious privilege. It brings us into the presence of the God who is at the heart of the universe. CS Lewis observed, ‘God has so ordered the governance of the universe to include our prayers’.

God is a father who loves to give. “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Jesus concluded (11:13).

Why did Jesus raise the subject of the Holy Spirit here? In the sweep of Luke’s narrative, we see Jesus was anticipating the great gift of his Spirit following his resurrection and ascension.

His Spirit opens our minds to hear God’s voice through his Word; his Spirit opens our hearts to God and enables us to call him ‘Father’; his Spirit opens our lives to God and empowers us to trust him and to follow him.

To return to Jesus’s words in Luke chapter 10, why don’t we pray more consistently for the promotion of the gospel, for the raising up of colleagues? The fields are ready for harvest. Ask, seek, knock.

In Luke chapter 19, verse 10 Jesus says that he came to seek and to save the lost. Think of God’s passion for the lost and the cost it was for him to pardon and deliver us from our self-centered lives.

Let me encourage you to pray for five people you would like to see come to know the Lord. If you will allow me a personal note, the task is simple: you can pass on a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. The link is in the banner below.

Prayer. Let your merciful ears, Lord God, be open to the prayers of your people; and so that we may obtain our petitions, teach and direct us to ask such things as will please you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

Today’s ‘Word on Wednesday’ is adapted from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition (Aquila: 2019)

In the light of Dr. George Barna’s Reports in February and March this year, I am touching on Bible references that have been foundational and inspirational for me.

The Barna Report in February revealed, “that while 71% of adults” (in America) “believe in the existence of one or more gods or spiritual authorities, far fewer said they believe in the existence and influence of Jesus Christ (59%) or the God of the Bible (40%). Barely half of all adults (54%) said they worship or follow Jesus Christ with only one-third (34%) saying they worship or follow the God of the Bible”.

In this second week in the series, ‘God’s Great Passion’, let me take up another reference that is significant in my ministry: Matthew chapter 28, verses 18-20. In verse 18 we read that the resurrected Jesus said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.

Jesus’s words reveal the supreme power and authority over the universe, the whole created order, that has been given to him. He is far superior to all earthly human authority and power that has existed or will exist – be it a president or prime minister, monarch or governor. He is, as we read twice in the Book of Revelation, King of kings and Lord of lords (17:14, 19:16).

On the day of which Matthew speaks, the disciples stood before the High King of the universe. In his words that follow, Jesus set out what we might call his royal mandate: his disciples were to go and as they did, they were to make disciples …

The form of the verb go in the original language is significant: it is an imperative, present participle. It implies that the disciples are to go out, not simply stand still or sit around discussing recent events. They were to go and make disciples of all nations, …

From its outset, Christianity is missional and international. Its message is not just for the Jewish people. All peoples can be beneficiaries of the ministry of the apostles, that is the disciples who were now sent (hence apostles, from the original Greek). We may be Jewish or African, Asian, or European. Jesus offers to all people throughout the world, throughout time, the full and free benefits of his work.

But to be beneficiaries we need to learn of his goodness and beauty, his greatness and his selfless love. We need to be introduced to him and discover just who he is and what he has so wonderfully done for us.

Furthermore, his people are to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In using the singular word name, Jesus is telling us that three persons constitute the one God. Everyone who is baptized is to be instructed, not only in God’s existence, but also his triune nature.

Baptism is the outward mark of a changed attitude towards Jesus Christ and our relationship with God. It signifies our identity with Jesus, in dying to sin and rising to new life with him – as we read in Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4.

Furthermore, there is another element to Jesus’s royal mandate: disciples are not only to be baptized, but also instructed in the faith. They are to be taught about Jesus: who he is and what he has done and in turn, the new lifestyle he expects of his people.

The central theme of Jesus’ teaching is that God’s king has come into the world in person. In this age of mercy, he calls on all men and women everywhere to turn to him, the true king, in repentance and in faith, asking forgiveness for the past, and responding to him with love and loyalty.

Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 is Jesus’s very clear commission for the disciples to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing and teaching them. To follow the logic of this, because the apostles would die, the expectation would be that those whom they had discipled, would in turn disciple others in accordance with the apostles’ teaching. Here is the biblical meaning of apostolic succession: ministry that passes on the gospel that Jesus’s apostles proclaimed together with their teaching. It is not the ‘succession of bishops’.

Three themes become evident in the closing scene of Matthew’s Gospel: the King, the Royal Mandate, and thirdly, our task. Every generation is called upon not only to respond to the apostolic gospel and teaching, but also to continue the work of making disciples, who in turn make disciples.

Because the Lord Jesus has all authority, his mandate to make disciples guarantees his own involvement and success in rescuing the lost sheep of the world. His power through the Holy Spirit assures us of this. And so he calls on us to pray and to work as he catches us up in God’s great story.

On this point Jesus’s concluding promise here is so encouraging: “Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age” (28:20). Our English translation always masks a Greek expression that we find only here. It means the whole of every day. Jesus promises to be with us as we make disciples, the whole of every day to the very end of the age. We are not alone.

Making disciples who become disciple-makers is central to our work. Disciple-making ministries build God’s new society. God’s people who are progressing in the faith will increasingly want to know and honor the Lord in their lives, serving him in serving others – in their needs and with the gospel.

In today’s world this is challenging, but we don’t need to be fearful. First Peter chapter 3, verse 15 says: … always be prepared to give an answer for the hope (or the faith) that you have in Jesus Christ. And Colossians 4:6 says, Let your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Let me encourage you to pray for three to five people you would love to see come to know the Lord Jesus. And as you do, let me suggest that you will find, sometimes unexpectedly, an opportunity to open up a conversation about the faith. You don’t need to say much. Indeed, if you will pardon a personal note, you may find it helpful to pass on to them a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. It takes about an hour to read. You can purchase copies through the link in the banner below.

Prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason

In a report released this week, Dr George Barna wrote that ‘Americans are increasingly minimizing the role and influence of God in their lives—with a minority of only 40% who believe He exists or influences human lives.

‘As a result, fewer American adults put God at the center of their lives, view their relationship with Him as important, or rely on Him for daily guidance.

‘This shift removing God from the center of American life is being seen inside the church, with the role of God becoming less important to people of faith. But the findings also indicate this shift is bringing a dramatic loss of reliance on God among Americans generally’ (Dr. George Barna, Director of Research, Cultural Research Center, Arizona: March 12, 2025).

Given that authentic ministry is grounded in the ministry of God’s Word, during this season of Lent let me identify some texts that have been foundational and inspirational.

Today, let me focus on Exodus chapter 24 – The God Who Rescues.

Background. We learn from Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, that God created men and women in his image: we are the glory of his creating work. However, tragedy entered in chapter 3, for Adam and Eve wilfully chose to ignore God’s specific command and attempted to usurp his place in creation. From that moment humanity became the shame of God’s creation.

God could have decided to destroy humanity and start again. But that would have been an admission of failure. Rather, he chose to follow a rescue plan, at great cost to himself, that was part of his creation plan.

We get a preview of this in the heavenly conversation that took place on Day 6 of creation. In the opening words of Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 we read: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness…”

At this point in the creation narrative the style of the language changes and we sense a break between the creation of the animals and the creation of men and women. It is as though there was a pre-cosmic pause while a conversation took place within the Godhead where a question was discussed: ‘Will we do it?’ The language, ‘Let us…’, implies the question, ‘Will we go ahead with this next and final part of creation? The cost will be great.’

In the New Testament, in his Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2 verse 6, Paul the Apostle opens another window on this pre-cosmic conversation. He tells us that the Second Person of the Godhead made a personal choice to follow through the plan that had been set before creation. Jesus’s coming amongst us as one of us, his crucifixion and resurrection, were not God’s Plan B but key elements in God’s Plan A!

To return to Exodus chapter 24. In verses 1, 9 and 11, we learn that such is God’s nature, it is his delight to rescue us from our guilt and shame and open the way for us to share in his glory, as we read in verses 16 and 17. In Exodus chapter 24 there are echoes of Genesis chapter 3 where Adam is described as walking in the garden with God.

And there are further developments in Exodus chapter 24 that we overlook; the chapter speaks of our not just being with God, but feasting with him and enjoying his presence.

Too often our thinking about our relationship with God is limited to forgiveness and salvation. Exodus chapters 24 through 39 reverberate with the language of ‘glory’ and God being with his people. It is an anticipation of the parable of the wedding banquet that we find in Luke chapter 14, but more specifically and grandly, the scene in Revelation chapter 21.

Furthermore, Exodus chapter 24 verses 3 and 12 spell out what our relationship with God should come to look like; Moses is called upon to write up and declare the ordinances and commandments of the Lord.

With this, another important theme opens up. The Bible is not just a record of God’s redemption: it is the instrument of his rescue. It is not enough to read the Bible. We need to understand that God speaks to us personally through his written, self-revelation. His Word opens the window for us as to what it will be like to know him and to be with him. We ignore God or treat him casually at our peril.

Exodus chapter 24 reveals another great theme: How God Rescues. We can only enjoy God’s promises when the consequences of our transgression have been removed. So in terms of the old covenant, Moses was told to splash in two directions, the blood of perfect animals that had been sacrificed – against the altar, symbolizing the satisfying of God’s justice (24:6) and over the people (24:8) symbolizing the covering of their sin.

Some twelve hundred years later at the Passover meal on the night of his arrest, Jesus said, “This is my blood of the new covenant that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 22:19-20).

God’s mercy and forgiveness are not cheap. Christ the righteous suffered for the unrighteous so that God might see us as having the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The gospel of the New Testament is foreshadowed in Exodus chapter 24: it is the good news of God’s redemption.

It is essential that we keep God’s gospel front and center in Christian ministry today. Let me say, it is being forgotten or seriously challenged in many churches. If we lose the gospel as God has revealed it in his Word, we have no grounds for hope.

If we turn to God in the way he has designed and implemented, we will discover freedom, joy and the hope of glory.

If you will allow me a personal note, let me mention my newly released book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs.

Given the interest in the stories of people’s lives today, I have sought to tell Jesus’s story with a focus on his works – signs as John the Gospel writer calls them. Following the order of the seven signs in the Gospel, I endeavor to retell each story in a way that sets out the scene and interacts with questions people might have today.

Copies can be purchased from Amazon using the link in the banner below. Proceeds from sales in 2025 are being used for the Anglican Connection ministry.

My prayer is that as you pray for family and friends you might find it helpful to purchase 3-5 copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, to pass on to others who don’t know what to believe, at an appropriate moment. You may want to start by purchasing one copy to read yourself.

Prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

It’s often said, we have only one life to live! We need to live it well.’

How many people really believe this? Most people have a sneaking suspicion that there is more to life – that death is not the end of our existence.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity commented, If I find in myself desires which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Come with me to a significant question that Jesus put to his close followers. We read it in Mark 8:28: “Who do people say that I am?” he asked.

Up to this point, Mark tells us, Jesus’ followers seemed dull and obtuse in their understanding of him. They had seen first-hand his power and authority when he had healed the sick, commanded the powers of evil, and even raised the dead to life.

On one occasion they had been in a boat with him when a sudden storm threatened their very lives. When they cried out in fear, he calmed the tempest at a word. “Have you no faith?” he’d asked them. They saw his many miracles and they heard his teaching, yet they still didn’t understand.

Let’s think about this. Most of us have seen pictures that have two perspectives. We look at the drawing one way and we see a vase. We look at it another way and we see a face.

Sometimes we can look at a picture like this for hours and only see one thing. The second perspective remains hidden. Then we blink our eyes or turn our head and look back, and there the second perspective is. We wonder why we didn’t see it before. Psychologists call this a Gestalt phenomenon. It comes from the German word meaning shape or pattern.

The phenomenon can’t be broken up into logical stages. We can’t get half-way. It’s all or nothing. We either see the second perspective or we don’t.

Opinions about Jesus are a little like this. There have been times when I have talked with people for hours about him – answering questions, making points, developing the case that Jesus is who he claimed to be. Yet often they don’t see what is so obvious to me.

The ability to recognize the uniqueness of Jesus is an insight. We can’t organise it. It’s a perception we must have. It comes, not as a conclusion to a logical argument, but as a gift.

In the same way that people can be perplexed by picture puzzles, the disciples couldn’t make proper sense of Jesus.

Then came a critical moment. Jesus had taken them away to Caesarea Philippi. “Who do people say that I am?” he asked. Mark tells us they cited the popular perceptions: some say you’re Elijah, others, John the Baptist, and others, one of prophets.

It was obvious to everyone that Jesus was someone very impressive, but there had been impressive people before. The general consensus seems to have been that Jesus belonged to the group of great ones in Israel’s history.

But Jesus was not content with this, “What about you?”. He pressed them: “Who do you say that I am?”

Suddenly, Peter seems to have got it. He’d probably thought about it before, but it was too crazy for words. But now the penny had dropped and his blurred vision cleared. Jesus wasn’t just a prophet. He was the One the prophets had foreshadowed.

We can almost hear a click as Peter saw this new perspective. “You are the Christ”, he said.

How did Peter work this out? Was it the outcome of reasoned research? No. The moment of insight came, as it does for every true believer – out of the blue. It wasn’t a deduction or a discovery. It was revelation!

And there was something else: inspiration! The ministry of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 16:17 we read Jesus’ words: “… Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

It is here that we find the key to the meaning of life. To see that Jesus is no mere man but God in the flesh, is to see that there is much more to life than what we experience now. For to understand that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Messiah, God’s eternal Son who has set aside his true glory and become one of us, opens our minds and hearts to a hope and a joy that satisfies our deepest longings.

As we reflect on these deep matters of life we see that there is something mysterious in the way God opens our eyes. As we come to know the Jesus of the Gospel records, we come to realize that there are critical moments when we are conscious that Jesus is personally asking us: “Who do you say that I am?”

How do we experience this? We don’t have the advantage of having Jesus with us in the flesh. But we do have the reliable accounts from those who did meet him or had verified their record with eyewitnesses (Luke) – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And we note that the account about Jesus is not written up by only one man, but four!

Many people are aware that there is more to life than our material existence. Without that hope, life offers little purpose for most people.

We often forget that God’s Spirit uses his Word to touch and transform lives – opening their eyes to who Jesus really is, convicting them of going their own way rather than God’s way, and bringing them to a ‘Gestalt moment’. However God doesn’t act in a vacuum. He gives us the privilege of working with him in his ministry of mercy to which he is passionately committed.

Will you join with me in praying that the Lord will be pleased to renew his people with the vision of reaching the lost, so that many others might come to know and love Jesus Christ as their Lord and their God – through experiencing a life-changing Gestalt moment?

Prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason