Seriously--you forgot the bread??

Matthew 16:5 reads, in reference to Jesus' disciples: "When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread."

Ha! Of course they did--a group of twelve men! So typical!
(Did I just say that out loud?)

Were there no women around to ask, "Do you think you should pack something to eat for later?"

It's even funnier when Jesus says to them, after the fact, that they need to be on their guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees and they are convinced he's referring to forgetting the bread!

It seems they expected from Jesus the same kind of sarcastic disapproval that they might have received from the women in their lives. Like the times when my husband is scratching his head, not sure how to respond to some enigmatically snide comment I've made, assuming it must somehow be related to yet another perceived shortcoming of his.

Sadly, my husband is often right and I'm often out of line.

But Jesus isn't like me--yay!! And He was simply trying to tell them something true about God and life--not berate them for being forgetful. Hmmm . . . . an example worth following.

Don't Be Lazy

"I'm not even sure if I believe the whole Jesus story anyway," she said with disdain.

"You're not sure?"

"No."

"Don't you think you should be sure, then?"

"No."

"No?"

"No. It doesn't really matter to me. It doesn't matter if it's right or not."

"It doesn't?"

"No. Because when you say that one group is right, then you inevitably have to label someone else as wrong. I don't want to label anyone as wrong."

"Even if they are?"

"I don't know if they are."

"Right. So don't you think you should look into it? Do some research?"

"No. No. I just don't care. It makes no difference to me."

Really?

No. Not really.

It does make a difference to you. Whether you notice it or not. Whether you think you care or not. Whether you want it to make a difference or not, it does. You have zero control over how much difference it makes to you. You can deny the importance of the question for now. You can call it irrelevant. You can call yourself tolerant because of it.

But the question is not irrelevant and you are not tolerant.

You are lazy.

But I love you. So, please -- don't be lazy. Be diligent. Knock and keep knocking. Seek and keep seeking. Ask and keep asking.

How you resolve the question matters. Actually, how you resolve the question is the only thing that ever matters in your whole life.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Near!

Poor, sweet disciples.

They are ready to take their country back. Ready to be liberated from the dirty, rotten party in power (darn Romans). Ready to have their leader installed in his rightful position of authority.

All this talk of the kingdom has them surging with adrenaline.

Yes! Yes! The kingdom of heaven is near! We are ready to take our country back!

"Will you allow these two sons of mine to sit at your right and left in your kingdom?" They are excited about politics. They are excited about making some new policies. Policies in line with the commandments of God. Good, beneficial policies.

Jesus will help us take back what is rightfully ours! Jesus will be King! What else could all this kingdom talk be about?

Sickening disappointment.

"We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel."

Things are not going as planned. The dirty, rotten Romans are still in power. And our own countrymen don't even like us that much.

But, our nation was founded on the principles of God! It's not supposed to be this way! We want things to go back to the way they used to be! When our country was on top and subject to no one! When the Promise Land belonged to us alone and we were in charge and abortion was illegal and there was prayer in school and everybody always spoke English!

We don't want to be under the yoke of these dirty, rotten liberals (I mean, Romans)! We want political power! We want to make policies in line with the commandments of God. Good, beneficial policies.

What kind of kingdom are you talking about, Jesus? What kind of revolution have you been referring to? What could following you possibly be about, if it's not political? You mean, you didn't come to help us get our country back?

"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

"Or the Senate to the Republicans?"

Poor, sweet disciples.

Christi Iscariot

Imagine what it meant to Jesus to be betrayed with a kiss. . . .imagine the stench of hypocrisy that assailed His senses as Judas met him with the greeting of a friend when they both knew differently. Jesus had railed against hypocrisy with a special vehemence throughout His entire ministry. How is it that someone so intimately connected with Him could be utterly unaffected by what he had seen and heard? What did that feel like for Jesus? Was He angry?

Imagine what it was like for Jesus to hear Judas pretending to care about the poor as he continued to pilfer the group's funds for his own interests. And in spite of it, for Jesus to continue pouring Himself out for Judas' sake, His investment of time and energy undiminished by Judas' lack of progress. Was He frustrated? Did He ever feel like He was wasting His time?

Imagine what thoughts ran through Jesus' brain as He tenderly washed the dust and grime from Judas' feet, full of the knowledge that Judas was looking for a chance even then to slip out the door and betray Him. Did He wonder why He hadn't been able to win Judas' heart?

Imagine the anguish, on the cross, as Jesus felt the weight of Judas' cowardly, selfish sin fall on His own head and knew that His own Father could not bear the sight of Him because of it. Did He ever dare to hope that Judas might finally love Him, once He had paid for His sin and made for him a way back home?

Has He ever felt any of those things about me?

The Answer

I intentionally don't take an active interest in politics. It's not because I don't care. It's not because I'm naive and think it doesn't affect me or because I find it boring. It's none of those things. I don't invest myself in things political because it seems abundantly clear to me that those things are so very NOT the answer. Neither side, neither party.

However it is that Christianity came to be so closely identified with a particular political party is well beyond me. When did it get that small? George Bush didn't ruin our country and Barack Obama is not ruining it either. And there is not a man or woman in either party who is the answer.

I have plenty of opinions. I have my own ideas about what's right and best and fair. I have opinions about taxation and healthcare. But I know without question that more or less taxes is not the answer. Healthcare--whether we have it or don't--is not the answer either.

I have some really passionate feelings about immigration and how highly I regard a man who builds a raft and then sets sail on it across an ocean, steeled with hope. Who can denigrate that and why would they want to? Who deserves to live here anyway? And who is it that feels so comfortable making that judgment? But resolving the immigration issue is not the answer.

I believe the prerogative we have to take a baby's life before she's born is tragic and heartbreaking and wrong and I think our country will reap the consequences of its decisions--how many brilliant, talented people that would have changed the face of our nation forever have not had the privilege of birth? How different our future will be from what it could have been! But putting an end to abortion forever is not the answer.

Capitalism is not the answer. Democracy is not the answer. Prayer in school is not the answer.

Jesus is the Answer.

Only Him. Every time.

How ridiculous it is to me to attach any great importance to what bill our Congress does or does not pass, when it cannot possibly be the answer to anything at all.

Apart from Jesus, everything will fail. Apart from Jesus' plan of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, everything will corrupt. Jesus is the Answer. He is Life. Without Him, everything will rot and spoil and die.

I see people that I love putting hope in things that might be meaningful, but still, they are not the answer. They are systems and methods of coping with our fallen-ness, not answers. Some methods are more successful than others, but coping is not the answer. The answer is the only One who can save us out of our fallen-ness and eternally redeem our lives.

I really don't have it in me to spend a lot of time or energy discussing politics, whether or not I agree with the conversation. It is just so NOT the answer.

7

She is seven.

Large brown eyes. Unexpected freckles across the bridge of her nose.

She was six when she learned to ride a bike. She was five when she lost her first tooth. She was four when she asked to be baptized.

Shaggy brown hair falling into her face. Dirty toes from a barefoot life.

She was three when she first dressed up for Halloween. She was two when we celebrated in Costa Rica. She was one when we moved.

Now she is seven. Seven and beautiful and more than my heart can hold.

I don't know why I feel so sad.

The "S" Bomb

At the end of the book of Genesis, Joseph drops a bomb. Really. He tells his brothers that what they had meant for evil, God had meant for good. It's the most jawdropping description of God's sovereignty that I have ever heard.

He doesn't condone what they did and say that "it was meant to be" or that "everything happens for a reason". He gives the reason: "you meant evil against me". What his brothers did sucked and he didn't make excuses for them or paint them as pawns in the hand of a God who was hell-bent on getting his own way.

Joseph is telling his brothers that God's omnipotence is so unequivocally complete that His good and pleasing and perfect will is accomplished in our lives--in all lives--without any compromise of our free will. We--with our smallish, finite minds, trapped in time and space and unable to comprehend things which do not begin nor end--have missed the boat that Joseph was on. We understand only that if a thing turns out the way it is planned, it is because something compelled it to be so. The only way we know to determine the outcome is to play with a stacked deck. And so we ascribe to our Creator the same brand of tyrannical power we find in a dictator--power derived from dominance and coercion. Or we cheapen His authority by labeling it simply "foreknowledge" as if He were looking in His infallible crystal ball without being involved.

His purposes, which are fixed and have been fixed since the dawn of time, stand and stand and stand and continue to stand. They stand and they will not be moved and man is free. He is free and his choices are real and his will is his own. And yet the purpose of God will stand. And we cannot comprehend a dimension in which these two true things can exist simultaneously. But they do. And He is.

Joseph got it. And so he dropped a bomb on his brothers that hopefully sent them spinning. Hopefully. Hopefully they got a sense of the Staggering Goodness that was thick enough and broad enough and wide enough to swallow their evil intentions whole and blaze all the brighter.

My Redeemer lives.