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I’m a Christian

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I can keep a quiet faith on any other day of the year, but I can’t be an anonymous Christian if I’m walking around with a cross of ashes on my forehead. I can blend in during the Christmas season because it has turned into a fun holiday that does not even require a faith commitment to participate. But today, I’m making a silent announcement and everyone will know.
 

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the forty-day countdown to Easter Sunday. Why 40 days? God often uses numbers to relay an aspect of His point. Forty days to Nineveh’s destruction as Jonah warned(a), forty years for Israel to wander in the wilderness refusing to move into the promised land when God commanded(b), forty years for Moses to herd sheep in Midian to ponder his escape from Egypt and murdering the overseer(c) – Maybe this span of forty provides time to reflect on things we should have done differently, times we should have yielded to God’s plan instead of our own.
 

Perhaps this is what the church fathers had in mind when they followed God’s use of the number forty. It is a time to stop doing some things, like refrain from sweets or TV or social media and start doing other things instead. Perhaps reflect and pray to prepare our hearts for Crucifixion Friday.
 

So what do you say to the person who asks you about your now smudged forehead? Do you mumble something incoherent about a service at church, or do you instead choose to see him as God sees him, as a soul who is wondering about faith and may be open today to hearing more from you. Perk up!
 

“I got it at church to remind me that Jesus died for me and now lives in heaven praying for me (even for the courage to talk to you right now).” “What faith tradition are you?” “Is everything going okay?” “Can I pray for you?” “Can I pray with you now?”

 

Read Matthew 10:32-33 and pray, “What are You saying to me Lord?” Pray that He will help you understand and obey.

 

(a)Jonah 3:4 (b) Numbers 14:34 (c) Acts 7:29-30



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So, what should I give up for Lent?

 

It is a common practice to choose a sacrifice of some kind to live without during the forty days until Resurrection Sunday. Some choose to give up chocolate or fried food or dessert. 
 

God’s idea of fasting is a little different. Fasting is a biblical concept of quieting the body to amplify the voice of the spirit, by weakening the flesh, usually by eating less, and spending more time in prayer and listening to God. It is a practice of humbling yourself and looking outside of the things that normally meet your personal desires to see the great I AM who says, “I AM everything you need”.

God’s fasting includes, in Isaiah 58:6, seeking justice for the oppressed, sharing food with the hungry, even sheltering and clothing the homeless. These blessings should focus not only on strangers, but also for your relatives. Every family seems to have pockets of estrangement, and these don’t escape the eyes of God.
 

Fasting makes this seasonal time of preparation a bit more intentional. God fully knows our hesitant hearts, so later verses include some encouragement in our desire for obedience.

 

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Isaiah 58:8-9 (NIV)

 

These fasting promises include healing for what ails me, protection in my coming and going, answers to my prayers – All stuff I really need! Amen.
 

Dare to pray: Lord, what will You have me give up for Lent, so that in my going without I will see Your sufficiency?



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How can I make it up to you?

 

Have you ever been in the doghouse for disappointing your significant other? Apologies have been offered and now you want to know how you can make it right. The list presented may be short or long, but your sincerity towards reconciliation will be judged on your eagerness to tackle the list of requirements, no matter how expensive.

We have offended a holy and powerful God by not valuing His words, His requirements, His love. The relationship is broken and God begins to tell us what it will take to put it back together again. These are just glimpses into the heart of God so perhaps we can begin to understand the magnitude of our infraction. Are you ready? The punishment owed is your death(a). Perhaps, He will accept a substitute for you; A life for a life(b). The life essence is in the blood(c). Only a perfect, highly valued substitute will be able to stand in. No crippled, sickly cast-off that does not mean as much to you to lose, can make an acceptable sacrifice(d).

Through this system of sacrifices, God was showing the people His requirements that Jesus would fulfill. On the cross, He would give His life for the life of the repentant thief, inviting him into paradise that day. Jesus shed His blood, His life essence was poured out. He was a perfect, sinless substitute of high value, the Son of God and the son of man. He was able to cover not just the life of the thief, but because Jesus is eternal in His deity, He has an infinite number of lifetimes wrapped up in His existence so He can substitute for the life of everyone who has lived before and every one that will live after Him on this earth.

It’s a complicated system, but we offended a God whose ways are above our ways(e), whose mind is beyond our comprehension. He did not give us our Bible to completely explain Himself, but to give us that which is sufficient for faith. Given what we know we still must step out in trust, not knowing the whole picture, only knowing enough to put my hand in His hand and journey forward in the forgiveness He offers.

 

(a)Genesis 2:16-17 (b)Exodus 21:23-25 (c)Leviticus 17:11 (d)Leviticus 22:21 (e)Isaiah 55:9



 

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Cash or credit?

 

God set up a system of animal sacrifices to show Israel the seriousness of their sin and the costliness of a substitute for every infraction. Much of their daily life was spent dealing with the penalty of their sin.
 

They had to choose an unblemished animal, take it to the priest at the tabernacle, see it slaughtered and placed on the fire. I imagine there was a long line to endure, since an animal covered one sin and sinners can sin all day long.

Surprisingly, the animal did not take away sin. It was an act of obedience to God to worship Him as He desired. An obedient heart showed love towards God and trust in His provision for the future of their relationship. It was like a minimum credit payment on a large overdue account. You never will pay it off at that rate, but they can’t come after you for more or repossess your car or house. As long as you pay, you remain in ‘good standing’.
 

The unblemished animal foreshadows the sinless life of Christ. The only hope we have to zero our sin account out is to accept Jesus’ payment of his sinless life for our sin filled life, a one for one exchange. He made the blood sacrifice on the cross and God assigned our debt over to Him. While Jesus made the actual sacrifice, He stands in our place and we are assigned all the benefits of total account payment.
 

The sacrifice was placed on the fire to imply the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit’s baptism with fire. With a grateful heart, we can choose daily to align ourselves with God, a process called sanctification. Bit by bit the rebellious parts that separate us fall away and life is breathed into the relationship that draws us near to God. We make a living sacrifice.
 

Since He did everything perfectly, all we need to do is accept His gift. With the gift comes adoption into God’s family. We join the community of believers who live in Christ as a branch of a growing vine. We have the mind of Christ and the love of the Father, indwelt by the Spirit to guide our conversion from our former life of sin.


 

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Blood

 

Do you get squeamish at the sound of the word? Some cultures include it in their diet. Soups in Poland and in Monterey Mexico have blood as a main ingredient not to waste any part of the animal.
 

We now know blood is much more than a red liquid. It contains red blood cells that carry oxygen, the Spirit’s animating breath, to each cell of the organs of the body. Blood also circulates minerals for nutrition. When a virus or bacteria invades the body system, the blood’s white blood cells attack to eliminate the problem. The plasma of blood is stored at most hospitals, but whole blood has not been duplicated by modern technology. As smart as we are, blood must be donated to sustain life.
 

For the life of the flesh is in the blood…. Leviticus 17:11
 

Jesus told His disciples, as you participate in Passover and eat the lamb, from now on it will symbolize the true Lamb of God that will take away the sin of the world. The Cup of Redemption taken after the meal represents my sinless blood that will cleanse and forgive beginning a new agreement or covenant of faith. My broken body will be remembered in the bread that is broken and eaten at Passover as I act as the substitute atoning for every sinner.
 

The fulfillment of Christ’s work on the cross is symbolized in the modern observance of the communion ritual,
 

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. John 6:53
 

No, Jesus is not teaching cannibalism! He said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” We become branches of the vine of Christ. Our branch is grafted in to receive nourishment, sustenance, and community from our new spiritual address, in Christ with the fellowship of believers.
 

He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. Ephesians 1:7 NLT



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Give us Barabbas

 

Jesus stood convicted of blasphemy or saying things untrue about God. He declared He was the Son of God. Ironically, He was convicted of telling the truth.
 

The people were unhappy being under Roman rule. Some had mounted a campaign to fight against Roman occupation of their land. Barabbas was one jailed on charges of insurrection. Pilate thought he saw a way out of his dilemma of convicting Jesus, a man he deemed as innocent. To please the crowd and religious authorities, he said he would release a prisoner, a Passover custom.
 

Barabbas means son of a father or father’s son. The people chose him over The Son of The Father. As if a miracle working, wise teaching, Lazarus raising, promised Messiah is not welcome here. 
 

Like Barabbas, we, though guilty, walk free on Good Friday. It’s ‘Good’ for us because Jesus stood in our place. Jesus came to mount a spiritual insurrection against His enemy Satan. It was the checkmate move that declared, ‘game over’. But His enemy is now trying to move his pieces in an attempt to change the inevitable outcome. Satan is a loser. 
 

God’s end game is complete restoration of hearts, relationships and all creation. As He taught us to pray(a) , Jesus came so that God’s kingdom will come and God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

(a) Matthew 6:9-13


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Surely, this was the Son of God

 

The Roman soldier standing at the foot of the cross saw what the temple leaders did not see. He was a centurion, a commander over a hundred soldiers, surely he had seen the worst. The crucified hang from their arms, and over the hours, they struggle to breathe. Jesus was no exception, choosing his words wisely, but he also was making arrangements for his mother’s care, pardoning the thief on the right and welcoming him into paradise, praying to God His Father. This might gain a comment from the centurion that Jesus was a caring man, but that’s not what the centurion said.
 

The sky went dark for three hours in the middle of the day. The Bible is not the only source that recorded that occurrence. The historian Thallus tries to make sense of the events, but the full moon in the season of Passover eliminates the hypotheses of an eclipse(a). Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm that describes crucifixion some 600 years before it was invented by the Romans. It describes dogs and bulls and roaring lions. Were these hallucinations or did he have eyes to see a spiritual realm we do not. Did the centurion hear the growls through the darkness?
 

What would it look like to bear the sin and sin’s ramifications (disease, mental illness, etc) of the world in your body? Isaiah 52:14 prophetically describes a suffering servant marred beyond human resemblance. How would Jesus appear as he struggles and wins the cosmic fight with his spiritual enemy, defeating death? Perhaps the centurion was a witness to the supernatural.
 

There was an earthquake at Jesus’ death. Maybe the resurrection of believers that were later seen (b), troubled the centurion. He would have felt the ground move and heard that the temple curtain tore in two, but that would not make him declare Jesus the Son of God at his last breath.
 

Rome worshiped many gods. After Jesus let out a loud cry, then died, the soldier had seen a glimpse of deity, that day. Where do you stand among the witnesses to Jesus’ life and death? Peter walked with him every day of his ministry and confessed to him “You are the Christ.” The centurion witnessed his death and said “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Thomas spoke for many when he refused to believe a dead man can come back to life (c). He was later convinced of his resurrection and called Jesus “My Lord and my God!” 

Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?”
 

(a)    Julius Africanus, Chronography, 18.1 (b) Matthew 27:51-54 (c) John 20:24-28


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© Gwendolyn Moore, PHGP Publishers