The Sign

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week – Jesus
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 19:1-37 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

 

Twice a week I’ve been going to a Silver Sneakers exercise class at a nearby gym. When walking through the weightlifting room I often see many of the same people working out.

 

For some, it’s easy to tell that they work out regularly. Their biceps are huge, their chest is broad, and their thighs are thick. Apparently, they take to heart some signs in the gym that proclaim: “NO PAIN. NO GAIN”!

 

Jesus was subjected to intense pain – physical, emotional and spiritual. During his trial before Pilate, the Roman guards mocked him as the king of the Jews. They placed a crown of thorns and a purple robe on him. They slapped him in the face. Finally, they flogged him, which is the usual punishment preceding crucifixion.

 

Several times during the trial, Pilate tried to convince the chief priests to drop their charges. He told them multiple times that he found “no basis for a charge against him”. Yet the chief priests persisted. They were relentless and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted… Jesus crucified.

 

Finally, there was a climactic confrontation between Pilate and the chief priests. They must have worked themselves into a fighting frenzy because they proclaimed a political alliance that would hurt them in the synagogue. Here’s what happened when Pilate presented Jesus as their king.

 

^14b “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

¹⁵ But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.              NIV

 

Jesus had come to replace the sacrificial system that had been in place since the time of Moses. The chief priests saw Jesus as a threat to their position of power, and found a way to eliminate him. But in so doing, they actually facilitated the very change that he came to make.

 

¹² With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.                        NLT

                                                                                    Hebrews 9

 

While Jesus hung from the cross suffering a painful death, the Roman guards callously gambled to win his clothing. Mary, Jesus’ mother, stood nearby possibly over hearing their course conversation. Following this, Jesus said something that could send chills down your spine.

 

³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).                  NIV                  Mark 15

 

Like the sign at my gym, Jesus had his own sign.

 

¹⁹ And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.    NLT

 

Figuratively speaking, the sign can still be read today in significantly more languages. The truth of the sign remains unchanged. However, it’s not a sign for us to just read, but to change our life as a follower of Jesus, the King of kings.

 

For he is risen. He is risen indeed!

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

"One Shining Moment"

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week – Mary Magdalene
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 20:1-18 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

  

Here we go again. It’s March Madness! That time of year when college basketball teams across the country believe that they can win it all. You don’t have to be a blue blood like Duke, Kansas or Kentucky. Anyone can win it!

And when they do, the song “One Shining Moment” will come across the TV airwaves around the world, as images of videotaped plays from the tourney are viewed. But especially of the team who won it all.

 

The ball is tipped and there you are
you’re running for your life; you’re a shooting star
And all the years no one knows just how hard you worked
but now it shows… in One Shining Moment

 

When he entered Jerusalem, Jesus seemed to be heading for his own “One Shining Moment”. But then the train fell off the tracks as he was betrayed, arrested, convicted and crucified. Even his closest followers all deserted him. That is, all except for the women, and one woman in particular.

 

She was a woman who at one time in in her life had been possessed by seven demons. In a culture that already devalued women, she would have been viewed as a social outcast at the lowest level of society. Yet, Jesus healed her. As a result, she became a valued follower of his.

 

She followed him across the countryside of Galilee supporting his ministry. She followed him when he was hung on the cross. She followed him when Joseph of Arimathea took his body to the tomb.

 

She was one of the first to discover that the tomb was empty. She was one of the first to learn that he had risen. She was the first to tell the other disciples. And, while she was crying uncontrollably from grief, she was the first person that Jesus revealed himself to.

 

¹⁶ “Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

^17a “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father.”    NLT

 

He called her by name, and she responded with the informal greeting of “Rabboni”. You could speculate that she felt indebted to him; that she never wanted to let him go again. No doubt, he had made her feel safe, secure and loved.

 

For Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ greeting was her own “One Shining Moment”. And when Jesus calls us by name, it is our “One Shining Moment”. And like Mary Magdalene, we can go tell others about it.

 

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.     NLT

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

It’s Not Fair!

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week – the trial
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 18:28-40; 19:1-16 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

In 1892, James Naismith invented the game of basketball. According to Wikipedia, beginning in 1924 foul shots were taken when a player was fouled. This included a one and one free throw which occurred when the opposing team reached a specified number of fouls.

 Fast forward to 2023, 100 years later. My oldest granddaughter played on the eighth-grade school basketball team. Early in the season, there was a game where the referees were clearly not following the one and one rule correctly.

 

Feeling like they were treating my granddaughter’s team unfairly, I yelled at the top of my lungs to let the refs know… twice! Everyone in the gym heard me! After the second time, a nearby spectator quietly informed me that the rule had been changed that year. I wanted to crawl under the bleachers.

 

Almost 2000 years ago, Jesus was treated unfairly.

 

At the beginning of Passover, the chief priests and elders had made plans on how they could get Jesus crucified. In Deuteronomy, the Mosaic Law states that anyone who is crucified is cursed by God. Therefore, the chief priests and elders rationalized that if Jesus was crucified, his messianic claims would be discredited.

 

They were willing to take any means necessary to accomplish their goal. To this end, they offered a substantial reward to catch him. They found false witnesses to testify against him. They shouted for Barabbas to be freed and Jesus to be crucified.

 

All of this was done, not in the name of justice, but in an effort to protect their position and power. They wanted to keep the status quo and Jesus was a threat. For them, the ends justified the means.

 

Their hypocrisy was unfathomable. During the trial, they wouldn’t go inside Pilate’s palace because that would make them ceremonially unclean and prevent them from eating the Passover meal. But, in their mind, it was okay to kill Jesus.

 

“It’s not fair”!

 

Who hasn’t said that before? Maybe you felt like a sibling got preferential treatment. Or, your co-worker got the promotion that you deserved. Or, that the refs weren’t calling the game fairly.

 

None of these compare with how unfairly Jesus was treated. And yet, it was a part of God’s plan of redemption. Someone had to pay the price for our sins. The only one who could meet the demands for God’s justice was the unblemished Lamb of God.

 

Through an ironic turn of events, what the chief priests had intended as a curse that would ruin Jesus, became a blessing that brought us life. It wasn’t fair. But it was loving.

 

¹³ But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”        NLT   Galatians 3

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

I Quit!

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week – the disciples
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Luke 22:7-38 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

  

After three years of college at Michigan Tech… I quit! Not just transfer but quit! Even though my parents had paid for my schooling, I unilaterally made the decision without consulting them.

 

They had made every sacrifice for me to get an education. Looking back on it, I can only imagine how they felt when I told them my decision. Angry, hurt, frustrated, confused, fearful, concerned. They may have even felt like they failed as parents.

 

Luke 22 tells the story of the Last Supper. It was the Thursday of Passover week and the disciples’ gathered together to celebrate. Passover dates back to when Moses was about to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.

 

To avoid the impending curse of the death of every first born, each Hebrew household sacrificed a lamb and smeared the blood of the lamb over their doorpost. By doing this, the curse would “pass over” their family.

 

You can picture Jesus and his disciples as they reclined at the table for Passover. Because of the excitement about everything that had recently happened, the conversation may have become quite animated.

 

After all, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead; He entered Jerusalem like a conquering king; He cleared the temple and faced down the religious leaders. Therefore, just like when Moses had freed the Israelites, the disciples likely assumed that the time had arrived when Jesus would take power.

 

Instead, Jesus said that one of them was going to betray him. Following this, they argued amongst themselves about who was the greatest. Finally, when Simon vowed that he would follow Jesus to prison or even death, Jesus told Simon that he would deny him three times before the next morning.

 

In the Gospel of Matthew version of the Last Supper, Jesus quoted this prophecy from Zechariah to his disciples.

 

³¹ “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’                 NIV

 

Like my parents, Jesus may have had the same feelings about his disciples. He had invested in them for three years. They had lived together twenty-four, seven. He had personally picked them, taught them and given them every possible advantage to succeed. Yet they failed because they quit!

 

It’s easy to judge the disciples for deserting Jesus in his hour of need. But before you do, ask yourself this. Have you ever doubted Jesus and not trusted him? Have you ever decided to go your own way? Have you ever disappointed him? Have you ever quit on him?

 

The Good News is that the story didn’t end with the Last Supper. Like the blood of the sacrificial lamb in Egypt that saved the Hebrews, Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. 

The difference is that he was raised from the dead and invites us to sit at the table with him. He is knocking at the door of our heart, waiting for us to open it and let him in.

 

²⁰ “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.                                                                                  Revelation 3             NLT

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

Bad Guys Wear Black Hats

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week - Judas
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Matthew 26:1-5; 14-16; 47-50; Matthew 27:1-5 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

  

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, Western TV shows and movies were at their peak. The nice thing about Westerns was that it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. That’s because the good guys wore white hats, and the bad guys wore black hats.

 

When you read the story of Passion Week, there are plenty of people who wore black hats. The chief priests and elders who planned to have Jesus killed. Caiaphas, the high priest who declared Jesus had blasphemed. Pilate who sentenced Jesus to be crucified in order to appease the Jews.

 

But the most notorious person to wear a black hat was Judas Iscariot, “who betrayed Jesus”. How would you like to have the title of “who betrayed Jesus” attached to your name every time you’re mentioned? That’s how it was for Judas even though he repented.

 

³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” NLT

 

The chief priests didn’t care about Judas returning the money or repenting. They had
what they wanted. However, Judas couldn’t live with the guilt and the shame of what he had done. So, he killed himself. An inglorious end to an otherwise tragic life.

 

Although, he must have had some redemptive qualities because Jesus called him to be a disciple and then made him an apostle. However, as treasurer of Jesus’ ministry, he was stealing from it. Then, in his defining act, he approached the chief priests to see how much they would pay him to betray Jesus.

 

There are lots of people in the Bible who did terrible things, but were still a part of God’s redemptive plan. Jacob stole his brother’s birthright. Moses killed an Egyptian guard. David had an affair and then covered it up by killing her husband. Paul persecuted the church to the point of death. All were forgiven.

 

What about Judas? Is there no grace for him? Didn’t he have faith at one time? Couldn’t he have been a disciple who just lost his way? In some ways, he’s not all that different from the other disciples. They all had their weaknesses and sinful nature.

 

It was much easier watching westerns when I was a kid. You could tell the good guys from the bad. But in real life, it’s not so easy. Judas is known for the worst thing that he ever did in his life. What would that be like for you or me?

 

Thankfully, there was one person who did wear a white hat in this story... Jesus. He died so that you and I could live. He took our punishment so that we wouldn’t have to. As a result, there’s no sin that is too terrible for him to forgive. Not even Judas’.

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com