Why Easter Matters on Wednesday

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]


When Easter rolls around, we break out the spring clothes, hunt some eggs, eat some ham and maybe a chocolate bunny (or two). We celebrate at church with joyful cries of “He is risen!” and hopefully enjoy some time with family or friends. The joyful tone lasts into Monday, or maybe a day or two beyond that, but pretty much by Wednesday it’s back to regular life as we know it. Bills have to be paid, homework has to be done, trash has to be taken out, and all the regular activities of life have to continue. Eventually, we end up carrying on as though Easter never happened, until next January when the stores start getting out the Peeps again.

Photo Credit: Flickr User USACE Europe District, Creative Commons

If we truly believe that Easter changes everything though, Easter should affect every single day of our lives. It should affect how we pay our bills, how we do our homework, how we take out our trash, how we treat our coworkers, how we love our family and friends and strangers we meet on the street. Jesus came to earth, fully human and fully God, and he became the be-all-end-all sacrifice for our sins when he died on the cross. 

And then he came back to life.

He died, but he didn’t stay that way.

In Luke 24, Jesus walked along the road with two of his followers. They were kept from recognizing him as they told Jesus about the recent events surrounding Jesus’ death, but later, as they shared a meal together, their eyes were opened and they realized who Jesus was. The very man they had been walking with was the same guy they thought was dead and stuck in a tomb! Everything they thought they knew about the natural laws of death was overturned, and everything they thought to maybe be true about Jesus’ identity was proven correct. A guy who was dead had come back to life and was confirming for them that he was the Savior of the world. The fulfillment of all the prophecies they had grown up hearing was sitting at the table having dinner with them. There’s no way their lives could have been the same from that day on--Jesus truly changed everything for them. If we let it, Easter can change everything for us, too. 

Jesus became the ultimate victor over all our sin and shame, everything we’ve already done and everything we will do. Because of Jesus and what he accomplished by becoming human and dying for us, we never need to face any part of life alone or without hope. He is ever-present with us, always good, always loving, always working things in ways we may not see or understand. 

Which isn’t to say that “Easter changes everything” means life won’t still be hard. Jesus’ death and resurrection don’t protect us from the trials and tragedies of being human. People still get sick, relationships still get fractured, temptations still bombard us from every side. The power of Easter isn’t a shield to block us from difficulties; the power of Easter is a new perspective on those difficulties. Easter gives us hope that life on this earth is not the end, for us and for everyone who is in Christ. Jesus’ own disciples were living examples of this. As they set out to spread the word of Jesus around the world, they encountered opposition, persecution, and death. Jesus completely changed their lives, but it didn’t mean they became easier. 

The disciples knew what counted though. Instead of striving to get ahead in their jobs, or chasing after relationships, or trying to build a bigger house, they knew it was worth it to follow Jesus, even if it meant they never achieved things they maybe really wanted. Life with Jesus can, and should, look radically different than life without him. As we empty our fridges of Easter ham and the chocolate bunnies begin to go stale, let's not forget the changes that Easter should bring to our Wednesdays, our Thursdays, and every other day.


[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Impossible Things

 [The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

This Sunday, we took a look at the story of a wealthy, powerful man who asked Jesus how to gain eternal life (Luke 18:18-30). Jesus reminds him of the commandments; the ruler is certain he has kept them well. So Jesus tells him to go sell everything he owns, and give away the money.

If this ruler was truly looking for a sure way to know that he would spend eternity with the God he loved, what a relatively easy command! Post everything on eBay, put it up on Craigslist, or go old school and have a garage sale, and he’s all set: eternal life is secure.

The rich man doesn’t seem quite as geeked about it though; instead, he becomes very sad, prompting Jesus to say, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:25) 

Photo credit: Flickr user worapol sittiphaet

Of course a camel can’t fit through the eye of a needle! Even if you’ve never seen a camel, how many things would actually fit through the eye of a needle? If it’s that hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God… then isn’t it impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God?

Perhaps you have heard the story of the Needle Gate (or the Eye of the Needle Gate). It can be traced back to sermons and writings from at least two centuries ago (some sources trace it back to the 9^th century). In Jerusalem, there was a very small gate in the city wall referred to as the Needle Gate. When the larger city gates were shut, this narrow passageway was large enough for one person to enter, while remaining very easy to guard. The story explains how people would dismount and unburden their camels – removing saddles, bags and anything else they were carrying, and then shimmy the camel through the narrow passage.

Perhaps Jesus wasn’t referring to a literal needle and camel, but rather to this narrow gate. Instead of an impossible task – squashing an actual camel through the eye of an actual needle – Jesus was telling us to unburden our worldly wealth in order to get into heaven.   

A quick Google search reveals there is no record or evidence of a Needle Gate. What’s more, in several places ancient Jewish literature uses the image of an elephant or camel going through the eye of a needle as a hyperbole for things that are impossible. The Needle Gate story appears to be an invented sermon illustration, not a historical accuracy. Sorry if you were enjoying it!

Why does a story like this get started and propagated? Is it appealing because the made up story is more comfortable than the truth? The story of the needle gate allows us to think that we can do the things needed to gain eternal life. Even though we might say that our salvation is by God’s grace alone, we often think our efforts and hard work actually make us right before God. (Pastor Dirk digs into this mental-glitch in his sermon series on Galatians – God Alone. Check it out if you missed it last summer!)

The needle gate story is appealing, because it gives us something to do; it gives us the control. If we can summon the effort and self-discipline, we can get it done.

No amount of effort or discipline will help me fit a camel through the eye of a needle. Impossible things require faith.

When Jesus says that it’s as hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, He’s saying it’s impossible. It’s impossible for that rich young ruler to live a perfect law-abiding, sin-free life. It’s impossible to stack his good deeds high enough for him to reach God.  It’s impossible for him to reprioritize his own heart.

But it’s ok; God can do things that are impossible. (Luke 18:27)

God can reach down and move our sinful hearts. God can make a way for broken, imperfect people to be righteous before Him through Jesus’ sacrifice. With God, the rich young ruler can enter His kingdom. With God, not through his own efforts.

As Pastor Dirk pointed out, Jesus was not offering a box to check to gain eternal life: the issue on the table wasn’t selling everything to gain heaven. Rather, knowing the man’s heart, Jesus was inviting him to surrender an area of his life that hindered a passionate, open relationship with God. He loved his stuff; it probably got in the way of his love for God. “Sell everything” wasn’t the answer to gaining eternal life; eternal life would be found in giving everything over to God, and  trusting His way and His plan.

This is the sticky, difficult part about our faith: it’s never about whether we’ve done what it takes to inherit eternal life. It’s always been about our hearts and our relationship with Christ. It’s not about our ability to complete a checklist; it’s through God’s grace and love that we have relationship with Him.

God can do the impossible; ask Him to give you discernment about what the impossible “sell everything” might be in your life. Trust His love and goodness that can and will change your heart to love Him more.  

[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, especially humility and patience.]

Forgiveness: Increase Our Faith

I admit that forgiveness is something that does not often occupy my thoughts—it can be an assumed duty as a Christian along with the commandment of “love one another,” but it can also be avoided as a method to rationalize our anger. The topic of forgiveness is sometimes brushed over within religious circles because as humans, we feel that our anger and bitterness is justified. It’s almost as if holding a grudge against someone who has wronged us can be qualified as “righteous anger”; after all, don’t they deserve to recognize their own sin and then ask us for forgiveness?


Photo Credit: Gerry Machen, Creative Commons

Luke 17 begins with Jesus speaking to his disciples; he tells them that, “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.” Jesus is letting them know that we will encounter hurt and pain in this world, sometimes at the hand of others. We then read Jesus’s first shocking statement: “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” As Pastor Dirk explained, the millstone being referred to here is a large commercial stone used for grinding large amounts of grain or crops. In other words, it is better that someone drowns rather than causing a believer to stumble.

Jesus continues, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.” If we stop reading here, it might be easy to think that our assumptions about holding grudges and withholding forgiveness are correct. Do we really have the right to wait until a brother or sister repents before offering them forgiveness? That idea doesn’t quite line up with the rest of Jesus’s teachings, so we keep reading for more information: “Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

In this case, Jesus is addressing forgiveness within the context of the cultural norm of the Pharisees. It was common practice to forgive each other with urgency, based on the belief that the priest could only offer forgiveness on the Day of Atonement if forgiveness was already extended amongst each other. In order to avoid getting taken advantage of in terms of forgiveness, the Pharisees said that you only need to forgive another three times, and that was considered generous. Jesus again disagrees with the Pharisees and calls his disciples to forgive unconditionally.

It is this type of forgiveness that Jesus illustrated when he died on the cross and extended his forgiveness to all of our sins. He asks us to offer this same kind of forgiveness—the kind that is given regardless of whether the person is deserving or not. It recognizes the humanity in each of us and allows us to look past sin as a defining characteristic and see each individual as a child of God. Rather than writing off forgiveness as an assumed Christian duty, we must intentionally seek to let go of our anger and bitterness toward those who have hurt us. As the disciples say in Luke 17, “Increase our faith” so that we might experience and offer true forgiveness just as Christ offered it to us on the cross. As Paul says in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

For a song that reflects on this message, check out Losing by Tenth Avenue North.


[Megan Stephenson is a recent graduate of Grand Valley State University and works for a private education group in Grand Rapids as an Assistant Registrar. She loves spending time with her husband, Ben, trying out new breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. She also self-identifies as a crazy cat lady, despite owning no cats of her own, thanks to her loving and allergic husband.]

Saying Yes to Jesus

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

When I hear stories of people selling all their stuff and moving to another country to become missionaries, I want to like them. I really do. I want to be able to applaud their sacrifice, their willingness to give up all they’ve known, their dedication to following Jesus even though it seems so extreme. Except most of the time when I hear those stories, I get kind of annoyed at these other people’s piety, and then feel kind of ashamed that I’ve never done anything so extreme for Jesus. Almost every time I’ve gone to another country, it’s been for a vacation, not to serve Jesus.

There are two rather different stories of Jesus calling his first disciples. In the book of Matthew, it takes all of two verses (Matthew 4:18-20):

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Photo Credit: Flickr User SteFou!, Creative Commons

The book of Luke records things differently, and I appreciate the perspective it offers. Instead of instantaneously dropping everything to follow Jesus, Luke 5 shows that it takes a bit for Simon Peter to come around to the idea. First Jesus asks to borrow his boat, which Simon Peter agrees to. Next, Jesus, a non-fisherman, gives Simon Peter, a professional fisherman, unsolicited advice about how to catch more fish. I love Simon Peter’s response in verse 5--it comes across almost a bit sassy.

Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.

This fuller version of the story from Luke is easier for me to relate to. While Simon Peter's willingness to follow Jesus is still quite abrupt (it's not like he had time to get his affairs in order), it was a bit more gradual than Matthew’s telling of the story records it to be. The task Jesus called him to--leaving everything he knew to literally follow Jesus and learn from him--was drastic, but Simon Peter sensed that this rabbi he had agreed to follow wasn’t just any old good teacher; he was signing up to follow God.

When we agree to follow God, it’s possible he’ll call us to move to another country to become missionaries, but he doesn’t call everyone to do that. Not everyone should do that. Sometimes I feel like my own life, which is full of ordinary things like going to work, spending time with friends, volunteering at church, etc., can’t possibly bring as much glory to God as a missionary’s life.

It’s not about the actions though, it’s about the heart behind it. I don’t freely submit my life to God’s will perfectly by any means, but just because my life looks different than other people’s lives doesn’t mean I’m not still glorifying God when I allow him to be in control.  First I might say yes to God in small ways, like agreeing to lend him my boat and rowing into the shallow water like Simon Peter first did. As I learn more about him and fall more in love with him though, hopefully I’ll be able to hand over more and more of my life, bits and pieces at a time--my plans for how I thought my life would go, the relationships that have become unhealthy, the comfort I thought I was promised.

Maybe the question doesn’t start with, “Will you give God everything?” Maybe the question starts with, “Will you be obedient in this moment?” There are many different ways to follow Jesus, but they all start with saying Yes.

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Excuses

 [The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

“You’re going to love it! You can do it! You’ll have so much fun! …yes, I promise I’ll catch you!” Trying to talk a three year old into jumping into the pool is a hysterical adventure. Explaining how and why jumping into the pool is so fun is almost impossible; they can’t seem to grasp it – fear outweighs reasoning, and they freeze up, stuck on the side, unwilling to jump. The begging, pleading, and bribing to get Matilda to jump into the pool the first few times was epic. 

I see the faith-filled life that God calls me to throughout His word. He invites me to abandon my excuses and fears, and recklessly jump toward Him, trusting that He is faithful to all He has promised.

Pastor Dirk shared the story from Luke 9:57-62 about three of Jesus’ followers this week. They seemed to understand that Jesus was the right guy to follow, and that the Kingdom was where they wanted to be. Yet, they had excuses for why they couldn’t jump in and follow right this moment: they feared losing social standing, influence, traditions or priorities. Mentally they knew that following Jesus was the right choice, but they hesitated, waiting like my child on the side of the pool, unable to fully trust the one who invited them to jump.

My initial reaction to this story is to think “How foolish they were, to miss dropping everything for Jesus.” But am I willing to actually trust God? Or rather, do I trust His plan for salvation while making excuses for why I rely on myself with the rest of my life? Do I really trust my own strength and work most of the time, leaning into my faith only when I am wildly outside of circumstances I can control? Is following God worth it for all of life, or just for the end of life?

There’s an interesting story that illuminates this idea tucked away in the book of Jeremiah. Through Jeremiah, God tells His people that because they have turned away from trusting Him alone, Babylon will conquer their land; but this discipline will turn their hearts back to Him.  He gives Jeremiah words of hope: after seventy years of living in Babylon, God will bring the people back to their land, eventually healing their hearts with a new covenant.

Sandwiched in those comforting promises of restoration is a story about Jeremiah’s life: he is in prison while Jerusalem is under siege at the hand of Babylon, and God tells him that a relative is going to visit him, and Jeremiah needs to buy a field from this relative. (see Jeremiah 32) 

If I were Jeremiah, I would have some excuses about this “buy a field while under siege and in jail” plan of God’s. Maybe I could wait to buy the field until I get out of jail and things are a bit more stable. Or when the Babylonians let up their attack a bit, maybe that would be a better time. Or how about when we get back from exile in seventy years? Better yet, why don’t you just go ask a relative who isn’t in jail??

But Jeremiah doesn’t make excuses. God tells him to buy a field, so he buys the field.

God offered Jeremiah the opportunity to act on his faith. If Jeremiah believed all the words that God had spoken, then buying the field was a sound investment.  Seventy years or so later, his family would present the deed to that land and have a space for their sheep or figs or whatever. If Jeremiah had not completely believed God, spending money for property in an all-but-conquered land was wasteful at best, crazy at worst.

Jeremiah acted on his belief in God and His promises. He believed that God was faithful and His word was true. So he gathered up his shekels and bought a field.

God asked Jeremiah to put his money where his mouth was, literally.

Our choice is so similar. All over Scripture, God makes it clear that if we act on our faith, if we give up our excuses and dive headfirst into whatever He might call us to, that we will know joy and fullness in Him. We can cover our fear and small faith with excuses to hold back “for now” – busy schedules and school and small children and debt and family obligations and projects and health issues and moving and all of life. But when our excuses win, we’re just standing on the deck, pretending it’s as good as playing in the pool.

How do we change? How do we lean into our faith, like Jeremiah, and jump into the deep end of trusting God? In Mark 9:24, a very honest father calls to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” And we can pray the same way – ask the Spirit to work in our hearts and minds, to change our desires and our habits, to increase our trust and belief in God for all that He says He is.

Pray that God would make us want to follow Him with our whole hearts, and desire His glory above our comfort and safety and control. 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3

[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, especially humility and patience.]