Time Change and the Gospel

Luke 9:28–31

Luke 9:28-31 

English Standard Version 

  It's one of those Biblical moments that you'd pay anything to be present at.  Imagine, seeing Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah.  The conversation spans centuries.   These are the two giants of the Old Testament, and what are they speaking of?

  The coming cross.  The suffering of Jesus that is to come.  

  It says a lot about what is most important.  For all the things they could've talked about, they were focused on the cross, the tool of violence that was to be used for the glorious liberation.  Freedom was on the other side of it, but it was not to be an easy journey.  

  What a privilege for Peter and John and James to witness this.  What would you have been thinking?  What questions would you have for these three?  How would it change you?

  And how do we think more on what Christ did for us on the cross?

Luke 9:23–27

Luke 9:23-27 

English Standard Version 

  When we invite people to church, we tend not to lead with this passage.  It's a hard teaching.  The cross has lost much of its meaning in a world where the Roman empire is no longer crucifying people by the thousands (thankfully!).  But imagine the reaction of the crowd when Jesus tells them that they are invited to take up their cross daily.  No one would have been excited about that, and you can't really take up a cross more than once.  And yet here is Jesus, inviting the crowd to find their life through losing it, to find salvation through sacrifice.  

  Are we willing to trust that the God of creation has our best interests in mind, that the God who feeds the crowd out of abundance will care for our every need?  It's a hard step to take, given that so much in the world is about protecting ourselves from shortages and working to secure ourselves from losing anything.  But Jesus has a vision for more than this world has, and he sees us as children handcrafted in the image of God.  He knows us completely and loves us completely.  He can do impossibly more than we can ask or imagine, and he's coming again in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

  Knowing that... what do you imagine it means to die to yourself daily, to lose your life daily so that you may find it?  

Luke 9:21–22

Luke 9:21-22 

English Standard Version 

  This is not the plan I would have come up with.  Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Messiah... and then Jesus follows with a plan that involves suffering, death, and resurrection.  Had I been in charge, I might have developed a plan that omitted the first two parts of that and focused on glorification.  

  Thankfully, God is in control.  God understood what must be done, even if it doesn't make sense to human minds.  God knew, and God was committed to saving humanity and was therefore willing to pay any price.  God wasn't afraid of the necessary suffering, because God thinks you and I are worth it.  

  So let us not shy away from what we do not understand.  May we ask big questions and follow God wherever God may lead, trusting in God's plans and God's ways, which are greater than our own.