Monday of Holy Week: Follow the Leader

Today's readings: Matthew 21:12-13, 18-19; Mark 11:12-18; Luke 19:45-48; John 12:20-50
 
As I sought the Lord about the word He had for me today from Monday of Holy Week, I noticed many interesting things about these passages. I noticed that there was a lesson from the withering of the fig tree. I observed the obvious missional message of the coming of the Greeks signaling Jesus' "hour has come". I saw the sad truth that many fail to confess Him because they "loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God." But none of these, I sensed, were His word to me.

Here's a secret about teaching and writing: There is a constant temptation to read Scripture for lesson preparation and God's Word to "them" - whoever the audience might be at a given moment. This morning, as I dialogued with God about Monday of Holy Week, I was reminded of a basic lesson that the Teacher taught this teacher: If I'm not digging into His Word devotionally and studiously for myself, just for what He wants to teach me, then I have nothing to say to you or anyone else. One of the earliest prayers He taught me to pray over my teaching was "Lord, make the lessons that I teach manifest in my life." He has never failed to do that. I'm convinced one reason Scripture tells us that teachers incur a stricter judgment is just this very principle. Nothing will shut my mouth faster than realizing I'm about to say something that I only know academically. Because God is far too faithful to His body to let me get by with that one. So please, pray for your teachers and pastors and church leaders. You can rest assured that God won't let them get by with an abstract understanding of truth.

So - back to today's lesson. As I processed all of the above yet again, I told God to show me what the lesson was for me. What I needed to be reminded of in these familiar words. Two verses jumped out at me:

John 12:26: "If anyone serves me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him."


John 12:49 "For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak."

When I read these I immediately thought of Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God Bible study. One of his key teachings is that God is always at work and invites us to join Him in His work. That's key because it's His work, not ours; we don't invite Him to join us, He invites us to join Him. I should look for where He is at work and join Him. The first passage reminds me to follow Him - where He is, His servant should desire to be. The second passage tells me that He models what He expects of me; He spoke not on His own initiative but the Father's.

All of this reminds me of the childhood game "Follow the Leader." I am in a season of rest following an intense focus on getting a master's degree. I don't know what God has next for me, but this is yet another remind that He wants me to let HIM be the leader. I have to trust Him.

Here's the beautiful thing about this level of submission: Colossians 3:3 tells me, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Yes, I am not "the leader". But in that death to self, I am in the most secure place possible. As Corrie Ten Boom described it, Christ cups me in His hand and God cups Christ in His ... so I am doubly-covered.

It's a lesson that I can never learn enough!

Monday of Holy Week: "We Wish to See Jesus"

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
(Joh 12:20-33 ESV)

This passage confused me for a long time. The Greeks come asking to see Jesus, and He talks about His pending death. I wasn't sure if they ever got their answer, or if they got to see Jesus. I eventually saw how their coming was an indication of God's timing, but the pieces failed to fit in a meaningful way.

But as I read it this morning, I saw it in a new light. [Side note: Try asking God for new insights each year on these familiar passages. Wow!] Suddenly I saw Jesus' answer to the Greeks. They wanted to see Him; He revealed the cross.

We can never see Jesus apart from the cross. We may wish to see Him as a Babe in the manger, as a Healer, as a compassionate man whose parables drip with pearls of wisdom. We may wish to see Him as a curiosity or as a friend. But we can never see Him apart from the cross. Any other image of Him is not only incomplete, it is deceptive.

The resurrection we will celebrate Sunday is vital - essential to our faith, in fact. But we only get to it through the cross.

"We never move on from the cross, only into a more profound understanding of the cross."

- Pastor and author C.J. Mahaney