Eat Your Peas

Galatians 3:13-14

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A13-14&version=NIV;NLT

 

Do you remember the old metal kitchen table from the fifties with metal legs? Starting as a little girl, my wife would dump her peas inside one of the table legs when her Mom wasn’t looking. It wasn’t until they moved before her senior year of high school that her Dad found the cache of hardened peas.

 

My wife hates vegetables! And her parents were very strict about finishing her

vegetables before she could leave the table. The rest of the family would be done and gone for hours, while poor Little Debbie sat alone at the table playing with her cold, stale vegetables.

 

Into her punishment, walked Bubba, her Big Brother. Oftentimes, he would sneak into the kitchen, grab a handful of veggies off Debbie’s plate and quickly pitch them into the trash. On occasion, he would even force the cold stale food down his own throat. In a sense, taking her punishment on himself.

 

That’s what Jesus did for you and me. He took all of our sinful thoughts, words, actions and desires; all the things that would nail us to the cross. He took them as his own so that we wouldn’t have to suffer.

 

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

 

For my wife, as a little girl, Bubba took her punishment away allowing her to leave the dinner table. For us, Jesus is the only one who can take our punishment away. And what is the result of his sacrifice?

 

Paul wrote in Romans 8, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

 

The peas are gone in our life. There is no sin from the past, present or future counted against us. We are free to live without judgement; without condemnation; without shame. All of this because of Jesus.

 

(Here's a link for a You Tube video that I by chance came upon that fits this topic. You might enjoy it.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNkgTMa8Vis

 

 

 

 

 

Single Mindedness

Luke 23:26-31

 

 

My wife and I recently watched the remake of the 1977 TV miniseries Roots. Like the original, it depicted the atrocities of American slavery. However, about half way through the series I found myself getting quite emotional.

 

For me, there was an even greater message than the abuse of slavery. It was the commitment and single mindedness of Kunta Kinte, and those who followed him, to remember their African heritage; to be a great Mandingo warrior; but mostly to make their forefathers proud.

 

Jesus was truly single minded. He obeyed his Father even to the humiliating and painful death of the cross. In today’s passage he reminds the grieving “daughters of Jerusalem” of God’s judgement on Israel by quoting the prophet Hosea.

 

The high places of wickedness will be destroyed—
    it is the sin of Israel.
Thorns and thistles will grow up
    and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
    and to the hills, “Fall on us!”    NIV

 

Jesus was intricately involved in God’s judgement and in God’s plan of redemption. Without his sacrifice, you and I would suffer judgement; there would be no redemption. Jesus was single minded in his desire to do his Father’s will; to fulfill the prophet’s warnings; to make His Father proud; to please Him.

 

There is a powerful scene in Roots when Kunta Kinte is being whipped until he will say his slave name of Toby. It is painful to watch. Time and time again as the lash, laced with nails, tears his flesh, he says, “My name is Kunta Kinte”. I found myself whispering, “Just say Toby”. But he was single minded in his commitment to his African ways.

 

The single mindedness of Jesus suffered God’s judgement for you and for me. If only we could be single minded like that. What great things we could accomplish for our Heavenly Father who sacrificed everything for us.