Surrendering Power ...

4 men tell the story of Jesus in the Bible. Their stories are the first segments of it second section.

Matthew, a Roman Tax Collector turned Christ-follower, is the first writer to be recorded. His recounting of the Journey from Galilee to Golgotha – the Lenten Journey – begins in the 20^th Chapter.

Matthew remembers Jesus explanation of the Journey.

“Jesus, now well on the way up to Jerusalem, took the Twelve off to the side of the road and said, "Listen to me carefully. We are on our way up to Jerusalem. When we get there, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the religious leaders and scholars. They will sentence him to death. They will then hand him over to the Romans for mockery and torture and crucifixion. On the third day he will be raised up alive.”

It couldn’t have been clearer. He, the Christ, Israel’s Messiah, their long anticipated King, destined to rule the world was going to die. He would relinquish His power. Out of the ruins of His life He would be “raised up alive.”

No sooner was He finished explaining what this trip would be like when the Mother of two of His followers came to Him with a request. “What do you want Jesus asked.” She said,

“Give your word that these two sons of mine will be awarded the highest places of honor in your kingdom, one at your right hand, one at your left hand.”

Jesus replied forcefully, “You have no idea what you’re asking.”

What was this meddlin’ Mother thinking? She was thinking like most Jews had been thinking for thousands of years. She was thinking this Man – Jesus of Nazareth – is Messiah; the “One.” He would re-establish the Throne of David and throw off the chains of Rome’s oppression. He would establish, forever, Israel’s Worldwide Supremacy. She saw her Sons as Prime Players in that Mighty Kingdom.

Perhaps, you say, she heard Him say he’d be “raised up alive” and was exhilarated at the thought of her sons as Vice Regents in the “Eternal Kingdom.”

Whether she did or not the men Christ had called certainly did not. They were completely obsessed with power; and position; and privilege. Jesus, here and now, at the Trail Head of the path to His crucifixion, once again defines the nature of his Kingdom – the “Cup He would drink.” Jealous, and angry with these two Brothers the other 10 became completely disgusted at the thought of their being subservient to these “Momma’s Boys.” “So Jesus got them together to

settle things down. He said, ‘You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage’”.

The “cup” Jesus “would drink” would be just that. The Sacrificial Love willing to pay any price; suffer any humiliation; literally “turn the other cheek”; take another’s guilt and shame on itself; surrender its power; trust another with its life; is that “cup.” Our walk with Him to Gethsemane and Golgotha will give substance to that “Grim Grail.” Holding Him after the Resurrection His Followers knew their Life would mean drinking it to the very last drop just as He had done; surrendering their power.

This Lesson of Lent would be incomplete if we didn’t remember Jesus final instructions to these Followers. They would have no power, He told them. They would have to “wait in Jerusalem,” until they were filled and empowered with “power from above.” The “Holy Spirit” would come on them and then that Heavenly power would be theirs. “Not by might, nor by power,” but by the “Lord’s Spirit,” they would be “witnesses; Special Representatives of a New Humanity,” re-created Children of God; “like Christ.”

Dangerous Grace!

With the sobering indictment of Ash Wednesday – “Dust you are … to dust you will return.” – we Christians, millions of us, begin the Journey of Lent. This walk with Jesus, from Galilee to the Cross, is what one writer calls, “Reliving the Passion.”

This is a pilgrimage I have only observed recently.

In my early life as one of Christ’s Followers I saw Lent as an exclusively Catholic tradition. I insisted that the pre-occupation with the Crucifix fell short of Resurrection Faith. I saw it as involving a kind of self-mortification; reducing ourselves to the sort of remorse over our sin that lead many of the faithful to lie for nights in the cold or beat themselves for their sins that caused Christ’s suffering. It seemed to me to cloud the glory of Jesus’ Resurrection and the wonder of that “Amazing Grace” which is the Summit of anyone’s walk with the true Christ.

Easter 2003 was the year of my conversion to the conviction that I needed to “relive the passion.” A dear Friend gave me a book. The title? “Reliving the Passion.” Its Author, Walter Wangerin Jr. insists, early in the book, that Christ’s Grace is dangerous. It’s dangerous because it can only do its work in us when it exposes the real me; the real you.

Walking with Jesus on the way to His death we pass among the masses of humanity. We see them shoving and pushing; seeking attention. Would I give way to the person next to me if I were there? We watch the fickle Pilgrims on the way to High Holy Days clamoring for Christ’s Coronation. Barely a week later they riot for His Crucifixion. Would I have rejected this now powerless King? Have I? Have I denied I know Him? Have I hidden from Him to avoid ridicule?

Watching the barbaric brutality of the beating; the torture of the massive cross on his emaciated back; the savage impaling to that awful death stake! What have we done? Am I there? His words cut like a scimitar to our very core. “Father forgive them! They don’t know what they are doing!”

It’s then that we see. “ ‘Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear!”

This journey … these 40+ days of Lent are days of discovery … Dangerous Discovery … expose … “guilt;” “shame;” “ridicule;” “rabid renunciation;” the final sword thrust of a fallen race’s self-destruction!

“All we,” are complicit! On “Him” are “laid the wrongdoing of us all.” For no one is this “Grace” more dangerous than Him. On His own person alone is “the sin of the whole world” of “all” of us laid and exposed. In the barren cross and the empty tomb His Grace is finally revealed; our “fears relieved.”

Dangerous though it is this is a Journey we take with Jesus again and again and always arrive loving Him more deeply!

Remember ...

It’s “Ash Wednesday.”

“Memento!” the Latin of the once a while ago Ceremony declares. “Remember!”

“People,” the Centuries ago writer notes, “need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”

What is it that we need to “remember;” of which we need to be “reminded”?

“Dust you are. To dust you will return!” (Genesis 3: 19)

“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 20)

Our condition. That’s what we need to remember. This is our state. Since the first of our race disobeyed we will “surely die.” We will “strut and fret our hour upon the stage and be heard about no more.”

Today we remember desperation.

Today, remembering, we begin a journey. A journey not our own with a destination very much our own. We begin a walk of 40 and more days to our death; our death died by someone else to rob it of its finality.

Only as we remember the utter desperation of this death will we understand the cost to Him who is dying. When and solely when we witness, again, the drama and magnificence of His triumph will we once more crown Him our conquering King!

Then, yes then, again, will we freely surrender to His mastery.

Walk with Him a while would you?

Remember you’re mortal!

Relive His Passion once more!

In reliving His dying you’ll be reminded He’s put an end to death and given you LIFE!

LIFE THAT NEVER ENDS!