His last days... & so much more.. mth 26

10/03/2011

The sheep get scattered... Jesus gets 'a portion'... and we all receive the spirit upon his death... :) lets jump in the word

New Mumford song... Love em :)

matthew 26
Isaiah 52-53


Jesus’ final days I read about this morning... and with transformed eyes to see, I felt at the deepest level a new kind of love for my savior (not my Father, or the Spirit.. my Savior). Let me touch on a couple main points I took away, with scattered nuggets in-between, ones good to chew on.. some good fruit for your day..

First, chapter 26 starts out with the ‘chief priests and the elders of the people assembling in the palace of the high priest... plotting to arrest jesus in some sly way and kill him.’

Imagining this scene got me to thinking... ‘had none of these chief priests ever read the description of the ‘great servant’ ... jesus? ... in Isaiah 53?? I wondered how they could be so ignorant of their own texts... (i'm swallowing my words now..)

So I turned there...

The end of 52 and through 53, the lord speaks of his great servant, and goes deeply into describing his last days of betrayal & disfigurement.. saying things like ‘by his wounds we are healed. we all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the lord has laid on him (the great servant, jesus) the iniquity of us all.’ ... great section of scripture... soak in it :)

Anyway... Amen?! we move on...

So, first thing I hear here is this, much of the description of Jesus in these chapters (52-53) is telling of things these ‘chief priests’ were themselves to do ... so, in a big way they were blind to their own involvement in the prophesy.. dang (sooo much more here!.. moving on). Too, at the end of 53 - after describing what i believe is the coming and going of jesus - the lord says this... “therefore i will give him (jesus) a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors”

Ummm... I’m going to have to think about this one for a bit (by now @ posting time, I have:) ask me about it)... I mean.. “a portion among the great”? What other deliverers of god’s good news on how to live well might be receiving the ‘other portions’?! I’ve met many a beautiful spirit from other religions... lets think about this one together, with warm hearts inviting the spirit to reveal, feel & live in the truth :) man, if this topic interests you, the spirit is leading me to share two other verses you should read... Romans 2:13-15, and matthew 12:32 (read enough to get context too.. but why the son of man, and not the Spirit?) anyway...

Reading onto the story of the poor woman and the perfume in verse 10.. I saw this one with totally different eyes, if you’re curious ask and i’ll email you my read on it.. but i move on..

I want to move on to peter, then jesus.. then us.

Peter always gets a bad rap about denying three times his lord... well, if you read in this chapter you see that - without account of all their experiences - it is very likely the other apostles too did something similar.. even worse possibly. All were scattered...

Jesus says in verse 31... “this very night, you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ‘i will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’”

All of his sheep - when seperated from their lord in the moments of jesus being taken away - became scattered. In fact, I believe that whatever the apostles biggest strength was, that became their biggest downfall in those moments (the book mountains of spices helped me see this)... Peter was a fearless witness!.. and then he denied, three times. The gift he had - his boldness - he saw what the other side of that gift looked like when seperated from his God. and he "wept bitterly"... :/

Stick with me... :)

Whats so beautiful about what jesus is saying here is in the next... he says “but after i have risen, i will go ahead of you into galilee.” ... with you unto the world. Never again would they experience the feeling of being scattered... separate. For upon jesus’ dying on the cross, the spirit (!!!) was released, going forth in front of all who acknowledge it’s presence (us too!), giving strength, comfort, & peace (not without pain, suffering, and persecution) in drafting the movement of the spirit wherever it leads... beautiful.. we all are given this gift :)

I’ll touch on one more point in this chapter, and skip the others.. this is already too long.. dang.

But, because of just too reading about solomon and his ‘wise and discerning’ heart he was gifted from god.. I want to bring us into a very intimate, human moment jesus has (as you see solomon similarly experienced in the beginning of ecclesiastes... human desires among the gifted heart full of wisdom & discernment). He goes to gethsemane and prays, leaving peter and two others just a bit behind to ‘keep watch’. (they ended up falling asleep, and jesus did not wake them.. found that interesting). Anyway, jesus prays ‘my father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’

Jesus was born of mary... the other half made possible by the good lord. Half man.. half god. Remember what i wrote about earlier.. scripture is of no value if not combined with faith.. lets throw a little faith in the batch here and watch it rise to life. :)

Half man.. half god. And here he is... maybe three years after the spirit descended on him “like a dove” (mth 3:16)... knowing in his half god side, what the half human side was about to experience.. ‘may this cup be taken’. Such beauty.. awareness.. submission in this prayer.. an example of how, in tough situations where we feel soaked in the presence of the spirit (because when jesus died we too are given access to this), we ought to pray. In submission.. and acceptance.. He knew the gift of being used to free the world, but if there was aaaany way that gift could be given without using him as sacrifice, then sweet... (un)fortunately there wasn't (i believe it's appropriate with and without the 'un') but there was still joy in his heart throughout that prayer.

... he prayed this prayer three times in a row ... how human is that? Like solomon, jesus was gifted with ‘god parts’.. unlike solomon.. jesus was steadfast. our saviour...

... i’ll stop there, but man, so much more revealed in this chapter to me (wish I could share about the guy whose ear was cut off, and judas' betrayal.. maybe in person :)), these were just a couple main ones. I encourage you read, and 'ask of him’, that his spirit might hover over those moments in the word, pointing your eyes and heart to hear it’s message... to you!

be well!