daily java

Daily Java:

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)

Jesus had just gotten through saying some things that the people listening found, quite frankly, offensive. He had been saying that in order to be pleasing to God, you had to eat him and drink his blood. He was, of course, speaking metaphorically. What he meant was that you had to take him into your self in such a way that he became part of you. It would almost be as if you ate him and drank him.

A lot of the crowd said, in effect, “Yuck. Gross.” And then said “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”  (John 5:60). Jesus knew that his apostles were confused by such raw imagery and some just plain didn’t like it. So he asked them, are you going to leave too? They told him, where would we go? You are the answer to our questions. And we believe in you.

Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn starred in a movie about the older Robin Hood and Maid Marian. He came back after the Crusades to find her in a convent. As they told each other what had happened in the intervening years, he told her of the atrocities that King Richard had visited on those he fought and the things that he had Robin Hood do. Some of them were baffling, others were appalling.

Marian asked him at one point, why did your keep on doing these things? Robin’s answer: he is my king. What else would I do after a lifetime of service but serve my king.

That has always rang in me somehow. There are things that God has done or left undone in my life that I do not understand. And many things that he has done or left undone that I quite frankly disagree with him over. But I have served him for over four decades. It will not be but a couple of years that I will enter my fifth decade of service to my king.

Someone asked me the other day why I stayed in ministry when things seem to be going so badly. And my answer was like Robin Hood’s. He is my King. Where else would I go? There are no other alternatives, no other avenues of approach, no other ways to serve him. He is my King.

There are a lot of things that I just plain do not understand and a lot that I do not like. But he is my King. And if I serve him as my King, I have to recognize that what he does in my life is up to him. He has used me mightily in the past. Right now, I don’t seem to be doing much. He has blessed us financially in the past. Right now, he has not.

But above all else, he is my King.

Jesus asked the apostles, are you going to leave too? I was going fine and then I said something that you didn’t like so you leave? And to their credit, they said no, we will not leave. For better or worse, you are the Holy One of God.

As we see in politics and everything else today, someone may be a trusted advisor or confidant for years, and then say the wrong thing. When he does, he is pilloried by the press and usually dumped by those who just yesterday thought he was great, simply because they didn’t like what he said.

Sometimes it is good but you don’t want to hear it. Sometimes it may be too hard for you to comprehend. But whatever God says is always good, even when you don’t want to hear it.

In Revelation 10:9-10; the angel give the apostle John a book. It was God’s will and plan in a symbolic fashion.

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach!” So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.

The word of God is often beautiful, but often harder to do than to listen to. I am convinced that many people prefer the old King James Version of the Bible simply because they can listen to it in comfort and not really understand it because of the outdated language. Modern translations give the word of God in a format that is too easily understood and they don’t want to do it.

The apostles found again and again that Jesus was not just some good philosopher. He was the real thing. And the real thing is sometimes hard to follow.

daily java

Daily Java:

Rejoice, O people of Zion!
      Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!
   Look, your king is coming to you.
      He is righteous and victorious,
   yet he is humble, riding on a donkey—
      riding on a donkey’s colt. (Zechariah 9:9)

When Jesus came, he came as a little baby, helpless and human. What people wanted was for him to come as a powerful person raised in royalty and splendor. And they still want it.

Try to tell some people that the baby Jesus was not aware as an adult is and they get almost angry. In their minds, they can see the little baby counting down the years until he is killed in all the legends, he blesses the shepherds and the wise men, he blesses other people doing things for him and his family at various times. Some of the apocryphal writing even has him doing miracles as a child.

But the thing is, if Jesus came as a super-aware baby, he was not a real baby. And if he was not a real baby, the whole divine project was a sham. If Jesus didn’t live as we did, and die as we did, it was all worthless.

On the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Jesus rode a young donkey into Jerusalem. What they wanted was a big white horse. He wore ordinary clothing. What they wanted was for him to wear fancy, kingly robes.

The problem was, God never did things the way people wanted it.

When Jesus came, he came to an ordinary young couple, in fact conceived out of wedlock. The young couple were transients, traveling to register in the census. He was born in a stable and laid in a manger. God announced his birth, not to wise men, but to shepherds. When wisemen came, they had to hunt for him.

He grew up in an ordinary, nondescript household. He ate regular food and wore regular clothes. He worked a regular job. He never married but that was about the only thing out of the ordinary for him.

And he only preached for three years, after which he was killed. His Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem as a king was on a young donkey with twelve ordinary guys with him.

But even that couldn’t hide his kingship. Even that couldn’t hide the fact that here was the King of King, Lord of Lords.

Thank you, Lord, for sending Jesus to us. Make us worthy.

daily java

Daily Java:

Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:33-36 NLT)

When Jesus came, his people expected him to live up to their expectations. He was going to be their king, so therefore he needed to act like they wanted him to act.

The problem was: Jesus didn’t come to do what they wanted, he came to do what God the Father wanted. What they wanted was entirely beside the point.

So they got mad at him and tried to get rid of him. They wanted what they wanted and they were going to get it even if it meant killing yet another prophet.

However, this was not another prophet. This was the King. And he didn’t come by their permission and they were not going to stop him.

The same thing holds true today. People try to co-opt Jesus for all kinds of things. Climate change, animal rights, dietary choices, political parties – every group feels that if Jesus were here today, he would be one of them and argue in their defense.

The problem is, again: Jesus didn’t come to do what they wanted. In fact, he didn’t care about these things. He came, Luke 19 says, to seek and save that which was lost.

In Matthew 22:15-22, a group of people tried to trick Jesus into revealing what he thought about taxation. They asked if it was good to pay taxes to Caesar.

There was an ongoing argument among a lot of the Jews that said that since Caesar was an occupying army and not Jewish like they, they had no obligation to pay taxes. The other side wanted to keep the occupying army happy and encouraged the others to go along.

They asked Jesus this and tried to bring him into the political arena. If he said that it was fine to pay taxes, the conservative side would call him a traitor to his people. If he said no, it wasn’t good, the liberal side would call him an insurrectionist against the Roman empire.

Instead, Jesus asked for a coin and asked whose picture was on it. They replied Caesar. All right then, Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.

In other words, he was not going to take sides. He did not come to argue politics, or dietary choices, or energy choices. He came to bring us to God.

There are things I believe he would have stood against. He would have been against abortion. If the unborn John recognized the unborn Jesus (Luke 1:39-45) then obviously God dwells in the unborn. And to kill one is murder.

He would have stood for helping the homeless and the hungry. In Matthew 25, it was the fact that they did or did not help the hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, that determined their willingness to love Jesus.

But, you know, he never said anything much about war, or government, or slavery for that matter. There were a million things he didn’t say anything against.

When you accept him, you are accepting a heavenly based king who also determines how you will live on this earth. But Jesus himself knew that one day this earth will be gone.

And the apostle Peter said: The heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live (2 Peter 3:10-11)

One of these day, all of the energy and the animals and politics will be gone. All that will be left is us and Jesus.