March Madness and One Shining Moment

A Series on Lent
 (Use the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 14:12-26

[As we approach Easter, consider the example that Jesus set by spending forty days alone in the wilderness to prepare for his ministry and his ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Lent is a forty day period with a focus on spending time with Jesus, to meditate on who he is and what he did for us. This Lenten series is about people who spent time with Jesus; and as a result, their lives were changed forever.]

  

March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year! 

College basketball teams from across the country compete in a single elimination tournament. There are schools that haven’t been in the tournament for over thirty years; and other schools that are there every year. From a small private school to a public mega-university; they’re all thrilled to play.

 

For me, it’s exciting to see what school is going to be this years “Cinderella” team. It’s exciting to watch as the tournament unfolds and is whittled down from 68 teams to 32 to the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight to the Final Four. With each game, the excitement and pressure builds until the climactic finish when they play ‘One Shining Moment”. It’s a pressure cooker that ultimately explodes.

 

The final week of Jesus’ life was a pressure cooker too. Jews had been anxiously waiting for centuries for the Messiah. With these expectations, Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey with the crowds cheering him onto victory, and calling him the Son of David.

 

But soon after arriving, Jesus created chaos as he went to the Temple and drove out those who were buying and selling, and turned over the tables of the money changers. Following this, Jesus gave his disciples instructions on preparing for the Passover meal.

 

During this meal, the pressure really ratcheted up. It was then that Jesus informed his disciples that one of them would betray him. On top of that, Jesus told them that all of them would desert him! Peter was adamant that he would never do that; he would die before deserting Jesus.

 

Finally, Jesus took the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. Here, while Jesus was fervently praying to his Abba, Father, he sweat drops of blood while his closest friends and followers fell asleep. Soon a crowd came to arrest Jesus. In one final attempt of bravado, Peter cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant.

 

After three years of living and learning and loving together, the pressure cooker exploded, and the disciples scattered. Peter denied Jesus three times. There seemed to be no victory. All seemed to be lost. There was no “One Shining Moment”.

 

Yet, in the midst of all this darkness and defeat, there was a brief moment of hope... one shining moment, if you will. During the Last Supper, Jesus explained that his body was the bread; that his blood was the wine. And even though they would desert him, he wouldn’t desert them. He would be faithful.

 

That promise is still true for you and me. That same meal is the one that we as believers celebrate to remind us of his promise. It doesn’t matter how badly we sin; it doesn’t matter how badly we fail him; he will forgive us. Jesus paid the ultimate price as the perfect Passover lamb so that we might also know his Abba Father.

 

 

A Safe Place

Luke 22:14-20

 

¹¹ “Eat it with your shoes on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. And you must eat it in a hurry. It is the time the Lord will pass over. ¹² For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night. And I will kill all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ But the blood will mark for you the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. And no trouble will come upon you to destroy you when I punish the land of Egypt.                     Ex 12:11-13 NLV

 

Can you imagine what that first Passover must have felt like? The Israelites were eating quickly as they listened to the wailing of their neighbors. Their emotions must have been all over the place; from fear to guilt to relief and back to fear again. The lamb’s blood on their doorpost is all that separated them from life and freedom, and the painful loss of their first born. The blood made their home a “safe place”.

 

¹⁵ He said to them, “I have wanted very much to eat this special supper with you

to remember how the Jews left Egypt. I have wanted to eat this with you before I suffer.             Lk 22:15 NLV

 

As Jesus served his disciples the Passover meal, he knew what was going to happen to him that night; He knew that all hell was about to break loose. But for his followers - his life blood, his body would provide the same protection that the Israelites experienced in Egypt. He was the sacrificial Passover lamb. This was indeed a safe place.

 

Of course, the body and blood of Jesus provided much more than a safe place. He changed things forever. With his death, and ultimately his resurrection, he made it possible for all our sins to be forgiven; he made it possible for us to know God personally; he made it possible for us to go to the ultimate safe place of Heaven.

 

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I would come downstairs on a cold winter morning and crawl behind the couch and lay there for several minutes. I was snuggled between the couch and the heat vents in the wall. It felt very secure. It was a safe place for me to start my day.

 

Each one of us needs to find, or create our own safe place. A safe place where we can be refreshed; where we can draw strength to “fight the good fight”; where we can “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles; where we can begin to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith”; where we can “approach the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”.

 

Nobody said it any better than David.

 

God is our safe place and our strength. He is always our help when we are in trouble. ² So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and the mountains fall into the center of the sea, ³ and even if its waters go wild with storm and the mountains shake with its action.            Psalm 46:1-3 NLV

 

 

Like the little boy hiding behind the couch, getting ready for the day;

let us create our own safe place with the LORD throughout our day.

 

 

 

 

 

(If God has spoken to you, or touched your heart through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)