We Is Risen

As we near the culmination of Holy Week, I’d like to briefly share some thoughts on some of the significance of this time.

We all are likely aware that this past Sunday was a celebration of Palm Sunday, that day when Christ entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 – “Behold your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey.”

But I’m not sure that we realize the significance of the verse that follows: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; and the bow of war will be cut off” (verse 10).

At the very same time Jesus entered Jerusalem from the Eastern Gate, the Roman governor, Pilate, entered through the Western Gate. Pilate would have been riding a war horse and accompanied in full military armor by his troops. By simultaneously entering the opposite side of the city, Pilate’s message would have clear: “You can have your feast and celebration, but any attempt to rebel against Rome’s might will be dealt with swiftly and severely.”

Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was a direct, peaceful statement against not only Rome’s power, but also that of the Jewish religious authorities. Ultimately, the powers that be (Pilate, as Caesar’s representative; Caiaphas, the high priest; Herod, the Jewish vassal king) collaborated against the Lamb of God.

Jesus offered no soldiers or threat of violence--no coercion or power to lord over others. His humble entry offers a glimpse at a new way of life possible for us. He offers his own life as the foundation for us to experience gentleness, humility, consideration, and trust for safety and provision. Again, these strike at the root of what the world offers us: fear, division, violence, idolatry, and the lust of power and abuse of people for our own selfish purposes (physical, sexual, emotional, or otherwise). Jesus would have us know that none of those characteristics are worthy of praise, admiration, or adoration. Those behaviors inevitably and ultimately lead to destruction.

As we celebrate these last few days of Holy Week, may I humbly suggest that we remind ourselves of the Father’s humble entry into our lives? He does not control or coerce. Whereas Pilate entered a city to enforce a system of domination, Christ enters our heart so we would for the first time know love, peace, and true freedom. For us to experience these and so much more, we must lay down our methods and defenses we’ve used to protect our *own* life and happiness, trust that our Father is in fact good, and humbly accept the free and generous gift of…himself. 

Pilate enforced control and ultimately abuse; Christ brings mutual relationship and ultimately healing from what is in reality our *own* destructive ways—a freedom not saturated with selfish motives.

May the King of Glory come in and may we know his love and our resurrection *with* him this coming Sunday.

We is risen.

Why Seeking Happiness As Your Goal in Life Fails

As long as happiness in life is your goal, you will always end up dissatisfied. Auschwitz death camp survivor, Viktor Frankl, stated: "It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness. The more one makes happiness an aim, the more he misses the aim.”

Tragically, those who make happiness their goal usually resort to the same methods they've always tried in life. As we have noted, if you plant more of the "same" in your life, you get more of the "same."

This means that most us of have a pretty large learning curve; we keep trying to find happiness and satisfaction in life by our means, our wisdom, our efforts. We think to ourselves: "Money will make me happy." "These drugs will make me happy." "This relationship will make me happy." "This exciting and thrilling adventure will make me happy." "This job will make me happy."

Happiness comes only from what *happens* to you. Therefore, your mood will always be dependent on something external to you. That is a very precarious and unstable way to live. We long for--and were created for--a deeper, more permanent source.

Money, power, and sex ultimately fail to bring us fulfillment and satisfaction; even less so happiness.

They don't. Because they can't. You were made for something, Someone more.

Happiness, joy, and life satisfaction only come through knowing our Father. And the reason we went to all those other things was not because we had a sinful nature. On the contrary, our actions are evidence of a good nature created for relationship with the Father. The reason we sin and seek satisfaction in all those areas is because we don't really know the Father. We have believed a lie about him and that lie misguided us. We went off course thinking we would find what we wanted; thinking we were right.

"The spiritual life is about the liberation of God from our images of him.” - John O'Donohue

Grow in knowing the Father and his love for you and you'll stop behaviors that take you away from him and community. You'll see why certain actions were both unwise and unhealthy. Stop trying to solve your desires by planting more of the "same" in your life. Its fruit is obvious and predictable. Allow instead the seed of Christ's life and Christlike love to grow in you. Guard it and watch the results. Scripture promises you won't be put to shame or disappointed.

MacDonald on Loving One's Enemies

George MacDonald commented on Jesus' command to love our enemies, asking if our love for an enemy should be based simply on the fact that they, too, are human. No, he said. There is something deeper. It is because in them God has joined his divinity to their humanity.

He wrote:

"Why should we love our enemies? ...  It is in virtue of the divine essence which is in them that that we call our enemies men and women. It is this humanity that we are to love—something deeper altogether than, and independent of, the region of hate. “Is this humanity in every one of our enemies?” Yes, else there were nothing to love. Then we must love it, come between us and it what may.

But how can we love a man or a woman who is cruel and unjust to us? Who sears with contempt, who is self-righteous, self-seeking, self-admiring? Who can even sneer, the most inhuman of human faults, far worse in its essence than mere murder? These things cannot be loved. But are these the man? Lies there not within him a divine element of brotherhood, something which, once awakened to be its own holy self in the man, will loathe these unlovely things tenfold more than we loathe them now? Shall this divine thing have no recognition from us? Say rather, “My love shall come as near thee as it may; and when thine comes forth to meet mine, we shall be one in the indwelling God.”

MacDonald's understanding of the true nature of humanity starkly contrasted with the strict Calvinist environment of his childhood. He knew his own earthly father to be completely unlike the angry and wrathful God presented to him by religion. It was because of this difference in views that MacDonald was able to not only draw the best out of others through stories and imagination (just as Jesus did), but it is also why his hope for humanity's end was far more positive. I suggest it's that positive faith which undergirded his encouragement to us to love our enemies. MacDonald knew that ultimately, God would be all in all. As Scripture tells us, God is faithful to finish his work in us. That is true of both us and our enemies. We have no other reason but to love.

Consuming Fire : The Inexorable Power of God’s Love : A Devotional Version of Unspoken Sermons. 2015. North Charleston SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.