Tag: Jesus

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Persistent poverty

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Seyiram Kweku on pexels.com

A “through the bible” devotion from Deuteronomy 15.

In back-to-back paragraphs we read, “There will be no poor among you” (Deuteronomy 15:4) and “The poor will not cease to exist in the land” (15:11). So which is it?

What were the causes of poverty at the time of Moses?

  • A storm, blight, or insects wipes out a crop or decimates a flock
  • A family is left destitute when attacked and plundered by an enemy or robbed by a thief
  • A disease or disability makes it impossible to work.
  • An employer doesn’t pay wages (injustice) or an employee doesn’t do the job (laziness).

Many years later Jesus would say, “You always have the poor with you” (Matthew 26:11). There will always be someone without enough. There will always be someone who needs your help. It might even be you.

Old Testament law put safeguards in place. From not charging interest to a jubilee year when all debts are cancelled, all poverty should be short-lived.

Thirty-five hundred years later, we still haven’t solved the problem. There are still families without enough food to eat each day. There are still people who need assistance with basic expenses like shelter, utilities, and clothing. Jesus was right. There’s always someone. There’s always someone who needs help.

I have to remind myself that poor doesn’t necessarily mean unemployed, homeless, and begging on the corner. Poor can mean sharing a living space, only owning one or two outfits, unable to afford a car, and eating affordable, but unhealthy meals.

The temptation is to say, “Stay in school. Get a job. Stick to a budget. Stop wasting money on cigarettes and lottery tickets.” All of that is sound advice. And it puts all the responsibility on them.

But Jesus puts the responsibility on me (and you). “To the extent that you did it [food, drink, clothes, shelter] for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Maybe we always have the poor with us so we don’t forget about Jesus.

Posted in church, Devotions, Through the Bible Devotions, worship

Why does someone have to get hurt?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Tom Jur on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Genesis 4.

As soon as people began to worship God, worship began to separate people. Cain and Able both brought an offering to God in Genesis 4. But their style of worship was different. Cain brought produce from the farm; Abel brought something from his flock. Because God had regard for Abel’s offering but not for Cain’s, there is post-worship anger, gloom, assault, and murder (Genesis 4:8).

Not much has changed. Worship styles vary from church to church. There is gloom, despair, and agony when some congregations grow and others shrink. Worshipers openly criticize, discredit, and attack each other. And along the way, someone usually gets hurt. That’s what happens when “people [begin] to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26).

Jesus himself got caught up in a worship system that had plenty of room for laws, sacrifices, rituals, and priests, but little room for God. He was the one who ended up getting hurt and ultimately killed.

But that changes everything. The Lamb who was slain is on the throne in Revelation where everyone is on the same page, giving him “blessing, honor, and glory” (Rev. 5:13).

I suppose there’s a lesson to be learned here. Rather than focusing on what someone else is doing for worship, put the blinders on and let the Lord be in the spotlight. Listen to his word, receive his gifts of grace, and respond as someone who has been abundantly loved by loving others.

Posted in holy week

Thoughts on Good Friday: not much to say

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Thays Orrico on Unsplash

None of the gospel accounts have much to say about Jesus’s crucifixion. All simply state, “They crucified him.” (Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:33; John 19:18)

The evangelists recorded conversations that took places at Jesus’s arrest, trials, and conviction. They recount seven things Jesus said while on the cross. But the description of the crucifixion is minimal: “They crucified him.”

Artists, writers, and film directors spend a lot more time depicting the driving nails through flesh, screams of agony, and the struggle to breathe.

Maybe it was too horrible to write about. They had seen too many crucifixions and just couldn’t stomach saying anything more than those few words. Or it could be that the word “crucified” said it all. There was nothing more that needed to be said.

Posted in holy week

Tuesday of Holy Week: Trick questions

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Do you like trick questions? Riddles like these are fun to think about and figure out:

  • What goes up but never comes down?
  • How can someone go twenty-five does without sleep?
  • What has a head and a tail, but no body?

(See the end of this post for answers.)

On Tuesday of Holy Week, Pharisees, Sadducees, and a lawyer have trick questions for Jesus. Their questions are fashioned to embarrass Jesus, to cut into his popularity by getting him to say something they can use against him.

  • Should we pay taxes to Caesar?
  • Who are you married to in heaven if you’ve had more than one marriage in this life?
  • What is the most important commandment in God’s law?

Jesus is good at this game. He should be. He wrote the rules. His listeners were impressed. Jesus knows what he’s talking about.

  • Pay your taxes and give to God, too.
  • Don’t worry about it. Marriage is for this life, not the next.
  • Here is a short list of commandments to worry about: Love God and love people.

Lots of people have told me they are looking forward to that day when they get to ask Jesus some questions. Questions like

  • Why didn’t you prevent bad things from happening?
  • Why didn’t you answer my prayer?
  • Why did you create insects I don’t want in my house?

From what we know about Jesus, he’ll probably answer your question with a question like:

  • “What did I tell you?” (That is, “What’s in the bible?”)
  • “Don’t you trust me?”
  • “Who do you think I am?”

Those are not trick questions. And I’ll bet you already know the answers.

Answers: Your age; people sleep at night; a coin.

Posted in holy week

Thoughts on Monday of Holy Week: Can you believe he did that?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

So what happens on Monday of Holy Week? Jesus returns to the temple in Jerusalem where he heals and teaches, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and spends the night with Lazarus.

When Jesus was twelve years old, his parents found him in the temple. Back then the he impressed the teachers of the law with his questions, knowledge and understanding. I wonder if any of those teachers were present that day when Jesus drove everyone out, including the animals.

I often hear people describe Jesus as being angry that day, even though anger is not mentioned in the bible. With a whip of cords in his hand, chasing man and beast out, he may have been angry. He certainly was passionate.

I think of this scene when I walk into church buildings. On the way to worship, I pass offering kiosks, donation boxes for mission offerings, and youth selling tickets to a fund-raising event. Not much has changed.

What do you think happened after Jesus left the temple that day? Everyone gathered up the money, set up the tables, rounded up all the animals, and got back to work. After all, it’s the week of Passover. The city is packed with people from all over Israel. It’s similar to race week or bike week in Daytona Beach. This is when businesses make most of their money for the year.

So what’s going on here? I don’t think the temple was restored to a house of prayer for all the nations. At least not until Pentecost. Jesus’s actions and stories provoke the religious leaders to get serious about getting rid of him. It’s like lighting the fuse on a stick of dynamite.

And that’s exactly what Jesus intends. He is not caught up in a chain of events over which he has no control. He’s written the script. He’s playing the lead. He’s poking the bear. And everything is going according to plan.

Imagine a visitor to your church deliberately bumping the snack table hard enough to scatter donuts and coffee cups everywhere on a Sunday morning. That would stir things up, wouldn’t it?

Welcome to holy week.

Posted in Jesus

Palm Sunday thoughts

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Image by Travel2h from Pixabay

Today is Palm Sunday, and I thought I’d just take a few minutes to reflect on the prophecy Jesus fulfilled when he rode into Jerusalem, setting into motion the events of Holy Week.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
     Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
     righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
     on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

He comes.

Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of success in life is just showing up.

My five-year-old grandson just finished up his first season of recreation league basketball. At this level, it’s just taking turns running the ball up the court to take a shot at a six-foot high basket. Every player did the same thing after they took a shot. They looked and smiled at mom and dad in the stands. It didn’t matter whether they made the shot or missed completely, the most important thing was the presence of their parents.

While I was a pastor, I did my best to see anyone in the congregation before their surgery. That meant a lot of early morning drives to hospitals. The twenty-second prayer before prep was important. But so was being there.

One amazing thing about our God is that he shows up. He’s walking in the garden when Adam and Eve are hiding in the bushes. He wrestles with Jacob. He talks to Moses from a burning bush.

And he shows up in Jerusalem just as the prophet said he would. He comes “righteous and having salvation,” that is, he’s here to rescue us. To save the day. To be our hero. To score the winning goal in overtime. Go with whatever image works for you.

Jesus knows that showing up like this will stir up the opposition that will lead to his betrayal, arrest, denial, conviction, and execution. But that’s why he shows up. He comes to give his life as a ransom for many. He shows up to save.

He comes as king.

No one has to tell the Palm Sunday crowd what is going on here. They’ve been waiting for over four hundred years for the words of Zechariah to come to life. When they see Jesus riding into town they shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:10; Luke 19:38)

For the people, it’s as much politics as it is religion. Roman rule will end once their rightful king assumes the throne. God promised that a descendant of David would be that rightful king. It looks like that moment has come!

Kings capture our imagination. The lion is the king of the jungle. Roger Miller sings about being “King of the Road.” The cowardly lion dreams about being king of the forest. Godzilla is king of the monsters. King Kong Bundy was a four-hundred fifty pound professional wrestler. Kids wrestle around to see who is “king of the hill.”

But I think we have a hard time thinking of Jesus as our king. We like to vote for our leaders. We like a government with checks and balances. We like term limits. We like the possibility of growing up to be king someday.

Sorry, you don’t get any of those things with a king. You don’t get any of that with Jesus. In fact, you don’t get much at all when Jesus rides into Jerusalem.

He comes with humility.

Rather than enjoying all the trappings of divinity, Jesus empties himself. He becomes a servant. He humbles himself and becomes obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:6-8).

When Jesus pulls up to the gates of Jerusalem, he’s not flexing his muscles. And if anyone has impressive guns, it’s Jesus. He shushes the storm, parts the seas, and walks on the water. But today, he rides on a donkey. He’s undefeated against every challenger, from demons to disease and even death. But now he will submit to the spiritual powers of evil in the world.

Sometimes we think of Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem as a biblical ticker-tape parade. But such parades follow victories and championships. This procession is a prelude to being despised and rejected, pierced and crushed, wounded and slaughtered (Isaiah 53:3-7).

It’s kind of like watching a movie in which the good guy doesn’t realize there’s a explosives or kryptonite or spiders behind a door. We want to yell, “Don’t go in there! It’s a trap!” But of course, they can’t hear us.

I know the story really well. Judas is going to sell you out, Jesus. The religious leaders want to kill you. The crowd is going to choose Barabbas. The disciples are all going to run away. They are going to treat you like a criminal.

Jesus knows the story, too. In fact, you could say he is the story, from beginning to end. But it’s not all about him. He makes it about us. He comes to be one of us, so we’ll never have to be away from him.

Posted in Life, worship

Extravagance: Jesus anointed in Bethany

Posted on by William Douthwaite

In the men’s bible class I attended last night, we worked through Mark 14 and in to part of chapter 15. I know, that’s way too much ground to cover in a night, so we couldn’t spend too much time on any one scene of Mark’s account of the passion of Christ.

We did spend a few minutes discussing the woman who anointed Jesus’ head with expensive perfume (Mark 14:3-9). This scene appears in all the gospels but with enough variation to say that Jesus was anointed three different times. Matthew’s account is almost the same as Mark’s. In Luke’s account (Luke 7:36-50), the woman pours perfume on Jesus’s feet and Jesus includes a parable about love and forgiveness. In John’s gospel (John 12:1-8), Jesus is at Lazarus’s house, the woman who pours the perfume on Jesus’s feet is Lazarus’s sister Mary.

Whether or not we harmonize the accounts, the reactions are the same. Jesus loves it and calls it a beautiful expression of faith. The disciples think it’s a waste of a precious resource. For us, it begs the question, “What place, if any, does extravagance have in our worship?”

The heading for these verses is “Jesus anointed…” This moment is not just a random act of kindness but a proclamation of who Jesus is. The label Messiah means “anointed one.” Who is anointed in the Old Testament? Kings, priests, and prophets. This jar of fragrant perfume is properly applied to Jesus, the king of kings, our great high priest, and the Word made flesh.

Jesus is also the promised anointed servant of God (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). This servant comes to suffer for his people, to die, and then be raised on the third day. The aroma filling the room proclaims that truth.

We Christians use a variety of labels to describe ourselves: followers, disciples, ambassadors, witnesses. No matter which one you choose, you know that it will cost you something. The time and resources we spend in worship, prayer, devotion, witness, and service is worth it, right?

But what if it becomes extravagant?

  • Jesus made a point of making sure his disciples noticed the woman who only put two small coins in the offering gave more than everyone else. She gave everything she had. Isn’t that extravagant?
  • A widow in Zarephath used everything she had, a handful of flour and a bit of oil, to make one last small cake for the prophet, herself, and her son. In that time of severe famine, isn’t that extravagant?
  • When a man assured Jesus he had kept every commandment necessary for life, Jesus told him to sell everything he had, give to the poor, and follow him. Isn’t that extravagant?
  • When the ark of the covenant returned to Israel, David danced with all his might (2 Samuel 6:14). He held nothing back that day, much to the dismay of his wife.
  • And if Jesus empties himself of his divinity, takes the form of a servant, and goes to the cross, couldn’t you say that he spent everything, his very life, on us? I would call that extravagant.

When Jesus’s disciples objected to the woman’s, it was because it could have been sold and the proceeds used to feed the poor. That’s a good point, but that’s not what the disciples did with their money. They had some money before Jesus fed the five thousand. They had a money bag that Judas stole from. They didn’t give it all away to help the poor or anyone else. Nice try, guys.

When you think about it, a lot of money has been spent feeding the hungry. And yet there are still hungry people. A lot of resources have been poured into the homeless, and there are still homeless. We’ve invested a lot of money into church buildings, and there are more unbelievers than ever. The economics of God’s kingdom aren’t simple, are they?

So I’m not going to pretend to have this all figured out. It’s one of those things we all have to figure out along the way. Extravagance looks a little different for each person, on any given day, in any number of circumstances. Plus, whatever looks extravagant to us is minuscule compared to what God gives.

Extravagance that feeds our own passions makes it hard to follow God. No one can serve two masters. Extravagance that expresses faith and love preaches a powerful message about Jesus. Extravagance can make us feel guilty, lull us into complacency, or tempt us to feel self-sufficient. It can also be worship, witness, and sacrificial love.

In a sense, the notion of extravagance goes away if your eyes are on Jesus. Whatever you do in word or deed won’t be too much or too little, but an expression of gratitude for his inexpressible (and extravagant) love for us.

Posted in Ministry, Moments of grace

A room, a meal, and a trip home

Posted on by William Douthwaite

As I was paging through an old journal today, I came across this story from July 20, 2017. I don’t actually remember this day, but I’m glad I took the time to write it down.

Wayne called the church about 10:30 am, wanting to talk to the pastor. I took the call, kind of knowing what to expect. He spent the next ten minutes unfolding his story.

Wayne was from West Hollywood, California. He had just take a train to visit his family in Marathon, Florida. A couple of hospital stays had used up the money for a return trip ticket. Little by little, he had made his way up I-95 to the Econolodge in Palm Coast. A friend had bought him a train ticket home, and he would be leaving tomorrow from Jacksonville. All he needed was one more night at the motel and a little money for food, and he would be on his way.

Wayne assured me that he was a Christian. In fact he was helping to plan an LCMS (Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod) congregation in California. That’s why he called our church and asked to speak to me. I told him I could help him out, and would meet him in at the motel in about an hour.

We sat and talked in the lobby for while, as he added more to his story. He had a home in California, as well as a care-giver. He had AIDS and was on forty-two different kinds of medication. His personal physician said he only had four or five months left. So he planned on using that time to witness.

Was his story true? Was any part of it true? I have no idea. I just helped him out. I paid for one more night at the motel, gave him fifty bucks for food, and prayed for him and his ministry.

In years past I might have asked more questions. But I learned not to overthink it, and just help as best as I could. I wanted to tell them, “You don’t have to tell me the whole story. All you have to do is ask. I’ll help.” But maybe they wanted to talk, tell their story, and be heard. When someone is listening, you are somebody.

Jesus was good at this, wasn’t he? He didn’t just heal people. He talked with them. “What’s going on? How can I help you? What do you need? How come you’re lying here? Let’s go back to your place.”

It’s good to remember that even though he knows what’s on your mind and in your heart, he still likes to hear your story, too.

Posted in Christmas

Be the Christmas card

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Yesterday, I took down and packed away the Christmas tree, decorations, lights, and other Christmas-y knick-knacks. Before tossing them, I glanced through this year’s stack of Christmas cards and noticed, as I usually do, the conspicuous absence of Jesus. Two of the twenty cards we received portrayed the infant Jesus. One made a reference to “him,” as in, “O Come Let Us Adore Him.” The rest were picture collages of families.

I’ve written about this before in my posts “I got more religious cards this year,” “Uh-oh. Jesus seems to be missing,” and “Would you send a secular Christmas card to your pastor?”

As I reflected on this year’s mail, I realized that these really aren’t Christmas cards. The photos show how much the family has grown. More detailed letters list the year’s adventures, joys, and blessings. They are annual reports. And that’s OK.

We sent out letters in cards this year for the first time since I don’t know when. Everyone’s life was displayed on social media, so annual reports seemed redundant. But we’ve got a lot of new friends, we’re spending a lot less time on social media, and we want to cultivate connections in our retirement years, so we got them all in the mail just in time for Christmas.

Anyway, the place you want the world to see Jesus isn’t on the front of a card (or a billboard, a bumper sticker, or t-shirt). Since we have “put on Christ,” others will see him in the way we act and speak, in the way that we treat and help others, and when we forgive. Don’t send a Jesus-Christmas card. Be the Jesus-Christmas card!