The Half-Way Point

June 2, 2025 | Impressions from the first half of Season 1

Having reached the half-way point for our look at Bible passages during this first season of Observing the Good News (!), it is a good opportunity to reflect on some themes that come to mind. When I do so, I think about mission, tapestry, and being transformed.

Mission: Jesus had a mission. John the Baptist had a mission. The sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet had a powerful, short mission in that particular passage, and so did the woman at the well in the post titled "The Thirsty Messiah." Mary and Joseph had an incredible mission and responsibility. Jesus' siblings had a mission, and so did His apostles. Some of these missions came with both great hardship and great joy. They knew what they needed to do. They were guided by a power beyond themselves. All of the missions undertaken by these ordinary people were significant, all of them meaningful not just to themselves, but to others.

What mission does each of us have? How is it defined? Of what lasting quality is it? As we go deeper into the Good News, I believe each one of us can explore these questions. The answers are there.

Tapestry: A post from 2 weeks ago, "Background and Foreground," compared observing the Good News to looking at a painting. It's also good to think about the work of God through the centuries as a "tapestry." This tapestry just keeps unwinding, day by day. God was creating long before the 1st century A.D. He has continued it long after the Bible was written. He is making his tapestry today, and it's an incredible masterpiece.

As some pretty wise authors in the Bible have observed: eye has not seen, ear has not heard, the full depth and breadth of God's work and wonders. This is part of His tapestry.

Being transformed: The first 3 modules have not observed the apostles very closely, even though they play huge parts in the tapestry of the 1st century and beyond. The Gospels show us how ordinary the apostles were before and while they were with Jesus. It is only after the Holy Spirit was poured out on them and upon the believing church that we see the apostles transformed. More on this later on this site, but I mention this because contrast is one of the most powerful tools for the artist, be it painting or tapestry. The change in the apostles' lives from the early years of the New Testament to the later ones is a powerful statement, indeed.

When we observe the Good News, it is not about facts, places, and names. These are real people, with real stories. They lived in a different time, but incredibly, we are all part of God's tapestry.

Thy will be done

May 31, 2025 | Read and think about Matthew 26:36-50

This passage is a good way to think about Jesus having a nature as both God and as human.

It starts just on a small mountain outside of Jerusalem, pretty late at night, in the garden of Gethsemane.  It’s an hour, perhaps two, after the Last Supper Jesus shared with His apostles.  And the passage ends with Jesus being seized to be placed on trial and ultimately crucified the next day.

But taking a step further back, today’s passage starts with the testimony of John the Baptist, which we read a few weeks ago in the post, “Lamb of God.”

              “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

It’s good to let those words sink in.  They are what the garden of Gethsemane was all about.

Gethsemane was the doorway to the last stage – the sacrificial stage - of Jesus’ mission as the Lamb of God.

In this moment, Jesus prayed to avoid this pain, this kind of death.  How human.

And yet, He also could have called 10,000 angels to defend Him.  He could have made that call.  He was God. Yet He completely let go of any ability to alter a certain, known outcome.  He submitted to the Father’s will.  

This side of Heaven (at least), we will never fully understand the mixing of the human nature with the God nature of Jesus, particularly in this moment.

Jesus had a strong desire to not have to endure the cross.  He prayed and asked if there was some other way.  But in order to defeat sin and make a bridge for us to Heaven, His desire to do the Father’s will had to be stronger, and it was.

Thank you, Lord, and Amen. 

The Glory of Jesus

May 29, 2025 | Read and think about Luke 9:28-36

The events in today’s passage occurred about a week after Peter’s spiritual insight we read about from the just-completed “You are the Christ” passage.  Here we have the account from Luke’s gospel of Jesus taking 3 of his apostles onto a mountain, similar to Matthew’s account of the same event.

It was, literally and figuratively, a mountain-top experience.  The apostle John was there, and it must have been part of why he wrote these words in the opening paragraphs of his gospel:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The glory of this moment is evident from Luke’s gospel passage, which contains all these phrases:

• “as bright as a flash of lightning”

• “glorious splendor”

• “a cloud that enveloped them”

• “a voice from Heaven, God’s voice”

It all harkened back to Moses going up on Mount Sinai and receiving the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments.  It was something so amazing!

Notice, however, a verse in this passage that is not so glorious.  “The two men, Moses and Elijah, spoke to Jesus about his departure, which He was about to bring to completion in Jerusalem.”

I have read this passage a few times.  Usually, I would see it as being all about the glory of Jesus on that mountain in that moment, with just a quick mention of Jesus’ soon-to-be passion and death (and I’d want to think of it like it was only a passing reference). 

But this struck me differently today.  What if the central point of the passage is the passion and death of Jesus?

Perhaps this moment was all about

“the glorious splendor” + “the cross”  

Perhaps both were mentioned because God’s plan of salvation could not have one without the other.