Robert Grisham Posts

A lot has happened in the last few hours. Jesus has shared a final meal with his friends. He’s then shared some of his most important final teachings them. And then he’s communed with his Father through prayer.

He now invites Peter, James and John to sit with him while he continues to pray. It’s such an honor to be invited into this time. He’s vulnerable with them, sharing that, “my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:34). Jesus is determined to complete the task, but he’s scared. And he wants his friends to be with him.

He prays such an honest prayer to God: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). I admit that I don’t know for sure how to take this. I think it definitely shows his humanity though. When he finishes praying he looks over and sees that his three friends had fallen asleep. It says that they were exhausted from sorrow. It still hurts Jesus. He feels alone. This happens two more times.

At that moment Judas, along with a group of religious rulers and soldiers, entered the garden and approached Jesus. Judas came to Jesus and kissed him. This was the sign to the soldiers. They prepared to arrest him. Peter attacked, chopping off the ear of a soldier. Jesus immediately scolded Peter and healed the man.

And then Jesus was arrested. Over the next few hours he stood trial before various rulers. He was beaten over and over again. Peter was asked three times if he was a part of Jesus’ cohort. Three times he said no. The rooster crowed just as Jesus had said, and Peter wept. He was wrecked, but perhaps not as much as Judas was. His despair was so great that he committed suicide, leaving the thirty coins under where he hanged.

Jesus and his disciples (minus Judas) left the upper room and headed for the Mount of Olives. Here Jesus gives a powerful teaching to them that he has apparently waited on until this point. Here are some of my takeaways from his teaching.

I am the vine and you are the branches (John 15:1-8) – Jesus is reminding them that they were never meant to do life on their own. Life with God is the goal. He tells them, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Love one another (John 15:9-17) – For the past three years Jesus has been modeling love for them. His love for people is rooted in the relationship he has with God. The same will be true for them. And then he gives them one last command: “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

You’re not going to be alone (John 15:18-16:15) – Jesus is about to share something with them that will literally change the world. He tells them that after he is gone, the Father is going to send an Advocate for them – the Holy Spirit. And they are going to need this Advocate, because what Jesus is about to go through (persecution) is going to happen to them as well. But God will never leave them.

Jesus then leaves them to pray. He prays for himself (John 17:1-5). His prayer is that God would glorify him in God’s presence with the glory the two of them had before the world began. I don’t know what this means, but it sure sounds beautiful and powerful. He next prays for his disciples (John 17:6-19). He knows that they have no idea what is about to happen. He asks that God will protect them by the power of God’s name, and he asks that they will be one as they are one. Finally, he prays for the followers who will come after he is gone (John 17:20-26). His prayer is that we would be one as he and God were one. The prayer is once again for unity and oneness. He acknowledges that when we are brought to complete unity, “then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23).

Today’s passage tells the story of Jesus’ last few hours in an upper room with his disciples. It begins with Jesus initiating a ritual that is repeated in churches worldwide even today. He takes break, breaks it, and shares it with them, telling them that when they break the bread together, they are remembering what he is about to do. He then take the cup of wine and says that it signifies his blood that is about to be shed. Once again, when they drink it they are reminded of his sacrifice.

The disciples then do the unthinkable. They once again begin to argue about the roles that they will play in the coming kingdom. Rather than yell at them, which I would have likely done, Jesus models humility for them. He washed his disciples’ feet, something a rabbi wouldn’t normally do for his disciples.

Jesus then calls out Judas. He identifies him as the one who will betray him, and then he tells Judas to leave and do what he’s planning.

Finally, Peter, inspired by the acts of Jesus and frustrated by the response of Judas, decides to let Jesus know how committed he is. He tells Jesus that he is ready to go to prison or even to death with Jesus.

Jesus pauses, and then says, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you even know me” (Luke 22:34).

Peter thinks there’s no way this could ever be the case, but a lot is going to change in the coming hours.

I mentioned earlier that the religious leaders were nervous about arresting Jesus during the festival surrounding Passover. Now they’re two days away from the actual day (Matthew 26:1-2), and they know it can’t happen then. But they also know that this might be their best opportunity yet. They have continued to rally support to their cause. This now includes Caiphas, the high priest. And now something even better has happened.

Judas, one of Jesus’ own disciples, has come forward and offered, for a price, to lead Jesus right into their hands. What was the price? Thirty pieces of silver.

We don’t know much about Judas. He was invited by Jesus to “come and follow me” just as he had many others. And then he was invited into the inner core of 12. I imagine that he, like the other disciples, had very different ideas of what the Messiah would, and like the others, Jesus had not met many of those expectations, especially as he continued to talk about death.

Peter had been the most outspoken when talking about Jesus not measuring up to his expectations. But at some point he came to the conclusion that he was going to need to give up these expectations and surrender to Jesus’ plan. It seems that Judas was never able to do this.

It was challenging knowing what to write about in today’s passages. They’re all about Jesus’ last bit of teaching on the signs that were to come. They’re all very apocalyptic, and they’ve in my opinion been used as the foundation for some very warped beliefs. They’re some of the passages that I often skim over, but I guess today I get the opportunity to interact with them (yay!).

I will admit on the front end that I don’t know exactly what Jesus is talking about here. He begins by talking about the destruction of the temple, which means SO much to God’s people. It’s been destroyed before, and the one that is there now is a shadow of its former self. But still, it’s theirs. And Jesus says that one day it will be destroyed. That actually happens a little less than 40 years from this point.

Others believe that Jesus is talking about when he will come again. The disciples still aren’t at the point of accepting the fact that Jesus is about to die. They have no idea that Jesus will rise from the dead, and so therefore there’s absolutely no context for coming again at some point in the future. So I don’t know if that’s what he’s talking about or not.

The churches I grew up in believed that Jesus could come back at any moment, and if you weren’t ready, you were in trouble. What did it mean to be ready? It meant that you had confessed your sins and asked Jesus to save you. But how could you know if you were truly sincere in that moment? Fear was a tactic that was used quite often, and as a teenager who eagerly wanted to follow Jesus, and was also scared of burning in hell for eternity, there were times when I doubted if I had been sincere. Re-dedications/commitments were a big thing during those years. You had to make sure you were truly saved.

This is not something I think about too often, but it’s baggage nonetheless. And I don’t believe Jesus had all of this in mind when he said these words. I’m really glad to have moved beyond this period in my life. But the questions are still there. I don’t want to dismiss the passages completely due to the baggage and the way they’ve been used to cause more harm than good (which I absolutely believe). So I continue to wrestle with them.

At the end of the day, I believe that Jesus wanted his followers to live their lives with no regrets. He wanted them to choose faithfulness, wisdom and righteousness everyday. He knew there would be days where that wasn’t the case. They would make mistakes. They would chose themselves over others. They would choose their way over God’s. But they could choose to rethink and come back go God’s way of living. This is grace.

It’s now Tuesday. Jesus is still in Jerusalem, and it seems that he spends his entire day talking with and about the religious leaders. They are still trying to figure out a way to have him arrested, tried and killed. Remember that they believe that he is a threat to their entire religion and he must be stopped by any means necessary. They don’t like the timing of Passover because they know that the people like Jesus, and they are worried about a riot. But they can’t allow this to continue.

These interactions between Jesus and the religious leaders show the wisdom and overall cunning intelligence of Jesus. He once again tells lots of stories. One of those stories goes like this.

There was a man who had two sons. He told them both to go and work in his vineyard. The first said no, but then he went and did it anyway. The second said yes, but then he didn’t go. Jesus’ question to them was, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” The answer was obvious. It was the first. Jesus then said, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him” (Matthew 21:31-32).

What was Jesus getting at? To an ordinary Jewish person, the religious leaders were the ones closest to God. They had degrees. They knew the laws. They talked about God everyday. And the tax collectors and prostitutes were the sinners. They had no shot with God because of their chosen professions. Yet once again Jesus was flipping the script. Those who once had no shot were now ahead of things when it came to entering the kingdom of God.

Why is that? Well, I think it comes down to humility. You can’t have repentance without humility. The tax collectors and prostitutes were never told by the religious leaders that they had a shot with God. John the Baptist gave them that invitation. So too did Jesus. And for many of them, their lives were changed because of that invitation. The religious leaders on the outside looked like the ones closest to God, but their hearts were far from him because they lacked humility. And they were fine simply appearing like good people.

Jesus and his disciples were now in Jerusalem. It was a Sunday. So many people were there because it was almost Passover. As I mentioned in an earlier reflection, Passover was one of the three primary feasts in which Jews from all over would come to Jerusalem.

During Passover the Jewish people remembered the time when God freed his people from Egypt. They had been slaves there for almost 400 years before God raised up Moses to lead his people.

If it’s been awhile since you’ve heard this story, let me give a quick summary.

Moses went to Pharaoh and told him to “let my people go.” When Pharaoh refused, God sent a plague. Each time Pharaoh would agree to let them go, but then he would change his mind. And thus God would send another plague. The final plague was that God sent an angel of death throughout Egypt to kill every firstborn son. But God’s people were told to sacrifice a lamb, and take the blood and spread it on their front doors. The angel passed over those homes that had the blood on the doors.

Yes, I know, it’s a very graphic story. But it was, and still is today, a truly important story for the Jewish people.

Jesus purposefully chose this time of Passover as the time when he would be handed over to the religious leaders and be killed. He was the true lamb of God, and his death would provide true rescue and true freedom for not simply the Jewish people but for all people.

One last story about Mary. It’s found in John 12.

It’s six days until Passover. Jesus and his disciples have slowly but surely been making their way to Jerusalem. They’ve heard rumors that Jesus is going to be arrested as soon as he gets to Jerusalem. Yet Jesus presses on. He has continued to try to help his disciples understand what is about to happen, but they still don’t get it. They still think that Jesus will soon overthrow Rome and become the king, and they continue to argue about what their role in his kingdom will be.

But one person does get it.

Jesus and his disciples go to Bethany on their way to Jerusalem. He wants to see Mary, Martha and Lazarus one last time. John tells us that Martha served dinner, and Lazarus, who not that long ago died and then was raised from the dead by Jesus, reclined at the table with him.

Mary then came out. She took a pint of expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet. She then wiped his feet with her hair. “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3).

To every person there this was an outrageous act. Judas Iscariot (we’ll get to him later) expresses his outrage by saying, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor. It was worth a years’ wages.” Yes, this was expensive perfume. John notes that Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and wanted the money for himself.

But Judas wasn’t the only one who had a problem with what Mary had just done. Mary had let her hair down in order to wipe the perfume from his feet. This was scandalous in those days. Why would she do such a thing!

Jesus, though, was honored by what Mary had done. She understood more than anyone else what was about to happen, and she was honoring him. Was it a reasonable response to Jesus? No. It was extravagant. It was worship. She was in fact preparing his body for burial. Mark tells this story and ends with the following statement that Jesus made about her…

“Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her (Mark 14:9).

Today’s reflection comes from John 11.

Jesus had been spending some time in Perea. It was far enough away from Jerusalem that he didn’t have to worry about danger coming to him. One day while he was there he got word that his friend Lazarus was at the point of death. Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, got word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick” (John 11:3). They knew that Jesus could do something for their brother, so they asked him to come.

Jesus got the message but then decided to stay two more days. The disciples were fine with this. Lazarus and his sisters lived in Bethany, which was close to Jerusalem. They didn’t want Jesus going there because they knew that the religious leaders wanted him dead. But Jesus didn’t stay those extra two days because he was scared.

Two days later Jesus got word that Lazarus had died, so he told the disciples that they should begin walking to Bethany.

By the time they arrived Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Martha came out to see him. She was angry, and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” It’s actually impossible to know if she truly believed this last part or if she just knew the proper thing to say to Jesus.

Jesus surprised her by saying that Lazarus would rise again. She assumed he was referring to life after death. He was not.

She then went back to the house. I’m reading between the lines here, but I wonder if Mary didn’t want to see Jesus. She wonders why he didn’t come immediately. She’s hurt. She’s angry. But Martha goes to tell her that Jesus wants to see her. So she goes to him. She too says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But she leaves it at that.

John records, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” And then he too wept.

Jesus went to the tomb where Lazarus was buried. He asked the men there to remove the stone. He prayed to God, and then, in a loud voice, he said, “Lazarus, come out.”

And Lazarus, who was wrapped in strips of linen, came out. Jesus said to those around him, “Take off the grave cloths and let him go.”

The emotions in this story are big, and they’re all over the map. There’s sadness when Lazarus gets sick, then hope that Jesus will come, and a sense of hopelessness when Lazarus dies. Jesus is there for all of the emotions, and he feels them as well.

Today’s reflection is on a complex and challenging passage. Here’s the passage…

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-27

It’s easy to dismiss Jesus when we hear a statement like this. But I think it’s worth taking the time to dig a little deeper rather than to simply move past it.

I like what NT Wright says about this passage. First, picture a politician making a statement like this. Is anyone going to vote for him? Probably not. But then think of a leader of a great expedition making this statement. You are setting out on a dangerous journey in which you may not return. So write a letter to your family. And you’re not going to be able to take much on this journey, so you’d be better off leaving anything unnecessary behind. In a scenario like this we can see these words as genuine, and necessary for our survival.

So perhaps this second scenario is closer to Jesus’ mindset in the moment.

Jesus obviously valued love for family. We’ve covered some of that in a previous reflection. But he knew that the call to the kingdom was an urgent one. He was calling people to set things aside in order to truly walk into a new adventure; an adventure that could at times be costly.

You could say that Jesus was simply telling them that they needed to count the cost before entering this adventure of following him. That’s what the next two stories lay out.

You don’t start building without first taking time to get plans and estimate the cost. You’re in trouble if you don’t.

And if you’re a king facing an opposing army, you don’t go to war without first considering if you truly have a shot at winning. You’re sacrificing the lives of your people if you don’t.

You count the cost before taking on something of this magnitude, and Jesus was saying that the same line of thinking should come into play when we consider following him.