THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Monday, April 6, 2026

AN ATTITUDE OF PEACE

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.

“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’"

“The officers shall say to the army: ‘Has anyone built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may dedicate it. Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.’ Then the officers shall add, ‘Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too.’ When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.”

“When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.”

“However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.”

“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.”

Deuteronomy 20

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

One thing was certain as Israel was about to enter the Promised Land. They weren’t entering a land that wasn’t already occupied and those who were there weren’t going to surrender without a fight. Conflict was inevitable.

There was one other thing that was sure. The Israelites weren’t any ordinary force coming into Canaan for they had the Lord on their side…the Almighty, Omnipotent God of all Creation…the God who promised He would be with Israel and deliver their opposition to them. We know this is truth from our scriptures today where we read this:

“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’"

What an assurance this must have been for Israel! For they knew God was with them before they even entered any conflict, working things out in their favor in accordance with His will.

And so it is with us as well today.

For it’s inevitable that we will enter into our own skirmishes in life as well. Sometimes these happen when we enter new territories but more often than not, they occur on ground that is more common and familiar to us like the workplace, in our home, or perhaps with family members close and afar. Regardless of the situation, the part or parties involved, or the location of the adversary, God is with us nonetheless and is ready to lead us through any battle we might encounter, a truth we should never forget.

Before I close, there is one other important part of this scripture passage for today. Look at these words again:

Note here that the Israelites weren’t supposed to enter into immediate attack on every city it came upon. No, the first thing they were to do is offer peace before conflict and although we don’t know how many cities accepted this offer, I would have to guess there were some. This tasking for Israel was important because resolution of a potential battle can sometimes happen quickly if the right initial attitude is taken…an attitude of peace.

I know I can vouch for this from personal experience. In fact, I have found that I can often bring someone with a combatant attitude to my place of peace by refusing to exchange the same combatant attitude with them. Maybe you can relate to this. For have you ever witnessed two people get into an argument with one another and watch it escalate as neither person is willing to back down? Usually it results in one person trying to one-up the other until words turn into physical altercations. No one wins in these circumstances and, more often than not, someone just gets hurt.

Conversely, have you ever witnessed someone who wanted to get into an argument with someone but the other person remained calm, collected, and unwilling to enter into heated discussion with the other? Perhaps you noticed in these circumstances where the dispute ramped down to the level of the calmer person much like throwing cold water on a burning flame? Either that happens or the angry person just walks away frustrated because the peaceful person refuses to engage them in anger.

I have learned in my life that this approach is golden and use it all the time because I want to be an instrument of peace, not strife…just like Jesus, the Prince of Peace. And I can do it because the Holy Spirit is alive within me.

So how about you?

How do you handle matters of conflict?

Are you an instrument of dissension or peace?

Do you see God as always being with you…ready to guide and direct you through any clash when it comes?

Friends, God’s Word today is speaking loudly, bringing us great wisdom and good news. Thanks be to God that we never need to fear walking this world alone. Thanks be as well that as we do walk it, we can do so with an attitude of peace.

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.

Sunday, April 5, 2026

PASSION WEEK SERIES: GO QUICKLY AND TELL

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

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ Now I have told you.”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples.

Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me.”

Matthew 28:1-10

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

Today is Resurrection Sunday, the day when Jesus came back to life while conquering sin, death, and the grave. It is a day of celebration, a day of recovery from the sadness and sorrow of the cross and Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s a day that brings us a hope that can never be taken away if we choose to accept Jesus as our personal Savior.

So how did the resurrection miracle unfold and what is our role in it more than 2,000 years later?

We’ll look at this in today’s message, the last one in this Passion Week series, as we examine these scriptures from the Gospel of Matthew:

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

The Sabbath after Jesus’ crucifixion concluded at sundown on what we would consider Saturday today. Jesus had been taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and, after gaining approval to prepare the body for burial, he did just that along with Nicodemus before placing Jesus in a new tomb. Scripture tells us that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James (also referred to as the “other Mary” to distinguish her from Jesus’ mother) were present at the tomb owned by Joseph on the day of Jesus' burial.

And then everyone went to their respective dwelling places to recognize the Sabbath, obedient to God’s commands.

Can you imagine the anxious anticipation of the women as they had to wait more than a full day to get to go to the tomb? These women had spent a lot of time with Jesus, traveling with Him during His ministry. They had great adoration and love for Him, an adoration and love they wished to express through anointing His body with spices and perfumes.

So at the light of dawn on the first day of the week (the day we know as Sunday which actually had begun at sundown on Saturday), the women went to the tomb. Looking at the sum of all the Gospel accounts, we know the names of some of the women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, and Salome) but not all. Of interest, Mark’s Gospel tell us that the women were discussing how they might get the stone rolled away from the tomb to access Jesus’ body but once they arrived at the tomb, they would find that God had already taken care of it.

For the scriptures tell us that a violent earthquake struck as “an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven” and rolled away the stone which he then sat on. You’ll recall that Pontius Pilate had been approached by the Pharisees and chief priests the day after Jesus had been crucified…asked to place guards at the tomb so none of Jesus’ disciples could come and take the body before claiming He had been raised from the dead. Pilate sent guards to the tomb but as we see in our passage from Matthew, they were so terrified after seeing the angel that they “became like dead men” and would therefore not be a deterrent for the women to look in the tomb to see Jesus was indeed gone.

Note that the guards weren’t alone in being afraid because the women were also frightened, something sensed and addressed by the angel who said this to put the women at ease:

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.”

He then followed this by telling them that Jesus was not in the tomb:

“He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay.”

As mentioned prior, the women had been with Jesus during His ministry journeys and were aware of Him saying that He would be crucified and rise again on the third day. Now His words had come to life and the angel extended an invitation to the women to go into the tomb and see where Jesus had laid before giving them this command:

“Go quickly and tell His disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ Now I have told you.”

And the women wasted no time to do what the angel had told them to do. After seeing the tomb was indeed empty, they “hurried away from the tomb” to “tell the disciples”, even though they were still “afraid” but also “filled with joy”. Then suddenly, before they could reach the disciples, we find Jesus appearing to them, simply saying:

“Greetings.”

Even in the midst of their fears, imagine the absolute elation that the women had to experience at that moment. Miraculously, their risen Savior was before them, a Savior they thought they had lost, never to be seen again. But here before them was Jesus, not only able to be seen but held as well for we read where the women “clasped His feet and worshiped Him”.

Who wouldn't, given the circumstances?

Now, note that Jesus didn’t let the women stay with Him long. There was still much to be done on the day He was resurrected and so He told the women to do just as the angel had told them prior:

“Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me.”

And so the women did what their Lord and Master had commanded. They went quickly to tell Jesus’ disciples that He had risen from the tomb and was very much alive, something they knew first-hand because they had seen and touched Him themselves.

So that brings us to today and our resurrection day celebration.

What do you think Jesus would say if He appeared to us this very moment?

I think His words would be the same as they were to the women. He would tell us to go quickly and tell others the good news of His resurrection…that He had been raised from the dead just as He said He would. He would want us to let everyone know that because of His resurrection, those who place their hope and trust in Him can experience their own resurrection when this earthly life ends.

Friends, this day, Easter Sunday (also referred to as Resurrection Sunday), is not a day that we are expected to rejoice in and then forget. Rather, we are to consistently and intentionally share the good news of everlasting life through Jesus with everyone we encounter during each day God blesses us with, seeking to carry out His Great Commission command in obedience.

For there is much work to be done to carry on what Jesus started and, like Him, we shouldn’t rest until our time here on earth is finished.

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, April 4, 2026

PASSION WEEK SERIES: RESTING

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

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the Kingdom of God.

Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Luke 23:50-56

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

It was the day after Jesus’ crucifixion and the Jewish Sabbath, a holy day commanded by God to be set aside for worship, family time, and rest.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were resting after receiving Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate, preparing it for burial in accordance with Jewish customs, placing it in a tomb, and rolling a large stone to cover the tomb entrance.

Some of the women who had followed Jesus through much of His ministry work were also resting, awaiting the opportunity at daybreak to go to the tomb and anoint Jesus’ body with spices and perfumes that they had prepared the day He was crucified after watching Joseph and Nicodemus place Jesus’ body in the tomb.

And of course, Jesus’ was very much at rest in the tomb before He came back to life, emerging from the grave to make many appearances before ascending to Heaven.

How can we be sure Jesus was resting?

We can rewind to two separate incidents when He displayed the power to resurrect others.

The first one involved the daughter of Jairus, a Jewish synagogue leader. Look at this passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

While He was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before Him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put Your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did His disciples.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, He said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.”

But they laughed at Him.

After the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25

Did you catch the words of Jesus?

“The girl is not dead but asleep.”

The crowd who had gathered at Jairus’ house laughed at Jesus, thinking He was crazy because He said this…that is until He went into the room where the girl laid, took her by the hand, and she woke up, very much alive.

And then there was the miracle resurrection act Jesus performed involving His good friend, Lazarus. John shared this account in His Gospel:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped His feet with her hair.)

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

When He heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days, and then He said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone You, and yet You are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” After He had said this, He went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but His disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” John 11:1-15

Here, we read where Jesus had received word from Lazarus’ daughters, Martha and Mary, that his beloved friend was sick but instead of going to Bethany immediately, He chose to wait two days at which time He informed His disciples that they were going to “go back to Judea” because Lazarus had “fallen asleep” and He was going to “wake him up”. In other words, Lazarus was resting and the waking up was code for resurrecting him, just as had been the case with Jairus' daughter.

So where does this leave us today? What can we glean from this message, the seventh of this Passion Week series?

I believe there are two takeaways:

First, this matter of being at rest after death until resurrection is something all those who place their faith and trust in Jesus will experience. God’s word makes this clear in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians:

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

The events that will surround Jesus’ return will be nothing short of spectacular and note that those Christians who are still alive when He returns will not precede those who have passed away and “fallen asleep in Him”. In other words, believers in Christ who have died from a worldly perspective are really just resting and awaiting Jesus' second coming when He will awaken them from their slumber, resurrect them, and then usher them into the eternal life only found through believing in Him.

It’s this first takeaway that leads us to the second.

For as we are reading this on the day before we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, we can rest easy in hope and peace, knowing everything is going to be fine no matter what life brings. We have this blessed assurance because of Jesus, our Savior who made sure that death is not the end but rather the entry point into life forever in the place He has prepared for us in the Kingdom.

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, April 3, 2026

PASSION SERIES: THE YARDSTICK FOR FORGIVENESS

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

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Matthew 23:34

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

Today is Good Friday and as we come to our sixth devotion in the Passion Week series, I want to touch on an important aspect of the cross, one I believe that gets lost sometimes in all our thinking about Jesus and His suffering as He paid the penalty for our sins.

You see, we need only look to the cross of Calvary and the outstretched arms of Jesus that were nailed to it to find the yardstick with which we should use to measure the forgiveness we are to extend to others.

With this, a question…

Who do you know in your life that needs your forgiveness?

I think we all may have someone, perhaps a family member or a friend or a co-worker. Maybe it’s even a stranger who has done harm to you or someone you know. The undeniable truth is that everyone will have to face the matter of forgiving another at some time in life and it’s not always easy. For sometimes, we refuse to forgive and continue harboring ill will against the one who has wronged us. And in the midst of refusing to pardon the wrongs someone has done to us or someone we know, we lose sight of one very important truth:

We, as sinners, all have wronged the Lord…and we’ve done it over and over and over again.

If we're really honest with ourselves, we would see that the Lord blesses us so very much but then we too often show our gratitude by disobeying and disregarding Him in the way we live. In other words, our response to His goodness and call to righteousness is too often wickedness. With this, it’s amazing that all of us haven’t just been wiped off the face of the earth for surely it is something we would fully deserve.

But that’s not what happens, does it?

The Lord doesn’t strike us down when we wrong Him. Instead, He grants us His forgiveness and grace and love…and I don’t know about you but I would have trouble counting the number of times He has pardoned me and accepted my cries for mercy born out of prayers of repentance.

So if our Lord can be so gracious and compassionate and merciful, then what’s our problem? Why aren’t we willing to release a grudge we are holding against another and instead show the same forgiveness that He has shown us? After all, didn’t the very words of Jesus command us to do so?

Look at the direction He gave Peter (and us) on the matter of forgiving:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore, the kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”

"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.”

"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'”

"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.”

"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Matthew 18:21-35

Jesus is clear here in His teaching. We are to forgive as the Master forgives unless we want to invite God to begin holding our sin debt against us.

Now, this would have been enough on its own but we need to look to Calvary where we find one more forgiveness standard to seal this message. This standard is found at the cross where Jesus, the Savior of the world, was dying from crucifixion when He spoke these words:

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Matthew 23:34

It’s incredible, right? For in the midst of more suffering than any of us will experience while in the presence of the mocking and ridicule from the Roman soldiers and the crowds who gathered to watch Him die, Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, chose to not condemn and instead asked for His enemies to be pardoned pardon by His Father.

Indeed, as His life slowly dwindled away, God's only Son, the Savior who did nothing but love and teach and heal during his short life on earth, didn't harbor a grudge against those who wronged Him but instead showed mercy. He, the crucified Jesus who knew He was soon to die while bearing the sin of all mankind, did not pass blame onto those who were killing Him but forgave them instead.

And this man Jesus, who could have commanded a legion of angels to come and kill His opponents, instead chose to exonerate them because anyone who would crucify and kill Him surely could not possibly know what they were doing or who He truly was.

Friends, I hope you can hear the Lord speaking loudly to us on this holy Good Friday. For if Jesus could forgive in the midst of His circumstances, then so can we in any situations we have faced, are facing, and are yet to face. My prayer today is that we will all commit ourselves forgive as Jesus did from the cross and let go of any ill will we may be carrying against another, an ill will that does nothing but poison us from the inside out, an ill will that pulls us away from living and loving and showing the mercy of Jesus to others, a grudge that we have no right to carry.

In the end translation, God’s word is crystal clear.

We are to forgive as Jesus forgave 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.

Thursday, April 2, 2026

PASSION WEEK SERIES: A CALL TO REMEMBRANCE

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

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came, Jesus and HHis apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.”

Luke 22:7-20

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

It was the last full day Jesus would have on earth, the fifth day in what is known as Passion Week. This day on the Christian calendar is also typically referred to as Maundy Thursday, the day Jesus shared the His final Passover meal with His disciples, which is why we find Communion often referred to as "The Last Supper".

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that it was the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, a seven day period to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt (Matthew 26:17). And because the Israelites departed Egypt in haste, they had no time to make bread as they usually would. The bread was without yeast, which was also called leaven, and therefore the why we find “unleavened bread” in the festival title.

So given all this, we have the framework for the events taking place in our scripture passage today. It is Thursday, the fifth day of Passion Week, the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and the day that the Passover meal would be partaken. Let’s look again at our scripture passage from Luke’s Gospel to see what transpired and the call of Jesus to remember Him:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:7-20

Since it was the day the Passover meal was to be eaten, we find two of Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John, asking their Lord where preparations for the meal were to be made, preparations that would require the sacrifice of a Passover Lamb. Ironically the next day, Jesus, the One John the Baptist proclaimed as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29), would be sacrificed Himself on Calvary’s cross so anyone who would believe in Him would have the opportunity for death to pass over them, not perishing but rather living on for all eternity in Heaven (John 3:16). In fact, when we look at Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we find him sharing this:

“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. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

In response to His disciples’ question, we find Jesus giving very specific instructions to Peter and John, two of His most trusted followers who perfectly carried out the direction they were given. Indeed, things happened just as Jesus said they would as they met the owner of the house where the meal would occur and were led to a furnished upper room where all Passover preparations could be made.

Later that day in the evening, Jesus arrived with the rest of the disciples and they sat down to eat the Passover meal together. We should keep in mind that the disciples had no idea of what was going to transpire across the next 24 hours but Jesus well knew what was ahead. For before evening would fall the following day, He would be dead and catalyst that would propel Him down the road to crucifixion would be the betrayal He would suffer at the hands of one of the twelve who were dining with Him.

The scriptures show us that this wasn’t something that Jesus kept secret because when we study the other Gospels we find that He clearly identified Judas Iscariot as His betrayer (John 13:26). Despite this, Judas still went ahead and sold out his Master for a mere thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16), the amount required to be paid to a master if their slave was accidentally killed (Exodus 21:32). It’s a sad testimony as to just how far he (Judas) had fallen into sin, taken there by none other than Satan himself (John 13:27).

Back to the Passover meal for with the disclosure of His coming betrayal out of the way, Jesus got down to what The Last Supper has been known best for, Jesus sharing the bread and the cup with His disciples while giving them a call to remember Him.

First, we read where Jesus took the bread and, after He gave thanks, broke it while telling His disciples that it symbolized His body which would be given up for them. The next day, this would literally happen as He would endure severe beating at the hands of Roman soldiers before being nailed by His hands and feet to a wooden cross and hoisted up to die in public humiliation. We need to always remember that Jesus suffered greatly to save His people, bearing all the judgment for sin upon Himself while paying the penalty that every sinner really deserved.

It was this suffering and brokenness that Jesus didn’t want His disciples to forget. Every time they would break bread together in Communion, present and future, they were to remember Him and the great substitutionary sacrifice He willingly carried out, purchasing the pardon of anyone who would simply place their trust and belief in Him as Savior. In the end translation, He died to a multitude of His disciples could gain eternal life.

After breaking the bread, we see Jesus take the cup, telling His disciples of its significance. For every time they would drink from it, they were to remember the crimson blood that poured out of His body at the cross, a shed blood that would wash them white as snow from their sins, a shed blood that would usher in God’s new covenant, not just for the Jews but the Gentiles (non-Jews) as well. Jesus’ sacrifice was the final one ever needed for the atonement of sins and anyone placing their trust and hope in Him would become a legitimate child of the God Most High and co-heir to His blessed Kingdom (Romans 8:9-17).

Friends, as the classic hymn reminds us, “Jesus Paid It All” and all to Him we owe. He allowed His body to be broken in place of ours and shed His blood, not ours, to bring atonement for our sins. So whenever we participate in the Lord’s Supper (or Communion or the Holy Eucharist…other names for this sacrament), we need to answer the call of Jesus to do it in remembrance of Him. It’s the least we can do to honor Him for all that He pain and suffering He endured to save us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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