He is Risen!

It is Holy Week, and the entire church is looking forward to Easter Sunday and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We may be preparing to participate in Good Friday services, sunrise services, pancake breakfasts, Easter cantatas, ham dinners, and/or Easter egg hunts. Are these celebrations and remembrances that are a part of Holy Week merely history or traditions that we do once a year? Does Jesus’ resurrection have any effect on our daily lives? Should it? What effect did the news of His resurrection have for those first eyewitnesses who arrived to discover an empty tomb that first Resurrection morning?

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

Then the angel spoke to the women. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.’ (Matt 28:1-7 NLT)

Can you imagine the tangled thoughts and emotions of these women? Try putting yourself in their place. It has only been a few days since you witnessed the cruel, violent death of the man that you had invested the past two or three years of your life to follow. Afterwards, you, along with several of His other disciples, hurried to get His body buried in a tomb before the Sabbath began. You all cried together through the Sabbath, utterly devastated by the knowledge that He was really gone, and sealed in a tomb. You tried to process what had happened and what your next steps should be. All you could come up with at the time was that He deserved better than a hurried burial before the Sabbath, so you made plans to revisit His grave. On Sunday morning, a couple of you trudged to the tomb, planning on doing a better job of preparing Jesus’ body for a proper burial.

Try to imagine the shock and joy that collided with the fear and confusion in the minds of these women when they saw the angel and heard the news that Jesus had risen from the dead! How would you have responded to such an astonishing change of events? 

These ladies immediately obeyed the angel’s instructions and they “rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message” (Matt 28:8 NLT). They were so overwhelmed by the good news that Jesus was alive that they could not wait to tell the others. They joyfully did what they were commissioned to do, and then “as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him” (Matt 28:10 NLT).

The news of Jesus’ resurrection turned their lives upside down and moved them to action and to unashamed, extravagant worship. Does the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection do the same for me or for you? Does it move you to action, to do something? Does it move you to unashamed worship of Jesus? The gospel is such amazing news that it should turn our lives upside down, move us to action, and move us to extravagant worship.

Be intentional during this special week, during this time when the entire body of Christ is intensely focused on the suffering, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Allow these events to affect your life. To move you to action. To inspire you to extravagant, unashamed worship. To turn your life upside down for His Kingdom.

(This blogpost was adapted and excerpted from Part One of Follow Jesus, Share the Journey, available on Kindle.)

Words of Comfort

Christmas music is playing everywhere now. It’s on the radio, in the stores, and in our Sunday morning worship gatherings. Some are new songs, and some have been around for decades. Do you ever really listen to and think about the meaning of the lyrics to any of them, especially the ones you have sung since you were a child, or do you just sing along out of familiarity without thinking about what they mean? This week, a friend and I were discussing one such old Christmas carol.

Have you ever thought much about the phrase “tidings of comfort and joy” that we sing at the end of each verse of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”? The phrase “tidings of joy” is easy.  At the birth of Jesus, the angel announces, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10 KJV). I see tidings of joy, but where are the tidings of comfort? Are we even promised comfort? Are we ever promised a time when we can put up our feet and experience a life of ease?

Jesus seems to promise just the opposite. He says we must carry a cross in order to be His disciple (Luke 9:23), we must be a servant (Matt 20:26-28), and we must give up everything to follow Him (Luke 14:25-35). So where are the words of comfort and ease…the tidings of comfort? Is "tidings of comfort" an appropriate phrase for this Christmas carol? I thought I would investigate this dilemma.

To quote my favorite movie, The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”[1] That seems to be the case here with the word comfort. I found a blog entry from December 2005 entitled “Tidings of Comfort and Joy,” written by an Episcopal priest. He references Isaiah 40:1-2, “Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,” and explains the word comfort this way:

The original meaning of comfort is “to make strong” –to fortify. It is about taking heart and being encouraged, being strengthened with resolve and given hope that there is better to come. Comfort is not about feeling warm and cozy, it is about facing the future with trust in God and hope in one’s heart, no matter how bad things might have been in the past, or how they might appear at the present. It is a call to be prepared and strong for the good of the days to come…

That makes much more sense than tidings of ease, prosperity, and warm fuzzy blankets! I looked up what he said about the history of the word comfort and he is right. The Oxford Dictionary says comfort is “from late Latin confortare ‘strengthen’, from com- (expressing intensive force) + Latin fortis ‘strong’. The sense ‘something producing physical ease’ arose in the mid 17^th century.”[2]

I love this old/new definition of “tidings of comfort.” Words of strength and encouragement for the days to come are certainly “tidings of comfort” that many of us can use because we are not living in a world of ease and luxury. There are so many among us who are suffering physically or emotionally, or who have to endure days of uncertainty, grief, or darkness.

The birth of Jesus…the arrival of God incarnate…the presence of Immanuel, brings us not only “tidings of joy,” but also “tidings of comfort” – not the warm fuzzy kind but the strengthening, encouraging, fortifying kind of comfort. He may not have us living in the lap of luxury here, but He does want us to be strong and courageous. He wants us to live in faith, not fear. Be encouraged by these tidings of comfort.

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more. I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God” (Psalm 71:20-22a NIV).

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIP6EwqMEoE (accessed December 9, 2015).

[2] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/comfort (accessed December 9, 2015).

Remember Me

As Americans, we have Memorial Day to help us remember those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. As Christians, we have Communion to help us remember Jesus' sacrifice for our freedom. Memorial Day observances are often somber occasions because they are to honor those who have died in service to their country. Communion should be much more than a somber memorial for someone who has died. Recently, I have been reflecting on Jesus’ instructions when He instituted the Lord's Supper.

What it is, exactly, that we are to remember? Jesus said to “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19 NIV). He says “remember me.” He does not specifically say “remember the cross,” “remember my sacrifice,” or “remember my death.” He says to remember me. We are to remember Jesus. While remembering Jesus certainly includes remembering His sacrificial death for our sake, could there be more involved in the phrase “remember me” than just “remember my death”?

To remember Jesus, perhaps we should remember who He is:

• The Lamb of God, who takes away our sins (John 1:29)
• The Son of God and our Great High Priest (Heb 4:14)
• The King of all Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 17:14; 19:16)
• Immanuel –God with us (Matt 1:21-23)
• The Ruler of all Creation (Rev 3:14)
• The One who is worthy of all honor and glory and praise (Rev 5:12)
• Our friend (John 15:13-15)
• Our Great Shepherd (Heb 13:20)
• The only way to the Father (John 14:6)
• The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End (Rev 21:6)

And we should remember what He did:

• He humbled Himself and became a human being, God in the flesh  (Phil 2:6-8)
• He stood up against every temptation and never sinned (Heb 4:15)
• He healed the blind, the lame, the diseased and afflicted, the deaf (Luke 7:22)
• He raised the dead (John 11:43-44)
• He walked on water (Matt 14:25)
• He miraculously provided for people out of His compassion (Matt 15:32ff)
• He reached out to sinners and loved them (Luke 5:31)
• He enabled us to have peace with God and gave us access to God’s grace (Rom 5:1)
• He showed us what love truly is by laying His life down for us (1 John 3:16)

Maybe we should remember what He said:

• “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
• “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” (John 14:23)
• “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
• “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20)
• “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” (Matt 5:11)
• “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
• “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

These are just a few of the things I thought of that might be included in Jesus’ instructions to “remember me.” What did I leave off that you would have included in such a list? This is definitely a much bigger list than what we tend to focus on during Communion, but then we serve a big God whose love for us is beyond comprehension. As my good friend Brandon Bradley says, “God is bigger than you know and better than you heard, and His grace is more than you can imagine.” So next time you celebrate the Lord’s Supper with your church family, remember that, while Memorial Day is a memoriam for fallen heroes, Communion is a joyous celebration of thanksgiving, and an opportunity to remember, and to remind each other as members of the family of God, who it is that we love and worship and serve.