Faith and life meet in a story
“Behold your mother.”
That was no small request Jesus was making to John. It involved a lifetime responsibility.
But it was a dying request.
A request from a rabbi and close friend, from His Savior and Lord.
Seeing the suffering Jesus was enduring, how could John refuse?
He couldn’t.
It was the least he could do.
What is Jesus asking of you and me?
If we see the suffering Savior and Lord, how can we refuse?
“Truly this was the son of God.”
The Roman centurion uttered these words.
After the darkness. After the earthquake. After Jesus died.
Hours, even minutes before, Jesus was less than nothing as far as he was concerned.
Another Jew. Another criminal. Another execution.
He had led his men to beat, to mock and to spit on Jesus.
Now he led them in a confession of ultimate truth.
Not because of how Jesus lived, but how He died.
Jesus died willingly, maintaining His love and compassion, completely surrendered to God’s plan.
We are called to take up our crosses and die to self. If we do that willingly, surrendered to God’s plan, full of love and compassion …
If we do that, what will happen to the hardened and cynical around us?
They might just respond like the centurion.
One night, Jesus had a conversation with man. And although the conversation contains some of the best known words in all of Scripture, Jesus ended with these.
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
At the cross, Nicodemus faced a decision.
Light or darkness.
Choosing to publicly identify himself with Jesus meant he risked being exposed by man and losing his reputation, his position, and –seeing the bloodlust whipped up that day– maybe even his life.
But his other choice was denying the truth and having his deeds, his practices and his heart exposed by Almighty God.
It was as dark as night that afternoon at the cross. Nicodemus came to Jesus once more. Only this time, he had no questions, no doubts. He brought a gift, an offering, an act of worship.
The cross demands that we make a decision.
We remain in darkness like some many of the spectators. We can mock it, dismiss it, ignore it.
Or we can decide it is a place of worship, and like Nicodemus, be part of an unfathomable act of love and redemption.
We often live like it’s Saturday.
Jesus was crucified on Friday.
Saturday was fear-filled, anxiety-ridden, and steeped in uncertainty.
But it’s not Saturday.
Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, so we’ll never have to live through a Saturday like that again.
We live in a post-Resurrection day. A Monday.
We have hope. We have victory. We have proof God keeps His promises.
Now, let’s live like it’s Monday.
He was wounded because I sinned.
English is a tremendous language with rich shades of meaning in its words. However, there are a few occasions in Scripture where we miss out because we’re reading in English. One of those passages is John 20 where the discovery of the empty tomb is described. The word “see” or one of its form is repeated several times. However, there is much more going on in the Greek.
If you have your handy-dandy Strong’s or some other Greek reference, and read verse 1 you find out that Mary Magdalene “saw” the stone removed. The word is blep? and it means to look at (literally or figuratively), behold, look (on, to), perceive, regard, see, take heed. Strong calls it a voluntary observation.
In verse 5, John does the same thing. He looked in and “saw” the linen clothes lying there. Same Greek word.
In verse 6, Peter arrives and he checks things out. His word is the?re?. It means to be a spectator, look at, behold, to view attentively, take a view of, survey, to view mentally, consider. Peter examines things, inspects them and begins to process the information he’s taking in.
Then in verse 9, John has another turn. John followed Peter’s example, examined things, especially everything neatly folded and in order and he “saw” and believed. His word is eido. He perceived with his eyes and understood the implications of what he saw. John had a light bulb moment. He’s not quite there yet, though, because he and Peter go home.
Mary is still hanging around, however, and in verse 12, she sees an angel at the tomb. This is the?re?. In verse 14, she sees Jesus Himself. Same the?re? kind of seeing. The risen Christ speaks to her and she recognizes Him. Jesus sends her to tell His disciples.
In verse 18, she runs to tell them she saw the Lord. She gets a whole new Greek word- horao which means to become acquainted with by experience, to experience. Strong goes on to say this word implies that it’s something remarkable. It has an idea of wide-eyed wonder. So the boys “saw” it, maybe even comprehended it, but Mary “got” it.
May God grant us all a new grasp on the wonder and miracle that is Easter.
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