You've got to go through something you don't want to.
You know it's the right thing, you know it will be all good in the end... but still, it hangs over your head like an ominous cloud.
A visit to the surgeon, a difficult conversation... the dentist!
Jesus lived under a cloud His whole life. He came for a purpose, to redeem the world, and it would cost Him dearly. He knew it, and no amount of good days could ever truly shift that sense of foreboding, I'm sure.
He even shared this with His disciples. He finished with the good news of His resurrection. He gave them the timeline - only three days of death, then glorious, miraculous resurrection!... but they didn't get that bit... the cloud had settled over their hearts and deafened their ears to hope.
"After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples were filled with grief." (Matthew 17:22-23)
In many churches worldwide, Maundy Thursday is celebrated, marking the occasion of the last supper and Jesus' command to the disciples and us to love one another.
Last night, being Maundy Thursday, even though I was at home doing everyday things, I had a heavy heart as I imagined what it must have been like for Jesus on that night as He prepared His disciples for what was to come.
That heavy foreboding must have been almost overwhelming. But remarkably, Jesus and His disciples could still sing a hymn as they left the supper table for the agony of the garden.
"As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.” Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:22-26)
In so many ways, we feel a sense of foreboding as we observe the world's pain, still trying to emerge from a pandemic but in a far more fractured society. Then there is political upheaval. Floods. Homelessness, War.
We need to refocus our eyes on the last bit of the story. Jesus did, in fact, rise from death three days after the cross. This was not just a one-off miracle but glorious paving of the way for us who follow Him... He has conquered death!
He promised at that last supper that He would drink with us again in His Kingdom. This points to the day He will return to put all that has gone wrong - right. Yes, sickness, poverty, war and death will end as He visibly physically returns to take His throne as Lord of the Nations.
With that glorious hope, we can 'sing a hymn' even under a cloud of heaviness as we live in a broken, warring world, knowing that what He has promised, He will make good.
But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:
It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God! 1 Corinthians 15:54-56 (MSG)
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