Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
If you noticed the date today, I imagine suddenly your memory was jogged and images of airplanes crashing into the “Twin Towers” in New York City came to your mind and some powerful emotions welled up in your heart. I visited there, the place they called “Ground Zero” a few weeks after ‘911’ and the fire of those buildings was still smoldering! The horrible feeling I had, the terrible smell that filled the air, I will never forget.
Yes, September 11th, 2001, even though 22 years ago, has profoundly affected our world. I’ve just returned from spending several days in Israel, and the air travel in both directions required me to pass through very strict security and I was careful about what I carried onto the airplane. The doors to the pilot front portion of all the airplanes I flew on were reinforced and highly secure. Of course the New York City skyline is very different today than it was 22 years ago but we must remember we now have an entire generation of people for whom the events of ‘911’ are simply history that they’ve read about or seen video reports of but they did not experience! Still their world has been profoundly impacted by the events of that historical day that changed the world.
May I point us to another day that changed the world? That famous day was the day Jesus Christ was crucified, outside the walls of Jerusalem, on a hill called Golgotha, almost exactly 2000 years ago. I was at that place, or at least a place many people believe might be the place, only a few days ago. There is still a high hill, with a jagged cliff, and what could appear to be eye sockets helping to form the shape of a skull. On top of the hill is a wall and behind that wall an old cemetery. At the base of this hill is a modern-day busy bus station. Around the area, a busy section of Jerusalem, populated primarily by Muslim Arabs. Here’s a picture I took last week at that place…
On the day I visited, many other Christians were also visiting this place. People from Asia and South America and of course North America, even some from Africa. I heard many different languages spoken and then I watched as almost all of them bowed their heads to consider what had taken place 2000 years ago in this place and how the death of Jesus has impacted their lives.
May I ask, my friends, how has the death of Jesus affected your life? After a short while of reflection at this place I turned and walked into a beautiful garden. Do you remember John’s Gospel gives us this information: “Joseph of Arimathea asked Governor PIlate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a follower of Jesus but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission Joseph came and with the help of Nicodemus, took Jesus’ dead body down off the cross. Nicodemus was the man who had earlier visited Jesus at night with questions… Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it with spices in strips of linen. At the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no dead body had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus’ body there.” (John 19:38-42) Matthew tells us John and the women who had watched Jesus die had followed Nicodemus and Joseph to this tomb and watched them put Jesus’ body in the tomb and roll a large stone in front of the opening.
Here’s what a portion of that garden looks like today…
And this is what the tomb looks like today which many people believe may have been the tomb in which Jesus’ dead body was buried. I took this picture just the other day when I was there…
Now over the years different events and memorials have sought to honor and memorialize what took place on this date, September 11th, 2001, in New York City and Washington DC and a rural field in Pennsylvania where a fourth plane went down. Perhaps you remember the hijackers of that 4th plane had been overtaken by courageous passengers who didn’t know how to fly a jet airplane but courageously guided that plane to crash in an open field thus preventing any further loss of life that day. Today I honor those who valiantly responded to the great crisis in America that day 22 years ago.
But may I invite you to consider with me today, that the Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, called those Christians to understand how Jesus had memorialized what He accomplished on that Golgotha hillside that day of His death? The ‘911’ memorials were developed AFTER the tragedy in response to the tragedy, but Jesus proactively taught His disciples how to teach all followers of Jesus to memorialize what Jesus accomplished. Paul writes in his 11th chapter: “For I received from the Lord Jesus what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said to His disciples: ‘This is My body given for you, do this in remembrance of Me.’ (1 Cor. 11:23,24)
We know from the Gospel accounts, this happened during the Passover meal Jesus celebrated with His disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, the evening BEFORE His crucifixion! Paul, of course, was not part of that meal, in fact it’s very possible Paul, who at that time was known as Saul Paulus of Tarsus, was a prominent Pharisee who had called for the death of Jesus as the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem had gathered to make a plan to silence Jesus. (Luke 11:57) But then a few years later, Paul had an encounter with the RISEN Jesus Christ which changed his life completely and Paul became a prominent evangelist and apostle, taking the message of Jesus to places no other disciple of Jesus had gone!
Paul had brought the Gospel to Corinth and now you may recall we are journeying with Paul on his THIRD missionary journey in about 56ad, and he’s in the great city of Ephesus writing this letter of encouragement and instruction to his friends in Corinth. They, evidently, were making a mockery of this memorial Jesus had instituted for all of His followers to REMEMBER and HONOR what Jesus had accomplished through His atonement, crucifixion death on the cross.
So, Paul is writing some important instructions. Do you notice Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that Jesus wants us to remember and celebrate that Jesus GAVE His life voluntarily, as our atonement sacrifice, paying the full death price for our sinful rebellion against God? And Jesus wants us to remember that His body was horribly beaten and broken as both humanity and God poured out their wrath on Jesus!! Jesus took it all upon Himself, so God’s wrath does not need to be poured out on us!
As we turn from our sin and ask God to pardon us, God will accept Jesus’ full death payment as payment sufficient for God to apply that payment to our sin debt and declare us forgiven of sin, justified, cleansed! Taking that broken bread as part of our Communion Memorial service is a sacred, holy, very honorable act to be engaged only with great reflection regarding its profound significance.
Now my friends, while today is Monday and likely none of us will be in a worship service participating in Communion, may I invite us to let the 22nd anniversary of ‘911’ draw us to thank Jesus in a new, fresh way, for His sacrifice for our world’s freedom from sin bondage, and the memorial ceremony, Communion, which Jesus Himself initiated BEFORE He died?
And let’s celebrate that Jesus invites all Christians everywhere to participate in this memorial experience as often as we are together as Christians and desire to honor the RISEN Jesus and thank Him for His great sacrifice for us!
May I invite us to consider the power of the shed blood of Jesus in transforming lives, with this powerful worship song by Charity Gayle…
Today’s Scriptures are John 19 & 1 Cor. 11:23, 24.
Choose below to read or listen.
John 19
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1 Cor. 11:23, 24
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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