Atlanta Westside Presbyterian Church
Easter Every Day
Not Why But Who - Good Friday 2023
The King Arrives
Rupture and Reward
Fears and Promises
The Cost
Now You
Harassed and Helpless Harvesters
Fortified Faith
por Walter Henegar
What difference does it make to believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Paul says it means carrying the death of Jesus, and looking for the life of Jesus—in our bodies. This dynamic engine of grace includes repentance and release, along with expectation to see the “weight of glory” in the mosaic God makes of our own stories and the people around us. The very physical, bodily nature of God’s redemption dignifies the “jars of clay” through which he accomplishes his work.
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Like Facebook or One Drive attempts to do, considering the evil, misery, and sadness we all face in our lives, this story of Jesus entering Jerusalem is meant to bring hope through seven pictures, pictures that give us subtle, but important details of God’s love for us.
Following Jesus means our supreme allegiance belongs to him alone. This commitment can generate conflict in our relationships, even within our own families. However, it does not leave us alone with Jesus against the world. Rather, we express our allegiance to him by “receiving” or welcoming into relationship everyone who belongs to him, from great prophets to the “littlest” disciple. Jesus underscores this reality by promising to eternal reward for those who do so. These rewards are not earned by works but gifts, a grace upon grace.
What frees us from fear of people is the fear of God. Fear of people paralyzes us, whereas fear of God energizes us. Here Jesus names four particular fears and counters each with a powerful promise of God: 1. Fear of exposure with the promise of public vindication 2. Fear of death with the promise of bodily resurrection 3. Fear of meaningless suffering with the promise of providential care 4. Fear of abandonment with the promise of permanent belonging in his family Ultimately, Jesus pays infinitely more to associate with us than we ever pay to associate with him.
The cost of following Jesus is persecution. It takes different forms in different times and places, but there are no exceptions. Thankfully, Jesus provides for us in the midst of persecution, including opportunities for mission, the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and escape for the sake of mission. Ultimately, Jesus’ promise that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” is based on his own enduring commitment to love us to the end.
If Jesus calls you to follow him, he will always send you to represent him to the world with both your words and your actions. This doesn't look exactly like the disciples' initial ministry to their fellow Jews, but it does include sharing fellowship and the tasks of ministry with all different kinds of other believers. Ultimately, God holds us accountable for what we know, and supremely for what we know about his love for us.
When Jesus heals two blind men and warns them not to tell, they tell everyone. When he heals a mute man, the crowds are wowed, but the Pharisees think he's in cahoots with evil. We might expect Jesus to be frustrated by these divergent reactions to his ministry. Instead he has compassion for the "harassed and helpless" crowds. He sees us as sheep needing a shepherd, and like a harvest field needing laborers to gather us in. It turns out that the Good News of his kingdom is about more than healing or even forgiveness. Jesus wants us to become sheep who shepherd, harvested harvesters, and followers who lead.
A distraught father and a sick woman who come to Jesus have more in common than we might think. Both exercise desperate, risk-taking faith in the power of Jesus to heal, and both are rewarded with a bigger vision of Jesus and a new relationship to him. As we learn to distrust our own limited resources, we discover Jesus to be more than enough for us, too.
By calling a tax collector as a disciple and eating a meal with his friends, Jesus sparks a debate: What sort of people should God's people associate with? His response uses metaphors about weddings, garments and wine to reframe the whole question. Rejecting simplistic binaries like righteous vs. sinners, fasting vs. feasting, or new vs. old, Jesus centers everything on his own person and work. Before we can decide which people to associate with, we must ask what sort of people we ourselves are, and how Jesus is working in our lives.