Lent #5: She suffered too.

 

 “I suffered much

    over Jesus in a dream."

    (Pilate’s wife, Matthew 27:19)

Good Friday, that terrible day that Easter turned Good, is a few weeks off; but, I thought I’d tell a Good Friday story that seldom gets told. It’s about Pilate’s wife.

In the midst of Passover turmoil; Pontius Pilate, the ruling Roman Governor of Judea, has to make a judgment concerning what to do with Jesus. The crowd that welcomed Jesus with palm branches singing “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;” has, within a few days, turned into an angry mob shouting out to Pilate, “Crucify him!” Pilate has one job, and that is to prevent a riot and to keep the peace. “So he delivered Jesus to be crucified” (Mk 15:15).

In the midst of the turmoil Pilate receives a note from his wife: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him" (Mt 27:19). I don’t know what he did with the note—maybe stuck it in his pocket. Interesting that she knows, and that she suffers.

Lent #4: A Lenten Confession.

 Do you also

   wish to leave me? (John 6:67)

The Gospels tell of two Peter confessions. The first took place up at Caesarea Philippi when Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” To which Peter confesses, “Thou art the Christ!” (Mk 8:29)  In no time, Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me Satan” (Mk 8:33). 

The second, less known confession, takes place back home at Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus began to speak of his suffering. He offended the crowd by talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. It offends us still. After such talk, “many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (Jn 6:66). Jesus turns to the twelve and asks, “Do you also want to leave me?” To which Peter answers, “Lord, where else are we going to go?” (Jn 6:68). That’s a Lenten confession. Sometimes, that’s the best we can do. Where else are we going to go?

Surprisingly, the second and less known confession, holds up over the long haul. The first, more heroic confession, ends up faltering. Heroic confessions can get us into trouble. A more sober, Lenten like confession, keeps us close to Jesus even in times of suffering. “Where else are we going to go? Only you have the words of eternal life.” 

First Sunday of Lent: What could we give up?

 Let the same mind be in you

    that was in Christ Jesus…

who emptied himself,

  being born in human form. (Philippians 2:7)

When Simeon blessed baby Jesus; he told Mary that “a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:35)—that the Blessed One would be “pierced.” The whole of Jesus’ earthly life is marked by suffering, pathos and even dread—as in the journey to Bethlehem, and Herod’s killing of the children, and the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. Hurt is always about. That’s Lent.

Jesus never glides above it all. He suffered. He suffered because, as the early church hymn goes: “Though he was in the form of God, …He emptied himself, taking human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8). The Apostle quotes the words of the hymn not simply for theological reasons; but, as a model for how we should think—our Lenten behavior. That is, we should not stand above it all; or, make big claims about who we are or what we have accomplished; but rather, empty ourselves of pretense and become like Jesus. “Out of love,” the Apostle calls us “to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves” (Phil 2:2-3). That would be a good Lenten sacrifice—“to count others as better than ourselves.”

I suppose such teaching could be psychologically damaging if we didn’t know the whole of Jesus—if we didn’t know the second stanza of the hymn about Christ’s exaltation: his resurrection and ascension. Because we are nestled in Christ, we no longer have to prove our own righteousness—that we are right. Our rightness comes from Christ our Righteous One. That is why we are free to “humble ourselves and count others as better than ourselves.” What could we give up for Lent? Maybe we could give up insisting on our own rightness and hear others out as if they might be on to something.

Lent #2: Tradition

These are only human

   traditions and practices (Colossians 2:2)

Lenten Season marks 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. If you count, it comes out to 46 days. That’s because you can’t count Sundays, because Sundays are always feast days; and, Lenten days tend to be fast days. You can’t fast on Sunday. It is resurrection day. It is “The Lord’s Day” (Rv 1:10).

We might do well to recall that “these are only human traditions.” Jesus often gets in trouble for “transgressing the traditions of the elders.” “Therefore,” insist the Apostle, “don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:16-19). That means, we are free to participate in the Lenten tradition as we see fit. Such traditions are something like the clothes we choose to wear. The clothes we wear aren’t us; but, what we wear says something about us. So, allow the Lenten tradition to be worn in a way that best suits you—you as you (Ro 14:6).

The Lenten “shadow” can lead us again to the breathtaking “substance” of the Son of God who entered into and participated fully in our human suffering—our pathos. As for how we practice the tradition… I’ve never entertained the thought of fasting for forty days—maybe a day or two. I’ve departed a few Ash Wednesday services with an ashen cross smudge on my forehead, but I’ve never conducted such a service. When it comes to what we deny ourselves; or, in what way we seek to participate in the sufferings of Christ; it is best we keep it to ourselves. Don’t make a big deal about it. That’s what our Lord taught us that day on the mountain: “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Mt 6:3). That’s Jesus’ parabolic way of saying, “Don’t make a big deal about your piety.”

 

Ash Wednesday: The First Day of Lent

 Jesus showed himself alive

   after his passion (Acts 1:3)

“Passion” comes from a cluster of Greek words around pathos from which we get our word “pathos;” from which we get our own cluster of words like “sympathize” or “empathize” or “compassion.” It is most often translated “suffering,” or “affliction.” It speaks of the afflictions of the soul—of the whole person. On Ash Wednesday, the sign of the cross is smeared with ashes on our forehead. The ashes symbolize our mortality as in “dust to dust and ashes to ashes” (Gn 18:27). It’s a time to owe up to our own finitude and to marvel how Jesus participated fully in our pathos “humbling himself unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). 

During Lent, we seek to identify with Christ’s sufferings and afflictions, his griefs and sorrows (Is 53), his pathos. It saves us from the heresy of Docetism which claimed that Jesus only “seemed to suffer,” or “pretended to suffer.” It means for us that to be like Jesus is to enter into our own pathos. We don’t have to pretend. We suffer.

Last Sunday of Epiphany: A Valentine Invitation

 

 

Come to me… and I will give you rest.

    Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…

    and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy,

    and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28&30)

 

Epiphany ends with a Valentine Invitation—a love card that comes from God’s side. To know and love Jesus is to know and love the whole of God.  

I thought of Jesus’ Invitation this last week when spending a few days with our long time medical missionary friends. While serving in a mission hospital in Kijabe, Kenya, our oldest granddaughter, with her own medical hopes, spent time with them to observe their medical work. She tells us of what a wonder it was to be with them.

We met our friends, “with all our road before us” (Dymer, Lewis), while attending Piedmont Alliance Church. He was a young physician at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland and I a seminary student in Mill Valley while serving as the youth pastor at that same church. Odd how our paths crossed: He attended Stanford, I attended Simpson—only some 30 miles apart, but on the academic spectrum, miles and miles apart. Church brought us together. Jesus does that.

We both ended up serving the church: I/we as a pastor and he/her as a medical missionary (you can’t do such work without one’s spouse). We both yoked up with Jesus, and discovered that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Not that the burden isn’t heavy—we spoke of difficult times. But somehow, in retrospect, Jesus’ heavy burden is light; and his demanding yoke is freeing.

Fifth Sunday of Epiphany: Or, Super Bowl Sunday

 In a race the runners all compete,

    but only one receives the prize? (First Corinthians 9:24)

Of all Sundays, this is the one that most assuredly gets bumped by our civic calendar. It’s hard to compete with Super Bowl Sunday. The Apostles often alluded to the games as in “run the race” or “fight the good fight” (2Tm 4:7). The Isthmian Games, second only to the Olympics, were held just down the road from the city of Corinth where the Apostle Paul pastored. He noticed the competition and wove it into his letters.

Jerusalem of Jesus’ time sported an impressive stadium of its own—the Hippodrome. Maybe he even watched a horse race or two. One couldn’t help but notice the race horses “prancing proudly” through the city making their way to the track where they “quiver with excitement,” as God points out to Job, “at the trumpet blast and race off at a gallop” (Jb 39:19-25). So, let’s enjoy the Super Bowl; but watch to see if God doesn’t get Himself Glory. He has a way of sneaking into our civic events. Who knows?

Epiphany #14: Linda’s Birthday

On his birthday,

  Herod gave a banquet. (Mark 6:21)

Tomorrow is Linda’s birthday. I looked for a good N.T. birthday; and, all I could come up with is King Herod’s birthday. All the elites were invited: “The leaders of Galilee.” Jesus wasn’t invited; but he did get word of it. You may recall the story about Salome’s dance and how the severed head of John the Baptist ended up on a platter for the entertainment of the guest. John’s followers “came and took away what was left of his body and buried it; and then they went and told Jesus” (Mt 14:12).

Linda’s birthday will be different. We serve a different King. As Jesus teaches us: “You know how the rulers of this world act as tyrants. It shall not be so among you. Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:25-28). Jesus reveals a different kind of birthday celebration.