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Good mid-week morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends.
The amount of change in our 2020 world that the Coronavirus pandemic has brought to the average person, anywhere north of the equator on our planet, is probably similar to the dramatic change those friends closest to Jesus were feeling, in the days immediately after that historic Passover/Easter weekend.
Within just a few days there had been the triumphal celebration by huge crowds, as Jesus rode a donkey down the slope of the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem. Then the melee in the Temple where Jesus turned over the tables of the money-changers and claimed that the Temple was His house?
The long, wonderful, although troubling evening around the Passover meal table, suddenly disrupted by Judas leaving the meal, after Jesus identified him as a betrayer. And then three unbelievable days when Jesus was crucified, buried dead, but then was resurrected by God from the dead! And finally, the Sunday evening gathering, when the risen Jesus suddenly appeared in the midst of them all, as His closest friends were together in fear, behind locked doors.
In the days which followed, emotions and thoughts must have been a tangled spider web, as these friends of Jesus tried to make sense of it all. May I ask you, my friends, what would you have done? Who would you have talked with for help in calming your troubled heart? Where in God’s Word would you have gone to find answers, if you had been among these close friends of Jesus on the Wednesday after that remarkable week?
There is a verse repeated three times in two Psalms, which I believe describes what the close friends of Jesus must have felt that Wednesday, and perhaps what many are feeling in our world today: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Ps. 42:5&11; Ps. 43:5) No doubt their minds and hearts were profoundly disturbed, to the point they likely could not sleep at night. What they had experienced was mind boggling. The horrificness of what had been done to Jesus, and the terrifying thought, that those same angry people were likely searching for each of Jesus’ followers, to do the same to them, caused great fear to rise up within them and motivated them to run or hide.
But these were Jewish men and women who knew their Scriptures well, and held tightly to the many stories of God’s power, protection and provision, for His people Israel through the ages. Thus they wrestled with themselves to over-ride their fear and confusion, with hope in God, and faith that somehow God would come to their aid. I wonder if they felt something like their ancestors, the fleeing Hebrew slaves, when their delight at God’s rescue of them from generations of slavery in Egypt, turned to panic when they came to the Red Sea and saw the dust caused by Pharaoh’s pursuing army rising up behind them? Exodus 14 may have come very much alive to Jesus’ friends in these days after that first Easter!
I imagine through these long hours of gut wrenching struggle to find the answers they sought, their minds would go to the miracles they’d seen Jesus perform and His teachings about God and His kingdom which they had heard. Could they, would they, choose to apply the last line of that Psalm verse to the Jesus they knew? “I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” What have you been doing recently in our upside-down world of pandemic emotional and intellectual turmoil, my friends? Where have you turned?
The Bible is silent regarding these days immediately following resurrection Sunday, but as I put myself in their sandals, I’m sure Peter, John and perhaps their brothers Andrew and James, were likely together wrestling with and discussing every detail of what they remember of these last days. Likewise Mary Magdalene and Mary, Jesus’ mother may have returned to Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ home in Bethany, only two miles from Jerusalem, to find some rest and answers.
In that upper room on Thursday evening Jesus had said: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18,19) The hatred the followers of Jesus had seen displayed by Jewish religious leaders and Roman soldiers, but also even normal Passover pilgrims like them, was beyond anything they could have imagined. Why? What could motivate someone to hate that much? How could they hate such a loving, compassionate person as Jesus? How could they hate One who had done so many remarkable miracles which helped so many people? It was a blind hate, an illogical hate, a contagious hate, and such a violent hate!
Jesus’ warning was now terrifying, for if that same hatred was turned toward them, would there be any safe place to hide? What would the rest of their lives be like, living in fear, always looking over their shoulder? My friends, do you know there are millions of followers of Jesus who are living like that today in many parts of our world, especially in China, India, North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other countries? Daily hundreds are arrested, their home ransacked, their belongings and even bank accounts confiscated, by hate filled authorities. Daily some are tortured and even executed…in our world of 2020! What Jesus spoke of that Thursday night is happening today my friends! For some people, “Walking with Jesus” comes with a very high price, in some places of our world today!
Jesus had continued, “If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent me.” (John 15:20,21) But how could that be? The abuse and rejection of Jesus, the humiliation and mockery of Jesus, the beatings and crucifixion of Jesus, were led by men who had spent their entire lives studying the Scriptures and pursuing the religious traditions of God! Could it be that their zealous religious activity actually blinded them to the reality of ‘Immanuel’, God among us, the long awaited Messiah?
Oh yes my friends, spiritual blindness is caused by many things, isn’t it? Personal pride; legalism; political power; the pursuit of wealth without regard for integrity; selfishness… and so much more! Quite easily a person can be blinded to the truth about God, about sin, and about who Jesus is, and the significance of Easter weekend for every person. And that dark blindness can result in the rejection of Jesus and total intolerance of anything He said or did, and especially Easter and the hope His resurrection offers.
That Thursday evening Jesus had said “He who hates Me, hates My Father as well…they have seen the miracles, yet they have hated both Me and My Father… All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue, in fact a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you…” (John 15:23-16:4)
As you and I reflect on the horrific events of the past few years and the graphic news reports of ISIS and Boko Haram, and other radical terrorist groups who have targeted Christians for extermination, do the words of Jesus sound shockingly accurate and contemporary?
There has been a fundamental battle raging since the days of the garden of Eden. Holy God is fully and always opposed by evil Satan. God’s purposes and God’s people will always be the target of the hatred of Satan’s kingdom, anywhere in our world, in every generation. The more faithfully you and I ‘walk with Jesus’, we will find ourselves opposed by a world that rejects Jesus and His message, and even rejects God and His Truth!
Can you imagine Peter and John and their brothers looking at each other and saying something like this: “We have some important decisions to make. If we live the rest of our lives as followers of Jesus, we will suffer, maybe even to the extreme like Jesus suffered. But, what will our lives be like if we turn away from it all and return back to our normal lives and simply forget about all we have seen, heard and experienced with Jesus?”
What about you and me, my friends? When you take Psalm 42:5&11 and link it with the warning of Jesus in the upper room, (John 15), and standing now at Wednesday following Easter 2020, and looking out ahead for the rest of your life, what do you see ahead for you? Which path will you choose to follow? What price might you have to pay to really ‘walk with Jesus’ in the months and years to come, in world that is increasingly hostile toward Jesus?
I have a song for us my friends, which fits so well with this moment. It has the lyrics included so you can ponder them as you listen: https://www.youtube.
Oh risen Lord Jesus, we thank You that You are empowering men and women all around the world today, who are experiencing the opposition, even the hatred of the dark kingdom of Satan. We need Your help Jesus as we try to practically walk with You, faithful to You and Your Word of truth, while living in a world that is so opposed to You. Strengthen us Lord Jesus, for the journey ahead. . .
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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