A Command on the Sabbath

Beloved People of God,

A week out from Ash Wednesday, we are now well on our way to the cross. 

Beloved, Lent is a challenging time in our faith because it strips away the comfortable layers of religion we use to conceal our favored idolatry. This dedicated season of repentance is a pumice stone against the callouses on the feet of our faith. With each sign Jesus scrapes against our soles on our way together to Golgotha (John 19.17-18). The healing, abrasive pumice of John’s Gospel rips away our unfeeling religion, leaving our tender, living flesh in the cleansing hands of the Master (13.1-17).

It’s here, held in the hands of Jesus, we must choose for ourselves. Will we believe like the disciples (2.12, 22, 23; 3.36; 4.39-41, 50) or crucify Him with the crowd (5.18; 7.1; 8.37, 40; 11.53; 19.1-42). Our lives in Christ are more than the high-energy exhilaration of the triumphal entry (12.12-19). Our discipleship passes through tomb, dying to self, on our way to resurrection (12.24). 

Our Lenten devotion can deeply frustrate us because Jesus’ wholeness confronts our religious hollowness. Like a barren fig tree, we might have the outward appearance of faith—limbs and leaves—but before Jesus the fruitlessness of our belief is exposed (Luke 13.6-9). In the glorious holiness of Jesus’ presence we are confronted by our spiritual lameness (John 5.1-11).

In this place of vulnerability and need, Jesus genuinely asks us: “Do you want to be well?” (5.6b). Reading John’s Gospel, we see the nature of the Messiah revealed in His seven signs. There is no one else who has divine power and authority like Jesus, because only Jesus is united completely with God the Father (10.30). Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life (14.6). 

Today, on your Lenten journey with Jesus entrust yourself more fully to His Lordship and care (10.7-9; 11-18). Ask the Spirit of the Lord to search your life and invite His correction (Psalm 139.23-24).

For Christ the King, 

Brett