Easter Sunday – A Spiritual Body…  No Need to Touch

John 20 & I Corinthians 15

Christ is Risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!

It is fitting that Thomas, “the twin,” would have 2 very different responses of faith to the report of Christ’s resurrection, and then to the in-person appearance of Jesus to him a week after the resurrection. We want to think “evil twin” vs. “good twin.” But we have in Thomas the day of Easter, and a week later the same man, Thomas the doubter and Thomas the confessor.                  

John’s Gospel records both accounts. On Easter eve, Thomas missed the appearance of Christ to all the 12, except Judas, who was out spending his betrayal cash to buy his and others’ cemetery plots, (so to speak… so much for the short-term benefits of materialism). Later, when the other disciples reported the visit of the very alive Jesus, Thomas proclaimed the materialist’s creed: “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25)

A week and a day later, Thomas joined the still afraid disciples behind locked doors. Jesus quotes Thomas’ own doubting creed of the previous Sunday, and says: “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27) Next, we hear the doubter’s doubt erased in the confession that would take him all the way to India: “My Lord and my God!”

Did Thomas really need to touch Jesus to believe? It’s doubtful. J We have no record or indication that he did touch – or need to touch – Jesus’ side to believe. Thomas apparently doubted even the strength of his own God-given faith! The requirement he placed on his future genuine faith… was actually more proof than Thomas really needed.  No touching necessary!

When Adam was created, the Lord began with the material, and added soul and spirit. But when St. Paul was inspired to describe Jesus’ (and our) future resurrected being, he would say it would be “a spiritual body.” (I Cor. 14:44) Spirit – first… then “body.” Priority does not necessarily mean primacy.  But speaking of our resurrected nature as a “spiritual body” seems to prioritize the spirit.  Yet especially because of Jesus’ own words, our raised bodies will indeed be true “bodies”: “For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39b) Maybe it’s just a matter of “Easter eyes.” In our resurrection, we will think of, and be aware of, spirit first, then body.

But even with our present body/spirit 1.0 – we seem to doubt the potency of the Spirit of God working within a regenerated soul. We don’t need all of the proof we think we need that Jesus is the Christ. And yet Jesus has given us so much material proof: prophecy as well as archeology (consider His tomb now recently removed from the materialist’s “doubtful list” to “validated”), geography, astronomy, history, physiology. But none of those “proofs” following “prophecy” bring us to the believing creed of Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” It is a “broken and contrite heart” – given hope by the Voice of our Living Lord in Scripture: “Peace be with you… Do not disbelieve, but believe.” We don’t need to touch Jesus, but rather be touched by His Living word of hope and peace, mercy, life, and joy. We need not to resist.

Prayer: : Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! My Lord and My God! Amen.

April 4 Holy Saturday – A Missed Sabbath Worship and Reading

Joshua 4

The disciples of Christ were a fumbling bunch of fearful fellows after the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Despite the fact that Jesus was the perfect teacher, healer, friend, and pastor, 100% of the flock scattered on the Passover.   Faithful leaders who struggle to see growth can find some solace there.

Jesus’ manner of prophesying this was curious, yet profound: “You will all fall away because of Me this night.” (Mt. 26:31) Even this truth was a twice-told prophecy, once on the way walking up the hill to the garden to pray, and 500 years earlier by the Prophet Zechariah: “…Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” (13:7)

They would fall “because of Me,” Jesus would say.  Important fact: He did not scatter them.  Instead, because He appeared weak, they feared for their lives.   And they missed church the next day.  John tells us the disciples were literally locked up in fear. And what reading did they miss?  Joshua 5.   A portion of that chapter was read in the synagogues and the temple on Holy Saturday.  The epic reading of the coming victory over the massive walls of Jericho, included the “Captain of the Lord” addressing Joshua in a private meeting – after the Passover – and before Jericho’s walls would come “a’tumbling down,” the “Captain of the Lord” was God, in human form. 

The timing of this reading is precisely corresponding to the day after Passover in Jesus’ day. God would bring the wall of Jericho down through trumpet blasts of praise. Jesus would destroy the walls holding mankind inside the “gates of hell” through people who — like Peter — would confess the strong name of Jesus, as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Mt. 16:16)

The walls of fear, doubt, guilt, and shame, encircling Peter – and all of the fearful disciples who abandon their Lord – would come crashing down the “day after the Sabbath after the Passover.” (Lev. 23:11) The Triune God, Yahweh the Great “I Am” – the Living One, would erase death forever – for the faithful. “Death could not hold Him” – would later be included in Peter’s inspired sermon. (Acts 2:24) After Easter, the disciples were free from their fear; sight had replaced fear, for them. For us who stand on the “foundation of the Apostles and Prophets,” (Eph. 2:20) Jesus is the living Cornerstone, and He is not falling!

Prayer: : Lord, in our walls of doubt, proclaim the trumpeting truth:
“Mercy triumphs over judgment!” Free us from all ungodly fears.
May we stand firmly on Your promises! Amen. (James 2:13)

April  3 Good Friday The Agony of Faith

Jude 3

“The Passion of the Christ” visually and aurally portrayed the agony of Jesus’ suffering and death in such a potent way, that many cannot watch it.  And it’s too much anguish for younger saints. But, to me, this movie awakened me from the blasé’ narcolepsy that people like me exude when we say almost tritely, “Jesus died to take away our sins.”  It made me clearly see some of hell – in the gruesomeness of Jesus’ beating, the whipping, spitting, mocking, nailing, and dying of our Lord.  

That’s agony. We don’t discuss hell much. But certainly, Jesus believed in it, suffered it… and my goodness, He visited hell in His descent! Not to suffer, but to announce victory. In Colossians 2, one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible, Paul poignantly described Jesus’ death and resurrection as the two-sided coin of victory: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them, in Him.” (Col. 2:14) Paul seems to be thinking about the parade of the defeated soldiers which was a common practice in Roman war.  Without a parade or fanfare, Jesus triumphed on the cross – when He was nailed in apparent defeat, only to pull down a crushing condemnation of Satan who is now an “Accuser” silenced by the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, our Salvation.

Jesus’ brothers, James and Jude, seemed to be unbelievers during Jesus’ ministry. (Mk. 3; Jn.7) But the resurrection convinced them that Jesus was Christ and Victor. To deny that He was, after meeting Him alive, would’ve been madness, and their own condemnation. (I Cor. 15, Acts 1) So they came to faith, and they suffered for it.

Jude, most likely Jesus’ brother (see vs. 1 & 17), would write: “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” (Jude 3)

What does this verse mean? The underlined word “contend” is the Greek word giving us “agony.” It can mean “fight, race, conflict.” The phrase means – “Join the fight… and fight with all your might!” I think most Christians don’t join the fight because they are afraid of getting beaten up. They have a proper picture of the conflict. Fighting the devil (usually done best by fleeing) is the “race of faith.” (Heb. 12) It’s agonizing when done daily, and seriously. But James is also describing a fight against unfaithful and distorted teaching. Fight to keep Jesus, Jesus, and His Church, His Church. The more you read and hear Scripture taught accurately, the more you will want to be in the ring. Not many fighters are out of training, or out of shape.

We fight to announce the victory that matters most:  the victory over sin, death and the devil. If we are not fighting, we should think about His passion. All that agony, for apathy? People who do not believe the agony and victory were real, will discover for themselves – winner or loser – that the Cross was both agony and victory.

Prayer: : Lord, thank You for taking my agony. Inspire me to fight the good fight of faith. Amen.

April 2 Maundy Thursday  Wanting More of a Good Thing

For several years Elijah taught Elisha, who wanted to fill Elijah’s shoes – and then some.  So Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. That’s not really a covetous desire! For the Spirit of God leads us into faith and into all that is good which reflects the Lord’s heart and work.

Think of Jesus.  All that He said and did was good and Godly! That’s what Elisha wanted. And he got it! Elisha would serve quietly, and at the end fade away in sickness, no chariot of fire for him. It could be that a double portion of Elijah’s spirit was also necessary because keeping the faith while facing such an end required the Holy Spirit in abundance. And with only 7000 faithful people, Elisha would require more faith to mentor more spiritual leaders, something we also need today.

When Elisha was called by Elijah (I Kings 19), Elisha was plowing with a yoke of oxen in the field. He asked Elijah if he could kiss his parents. He was permitted this.  But Elisha did something that showed he was not hesitant to serve his new prophetical office. The oxen were slaughtered in a fire stoked by their yoke. Elisha was all in! And the sacrifice was turned into a meal of thanksgiving for a call to serve.

On Maundy Thursday, Jesus was pointing to His coming sacrifice in the meal.  He, too, would be “all-in” on His mission.   And we can return repeatedly to the meal of divine mercy and strength that He left us, knowing we are never able to fill Jesus’ shoes, but always walking and growing with Him by faith. Jesus was not looking back.  He was calling us forward, to take up our cross with Him, knowing death is not the end for us.

Prayer: : Lord God, give me the spiritual gifts I need now to be Your faithful servant.
Enable me to bear, with faith, the burdens that come with the blessings.
Provide Your Church with blessed pastors and teachers and servant-leaders of all kinds!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

April 1 Two Measures of Faith – Elijah and Elisha

As a child, I learned about the wonderful work of God through two great saints: Elijah the bold flaming chariot dude and Elisha who seemed to be the more understated of the two yet had twice the measure of Elijah’s spirit and did twice as many miracles.  Elisha’s work seems understated in comparison to Elijah’s – axe heads floating, and blind armies being captured, fed, and released. Plus, Elisha seemed to be a rich kid! What’s God doing calling him?!

We learn so much from these two prophets, but we also learn that the Lord gives the gifts that He deems fitting for the time and the person.

My 2 year old grandson likes to try to walk in his grandparents’ shoes. He wants to try something new. Something bigger than what he’s got. And maybe, he wants to grow up to fill those shoes, too?

Elijah was spent. His hard and faithful work apparently had borne little fruit, at least in his mind. (We tend to magnify the negative.) The tsunamis of cultural unbelief seemed to overwhelm his mission despite his tenacity, astonishing miracles, and reliance upon God.

In desperation, he heads south to Mt. Sinai, back to the site of the covenant, and the Shekinah – shaking/quaking glory of God. (Maybe he was a bit surprised when God appeared. He spoke not in a rock-shredding wind, but in a gentle whisper.) Elijah was ready for God to take his life. (There’s an important lesson here: a person should not take his or her own life.  After all, he or she neither created nor owns that life.  {Ps. 24:1}) In a divine contrast, Jesus gave His life, so that even the most troubled human lives have an eternal divine value placed upon them. God knows our struggle, and, in the right way, He helps us.

God did not oblige Elijah’s prayer for a trip to heaven, just yet. But He did tell the exhausted prophet some important information: God hears when people need help.  So Elijah got a sidekick to mentor and find mutual encouragement in fellowship, working for the Lord. Also, in essence the Lord said: “Elijah, you can’t count.  You are not the ‘only faithful saint left.’  There are 7000 faithful others around, not many, but enough to keep the candle burning in the winds of unbelief.  Trust Me.  I see the soul….”

Prayer: Lord, in a world often hostile to Your bride, the Church, and to Your Word of Law and love,
we face much resistance. Encourage us with faith, to persevere.
Remind us of the supreme value You have placed upon us – Your Own life.
Give us the supports we need to carry on.   In Your Name, Amen.

March 31 – … Walking by Faith Means We Accept the Whole Christ and Mission

Romans 12

Moses clearly did not want to go to Egypt.  In fact, two chapters of Exodus include Moses arguing with God, revealing his deep reservations. If Moses was compromising on circumcision with his wife or her family, he was also simultaneously not abiding by God’s wishes.

These tensions percolate in many households:  to avoid conflict, the faithful often miscalculate and try to take the role of “peacemakers” by sacrificing the path they know is the Lord’s will.

When the path of God is clear, it needs to be taken.

It is one thing to have weak faith; it is another to have “2 faiths.”  [Sounds like “two-faced!”]

The fact that only one of Moses’ sons was circumcised is an example of syncretism.  Here were two Old Testament incompatible spiritual truths: God’s people were marked with the sign of circumcision.  And only ½ of Moses’ sons had that mark. Would Moses also compromise with Pharaoh and take only ½ of His people out of Egypt?

St. John wrote the book of Revelation while banished on a remote prison island because of the Word of the Lord. He refused to dilute the Law or Gospel.  Jesus would reveal to John in prison that He would spit out those who were “lukewarm.” (Rev. 3:15-16) Moses and his child were on the verge of being “spit out.”

After His incarnation, Jesus was fully God and fully man. God was all-in on the redemption plan! Ours is a faith grounded in creation and humanity. A real man had to die, while shedding blood, in order to redeem. (Heb. 9:22b). 

To follow Christ, we live a life of loss and sacrifice, “… take up your cross and follow Me.”Yetthis life of sacrifice, like Easter, has a daily and eternal “newness.” Baptism is that new birth now. We can’t be “half baptized.” God calls us to be “living sacrifices” for Him. (Rom. 12:1) Not easy, but good!

Prayer: Lord, thank You for being all-in on redemption. You shed Your living blood for all of my sin.
Let me accept fully — by trust in Your word — a path I do not fully understand.

March 30 – Bridegroom of Blood

Exodus 4

One of the more curious accounts of walking by faith is found in Exodus 4. Moses has seen the burning bush, removed his shoes, very reluctantly accepted the position as God’s spokesman and deliverer, and was headed back from watching sheep in the Sinai wilderness for his father-in-law Jethro, toward Egypt.  There he would confront the most powerful ruler on earth, Pharaoh, who was enslaving and gradually killing off the males of Moses’ people, the Jews. A fairly intimidating mission.

Forty years after fleeing Egypt, Moses is now called back. He bids his father-in-law goodbye and takes his wife Zipporah and their two sons. This is a reluctant deliverer, and we see a sign of his vacillation in the account at the beginning of this family journey back to Egypt, in Exodus 4:24-26.

Here in a cryptic retelling of the story (by Moses), we learn that only one of Moses’ 2 sons have been circumcised. Why? We are not sure.  Maybe it was considered abhorrent by Zipporah or her family, and Moses lacked the resolve to circumcise the other child. A further murky fact is that Zipporah becomes aware that this oversite has now placed either the boy or Moses (?!), in the wrathful path of God who sought “to put him to death.” (Ex. 4:24) That’s a serious cost for missing surgery!

It is now Zipporah who must perform the act.  She does so faithfully but with great protest!! She throws the child’s foreskin at the pitiful prophet’s feet, and exclaims, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

She is right. To be associated with the true God is to have a relationship of blood, loss, and newness.

The sign of the power of blood is everywhere in Scripture: “the life is in the blood… the blood shall be a sign for you… the water was turned into blood… This is the blood of the New Covenant.”

Circumcision was a sign of cutting away the old and of becoming new.   It appears to be a radical act, especially for cultures new to it. But it is a foreshadowing of the far more radical shedding of the Holy Precious blood of Christ nailed to the cross.  “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Heb. 9:22)

Prayer:Lord Jesus Christ, You became a man in order to have Your precious blood shed.
Give me a contrite heart when I consider the great cost of my redemption.
May I approach Your Holy table with repentant joy.  The life is in Your blood.   Amen.

March 26  Seeing the Old Heart

Numbers 20

It’s both tragic and comical that our same spiritual weaknesses keep coming back. When God first called Moses, he was reluctant to journey back to Egypt. But God showed Moses – in both action and Word – that He and His Word were true, where the Egyptian gods were not.

 Moses did not just “speak to the rock” to bring water.  Instead, he went beyond God’s clear words, and he struck it twice with his staff.  Then, we get God’s clear description of what was going on in Moses’ soul:  an old cocktail of the sin of doubt, mixed with anger.

God said: “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” (Numbers 20:12)

God was revealing something we could not see:  Moses’ heart.  My “take” on explaining Moses’ blunder, by reading into his words and actions, is that his mistake sprang from anger and self-justification. He was sick of the people’s lack of faith in him and in God.   But that explanation is insufficient.

God reveals that Moses and Aaron “have not believed Me.…” This veteran of listening to God’s miraculous Voice… doubted it! The Word was going to do the work! But Moses’ unbelief in the Word to do the work (at this end-of-the-road moment) ruined God’s potent object lesson. When God spoke and created the universe, no one was there to hear or see it.  This rock episode was a microcosm of that ancient truth and event.  If Moses had listened, water would’ve come out of the rock as a fitting pre-conquest reminder that their Lord’s Voice could do anything!

Jesus is the Word of God. That Word is miraculous.  But doubt can creep into the hearts of seasoned soldiers of the cross. Age and perpetual spiritual tests can grow old so to speak. The good news in the account is that Moses was forgiven.  But the bad news was Moses would share in the same chastisement that the people did: “No holy land for you!” Moses was forgiven because the Word really did do the work! On the cross.  All of it!

Prayer: Lord, Satan can use age, infirmity, perpetual resistance, to wear down our faith in You
and Your Word. Deliver us from unbelief. And finally forgive us when we trip and fall.
 Do the work we cannot do. Forgive us out of Your mercy alone. Amen.

March 25 Don’t Doubt the Word of God

Numbers 20

Moses was at the home stretch. Called as an 80-year-old man to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, the reluctant prophet grew in faith to epic proportions. On more than one occasion the Israelites feared Moses and his imposing zeal — and at times – his beaming face and behavior. 

In the 40^th year of his Exodus journey with the people of Israel, Moses was approaching a vigorous 120^th year of life. He’d had many tussles with the testy and many-times-tested Israelites. Moses had been angry with them before. Yet he had also been their advocate, pleading with God for forgiveness when God was ready to start all over again with just Moses’ family.   Moses was faithful to both God and the Israelites.

 Moses was probably counting the days until the 40 years of chastising delay were up, and he could lead the younger surviving generation into the promised land, fulfilling his seemingly Sisyphus-like task, but finally attaining victory!

Well, in the first month of the 40^th year, without realizing it himself, Moses had had enough. Again, the Israelites were complaining about no water… and maligning the miraculous food. (It is possible to imagine becoming weary of even miraculous food from heaven, after 39 years of a steady diet of just manna.) But the Lord (through Moses) had provided water for the vast number of people and their flocks for 4 decades. And water miracles came in all sorts of variations. God was teaching His people that He could adapt!

So when the same old complaint came to the vigorous 119 year-old leader, God told Moses to “speak to the rock,” and it would provide water. Moses did speak, but not to the rock.  He spoke to the people: “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then he struck the rock twice with his staff. Immediately, God held Moses and Aaron acutely accountable in front of the people: “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” (Numbers 20:12)

Many times, our anger (a.k.a: “righteous anger”) seems justified. However, in this case, even faithful Moses had failed to fully trust the Word of God to do the work of bringing water. Of all sins, failing to trust the Word of God is near the apex of the most egregious offenses we can direct to our Lord.

Peter says we are “born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”  Don’t doubt it!

The very good news is Noah may not be fond of sledding yet, but he “loves the habitation of God’s house!”

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Word of God, You live! May we not doubt Your living Word,
but know it is our life. Bless our trust and meditation upon Your “Abiding Word.” Amen.

Mar 24 – Duh…! Noah’s Unused Gift & The Missing Faith Verses!!!

Eph. 2:8-10

God sometimes comes to the rescue when we shoot ourselves in the foot! Praise the Lord. This is actually the last devotion written because I made 2 mistakes: I can’t count to 40, and I left out the 3 key verses on FAITH – that I have been using to teach every confirmand since I arrived.

I had forgotten that I wrote an Easter devotion, so that gave us (all elders and myself) a total of 40 devotions. But Easter is not in Lent! So then I realized I needed one more devotion, and it will be on those 3 missing verses. Here are the first 2: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9 NASB)

The fact that I had forgotten this critical faith passage is a real “Duh” moment in my last Lenten devotional! I regularly tell folks these 3 verses are the summation of the Christian faith. Maybe my faux pas reveals why the confirmands over the 30 years I have been instructing them, are pretty much in the “average range” – when it comes to active or dormant faith in outcomes. Most are not active Christians today. The verses may not have been remembered by them either!

So the first part of the story of Noah involves my grandson Noah, not the dude who made the ark. Noah is now 2 years and 3 months! Time absolutely flies! Possibly, maybe probably, I traumatized the poor soul last winter when I took him sledding down our neighborhood hill. I did this to all of my children at about that same age. Last year I recall Noah fretting about the flying snow and the free fall of gravity (I think). So, this year his mom bought him a new innertube, specially designed for sledding, greatly reducing the snow spray. See – you can give children gifts. This is the point of Eph. 2:8,9. Faith is a gift – it has to be! So God gives it to young and old, divinely wrapped in His Word and Baptism.

But sadly, Noah is not fond of his new gift. It sits shiny and new in a box in his grandparents’ home. He’s a refusenik when it comes to sledding!

This brings us to Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The earthly purpose of the gift of faith is to live as God’s children here on earth. Anything done from faith is a good work. If the gift of faith is unused, it is wasted here, and maybe wasted later! Somehow, many confirmands did not process the 3 key verses on faith. But there is hope. Possibly when a new pastor comes, they might let that new creation out and let God’s gravity of love pull them along.

The very good news is Noah may not be fond of sledding yet, but he “loves the habitation of God’s house!”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise You for all of Your gifts, especially faith!
May it draw us to the joy of doing good works—because we are “created in You!” Praise and Amen!!!