THE CHRISTIAN WALK: March 2024

Sunday, March 31, 2024

HOLY WEEK SERIES: THE ASSURANCE OF RISING

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, He took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, He will be raised to life!”

Matthew 20:17-19

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

During his years of ministry, Jesus was nearly always an open book, especially with the Twelve, His hand chosen disciples. We find one example of this from Matthew’s Gospel as Christ conveys His future to His special followers:

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in what would be His final week of human life. It was just before the Triumphal Entry that Jesus tells His disciples for a third time of His coming fate, a fate that had distinct steps.

First, He would be “delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law”.

He then would be condemned by them to death, handed “over to the Gentiles” (talking about the Romans here) to be “mocked and flogged” prior to His execution by crucifixion.

Finally, He would “be raised to life” on “the third day”.

I often wonder how much of this really registered with the disciples at the time. Surely, the words of Jesus came rushing to the forefront of their hearts and minds as they watched things unfold just as Jesus said they would.

For Jesus was betrayed by Judas (He let His followers know this would happen as well, led to the Sanhedrin, convicted of a crime He never committed, delivered over to Pontius Pilate and the Romans where He was first scourged, then crucified, dying within a matter of six hours. He was laid to rest in a newly cut tomb and there He stayed until, you got it, the third day when God raised Him up in resurrection power. The women at the tomb were told as much by the angels of the Lord when they arrived to anoint His body at dawn after the conclusion of the Sabbath:

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered His words. Luke 24:1-8

Jesus had risen from the dead, just as He had assured His disciples He would, and the good news we hold onto, not just on this Resurrection Sunday but every day, is that all Christian believers since the time of Jesus have been assured that they too will rise one day to be with the resurrected, ascended Jesus, the Savior of the world.

Look at these words from John’s Gospel when Christ gave all His disciples that assurance:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3

Jesus gave the assurance He would ride from the dead and He did. But He didn’t depart this world without keeping His beloved followers in mind, particularly when it came to their eternal futures.

For in our scripture passage from John, Jesus promises that He would come back to take all those who believe in Him to the place He was going, the very blessed eternal Kingdom of God (aka Heaven) where they would abide with Him and His Father (and ours) forever. In other words, all disciples of Christ were assured by Him that they too would rise one day and the Lord tells us what that will look like through the Apostle Paul as he wrote to the church in Thessolonica. Look at these words again here:

Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Jesus promised that He would come back for His disciples to take them to where He was. In the passage from 1 Thessalonians, He paints the scene for the day that will happen.

For Jesus will indeed come back and it won’t be quietly. His majesty will be proclaimed, first by a loud command spoken by the “voice of the archangel” and the mighty “trumpet call of God”. Everyone in the world will know He has returned. That is a certainty.

After the announcement of His arrival, look at what happens. The assurance of rising again will come to be as the dead in Christ leave their graves to meet Him in the air. At rest for a long time, they will experience the promised glory that they carried with them when their worldly life ended.

After this, we read where those who are alive in Christ will then rise and join Jesus with those who were dead in Him (this is referred to as The Rapture). It will be an amazing, divine assembly of saints, for sure.

So on this Resurrection Day, we celebrate Jesus rising from death to life but we should also be rejoicing in the assurance that one day we too will rise to meet Him in the air and abide with Him forever, even if our earthly life ends before then. For it’s this promise that is our blessed hope, a hope that can never be taken away from us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

HOLY WEEK SERIES: DID EVERYONE OBSERVE THE SABBATH ON THE DAY AFTER?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Matthew 27:62-66

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was Saturday of what is widely known as Holy Week, the Sabbath rest from what was a more than eventful Preparation Day which saw the crucifixion and death of a man named Jesus, the leader of the Way and nemesis of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Jewish religious leaders.

As we look at the scriptures, we aren’t given insight as to what was going through the minds of Jesus’ followers, followers who extended well beyond His specially chosen Eleven to include the women who traveled with Him and were present at the cross to witness His execution. I would imagine that not many of Jesus’ disciples slept very well on either Friday or Saturday night, awash in the grief and emotions of the crucifixion, and maybe even afraid that they might be next. For if they could get to Jesus and kill Him, what would stop the Pharisees and Sadducees from pursuing and executing them as well.

Now, just because the scriptures don’t give us an insight into what the followers of Jesus were doing on that Sabbath Saturday of Holy Week, we see where this wasn’t the case with the Jewish religious powers who I believe also failed to rest well on that night after the crucifixion. Look at what we find in the Gospel of Matthew toward the tail end of chapter 27:

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. Vv. 62-66

Every time I read this, the same question always pops up:

“Wasn’t the Sabbath established by God to be a day of rest?”

We all know the answer to that question is “Yes!” but you wouldn’t have known it if you were hanging out with the chief priests and Pharisees that Sabbath Saturday. The very men who were esteemed as the ones most fervent and connected to God were the ones who quickly felt it was okay to do what they wanted to do, regardless of whether God prohibited it or not. It’s no wonder why one of the biggest contention points Jesus had with the Pharisees and Sadducees was regarding their blatant hypocrisy.

Going back to our passage for today, I have been always fascinated with what went down as the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province that included Jerusalem. If they were so sure Jesus wasn’t who He said He was, the very Son of the God Most High that they worshiped and followed, why were they even worried about the tomb. Don’t believe for a moment that they were only concerned about the disciples coming to take the body and then make up some story that He was raised from the dead as He said He would. The disciples, minus John, weren’t even at the cross as their Master hung and died. Is it really believable that they were committed to Him at such a level that they would do as the chief priests and Pharisees proposed to Pilate?

No, the Jewish religious leaders were genuinely concerned about the power they saw first-hand in Jesus and were more than a little worried that He indeed could be resurrected from the dead. This is why they found it so important to go to Pilate, despite the fact that it was the Sabbath.

Well, we read where Pilate bought the story and provided the chief priests and Pharisees a guard to watch the tomb. He also authorized the sealing of the tomb in whatever way the Jewish religious leaders wished. The scriptures tell us they “made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone” while “posting the guard”.

And with that, their work, illegal and sinful work on the Sabbath as it was, concluded.

Jesus’ body was inside the sealed tomb and closely guarded. The Sabbath Saturday would be His final day of rest for at dawn, He would come back to life forever. Tomorrow, we’ll look at that glorious resurrection in the final message in this Holy Week series.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Friday, March 29, 2024

HOLY WEEK SERIES: WHAT EXACTLY IS GOOD ABOUT GOOD FRIDAY?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified Him, and with Him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”

With that, He bowed his head and gave up His spirit.

John 19:16b-20, 28-30

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Since Sunday, we have been moving through the final week of Jesus’ human life and ministry, a week often referred to as Holy Week. Today, we reach the day of His crucifixion, a day known widely as Good Friday.

I don’t know about you but this pairing of words has left me feeling uncomfortable on more than one occasion and I often even hesitate to say them because there’s something unsettling about what happened to Jesus on this day, an unsettling feeling that prevents me from feeling good personally or see the day as good at all from a literal perspective.

First, He was arrested for no good reason in Gethsemane’s garden. He then was falsely accused before the Sanhedrin and given a death sentence conviction. All that needed to happen was for the Jewish religious leaders to convince Pontius Pilate to do their dirty work for them through crucifixion, something we know they did successfully. Then, Jesus was brutally beaten and abused by Roman soldiers who took great pride in assaulting Him nearly to the point of death before making Him carry His cross to the place of execution, which is where we start with our message for today, drawn from the 19th chapter of John’s Gospel. Look again at these words here:

With that, He bowed his head and gave up His spirit. John 19:16b-20, 28-30

Crucifixion was one of the most barbaric, brutal executions in Jesus’ day. It was a long, slow spiral into death, nailed by the hands and feet to a cross to hang until the body gave out. This could take a day or several days, usually the latter than the former.

In Jesus’ case, it was only a matter of six hours, such a short time that Pontius Pilate was shocked when Joseph of Arimathea came with a request to bury Christ’s body. The scriptures tell us that Pilate wouldn’t believe Joseph until he had confirmed the death with one of his centurions (Mark 15:42-45).

Perhaps this could be considered somewhat good...for Jesus didn’t suffer for an extended time. Only His Father’s tender mercy and grace could have made it so.

In our passage, we are reminded that Jesus wasn’t crucified alone but was flanked on either side by a criminal who was actually receiving the punishment they deserved. One of the two recognized Jesus as who He was, an innocent man being put to death, and simply asked to be remembered when Jesus entered the kingdom. In response, Jesus let the criminal know that at that very moment, he had gained salvation and would one day be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:32-43).

This could be counted as yet another good thing that came out of a dark day, and I mean literally dark for the sun stopped shining and the sky became literally black for the final three hours of Jesus’ life (Luke 23:44-45).

And then we come to the final three words that our Savior cried out from the cross:

“It is finished.”

After which time, we read where He “bowed His head and gave up His spirit”. Jesus was dead on that Friday of Holy Week but was that really good?

I go back to one of my many pastors through my lifetime who would always say this:

“We couldn’t have the joy of the resurrection without the solemn sorrow of the crucifixion.”

His words really started to put things into a different perspective for me for Jesus had to bear our sins on the cross so that our pardon could be purchased. He had to shed His blood to cleanse and purify us from our transgressions for there could be no forgiveness from sin without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). And He had to die and then conquer death and the grave, just as He defeated sin, in order to properly save those who would place their belief in Him as Savior.

Given this, what was always viewed as a negative, the crucifixion, should really be seen as a positive for it was all a part of God’s redemption plan for all people, whether Jew or Gentile. As my pastor shared, the death of Jesus set the stage for His glorious resurrection on the third day.

So when Jesus said that it was finished, He wasn’t just talking about His bodily life. For when it would come to anyone who would believe in Him afterwards, He meant that the following things would be finished at the moment any Christian believer took their last breath in this worldly existence:

1. Sin was finished. It will no longer have any power or impact on a person because of the justification of Jesus.

2. Suffering would be finished. Any affliction at the time of bodily death will absent in the resurrected believer, whether physical, emotional, or mental.

3. Heartache and heartbreak would be finished. Grieving will cease and no relationship would be anything but loving and supportive once in the company of the saints in Heaven.

4. Since sin is gone after this life ends, so too is evil. There will be a day when crime will no longer exist and everyone can live without fear and danger.

5. Ultimately, death was going to be defeated for as soon as God resurrected Jesus in power, the blessed event we celebrate this coming Sunday, death lost its sting forever and all Christ believers gained the victory that comes through salvation, a salvation that ushers in eternal life.

Yes, Jesus’ death by crucifixion was horrific as He bore our sins and suffered in our place. But it was by His wounds that we are healed and saved, granted a part of the inheritance of Heaven where we will live with our resurrected Savior and the God who sent Him, the Almighty God who is the Maker and Master of all creation, forever.

When we consider all this in sum, this tragic Friday reminds us of all the good we gained because of what Jesus endured - and gained victory over - for us. Today, Good Friday, let us today remember our Savior Jesus, the Messiah, and give Him the proper praise and honor that He deserves.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

HOLY WEEK SERIES: A FINAL PASSOVER MEAL FOR THE PASSOVER LAMB

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to make preparations for You to eat the Passover?”

He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with My disciples at your house.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, He said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray Me.”

They were very sad and began to say to Him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?”

Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?”

Jesus answered, “You have said so.”

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”

Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.

Matthew 26:17-30, 1 Corinthians 5:6-7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was Thursday of Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ human ministry life on earth. This day was particularly significant because it was the day the Passover was being observed in Jerusalem, a day when the city’s population would increase to four or five times its normal size as people would come in from the surrounding communities outside the city for the festival.

To find the advent of the Passover observance, you would need to go back in time to the Israelite captivity and enslavement in Egypt. You’ll recall how God appointed Moses as the leader who would guide the Hebrew people from Egypt when the time came, a time God created by imposing a series of ten curses on Egypt and its ruler, Pharaoh. Each of these curses was worse than the one before and in each instance up to the tenth and final curse, Pharaoh stubbornly refused to release the Israelites.

And so God sent an angel of death to kill all the first born of Egypt but not before ensuring His people would be protected. He instructed each Israelite family to obtain a year-old, male lamb free of defects and slaughter the animal at twilight. They were then to take the blood of the lamb and spread it “on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs”. When the angel of death swept through Egypt, he would pass over all of the places that showed the blood of the lamb...and so it was. At midnight, all of Egypt was struck and the scriptures tell us that there wasn’t a house in the nation that was struck where someone wasn’t left dead (Exodus 12). Only the Israelites were spared because the blood of the lamb brought them pardon and salvation.

From that point on, God commanded His people to formally observe the Passover, making His words a lasting ordinance (Exodus 12), and this is why Jesus, His disciples, and all the other Israelites in Jerusalem on the Thursday of Holy Week were gathering in obedience to the Lord’s demand.

Our scriptures tell us that Jesus was with the twelve when He dropped a bombshell that had to pierce Judas’ heart. For we read where Jesus confesses that He is aware one of His inner circle of followers would betray him. One by one, each of the disciples openly show confusion, afraid it would be one of them. Even Judas, fully knowing it was him, tries to play it cool but he couldn’t run from what he had already done, sold His Master out to the Sanhedrin for a mere thirty silver coins. Jesus makes sure that all the disciples present knew that Judas was the betrayer, the one who would be better off had he not been born.

Immediately after unveiling Judas and his deceit, Jesus turns to two elements of the Passover meal to illustrate how they were to be associated with Him for the duration of mankind’s existence on earth. Every Passover from their forward, His disciples were to do what He did so to remember Him and what He did to bring salvation to all people.

First, Jesus took the bread and after giving thanks, He breaks it, symbolic of how His body would be broken while bearing the sin of all. Whoever would eat of the bread every Passover beyond that night was to bring to mind the abuse and suffering the body of Jesus took before it finally stopped functioning on Calvary’s cross.

Then, Jesus took the cup and gave thanks again before proclaiming the wine within was His blood which symbolized the “covenant...poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”. The “covenant” Jesus refers to here is the new covenant God was making with His people through His Son, a covenant where anyone could gain eternal life whether Jew or Gentile. All one had to do was believe in Jesus, who was later called the “Passover Lamb” in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 5:6-7) because it was His blood that covered the Christian believer so that death would pass over them before they were ushered into eternal life.

Today, holy communion is observed in Christian churches, some more frequently than others but typically happening monthly at a minimum. During the sacrament, Christian believers still stop to remember the Lord Jesus and that last Passover meal, eating the bread and drinking from the cup to remember Him and the new covenant that brings salvation to the Jesus believer.

It all traces back to that Thursday of Holy Week which became the final Passover meal for the blessed Passover Lamb, Jesus. He would breathe His final breath on the cross in less than 24 hours, an event we will look at in tomorrow’s message.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

HOLY WEEK SERIES: THE BETRAYING PLOT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, He said to His disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill Him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand Him over.

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Matthew 26 1-5, 14-16 / 1 Timothy 6:9-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was Wednesday of Holy Week and members of the Sanhedrin, specifically “the chief priests and elders of the people” were growing ever more disenfranchised with the threat Jesus was bringing to their Jewish religion and the place of authority they held within it. Through His unprecedented wise teaching and miraculous works, Christ was gaining quite a following and so the Jewish religious leaders schemed with one another with the goal of eliminating Him, but not until after the Passover because they feared an uprising would happen if they did so before then.

It’s humorous to me that the Sanhedrin believed they could do anything without Jesus fully knowing about it. After all, they believed in the God who could do all things and that meant peering into the very souls of people, evaluating every thought and state of the heart. Fully knowing already the way the salvation story would go and how His death played a key role in that story, we find Jesus telling His disciples that He would indeed be handed over in just two days to be crucified, a punishment His human body would not survive.

As the Sanhedrin members plotted against Jesus, they were surely wondering what the first step would be, the step that involved taking Him into custody. I can’t imagine how surprised they were when one of Jesus’ twelve closest disciples came to them and offered to sell out His Master.

Note that Judas wasn’t willing to do it for nothing. That would have been very out of character for him because we know that inside, he valued money more than he valued anything else. The scriptures affirm this in the scripture passage that served as the foundation for the pre-Holy Week message titled “Anointed” (John 12:1-8). There, you’ll remember how Mary, the sister of the resurrected Lazarus, took expensive nard perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet with it, much to the ire of Judas who argued the act was wasteful, that the nard could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Unfortunately, Judas’ projected attitude of compassion and charity was nothing more than a ruse because God’s word tells us he was the keeper of the money bag and often stole from it. He would have liked to do the same once the nard was sold but Mary used it to show honor and respect to the One who was sent by God to be the Messiah and Savior of the world.

Going back to our scriptures for today, we see where the chief priests offered Judas “thirty pieces of silver” if he would deliver Jesus to them and the betraying disciple gladly accepted the offer, departing to watch “for an opportunity to hand” Jesus over, an opportunity that would present itself in a little more than 24 hours after Jesus shared His last Passover with the Twelve.

I don’t know about you but the story of Judas and what he willingly did to Jesus has always left me saddened, especially since Jesus had made sure Judas was well cared for along with his eleven disciple peers. Jesus even trusted Judas to carry the money bag and in return for that trust, Judas decided to violate one of God’s ten commands, stealing from those who placed their faith in him. His actions always draw me to the words of the Paul as he wrote to his protégé and missionary partner Timothy. In the sixth chapter of the first letter, Paul said this:

Today’s special Holy Week message brings the following question to us:

Do our actions show we love Jesus more than our money?

If not, any Christian could fall into the trap of temptation as Judas did as the root of evil anchors itself into the soil of their soul with the intent of converting “foolish and harmful desires” into “ruin and destruction”, a ruin and destruction sure to pierce them “with many griefs”.

When Judas came to his senses, convicted of his horrific, sinful disloyalty and betrayal, he took his own life, unwilling to go forward bearing the guilt of what he had done. Since that moment in first century A.D., many people have followed in Judas’ footsteps, plotting to betray those who trusted them. My prayer is that more and more people will hear about this Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ human life, and the contributing factors that led to His death by crucifixion. For if we don’t learn from the betraying plot of Judas Iscariot, we are destined and doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

HOLY WEEK SERIES: THE POWER OF FAITH AND THE SIN OF FRUITLESSNESS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit. When He reached it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard Him say it.

When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”

Mark 11:12-14, 20-23

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we look at an event that started on the Monday of Holy Week as Jesus was making His way into Jerusalem with His disciples. This preceded what we looked at in yesterday’s message as Jesus saw the marketplace set up in the Court of the Gentiles and cleared out the money changers and other vendors because the location had been designated by God as a holy place of prayer.

Here was the initial matter detailed in the first part of our passage for today:

When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. Mark 11:12-14

On the surface, this is confusing. Why would Jesus curse a fig tree and condemn it to never bear fruit again?

The answer comes in knowing a little bit about the fig tree and how it functions, particularly when it comes to fruit bearing. Unlike many trees who produce leaves before bearing fruit, the fig tree is just the opposite. Even though the figs might not be completely ripened, they would grow and appear in advance of the leaves. And so when Jesus saw the “fig tree in leaf” but figless, we find Him cursing the tree in earshot of the disciples. This led to the return to the tree on Tuesday morning and the second half of our scripture passage from Mark’s Gospel:

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

To the astonishment of the disciples, the fig tree that was very much alive on Monday was now “withered from the roots”. We read where Peter speaks out loud what everyone else was thinking which led Jesus to turn the matter into a teaching moment.

You see, it was completely improbable and even impossible for a seemingly healthy tree to completely wither all the way to the root in just a mere 24 hours. But the point Jesus was making was that when one has faith in the Lord through which all things are achievable, the improbable becomes probable and the impossible possible. Jesus tells His followers (and us) that even mountains can be moved with someone maintains their faith. Such is its power.

Before I close, we need to go back to the fig tree for the second lesson to be learned in this story.

Jesus cursed and condemned the fig tree because it didn’t produce the fruit it was expected to produce. Moving to the Gospel of Luke, we find some reinforcing words from Jesus in regard to how nature’s fruit producing elements are comparative to a person’s work for the Lord. Look at His words from the sixth chapter:

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:43-45

Just as a tree is recognized and identified by its fruit, so too is a servant of the Lord. A true laborer for the cause of the Lord and His Gospel will produce good works, works in step with the Lord’s will, using the talents and gifts He has given, whether time, talent, or treasure.

A good servant “brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart”, a good manifested and developed by the Lord Himself. Led by the Spirit, He produced the fruit born out of righteousness.

Conversely, a person who refuses to allow the Lord to lead them will follow their own desires or worst yet, the desires of Satan. The product will be evil sinfulness born “out of the evil stored up” in their heart. Their actions would be defined by fruitlessness like the fig tree that Jesus reviled.

So there you have it. Two takeaways from the Tuesday of Holy Week and the matter of the fig tree outside of Jerusalem.

First, we can’t underestimate the power found in faith and we won’t do it if we don’t lose sight of the One who we place our faith in, the Lord through which all things can be done.

Second, the Lord doesn’t favor anyone who fails to bear fruit for Him in the way they live. A life rooted in Him will always produce good fruit, the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). One absent of Him will always produce sin, a sin He detests.

In sum, don’t lose a grip on the power of faith and always strive to bear fruit by allowing the Lord to lead you. This is the calling of the Word today for us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.