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Mark 16:1-8 - Lectionary for Easter Day

4/9/2020

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4/9/20  Read the passage here.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Mark’s Gospel is known for being abrupt, at least at times. Our passage this week fits that pattern. If you consult a study Bible you may see that many of the earliest manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel actually end at the end of verse eight. That’s about as abrupt an ending as you get, since it would leave us with a resurrected Lord and no mention of anything else. That’s one of the reasons many scholars think the longer ending of Mark is “the original.” 

When the women arrived early in the morning on the first day of the week, they found that Jesus had arisen before they came to the tomb. What’s more, not only did the women find Jesus gone, but they were given a reminder that the Lord was not finished with his disciples, especially with Peter. The disciples would meet up with Jesus in Galilee, where he would give them some instructions.

Why did Mark report that the angel specifically said to tell Peter? Early Christian historians say that Mark worked alongside Peter in ministry, particularly in Rome, prior to Peter’s execution. This means Mark got much of his information used in the Gospel from Peter. It was important to Peter that Jesus would give a message that included Peter. Peter, after all, had denied Jesus three times while Jesus was on trial. Mark doesn’t tell us about the restoration of Peter, but John does, in the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus visited specifically with Peter, speaking wth him about repentance and restoration. Despite Peter’s failure, Jesus had a work for him to do. 

This should bring hope to all of us, as we have all failed Jesus in one way or another. Despite our failures, Jesus calls all his people to repentance and restoration, that we may serve the Lord with gladness. Our sin doesn’t throw us out. It calls us to repentance. And we know that repentance works specifically because the very same Jesus we see dying for us on a Friday, rises from the dead for us on a Sunday. He calls us to a new walk, in his peace, his forgiveness, and his rest, as he rose from the dead on the day of rest. We have rest from our sin and shame. He takes that away too.

It may seem an abrupt move. It is an abrupt move. In the midst of our sin and turmoil, Jesus has died for us, rose from the dead, and got about the business of forgiveness, even before the women could get to the tomb with their gifts. Before you and I can come to him with our gifts for him, he is already at work to restore us to the right relationship with God the Father. Thanks be to God.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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1 Corinthians 5:6-8 - Lectionary for Easter Day

4/8/2020

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4/8/20 Read the passage here.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

In the Bible, leavening is often used as an illustration. On a few occasions it can be seen as an illustration of good, but more often, as in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, it is an illustration of evil. Why can it symbolize two opposites? Very simply, it is something that spreads through all its environment. A little yeast will spread through a whole batch of dough, or a container of a liquid which is to be fermented. It will have its effect on the entirety of the product.

Here, the leaven is boasting. The apostle tells the Corinthians they need to stop their boasting. Rather, they are to be plain, like the unleavened bread prepared for the time of Passover. What is to influence the lives of the Corinthians? Not their old habit of boasting, but the Christ who was sacrificed for them is to be their influence. Paul ties this directly to the feast of Passover, as that was both the time of unleavened bread and the time when Christ was seen as the perfect lamb of God, who died in place of all people, particularly those who would believe on him.

What is our “bread” like once we have removed the “malice and evil”? It is full of “sincerity and truth.” These are attributes of Christ. What will happen given time?

Before the Passover, the Israelites purged all the leaven from their homes. Culturally, they were in the habit of making a sourdough type bread. Some bread dough, usually in a very wet form, is kept in a place where cultures can grow in it. After a while, it starts to rise. You have a new starter to leaven bread in the future. During Passover, the people didn’t have leavened bread. Their bread didn’t rise. But God invisibly made their new starts rise. After a few weeks, they would be able to have leavened bread again.

When we purge our lives of the malice and evil that we would hold, and let Christ dwell in us, what is going to permeate us? Sincerity and truth. His forgiveness and life will spread through us. Rather than being puffed up with our fallen and sinful attitudes, we will be puffed up with a readiness to breathe Jesus’ peace into those around us. We will release his care, just the way a loaf of proven bread, when folded, releases the carbon dioxide made by the yeast as it rises.

Christ is sacrificed for us. For our neighbor too. May we be receptive of his filling us.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 118:15-29 - Lectionary for Easter Day

4/7/2020

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4/7/20 - Read the text here.
​

Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Psalm 118:22 says “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (ESV). As we reflect on the Christian faith in recent history, at least in the Western world, we see a broad rejection of Jesus. He is the stone that the builders rejected. Again and again we hear that Christianity is either useless or that it is just like any other “helping profession.” Our culture will tell us that the purpose of Christianity is to teach people to be good, to be kind, to help one another, to nurture the family, or to bring food and water to hungry and thirsty people in the developing world. 

This view of Christianity misses the point. It discards Jesus, throwing him into the pile of building rubble, treating him like a misshapen stone or brick that will be buldozed into the ground and left behind. 

What’s the point of Jesus, after all? How is he “the chief cornerstone”? The Scripture presents Jesus as God the Son, the Messiah, the one who is perfectly human and perfectly divine. He is the one who can live the perfect life for us and die in our place. He is the one who has shown God to the world. He is the revelation of God’s grace and truth. All the Law and Prophets look to him. And he is the one who passed on the knowledge of his life, death, and resurrection to the disciples, who have passed it on to us. In him is life and salvation. He is the one in whom we must believe.

As we remember the day of resurrection, let us then remember that Jesus is the giver of life, eternal life, the real message of Christianity.


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Job 19:23-27 - Lectionary for Easter Day

4/6/2020

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4/6/20 Read the passage here. 
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Human suffering has been on our hearts and minds quite a lot recently. Our reading for Easter Day from Job 19:23-27 is intended to breathe hope into a situation in which disappointment, suffering, and loss abound. Job had been a wealthy man, with an abundance of livestock, crop land, servants, and a large family. Everything was going well. He was really “living the dream” and it was a good dream, too! When he would dine with his children they would rejoice together. When his children were away, he would make sacrifices and offerings on their behalf, in case they had doubted God and sinned in their hearts. He was a godly man with a godly family. And the Lord had been good to him, these many years.

All that was taken away. In the opening chapter of the book of Job he lost it all, from invasions, and sudden, frightening signs of fire and wind. No one human, nor one man’s family, would be able to defend against this. He lost everything, but did not deny God.

After some time of visiting with several “counselors” who persisted in telling him he must be suffering due to his own sin, he was certainly tired of rejecting the counsel he received. What was his conclusion? His redeemer lives. Even if he should lose everything, even his flesh, he would still stand one day and see God, who has always been good to him. Job didn’t understand what was happening to him. But he concluded that he didn’t need to understand it. God is still God.

In times of doubt and even fear, as we approach the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, we, like Job, can confess that we have a living hope. Even if our lives are changed in ways we would never have imagined, even if we are confronted by death itself, Christians look forward to the resurrection. By faith in God through Jesus, we recognize that the very same Christ, God the Son, who has overcome death on our behalf, will raise us in the last day. We could possibly lose everything. Yet the Lord has never failed in his goodness and mercy. In the last day, we will see Him and know that he is the redeemer, exactly the redeemer we need.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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    About Throwing Inkwells

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