March 25, 2024 [MISSION MONDAY]

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6.23)

“ Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’” (John 12.23-24)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

[Author’s Note: By the sheer weight of gospel evidence the traditional Church calendar for the events of Holy Week follow the Synoptic Gospel order: Sabbath dinner on “Saturday”; Declaration Entry on Sunday; Cleansing the Temple on Monday; the Olivet Discourse on Tuesday; Judas plotting with the Temple officials on Wednesday; Preparation for the Passover/Seder Meal on Thursday; The Betrayal, Arrest and Crucifixion on Friday; Shroud Saturday and the Sabbath of Grief; culminating with Resurrection Sunday. We have long followed this pattern of thinking concerning the final week of Jesus’ life in the flesh. Who would dare challenge it? Only the beloved disciple, the Elder of Patmos and Ephesus and thus the Presbytery of Asia Minor, John would give to us a rendering of that week which varied from ‘the norm.” John speaks of a special Sabbath, no cleansing of the Temple and the curious inclusion of the desire of the Greeks to know Jesus. The heart of John’s recollection of the events of that week focus greatly on the Passover Meal, the Betrayal by Judas, the Forsakenness of Peter as well as the resurrection and restoration of the hope of the Church. Perhaps it is because at that point in John’s life writing from Patmos, he had nothing to lose by sharing the truth of those moments as they pertained to him. Not that he was denying the evidence of others and their remembrances but sharing a deeper insight which brought inclusion and closure to the message of the Church in its times of greatest challenge and persecution.]

It is in light of this witness that I will, for today, follow John’s remembrance and challenge historical assertion as to the events of the day following Jesus’ Declaration Entry into Jerusalem. You will not find the cleansing of the Temple Marketplace in John’s Holy Week recollection. The cleansing of the Temple for John was already introduced to us in chapter 2 following the “Miracle at Cana.” There is such power in the events as John records them and shares them relating to the revelation of Jesus about Himself. And “revelation” would be the key and critical word guiding John’s writing. If you will remember the heart of the first chapter of John is centered on several revelations: the Word became Flesh and dwelt among humankind; The Baptizer reveals the One who comes to take away the Sins of the World; the Anointing of Spiritual Ministry with the Descending Dove; the call of the Disciples concluding with the revelatory dialogue between Jesus and Nathanael concerning “greater things will you see, one in whom there is no guile [betrayal or false pretense]!” We are then not ushered out into the wilderness to do battle with Satan but urged to join with Jesus, His mother and the disciples in Cana “on the third day.” The use of that term is significant not only to the miracle of “water turned to wine” but as a foreshadowing of the Resurrection which is itself a revelation of God’s intention to love all His people into life eternal: saving the best till last. Indeed, the taste of new wine (emblematic of the Passover Meal where Jesus declared “I will not eat of this bread nor drink of this cup until I do so being renewed in the Kingdom of God”) becomes the impetus for the ministry of the Church in its ‘new’ Age following the Resurrection Revelation and the Pentecost Commissioning where Peter is not only restored but authorized to become, let’s say, Jesus’ Joshua in leading those who were in exile into the Promised Land. It was immediately after this “miracle in Cana” where Jesus told His mother that “My time has not yet come” to provide a foretaste of glory divine that Jesus is found in the Temple declaring “Get all of this out of here and stop making My Father’s House a market place.” When He was challenged as to what authority gave Him permission to make such a request, He responded “The evidence will present itself when you destroy this temple and find that in three days I will raise it up again.” John remarks that only after Jesus’ death and resurrection did the disciples remember this and accept the witness of the scriptures.

But, if John remembers the events of that day as not part of the Holy Week venue, then what is the witness of the scriptures which portray Jesus as Messiah of Israel and indeed the whole world? Powerfully enough, John brings round full circle to Philip who introduced Nathanael to Jesus to another group of “outsiders,” the Greeks and includes them in having Jesus be revealed to the whole world. Indeed, this was the message of the “House of Prayer” where all the world was welcome to come into the marketplace of the Temple and be “as one.” The revelation of God by Israel in the Temple to the whole world was the precursor to the Day of Pentecost in Luke/Acts where Peter and the rest spoke boldly of the evidence of Jesus of Nazareth who by the knowledge of His resurrection was Lord of all. Peter stood in stark contrast to the High Priest who was in that moment sacrificing another lamb for the saving grace of Israel as if salvation was still far off. For Peter, who was preaching to all nations as Jesus commanded, salvation was already here. And for John, the witness of Jesus to the Greeks saying to His disciples “My time has come for Me to be revealed before all people” is the antithesis to Jesus saying to His mother in Cana “Woman, you know My time has not yet come.” Oh, mighty ones of God in Christ Jesus, as many times as history repeats itself and as the earth spins on its axis with the moon marking month after month, this one truth is unchangeable. There is but “one way, one truth and one life” which reveals the perfect love of God and His purposes on earth to gather His flock to Himself that they might be saved from the enemy who uses the threat of death as a weapon to defeat faith. The Greeks themselves represent an enemy of the Church in the latter part of the first century with their gnostic beliefs that only right thinking is necessary for a perfect life and the body means nothing. But, the evidence of Jesus who both teaches the truth and then evidences it with the works of faith defeats such thinking and gives authority to the Church in its Age. Let us remember His words in the Temple early on which said “This is the evidence and authority by which I say ‘clear the temple and restore it to its rightful purpose,’ tear down this temple and I will show it raised up again in three days.” What is that temple as God intended but a light in the darkness, a testimony to all the world, a city set on a hill which cannot be hidden bearing witness to the fullness of God and His hope for us all. Oh, that it would be so again today!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.