MARK 15:33-41
At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down!”

Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Some women were there, watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the younger and of Joseph), and Salome. They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Living and dying with exclamation marks
The Roman officer tending to Jesus’ crucifixion had likely watched many men die on crosses, maybe even on this same hill – Skull Hill. What was so different about the way Jesus died that made this jaded human killing machine take note? He was not merely puzzled by the contrast, but so impressed that he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Mark only hints at what produced such an exclamation. The one comment Jesus uttered that Mark records, reflects a deep heart connection between Jesus and God. I have often attempted to get beyond just the words in order to hear the personal trauma in Jesus’ voice. I hear him speak as only a son can speak to a father with whom there has been a deeply personal relationship.

Here is no mere quote of Psalm 22. Neither is this bitterness toward a distant and disappointing Deity. No. This is the heart cry of a son.

Heavenly Father, may I so live in relationship with you that my daily life, even and especially my disappointments in you, reflect such a deep love and devotion that those who hear and watch my life will understand that you desire to draw them into the same kind of relationship of love. - Mike Leamon

He died of a broken heart
We have all heard the phrase before, “He died of a broken heart.” I have seen men whose wives have died simply stop caring if they lived any longer. Their grief is so great they simply lose the will to go on. Their heart is broken and they cease to live emotionally and eventually physically.

Roman officers were familiar with death. They knew what it looked like when a man’s life was taken from him. They had seen men struggling to grab that last breath, fighting with all they had to prolong the inevitable. It is human instinct. We fight to live. The Roman officer, who saw Jesus die, experienced something he had never seen before. Jesus was not grasping to stay alive, nor had he refused to live. Jesus, abandoned for the first and only time in history dies alone of a broken heart. For the first and last time he experienced the brokenness of sin by taking on our sin, and in so doing healed our broken hearts of sin.

Jesus, whose bones were not broken to fulfill the Scriptures, allows his heart to be pierced for our transgressions. His heart is broken, cut through for our sin. He accepts our death in his death and brings us life. No wonder the officer recognized something different in Jesus’ death. No man had ever died this way, nor would one or could one ever again. Jesus was unique in his death. He died by giving up his life for ours, no one took it from him.

Holy Lamb of God who was slain for the sin of the world, I proclaim today you are the Son of God. You are my God. I give you thanks for taking my sin and giving me life. Thank you for the cross Lord. - Dan Jones

MARK 15:21-32
A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.) And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. A sign was fastened to the cross, announcing the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.” Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

Prove it!
I remember arguing with my brothers when I was younger about who was stronger, who was the better basketball player, et al. We would rattle off our stats or pick up a ball and see who could throw it the farthest or the hardest or hit the mark on the wall the most. In essence every debate about who was better came down to a challenge. Prove it! Arm wrestling, free throws, one on one games, all were designed not just for fun, but to establish who was better, at least for that day or moment.

The end result of each of our contest, or proofs of who was better, seldom yielded a confession of inferiority by the one who lost. There was always an excuse, a challenge to go best out of 3, 5, 7, or a delay in the proceedings that kept the rivalry alive for another day. Eventually, when I realized my brother was actually getting stronger than I was, I just refused to accept his challenges and referred him to his last defeat.

It really does not matter what someone does to prove you wrong when you have already made up your mind about that person. If Jesus had come down off the cross, the religious leaders would not have suddenly believed, they would have found some excuse. Look what they do to cover up the resurrection. They had already determined they were not going to believe the mountain of evidence Jesus had already provided concerning his identity.

Before we blame the Pharisees again though, I wonder how many times we fail to believe the promises of God and demand a new sign to convince us. How many times does God have to prove His faithfulness? His love for us? His Sovereignty? His presence with us? His wisdom?

What if we stopped asking God to prove it and instead believed in Jesus based on what He has already done? Jesus told Thomas, you believe because you have seen, blessed are they who believe and have not seen. There is plenty of evidence in Scripture, creation, and yes even our lives to give us strong reasons to believe Jesus is God, our Saviour, our Friend, our Redeemer, our Sustainer, our Messiah, our Hope, and our King.

Jesus, you are God and have demonstrated this fact over and over in Scripture and in my life. I confess my faith is weak and ask your forgiveness for asking you to prove yourself over again to me. Help my unbelief to become strong faith. - Dan Jones

Plain sight secret
He hung their for everyone to see. They gawked at his broken body. They tisked the obvious criminal overtones to this death. They threw his own claims back at him. They saw the “what” but were blind to the “why.”

Here God identified with the ultimate consequence of rebellion against himself – death. Here he loved his rebel creation by suffering their just penalty. Here God absorbed all the violence humanity could create to break it stranglehold.

How often does God work out his amazing plans for me and my race right in front of my eyes? But because it comes in such strange packages, at least to my earth-bound mind, I miss God’s amazing action!

Eternal Life and Light, give me eyes to see what my earth bound existence cannot comprehend. Give me spiritual eyes to see eternal activity going on before my seeing, but clueless, physical eyes. - Mike Leamon

MARK 15:16-20
The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

Accepting the torture!
So was Jesus a sado-masichist? Did he have this need for pain?

If I had a legion of angels at my beck and call, like Jesus did, I’d have called them when the first volley of spit splattered my face, if not before. What kind of person willingly stands there and takes this kind of abuse?

And his abusers were probably rather ordinary people, men like me! If the Abu Ghraib torture debacle during the early days of the war in Iraq reminded me of anything, it reminded me that ordinary men and women are capable of horrible things when placed in the “right” situation. Ask Lynndie England’s (one of our soldiers responsible for the torture) family if she is some kind of beast, or more like the girl next door.

I tolerate a lot less grief from people than Jesus took but, conversely, I am capable of inflicting as much grief as Jesus endured. This, I think, is why he did it.

Most importantly, my sin quotient, in reality and potential, is off the charts! Jesus chose to endure and absorb all the evil of which I am capable, in order to strip away my own self deceptions. He gets in my face. He shows me my dark side, but taking it onto himself, he breaks it power over me.

But I think he also thrusts into my line of sight the truth I do not want to see. In this hurtful and hurting world, I can take a lot more grief than I think I can. By his grace, when I have no choice but to endure the cruelty of ordinary people, even fellow Christians, I can return good for evil!

Truth Giver, Mel Gibson helped your passion to leap off the pages of The Book. Now, send your Spirit to grace me with the ability to, once again, recognize that I am not so nearly as good as I want to believe, but that you broke the power of the evil that lurks around every corner of my life. - Mike Leamon

Worship
I believe worship is a lifestyle, not something we do for a set number of hours on Sunday. God desires all of our life, our job, our families, our recreational time, our money, everything. There is no part o life that is excluded from worship.

The soldiers set up their mock-worship event to humiliate Jesus, but when they were tired of mocking him they led him away to get rid of him. There is something uncanny in this cycle of worship and leaving. It is a cycle that perpetuates itself every week in American churches. But it does not have to.

We can worship God at all times. In the Wesleyan tradition we like to use the words entire sanctification or holiness to describe this activity. But we might just as well use the words constant worship. When we worship God with all we are, at all times, our focus is consistently on God. Continual worship is God’s purpose for creating us.

Our act of worship, our life of worship, is good for us too. In worship we no longer are centered on ourselves, bent inwardly, instead we are outwardly bent, focusing on those around us and ultimately on our Creator. Worship centers our life on God. I say trash the model of timed worship and adopt worship as a lifestyle. It is not easy for me either, but I have discovered when I do worship God all day He gives me peace and joy all day long.

I worship you my Lord and my God, for you are wonderful and worthy of my worship. I want to worship you every day with all of my life. When I tune you out and center my thoughts on myself, please remind me of who you are and turn my heart back to you again. - Dan Jones

MARK 15:1-15
Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law—the entire high council—met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor.

Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise. \

Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner—anyone the people requested. One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

“Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

Mob power
I am amazed at what people will do when they get caught up in the energy of a large group of people. Inhibitions are surrendered to intoxicating cheers, morals are downgraded to the least common denominator, and thinking is relegated to the person with the largest mouth.

If you have ever seen a riot before you have witnessed just how powerful a mob can be. There is a sense of unrestricted freedom in the power of a mob. However, realistically what feels like freedom is in fact conformity.

The nemesis of the Pharisees has now become their strength. They have wanted to arrest Jesus for some time but out of fear of the people they have restrained themselves. They knew as long as the people were in favor of Jesus they were powerless to oppose him. To turn the tide, they painted Jesus as the failed deliverer of Israel from Roman oppression. The fickle mob reacts with hatred demanding Jesus’ crucifixion.

Through all this, the opinion of his Father kept Jesus motivated and confident. God’s voice booming at his baptism and at the transfiguration, “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased,” made the difference. God’s voice of affirmation, not the mob kept Jesus moving forward.

It is easy to listen to the mob; you can always hear them, but they seldom have the best answer. Elijah did not find the voice of God in the earthquake, the tornado, or the thunder. God’s voice was still and small yet full of power and might.

Pilate surrendered to the mob, the Pharisees surrendered to the mob, but Jesus did not. He remained silent, perhaps repeating to himself over and over God’s promises and words of assurance. What a wonderful concept for our lives when the mob surrounds our life.

God you are great and awesome, creator of all things both big and small. When you speak the universe trembles, yet how often you speak to me in your still small voice. I pray when the mob of confusion or doubt or anger or pain surrounds my life you will help me to concentrate on your voice of assurance and the promises of your presence. May your hidden word be heard loud in my mind drowning out the voice of the mob. - Dan Jones

MARK 14:66-72
Meanwhile, Peter was in the courtyard below. One of the servant girls who worked for the high priest came by and noticed Peter warming himself at the fire. She looked at him closely and said, “You were one of those with Jesus of Nazareth.”

But Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, and he went out into the entryway. Just then, a rooster crowed.

When the servant girl saw him standing there, she began telling the others, “This man is definitely one of them!” But Peter denied it again.

A little later some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said, “You must be one of them, because you are a Galilean.”

Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” And immediately the rooster crowed the second time.

Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he broke down and wept.

Strange People, Amazing Grace
Jesus calls the strangest kinds of people to be leaders in his world-wide restoration movement. Overconfident and susceptible, that’s the kind of man Peter was. He insisted that he’d follow Jesus to the death. But in the heat of the moment, when sudden public pressure and personal weakness collided, he called down a curse on himself if he was lying about knowing Jesus.

Some years later, though filled with the Holy Spirit and a bold and effective preacher, Peter continued struggling with this susceptibility to public pressure that suddenly arises and demands an immediate response. Paul tells the tale. He and Peter were enjoying a church dinner with Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians when several Jewish Christians showed up. They immediately took offense at Peter’s non-kosher choice, who responded by caving into the pressure and separating from the “dirty pork eaters.” Read the story in Galatians 2:11f.

On some days I am strong like Peter. I say the right things. I do the right things. I am strong, confident, and obedient. But there are also times when saying and doing the right things fall prey to the pressures of the moment. My tongue wags out the wrong words. My actions leave people wandering about my spirituality.

On some days I just wish God would brush me aside and set me free of his persistent call to be a spiritual leader in his restoration movement! I try to tell him, “I’m not the kind of person you need.” Then he asks me if I love him. Of course I do, with all my heart. Then he tells me, like strange and susceptible Peter, to feed his sheep. That’s grace!

God of amazing grace, you call the strangest, unlikeliest people to become spiritual leaders. Flawed, quirky, and in need of occasional confrontation, we are yours. Use us as you see fit and for as long as you see fit. Though like Peter, I’m yours. - Mike Leamon

Hidden Words
Peter had heard it all before. His teacher had warned him about making foolish choices in the heat of the moment. In the classroom those words sounded hollow, yet he had internalized them and repeated them on the examination. Peter was a good student, albeit one who challenged the status quo occasionally.

Peter grew up in a Godly home where morals were taught early and the principles of honesty, loyalty and discipline were engrained in children at an early age. God’s word was an important part of life for Peter as well. There had been a time during his teen years he wandered a little from the teaching of his parents but he had come home in his faith when he married.

Scripture memorization was an important aspect of his childhood. He had forgotten much of what he learned but not all. He still would hear the words of Scripture come to mind when he faced difficult situations. He knew Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

As Peter warmed himself by the fire the words of his Lord, his God; his Friend were whirling about in his head. Surrounding the cloud of words was a whirlwind of questions. Then there were the incessant questions from those around the fire with him. Finally he could stand it no longer, he needed quiet to sort out all the questions and he cursed them, denying his association with Jesus.

Then the words returned, clear and loud. His words of loyalty and Jesus’ prophesy of denial. The hidden words of Christ brought instant conviction and grief. Peter, weeping, runs.
While Mark will not include the restoration of Peter, the Gospel of John will. There is forgiveness for sin, even denial. Jesus’ words bring conviction but also healing.

Jesus, I thank you for giving us your word, and for being the Word that brings conviction, life and healing to my life. Your Word is wonderful. - Dan Jones

MARK 14:53-65
They took Jesus to the high priest’s home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered. Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into the high priest’s courtyard. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire.

Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any. Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other. Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’” But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!

Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?”

“Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”

Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.

How do you plead?
At the beginning of every trial in America there is a listing of the charges and then the submission of the plea. The defendant then has an opportunity to declare his innocence or admit his guilt. In many cases the defendant’s attorney will enter the plea for their client.

Not so with Jesus. His trial is stacked from the beginning. Before there is a chance to even clarify the charges, witnesses are brought in with trumped up stories. The scene is chaotic, much like the courtroom in Texas last week.

In the middle of the chaos the lead prosecutor, who is also playing the judge, asks the key question. How do you plead? “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus, silent up to this point, answers the question with a resounding: “YES.”

There is no denying his identity. Jesus is God. Guilty as charged, Jesus is sentenced to death for who He was and is. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ know all to well the reality of answering this question at a trial. In China, many Muslim controlled countries, and other places around the world, men and women are killed for answering “Yes” to the question of identity.

“Are you a Christian?”

In the first century people who refused to profess Caesar as Lord and instead answered that Jesus was Lord were killed by the thousands. Proclaiming one’s identity is not always easy. It was not easy for Jesus, and it is not easy for many Christians today.

Jesus, I thank you for boldly proclaiming your true identity as God in the face of death. Thank you for the freedoms I enjoy here in America where I can profess my identity as a Christian without fear. I pray for those who do not have this freedom and ask that you would strengthen them with boldness to proclaim their identity in you despite the risks. - Dan Jones

Blasphemy and punishment!
I am always fascinated, and not a little bit convicted, when I observe the contrast between how religious people respond to perceived disrespect of those persons and objects they consider sacred and how Jesus responded. The religious leaders in today’s story found sufficient cause to torture Jesus to death because they believed he disrespected God.

Consider modern Islam. When Rushdie wrote Satanic Verses, passionate Muslims put a price on his head. More recently, when Dutch cartoonists caricatured Mohammed, riots broke out around the world. While Christians have moved beyond placing a price on the heads of blasphemers, Christ-followers loudly express righteous indignation at the likes of Hollywood moguls who disrespect Jesus. We call for boycotts and bans and display for the world the same attitudes as offended Muslims and first century Jews.

Jesus was different. Here is God in human form. If anything or anyone deserved absolute respect, it was he. Still, when others abused or ridiculed him, he refused to strike back or even protest. His disciples would have called fire down from heaven just to punish those who rejected Jesus. Jesus refused to strike back when his sacred head was slapped or his sacred heart pierced.

He warned his followers that those who hated him, rather than worship and respect him, would also hate them. He never called his followers to stand up and defend his honor when blasphemed against. (Peter tried in Gethsemane, until Jesus insisted he sheath his sword.)

Perhaps the world that makes sport of Jesus would begin to see him in a different light if Christians acted more like Jesus in the face of such disrespect. Maybe they’d even begin to face the reality that Jesus is fundamentally different than any other religious leader ever born.

Grace-filled God, I recognize that you do not need me to defend your honor by becoming angry, indignant, or violent when others abuse your name. Remind me again, from the behavior of the one I claim to follow, that reacting to blasphemy with grace and mercy and speaking truth with love, is the model your Son provided. - Mike Leamon

MARK 14:43-52
And immediately, even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders. The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss. Then you can take him away under guard.” As soon as they arrived, Judas walked up to Jesus. “Rabbi!” he exclaimed, and gave him the kiss.

Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear.

Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there among you teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me.”

Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away. One young man following behind was clothed only in a long linen shirt. When the mob tried to grab him, he slipped out of his shirt and ran away naked.

Streaker number one
I love how the Holy Spirit inspires the writers of the Bible! Again, in the middle of earth shattering events, with heavy duty – life transforming - truth to be explored and applied to my life, God’s Spirit nudges the writer (Mark in this case) to remember and include an hilarious, quirky, and “irrelevant” detail.

Several years back, streaking flashed through the North American campus culture. Even today, an occasional streaker will create a stir. A high schooler in my area recently found himself kicked out of school for running naked – except for the obligatory hat and shoes – through a basketball game. He wasn’t the first. Mark was.

Scholars believe Mark refers to himself when he tattles on this young man’s desperate escape and naked run through Gethsemane, the Kidron Valley, and the, hopefully dark, streets of Jerusalem to get safely home. The first streaker!

This streaking episode wasn’t a prank, however. It happened because Mark just had to see what was happening to Jesus and his twelve disciples. Perhaps it was his deep love and loyalty toward Jesus that drew him into shadowing the group as they left the Last Supper. At any rate, he was there when Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter slashed a slaves ear, and Temple guards arrested Jesus.

This is why I am committed to the Bible. Through these pages I too can be there.

Breath of God who breathed scripture into Mark, I commit myself to your written word again today. Forgive me when I fail to spend enough time in this Book of books. Continue to draw me into its pages so, in some spiritual way, I too can shadow Jesus, and all the men and women who are part of your salvation story.

PS. I too will follow you, even if it risks streaking! - Mike Leamon

In our midst
Looking past someone is easy to do. In fact we do it all the time in life. We overlook homeless people on the streets, service people at our jobs, even our kids when they are annoying. At times looking past someone is a matter of peer pressure. I can remember in high-school when I was around friends where I totally ignored a kid from church because it would not have been “cool” to be seen talking with him. The pressure from other people kept me from associating with him.

The mob in our passage of Scripture today saw Jesus every day in the temple teaching but they overlooked him because of his popularity. They waited until it was convenient to approach him.

At first glance I would never associate myself with the mob, the disciples, maybe, but the mob? However, it is the mob that I find myself in too often. Jesus is present in my life everyday. He walks by my side, carries me in his hand, and yet I avoid him like the plague waiting for a convenient time to approach him. I am too busy, ashamed He would not approve of what I am doing or thinking, preoccupied, or just not wanting to be bothered. I am a member of the mob.

Jesus, help me escape from the mob and respond to your grace and love at all times. I am sorry for the times I ignore you and refuse to listen to you calling my name. I want to live in your presence at all times regardless of how convenient. - Dan Jones

MARK 14:32-38
They went to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, “Sit here while I go and pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Struggling before God
Jesus’ prayer in the garden is one of the most humbling pieces of Scripture in the whole of the Bible. The Son of God is pleading with God for strength, support and even relief from the task ahead of him. Jesus prays “I want your will to be done not mine.” We do not think of this often, but Jesus is admitting his will, his desire is for something other than what God has for him.

For some of us this thought is close to blasphemy. Jesus and God are one, how could he desire, even will something other than what God desires and wills. We speak of Jesus’ will and God’s will as synonymous and interchangeable. How can Jesus want something other than God’s will? Isn’t that sin?

Paul assures us Jesus did not sin. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians. 5:21) What we find in Christ’s prayer in the garden is not sin, but the honest struggle we also face in life: Exchanging our will for the will of God. The words of Christ are not the secret language us prayer, they convey the real and difficult language of surrender.

Jesus does not sin, for he surrenders his will for that of God. Jesus knew God’s will, he was there with God when it was decided he would come into the world as a baby to eventually die for our sins. Yet in his humanity, he still struggles with the choice in the garden.

We should not be surprised when we struggle with surrendering to God’s will for our life. Just as Christ struggled so will we, but we have an example of to struggle without falling into sin. Laying our struggle out before God with honesty and pleading is not sin. God welcomes our struggle and desires to strengthen us to be able with Christ to say yes to his will and no to our own.

Father of strength and patience who listens to my struggle, I am forever grateful for the example of Christ who came before you honestly in his time of struggle and found strength to follow your will. Help me to find the same strength in my struggle to submit to your will in my life. - Dan Jones

When friends fail
Our closest friends aren’t supposed to fail us in our hour of deepest need! When they do, the hurt shoots into the soul with such forcefulness that forgiveness comes very slowly, if it comes at all. I cannot imagine the pain in Jesus’ voice when he asks Peter, “Simon, are you asleep?”

Remember, Peter, James and John were the three closest disciples to Jesus. Jesus included them in experiences that the other 9 did not share. In fact, James and John were his cousins. John and Jesus enjoyed an especially affectionate friendship. But in his darkest they failed him.

Even those who profess undying love and loyalty, think Peter, fail miserably. This is not just an issue of others failing me. This is about me and my friendship with Jesus. If these three can fail the greatest Friend ever known, than so can I.

When I should be tuned into his heart and mind I can be clueless. When I should be fully in his presence, my mind and heart wander. When time together should have developed a deep understanding of what makes him tick, I remain perplexed by his words and tears. Still he is my friend that sticks closer than a brother to me; one who never fails me.

Goodnes! If the One I so easily fail responds with faithfulness, then surely, if I merge my heart and mind with his, I too can respond to my friends failures with the same faithfulness.

Jesus, I want to be a better friend to you. Still, even when I fail you, thank you for your amazing faithfulness. Grant me to live so fully in your presence and connect with your mind and heart that I too can return faithfulness with my friends fail me. - Mike Leamon

MARK 14:27-31
On the way, Jesus told them, “All of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,
‘God will strike the Shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’

But after I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”
Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

“No!” Peter declared emphatically. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the others vowed the same.

Truth in the face of self confidence
Don’t we want to build up self confidence? “Believe in yourself,” we teach. Peter believed in himself and Jesus let the air out of his balloon!

We do not ultimately help anyone develop a godly self confidence by soft pedaling their deep rooted flaws. Peter, a bold and verbal man, who often engaged his mouth before adequate self reflection, needed to know that he did not yet have the spiritual wherewithal to stand up under intense pressure.

There is a difference between God telling me that I am going to fail and that I am a failure. To be a strong and fruitful child of God, I need to face the unsettling truths about myself. If the truth undermines my self confidence, then my self confidence was built on the wrong foundation. Peter’s was.

Peter hadn’t yet rooted his self confidence in Jesus. It still rested in his personality. In order to rebuild a healthy self confidence, the old one had to come crashing down. It did. And Jesus rebuilt it after the resurrection. Meanwhile, Peter had to suffer profound humiliation and self doubt.

Father of perfect love, I trust you to know when and how to tear out anything in my life that isn’t healthy. Rebuild every area of my life from the ground up, even, and especially my self confidence. I want your Son to be the only foundation. - Mike Leamon

Misplaced Bravado
In the presence of supporters I can say a lot about my intentions and fearlessness to confront difficult situations. While sitting with friends discussing a sticky situation going on in the church I find it easy to say just how I would stand up to the injustice, or bully, or blatant sin, or whatever or whomever with boldness that defied disobedience. In the actual situation my resolve often becomes shaky and it is much easier to fold than to call.

Perhaps it is like watching tournament poker on TV. When you know what everyone else has in their hand it is easy to be confident going all in with two pair. Peter tries to do just that. Giving up our life when there is no immediate threat to our life is fairly easy. But we shrink from even giving up our reputation, much less our life, when real danger approaches. In the company of friends: bravado. In the presence of danger: back-peddling.

How tiring it must be for God to hear our promises, boasting, and big plans so often and then watch us back away from them at the first hint of ridicule. I can’t help but believe God would much rather have me talk less about my faith in church and talk more about it with my neighbors. Standing strong for Jesus at church is not nearly as impressive as standing strong for Jesus at school, work, with unsaved relatives, friends, or neighbors.

Tower of Refuge and strength, help me to stand strong for you in the everyday moments of life and most importantly to stand strong for you when there is a risk I might lose something by doing so. I admit I cannot do it alone but through your strength I can. - Dan Jones

MARK 14:12-26
On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover meal for you?”

So Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with these instructions: “As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” So the two disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.

In the evening Jesus arrived with the twelve disciples. As they were at the table eating, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me.”

Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one?”

He replied, “It is one of you twelve who is eating from this bowl with me. For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.”

And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”

Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

Thanks for the pain
I read this passage with new insight today. I have recited the words of consecration over the bread and juice in church so often they have become second nature, but today they took on new life for me. Especially the words, “And Jesus took the cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it.” I have often given thanks for the cup of wine (juice in our tradition) and been very sincere in my thanks. I am very grateful for the blood of Christ.

It is natural for me to give thanks for the cup. I did not have to give my blood as the payment for sin. My sin caused the outpouring of Christ’s blood. Jesus on the other hand gives thanks to God for the cup. This is the same cup about which he later prays in the garden might pass from him. How amazing that Christ gives thanks to God for the very suffering he will encounter. He understood this suffering in every detail as God’s will for his life. He understood the humiliation that accompanied it. He understood the complete debasement of it. Yet he welcomed it and gave thanks to God for it in the very presence of some who had caused his suffering.

How great is the love of Christ to give thanks for the suffering in his life. With Paul, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. I should not fear the sufferings of Christ but thank God for them. In the end they lead to resurrection.

Jesus, thank you for displaying complete humility and obedience even to the point of thanking God for the cup of suffering. Help me to discover the fellowship that comes from sharing in your sufferings with thanksgiving. - Dan Jones

It’s going to be a drinking party!
There’s hope in the heart of pain when Jesus is present! Like Judas, I betray him to the religious ideals to which I cling (see yesterday’s comment). Like Peter I pretend I’m not a Jesus freak. Like the rest of the twelve Apostles, I run in fear and self preservation. But…!

But, Jesus is here! I am his disciple. Many times I am stupid (like a sheep!). Sometimes I cower when backed unexpectedly into a corner. I shy away from sharing suffering with him. But, thank God, he’s accepted me and I belong to him! So there’s a drinking party in my future. One hosted by Jesus himself.

I love the words Jesus speaks when he offers the cup of wine. My paraphrase, “I know what’s coming, but take heart, we’re going to drink together in heaven!” No matter how deep the suffering or stupid my failures, Jesus is sitting around the table of my heart reminding me, “We’re going to have a drinking party together someday. So don't give up.”

With that kind of hope, I can get up after my failures. Unlike Judas, I don’t have to self destruct. Like Peter, I can hear Jesus invite me back into productive contribution to his cause. There is always hope for me. Why? I have my personal invitation to a heavenly drinking party - without the hangover and forever inebriated with perfect joy!

God of the ultimate party, I am looking forward to the day when you will drink wine again, and drink it with me around the heavenly table. With you help and your Spirit’s daily presence, I will endure to the end. Here’s to heaven! - Mike Leamon

MARK 14:10-11
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted when they heard why he had come, and they promised to give him money. So he began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

Why?
Why did Judas do it? He’d watched Jesus do miracles and listened when he taught. Didn’t it sink in? He’d lived with Jesus day and night, more or less, for three years. Hours spent talking along the roads as they walked from town to town offered opportunity to get inside Jesus’ head and heart. Didn’t he like what he discovered?

Many have offered theories about this man’s betrayal. The only sure thing, I think, is that there is far more going on than the flat, mechanical observation that Satan entered Judas so Jesus could die for the sins of the world. Judas was a person with free will. Like me. He was a jumble of motives and ideas swirling around his head and heart. Like me.

And Judas, for whatever convoluted reason, decided to betray Jesus. Like me.

That’s right. There’s a lot of Judas in me. (And, quite likely you.) I listen and watch Jesus. And still don’t get him. I spend time trying to get inside his heart and head. And I have a hard time accepting what I see. Truth is, sometimes I’m afraid of what I see. Why? It’s just too out of sync with my world and the demands it makes one me.

I have this nagging suspicion that I make Jesus say what he doesn’t say, and offer what he doesn’t offer. And in so doing, like Judas, I betray the Man who stands before me. I sell him out to religious ideals, lurking in the shadows of my own soul, that insist on maintaining their own dominance.

Unconquerable Lord, like any follower in every time and place, I confess to religious ideals formed by my own story. These often battle you for dominance. I also confess you as Lord. Continue your march through my life. I lay open every notion and ideal to you. Redefine me by your Truth, no matter how alien to my own reality. - Mike Leamon

Broken Trust
Ministry can be lonely. Imagine sitting with Jesus around the table with his disciples when Judas leaves to go betray him. Jesus has just come to the aid of a helpless woman showing her love for him. He has repeatedly stood up for those who could not stand for themselves and now one of his closest friends is going to betray him. It is not like Judas is a whistleblower turning in Jesus for corrupt practices or abusive management policies. Judas is turning in Jesus out of frustration with Jesus’ lack of political ambition.

There were none closer to Jesus than the inner group of 12 men personally invited to follow Jesus. Jesus has invested in them more than any other, he has hurt with them, hungered with them, laughed with them, ate with them. He has shared his disappointments with them, his frustrations with them and even his weaknesses with them. Jesus has opened his heart to these men with complete acceptance of their flawed personalities and personal ambitions. He has stayed with them even when they have thought of leaving him. Jesus has trusted them. He trusted them with his Gospel and he trusted them with his life.

And one repays him with betrayal. You can never let your guard down in ministry or someone, sometime, will betray you. They will break that bond of trust and cut you off. I have been told you can’t be friends with the people in the congregation or it will hurt you. True, it will hurt you. At the same time I am called to love these people as God loves them, to show them this radical self-abandoning love God has for them. I hear the horror stories of pastors who have been abused by their congregation and I see Jesus betrayed by one he trusted most. Yet Jesus still loved Judas and the others right through their failure and restored that relationship with all who were open to restoration after the resurrection.

What is a pastor to do: Love or become insolated from the congregation? I am not sure my answer is always consistent. I am not sure I know the right boundaries to put around my love for the people in the congregation. I am not sure how to love those who hurt me. I do know God will always love me, and them, and will channel His love through me to them as long as I am open to his love myself.

God of love and grace, I confess I cannot love like you do. I struggle to love those who hurt me or my family. Instead I want to protect myself from that possibility. Help me to live in your love and not mine and give me the strength to take the risk of love with those I am most familiar with even when the odds of my love being returned with pain are high. - Dan Jones

MARK 14:1-9
It was now two days before Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The leading priests and the teachers of religious law were still looking for an opportunity to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the Passover celebration,” they agreed, “or the people may riot.”

Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.

Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” they asked. “It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!” So they scolded her harshly.

But Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”

Wasted for God
I was always brought up to eat all the food on your plate every meal. If you went through the line at the church dinner and filled your plate with enough food for two people, it did not matter, you ate it all. If you piled on your favorite food at home only to realize your eyes were bigger than your stomach you still ate everything making your stomach grow as large as your eyes. Not wasting food was taught early and enforced strictly. (The rule even applied to food you did not like, so the buffet line was a lesson in choosing wisely.)

I appreciate having learned to use my resources wisely. On the farm growing up it was imperative we not waste food or other resources as there were only meager resources to begin with. Now that I am financially more comfortable, the necessity to use resources wisely is not dependent on financial limitations but on principled management.

I was standing in our church lobby yesterday when I overheard an individual who came through the depression speaking about how little the present generations know about sacrifice and doing without something. For these people wasting anything is paramount to a mortal sin.

Jesus does not seem to mind careless abandonment in resource management so long as we “waste” our resources on him. Selfish? Not really. Everything given to Jesus is multiplied in ways we will never fully understand until we reach heaven. Besides, how wonderful to be free to express our love for Christ with reckless abandonment. It would be like buying the full carrot diamond earrings for my wife and her response being one of complete thanks, instead of questioning the cost. Jesus welcomes such adoration which is exactly what we owe him.

Jesus, your love for me is so amazing. You gave your life, your everything, for me. Help me to love you with the same recklessness and complete abandonment as you love me, sparing nothing to show you my appreciation. - Dan Jones

Actions worth remembering
Doting on Jesus just doesn’t feel right. Watching the man who came to serve (rather than be served) defend one who not only serves him, but acts with excessive affection toward his body, strips my mental gears.
Sure Jesus demands absolute loyalty. But bathed in exquisite perfume?

Next thing you know he’ll don expensive robes and take for himself luxurious accommodations. Sounds like some of his followers today who treat their bodies with lavish abandon, financed from the gifts of poor folks sending in their donations.

But it isn’t the same, is it. Jesus never lets others express their love for him in ways that turn him into a lavishly appointed guru. He has an uncanny ability to remain unchanged and unencumbered by this world’s trappings while respecting the need others have to express their deep affection for the One who perfectly serves.

Experiencing the Jesus this woman knew always draws out profound affection, albeit an affection expressed in different ways. Mary Magdalene clung to his ankles when she met Jesus after the resurrection. Thomas fell on his knees. John leaned on Jesus at their Last Supper together. How can we express our affection to the One who loves us so lavishly that he died to save us?

Jesus isn’t physically around to lean on, hug, bow before, cling to, or anoint. Or is he?

In a strange twist, Simon and some of his dinner guests scolded this woman because this same perfume could have fed, clothed, and sheltered many poor people. On another day, Jesus insisted that God would one day judge us according to how we cared for Jesus’ body by clothing, feeding, sheltering, and caring for the world’s poor. “When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,” Jesus responds on Judgment Day, “you were doing it to me!”

Is it possible, that by accepting the expensive perfume for his own body, Jesus was modeling how lavish we are to be toward the poor? Is it possible, that our actions worth remembering through the generations are our expressions of affection for Jesus, offered through excessive expressions of affection for the impoverished of the world?

Jesus, I love you. I want to express that love lavishly. But I am not sure how. I think it has to do with how I treat the poor. In the middle of the demands life makes on me, show me how to “excessively” dote on you, by doting on the poor. My mind and heart are open. - Mike Leamon

MARK 13:28-37
“Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that his return is very near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene before all these things take place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert!

“The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. When he left home, he gave each of his slaves instructions about the work they were to do, and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return. You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak. Don’t let him find you sleeping when he arrives without warning. I say to you what I say to everyone: Watch for him!”

Eternal words
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” So the nursery rhyme of elementary students goes. The words we use often come out of our mouths with little to no thought about the lasting effects they will have on people. We speak without thinking and leave verbal carnage in our wake. At other times our words bring healing and comfort to other people.

I am glad my words will not endure forever. There are some words that have been spoken by people that will endure for a long time. “I have a dream…” “We the people of the United States of America…” “I have not spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other…” In time, however, even these words will disappear from the world.

Imagine how precise, articulate, accurate, and encompassing your words would have to be to last forever and still be meaningful. Jesus makes that exact claim. His words will last forever. They are still as meaningful today as they were when he spoke them. I am glad I trust in a God whose every word is spoken with full comprehension of its eternal impact.

Jesus the living Word, I confess my words are often trite and not well thought out. I give you thanks for your eternal words that bring me comfort today and assurance for my tomorrows. - Dan Jones

To understand or trust
Just because words confuse us, doesn’t undermine their reliability. My chemistry teacher in High School often confused me. Still, her words were factual. If my partner and I performed the lab experiment exactly according to her instructions, it didn’t blow up!

I don’t understand much about what Jesus predicts for the future. I study his words. I look at his background in the Old Testament and his first century culture. Still, when I come to conclusions about their meaning, humility suggests that they ought to be tentative. In fact, biblical scholars today, and through the centuries, have not agreed about their meaning.

Jesus insists his teaching about the future is solid and enduring, regardless of our ability to understand them. So the key question facing me is this. Will I trust the person whether or not I understand his words? Trusting my chemistry teacher, lab experiments never failed. Trusting Jesus, I cannot fail in the laboratory of life.

Every day choices are something like a chemistry experiment. Whose words will I trust as I conduct them? Mine, yours, or Jesus’?

Wise Teacher, I will do my best to understand your teaching. Even when I don’t understand your reasoning or the spiritual dynamics, when I understand what you ask of me, I will obey it. Even when I don’t understand clearly, I will do my best to apply your teaching to my life. I choose to trust you. - Mike Leamon

MARK 13:14-27
“The day is coming when you will see the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing where he should not be.” (Reader, pay attention!) “Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat. How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. And pray that your flight will not be in winter. For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world. And it will never be so great again. In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a single person will survive. But for the sake of his chosen ones he has shortened those days.

“Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. Watch out! I have warned you about this ahead of time!

“At that time, after the anguish of those days,
the sun will be darkened,
the moon will give no light,
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory. And he will send out his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

Out of control
The end of the world is perhaps the most intriguing topic for Christians and non-Christians alike. The Left Behind series has popularized a certain theological perspective on how the end of the earth will come about. Al Gores’ “Global Warming Campaign” presents another apocalyptic view of how humanity will cause the cataclysmic end of the earth. Movies, books, TV programs, research, all done in an attempt to determine how, when, where, and why the world will end.

I get sick of our fascination with the end times! So many Christians are busy trying to understand something we will never fully understand they have forgotten about ministering today. Our fascination with the end is spiritual wrapping around our inward compulsion to control the end. We want to be in control of everything, including the end of life.

Jesus presents us with another option. Instead of worrying, fearing, or attempting to control the end of life, we can rest in the assurance of our salvation. God’s love for us is so amazing He even shortens the time of our suffering. We are safe in the arms of God today, tomorrow, the next day and into eternity. Jesus declares no one can snatch us out of his hand. I don’t need to know when the end happens, I need to be sharing Christ’s love with dying people today. Being informed is not wrong, but if our motivation for information is so we can be in control we are sinning. Instead of knowing, I want to trust God has my best interest at heart and rest in the promise of his protection and grace.

Lord, when I try to control life today or in the future, please help me to remember you are in control so I don’t have to be. Help me to live each day in the assurance of your gracious salvation and provision for today and eternity. - Dan Jones

Horoscope or Hope?
Inquiring minds just want to know! So many people imbibe in salacious, gossipy tabloids in the super market checkout lines. Weird predictions, strange reports, spurious claims fill those pages.

Many want to approach this chapter, along with the writings of Daniel in the Old Testament and John in the New Testament (Revelation) with the same drooling thirst. “Just gotta know what’s around the next corning. Gimme details, sensational details.” We just want someone to map out the future for us so we, quite frankly, we don’t have to trust God. Getting the inside scope about tomorrow becomes our source of security. We want to turn the Bible’s talk about the future into a horoscope.

But Jesus speaks about the future in ways that just cannot be turned into a neatly packaged prediction, or a pretty chart. He speaks about a world gone crazy and that “after the anguish of those days” the world will witness the return of Christ. After? As in the next day, the next year, the millennia?

The world disintegrated before their eyes, for first century Jews. Ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD in ways eerily similar to Jesus’ prophecy. But that was only one time the world crashed and burned! Read history since the time of Jesus and you’ll find repeated eras that Jesus’ prophecy describes.

In fact, listen to the voices of those eras, and you’ll sense that not only the human race, but all of creation, shook in fear of the calamities evil perpetrated on the planet.

Today, Jesus offers, not a horoscope, but hope for his followers. Life may well come crashing down before us, but God will see his people through. Spiritual confusion may fill our day, but God’s people can be alert and wise. The phrase “after the anguish” may encompass countless generations, leaving us to wonder just when he will return, but we have his word that one day he will gather all his people!

Savior of the World, I will trust you always, even if my world should fall apart before my eyes. I will hold onto your promise to see me through and return to earth at the right time. I will always hope in you. - Mike Leamon

MARK 13:9-13
“When these things begin to happen, watch out! You will be handed over to the local councils and beaten in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me. For the Good News must first be preached to all nations. But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

“A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And everyone will hate you because you are my followers. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

No attorney needed.
Good lawyers are never surprised in trial. They have carefully researched every aspect of the case and tried to think of every angle. Lawyers will even take their clients through a “pre-trial” practice where they will ask their client the questions they presume will be asked.

I think a good preparation for something as significant as a capital case trial is definitely in order. I know I would want to be prepared for such a hearing. About two years ago I received a traffic ticket. I went to court for the ticket and I was very much prepared for the case and that was only going to cost me money, not my life. How can Jesus seriously expect us not worry or spend time preparing the best defense possible when we stand on the firing line for our faith.

Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about this on a daily basis. I live in America where our freedoms protect our faith. I am very grateful for this. At times it makes for a weak dependency or faith on Jesus. If you have to trust him with your life, you need to have total faith in Jesus. If you only have to trust him with a few small details, faith is not all that necessary. If God doesn’t come through most of the time there is no harm to us, we have made sure of that in advance.

The only way this passage really comes into play for most of us Americans is if we choose to live like the widow who gave two mites (chapter 12). Radical obedience with total abandonment to God requires us to leap out of our insured quasi-faith life and into the great unknown. In the great unknown you have to trust God because you have given everything else away. Realistic for me? For you? Probably not, but I sure am thinking a lot more about what I depend on in life: God, me, or my things?

Father, forgive me for treating my faith like a stock fund that needs diversification to ensure I don’t take a loss when the market dips. I want to live the life of radical obedience, but I am terrified of it. Bring me back to the precipice of faith and hold my hand as I take another step over the edge of “reason” and into belief. - Dan Jones

A painful opportunity
There is something about Christianity that elicits anger, criticism, rejection, even persecution. In fact, wherever the Good News of Jesus has gone, it has met with this very kind of reaction, sooner or later. Truth is, if my brand of Christianity doesn’t bring some kind of negative response, I’ve likely omitted some critical element.

Two elements in the Good News also make it controversial news. Both grow out of human pride. The Good News doesn’t beat around the bush about our inability to work ourselves out of the messes we make. Every solution we create comes with negative side affects. We wanted to take both good and evil into our own hands. In our hands, every good we do eventually produces an evil downside.

Neither does the Good News mince words about the only solution. A first century carpenter, preacher, and crucified criminal is the only way out! Why? Because he was God, and, resurrected bodily from the grave, is God now just as he has been forever.

Offer this Good News and someone will take offense. Live this Good News and some will accuse us of thinking we’re better than everyone else. Refusing to live within human value systems transforms our lives into light. No matter how humble our attitudes may be (God help us!), living in stark contrast to common social values will bring negative reaction.

This is where many Christians, especially in North America, miss a ripe, though painful, opportunity to speak Good News. We are so busy taking offense at every move our culture makes to downplay, sideline, or ridicule the faith; we are so busy clinging to the fantasy that ours was and should be a Christian nation, that we forfeit opportunities to speak truth to a messed up society.

Unmovable God, the nations may rage, but you cannot be dethroned. Grant me a clearer picture of your sovereignty. Grant me a Christ-like balance between participating in my government and my higher allegiance to offering Good News – knowing that it will eventually bring offense. - Mike Leamon

MARK 13:1-8
As Jesus was leaving the Temple that day, one of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at these magnificent buildings! Look at the impressive stones in the walls.”

Jesus replied, “Yes, look at these great buildings. But they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”

Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives across the valley from the Temple. Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him privately and asked him, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will show us that these things are about to be fulfilled?”

Jesus replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many parts of the world, as well as famines. But this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

When the beautiful has to go
The Temple was magnificent! King Herod the Great determined to make this Temple one of his legacies that would stand forever.

About 15 years before Jesus’ birth, he demolished the small Temple built by Zerubbabel some 400 years earlier. The design was so grand, by the time the disciples and Jesus had this conversation, craftsmen were still chiseling the finishing touches.

Jesus’ prediction for this virtually new wonder came true less than 40 years later in 70 AD. In fact, between the time of Jesus’ death and this massive destruction, everything in the first eight verses of this prophecy came true.

Truth is, God is not all that impressed with our glorious building projects. Yes, our drive to build beautiful edifices reflects the presence of God’s creative image in us. And beautiful buildings can honor God. But on the scale of importance, beautiful building comes in far below beautiful lives.

If a beautiful building isn’t contributing to beautiful lives, then God has no use for it.

The Jerusalem Temple had ceased to contribute to the building of beautiful lives in two ways. First, those who ruled the Temple, for all their fastidious religious regulations, desecrated this sacred ground with hearts that were far away from God. More important, the entire sacrificial system that the Temple represented came to an end in Jesus’ death as the final sacrificial Lamb. Herod never bothered consulting God before he conceived his ego driven, rather than God directed, building project. So a brand new magnificent building had to go.

Sovereign God, may every building that I either help create or help manage for spiritual purposes, be in line with your work in the world. Forbid that ego and self interest would ever determine my relationship with these spaces. - Mike Leamon

He’s got the whole world in his hands.
Regardless of whether you are a fan of Nicholas Cage or not, you have to admire Steve Buscemi in the film Con Air. Buscemi plays the part of a serial killer who ends up on the high-jacked flight of prisoners. When the plane lands at an obscure airfield where the prisoners have arranged to switch planes Buscemi wanders off and finds a young child playing with dolls. The girl, dirty and oblivious to the danger she is in, welcomes Garland “The Marietta Mangler” Greene to sit down at the table with her for a “tea party.” The little girl starts singing the song, “He’s got the whole world in his hands” and Greene is transformed.

Later, back on the plane with the other convicts, he begins singing the song himself as federal agents shoot the plane down over the Los Vegas strip. In the midst of chaos, this serial killer has found meaning to hold onto.

It’s not quite apocalyptic, but in Buscemi’s character we find a principle Jesus wants each of his disciples to embrace. In the midst of chaos, we need not panic, for God has the whole world in His hands. The Psalmist put it this way in Psalm 46.

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

I cannot figure out all of the end times stuff, but I do know there is no need to panic, either in the end times, or in the present when life seems out of control because God is in control of both.

Jesus, thank you for being my refuge and strength in every situation. It is so refreshing to know I do not have to know every detail about the future since you are in control. - Dan Jones

MARK 12:41-44
Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

Leave it all on the court
March is one of my favorite times of year due to March madness. The NCAA tournament in March is the best of all the basketball playoffs. Every game counts and if you lose you go home. No second chances. Before each game coaches have a chance to inspire their players with a few last words in the locker room. Often those words include some combination of encouragement to leave everything they have on the court. In other words, don’t save your energy for the next game, play today like it is the last game of your life.

“Come back totally spent.” “Give it all you have.” “Play like there is no tomorrow.” If you don’t there won’t be a tomorrow. Some of the best aspects of the tournament are the upsets. Lower seeded teams defeating teams they should not have beaten according to the stats. This often happens when a highly ranked team overlooks, or looks past a lower ranked team. They play with reserves left in the tank instead of giving it all they have.

I have discovered life in Christ is like playing in the tournament. The days I totally give all I have to God are the days where I experience victory. The days I hold back, and keep something for myself, are the days I struggle. Jesus did not call his disciples to a life of half-hearted living. He told them if they loved their families more than him they were not ready to be his disciples. That’s leaving it all on the court. I confess, I don’t always live this way. At times, I hold back from complete obedience, always to my own detriment. The full blessing, the victor’s crown comes to those who give it all every day.

Jesus, your demand for total surrender is hard for me to follow. I so often think I need to keep something in reserve to ensure I will have enough for tomorrow. Forgive me for this and help me to live every day in total surrender leaving everything out on the court of life as I play for you my coach and my God. - Dan Jones

Unsettled, but open
Wouldn’t it be nice if Jesus left well enough alone, for a change? The rich are obeying God’s instructions about giving. He asked for ten percent of their income. They gave ten percent. This widow foolishly give the last two coins she has to rub together. Rather than commending the wealthy for their obedience, he commends the widow for her poor money management.

Stop and think about it. Would you consider it wise if your aged mother or father gave away every red cent she or he’d saved through the years. Every social security check was cashed and given to the church and charity. Nothing to live on. And no inheritance for you, however meager it may have been. Of course you’d compliment mom on giving it all away. Right?

You know you wouldn’t. Neither would I. Instead we’d suspect another religious charlatan of smooth talking the elderly parent out of a life savings. Only, this time, the charlatan has the name of Jesus!

You can tell me that Jesus never instructs everyone to give every last penny away. But no one can deny that Jesus intended to lift this woman up as an example? Why? And why not let this be one of the many encounters Jesus had that never made it into the Bible? Why include this one. And the one about the rich man Jesus told to sell everything, but didn’t. Why make sure such encounters get recorded for the ages, unless there is something about them that other followers of Jesus should emulate.

The traditional line is also the safe one. God want’s to be lord of everything we have. He’s master of 100% not ten. But there would be other ways to communicate this without admiring a poor widow who gave away everything.

Is it possible that Jesus really does want his followers to give away far more than ten percent of their money and live far simpler - read poorer - than most of us do?

I must confess, I do not yet have an answer. I tithe. And I have given God complete ownership of everything in my middle class life. But underneath, I have a nagging suspicion that Jesus may want more than this from me. And maybe a lot more from my middle class Christian friends.

Lord of all my possessions, questions and cognitive dissonance are the beginnings of obedience. I’m really uncomfortable about how you affirmed this widow’s giving. But I am trusting your Spirit to guide me into your Truth, and give me the strength to follow it, wherever it may lead. - Mike Leamon