The Joy of Glory

Mark 9:30-32
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

Reflection
Do you know what is coming? Do you know what will happen later today… or tomorrow… or a year from now?

We like to think that we know the future, but when we are at our most honest with ourselves… we know that we have no control over what unfolds next. Such a thought can be terrifying… unless…

Unless there is totally trustworthy someone who does know the future… and not only knows it, but rules over it!

Oh what an amazing comfort that we know and love the God who rules over all of time from beginning to end! Still… don’t we wish he would tell us what is coming? I mean, if he just laid the future out for us, that would seem to make things easier… wouldn’t it?

In Mark 9, we see one of many instances where Jesus tells his disciples what is coming in the future, namely, his death. And, what is absolutely clear is that they could not fully grasp what he was saying. It seems so clear to us in retrospect, but their minds were unable to imagine things yet to come. I believe that is true for all of us. Even if God were to lay out the future for us, I don’t think we could understand that kind of knowledge which makes sense to God alone.

Further, I believe that Christ has done the same thing for us that he did for the disciples in Mark 9. In his word, Jesus has told us enough about the future for us to know that he knows it! He rules over it! And he can be trusted!

At the heart of Jesus telling his disciples about his coming cross was an invitation for them to trust him no matter what was about to unfold. It was an invitation for them to believe that he knew and ruled over the future and that was enough.

Jesus extends the same invitation to you and to me. In his word, he has told us enough to prove that he can be trusted! We can trust him with our today, with our tomorrow, and with our forever.

Do you know what is coming? Do you know what will happen later today… or tomorrow… or a year from now?

Christ does! The real question for us is… do we trust him?

 
*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Matthew 9:14-17
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Reflection
Jesus changes everything.

Once you have encountered him and the reality of who he is and what he has done… nothing can be the same! This has always been the case!

Jesus arrived on the scene in first century Israel “breaking” all sorts of traditional rules. The truth was that he was not actually breaking anything but fulfilling and therefore changing everything.

In Matthew 9, some of John the Baptist’s followers are confused as to why Jesus’ disciples do not live in step with the traditional rules of Judaism. The specific issue at hand has to do with keeping certain fasts.

Three times Jesus explains that he has transformed everything. He is the long-anticipated messiah, the bridegroom who has come. It doesn’t make sense to fast and mourn while he is present. That’s like putting an unshrunk patch on pre-shrunk clothes… it doesn’t work. It’s like putting still-fermenting wine in an old, hardened wineskin. The expanding gases will make the skin burst… it doesn’t work!

And trying to pour the new covenant age that Jesus has begun into the old covenant age doesn’t work! It’s not that the two are disconnected, but that they move in a particular direction… from old to new… not the other way around. Jesus fulfills the old and inaugurates the new.

Jesus changes everything!

And the same is true for you… and for me. All too often, I try to pour Jesus into my old way of life… my life before Christ. I try to keep on living without him as king while simultaneously claiming him as king… but like unshrunk patches and new wine I can’t stitch Jesus onto, or pour him into my old way of life. No.

Jesus changes everything!

Today… how is he still at work, by his Spirit changing you? In what way is he stripping away the old and making you new? The bridegroom, your messiah, has saved you and is with you… it is impossible for things to stay the same. I’ll say it one more time because it is gloriously true…

Jesus changes everything!

 
*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Matthew 7:7-11
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Reflection
I am blessed to have an amazing father. I don’t know if that has been your experience or not. I know it was not his.

My own father grew up in an orphanage with no dad or even a good model of what a father should be like. For this reason, I have often wondered how he turned out to be such a good dad. Don’t get me wrong, he’d be the first to admit he has faults, but overall he wins “#1 Dad” in my book.

So how did that happen? How did a man with no father, end up being a good father?

The simple answer… God.

My father became a believer near 30 years of age and having God as his own Father completely transformed him!

But here’s the deal… as great of a father as he became… it was only because God is that much greater! At the end of the day, all fathers, myself included, are lacking because we are broken and sinful. Yet, we know how we should be and act toward our children (even if we don’t always do it).

HOW MUCH MORE…

How much more does God know how to be and act as your father! That is Jesus’ argument in Matthew 7. If fleshly, broken, sinful fathers can do well by their children… how much more of a Father is God!

Specifically, Jesus points out that God stands ready to provide all we need to live the life to which he has called us. Ask and you shall receive! That doesn’t mean ask for just anything. No. With just a little more context we quickly understand that he is offering to provide us with what we truly need, with what is best. We may sometimes ask for stones and serpents… things that are not for our ultimate good… and our Father may refuse those requests, but only because he stands ready to provide the bread and fish we need to survive and thrive!

And what is it that we need to live the life to which he has called us? Luke 11:13 is a parallel passage that makes our heavenly Father’s all-sufficient-good-gift explicit! “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the HOLY SPIRIT to those who ask him!”

Your Father gives you and empowers you with his very Spirit! Truly he gives us the best gift! The only gift we need for all things! He gives you himself!

You have the best Father!

 
*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.