Plymothian

¹⁴ After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

¹⁶ As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ¹⁸ At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹ When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰ Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Is Jesus’ Good News Really Good?

John’s imprisonment is the starting gun for Jesus’ ministry.  We know Jesus heard directly from the Father, but sometimes circumstances themselves mark out the path that must be followed.  He proclaimed Good News.  The Good News of God’s kingdom on Earth can only be good if the alternative is worse.  The Jewish people had tied themselves up in religious laws and good behaviour.  They didn’t have the special relationship for which they had been set apart.  The coming near of God and the release from the system would have been good news.  What about those who were religiously neutral?  What about those people who think they are fine by themselves?  The natural condition of the world is one of entropy, or decay.  We have distanced ourselves and the Creation from God and so we make technological advances that mask our moral and ethical decline.  Relationship with God sets the heart right and allows a person to enter into a new relationship with God that lasts forever.

Simon, Andrew, James and John illustrate a proper response to the kingdom.  They walk away from their family business, probably held for generations, and they follow a different set of goals for their lives.  The response is swift and complete.  Time is not needed to make a change.  It only takes time for a human to bring about change of self.  God can, and often does, bring about complete change in a person with immediate affect.

Prayer

Jesus, sometimes I really don’t want relationship with you or to follow you.  I just want to be left alone.  It is usually when I am tired.  I lose sight of the chasm of hell that is life alone.  We were not created for isolation and self-gratification.  We were created to serve The Father and to serve other people.  Our society has lied to us long enough about having it our way, doing it our way, and satiating our desires.  They omit the break down in community, the collapse of society, and the damage we do morally and physically to ourselves and others.  Help us to repent and establish the absolute authority of God in our lives.  Help us to become better at relationships.  Help us to sleep, eat well, and read scripture so that we will be more able to serve you and others.

Questions

1. What event precipitated Jesus’ preaching?
2. What was his message?
3. What do you think Simon, Andrew, James, and John thought it meant?
4. How does the gospel change every aspect of living in the 21st century?
5. How do you respond daily to Jesus’ call to follow him?

⁹ At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

¹² At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted^[g] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Jesus Is Affirmed

In this short passage, Jesus is identified by God the Father.  He is affirmed and the heavens are ripped open.  The rending of heaven is not something that is cleaned up afterward.  Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God to Earth.  However, he has emptied himself of the powers and insight that he had before his incarnation.  The Father affirms The Son as The Son identifies with fallen humanity in baptism.  The The Spirit leads the Son into the desert to be tempted.  It reflects Jesus’ humanity or personhood that he is affirmed by his heavenly Father before being tried and tested.  All of us men would have loved words of affirmation from our fathers before times of trial or responsibility set in during adulthood.

Prayer

Jesus, I would have loved an earthly father who affirmed me as I headed into trials.  My father was embarrassed and self-absorbed.  Yet, I know, like you we have access by your grace, into the presence of The Father by prayer.  He affirms that he loves us too.  He sends us into trials, but it is with the assurance that if we only remain in Him, we will fare as you did.  We can face isolation, desolation, and danger with the assurance that nothing occurs that is unknown to you, the Father, or the Spirit.  Protect us from our foolishness, but help us to live in ways that celebrate never being alone.  Help us to hear, “You are my child, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” And then we will have strength to face our trials.

Questions

1. What event in Mark precedes Jesus’ temptation?
2. How are the two events in this passage related?
3. Why do you think wild animals are mentioned?
4. When have you been aware of God affirming you?
5. How does your identity in Christ help you in times of trial?

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

The Resurrection

Everything rests on this, Jesus.  Did you rise from the dead?  We have four gospel accounts that say you did.  Contemporary evidence corroborates that people claimed you were raised.  The apostle Paul says you were raised, but still to believe this requires faith.   There is evidence and we need to make a decision.  I have decided that you did come back from the dead.  This changes everything – real living is possible.  Death does not have its sway.  There is no end to living.  There is nothing that can separate us from the source of life.  However, we need to choose you in order to live the life that you bring.  We need to live a life devoted to the will of The Father.  We need to die to the old life of corruption and death and wake up to the healthy relationship with The Father.  This relationship goes on forever.

Jesus, we can connect.  I am coming to the end of writing my devotionals as simply prayers.  I wouldn’t be able to connect with you if it weren’t for this resurrection.  However, I find that I am still resistant.  I don’t connect easily.  It is the path to wellness.  It is the way of wholeness.  However, I am so broken that I resist walking with you as a real person and not just an idea.  Concepts are easier to manage.  Ideas can be controlled.  People have wills.  People have freedom.  You bring the possibility of relationship, but I can not control you.  You have been raised with authority, but I don’t naturally like obeying people.  Help me to live in your presence and be grateful that the grave was not the end.  Help me to clasp your feet and worship you.

Questions

1. On what day did the women go to the tomb?
2. What did they find?
3. What is the significance of the resurrection?
4. How do you relate to the risen Lord?
5. How do you keep the fact of the resurrection fresh?

⁵⁷ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

⁶² The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ⁶³ “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ ⁶⁴ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

⁶⁵ “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Really Dead

Jesus, I have no doubts that you died.  Given the accounts that a man in Galilee with your name existed and that men are generally considered mortal, you died.  I believe that Romans killed you with a professional completeness.  I do not believe the death was hurried and botched.  I believe you died.  I believe your spirit departed from your body and that the hydrocarbons that had housed you were left behind.  The body was placed in a tomb where it could decompose in peace and the women knew where the body was.

I am a bit perplexed as to how the Pharisees knew that you said you would rise from the dead, assumed that the disciples knew that was the plan, and so were intent on making sure that no-one could steal the body.  However, the disciples were amazed at the fact of the resurrection.  Did they just believe that you had said you would do the impossible, or did the Pharisees know what you were about better than they did?  The writer preempts that your disciples will be accused of deception and so states how such a deception could not happen.

Questions

1. Who asked for Jesus’ body?
2. Why would it be significant that the grave was hitherto unused?
3. Why would Matthew want us to know that the grave was secure?
4. Do you believe Jesus was a real person from history?
5. Do you believe that he rose from a swoon or rose from death?

  ²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

³² As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³ They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). ³⁴ There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. ³⁵ When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁶ And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. ³⁷ Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.

³⁸ Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.

Jesus Crucified

Jesus, I never really thought of the crucifixion as an enthronement.  Such a picture of horror seems to indicate something less than royalty.  I think of you enthroned at the right hand of the Father, but I do not think of you enthroned on the cross.  Yet I have thought of it before as a moment of glory.  The love and compassion shown on the cross is beyond measure.  It is glorious.  You have one on your right and one on your left, like the image that James and John conjured up when they asked to be sat on your right and your left.  So many of the disciples would share this glorious enthronement in death.  The glory of martyrdom did await them.  The reality of your royalty was acknowledged here at the cross, but it was in the words of mockers.  It’s as if all of reality is cast in a sad joke.  It’s as though the royal courts of heaven are recast in the tones of blood and pain.

Thank you for enduring such shame.  Thank you for being enthroned on the cross.  May you reign in each of our lives without any rivals.

Questions

1. What did the Romans do to Jesus?
2. How was Jesus mocked?
3. How is the scene one of mock enthronement?
4. What does the horror of the crucifixion have to do with you?
5. Did Jesus gain the kingdom of your heart when he died?

Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. ² So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

⁵ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

⁶ The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. ⁸ That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹ Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, ¹⁰ and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”^[a]

Judas Hangs Himself

I have sympathy for Judas, Jesus.  I don’t know what drove him, but I know that you loved him.  I know that so many of us get things wrong about you.  I have thought of you in so many ways which are not worthy of you.  I have underestimated you, misconstrued your motives, and I have just not given you the devotion you require for relationship.  I see Judas and am afraid.  I think that if I was one of the twelve, it could have been me.  We know he betrayed you, but he wasn’t a twisted figure of overt evil salivating at the back of the line.  He was like me.  He wasn’t able to control his desire for money.  He had his hands in the funds.

Lord have mercy on us.  Help us not to start strong and have a life that is led astray by financial concerns.  Let us not betray you with only a concern about what happens to us.

Questions

1. Where did Judas return?
2. Describe his reception.
3. Why do you think we are shown the fate of Jesus’ betrayer?
4. What is your personal reaction to Judas?
5. How does a person today steer away from the fate of Judas?

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

⁷¹ Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁷² He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

⁷³ After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

⁷⁴ Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵ Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Denial

Denial and betrayal are not the same thing.  Judas and Peter were different with you, Jesus.  Judas betrayed you to harm.  Peter denied you in a time of need.  One actively hurt you, the other passively hurt you.  In both cases there was a heartrending emotion that followed.  Judas’ led to death, Peter’s led to shame.  I have not actively worked against you, as far as I know, but I have passively denied you.  I have kept my mouth shut in some situations where people did not speak well of you.  In those cases, I sometimes felt overwhelmed and unequipped.  In retrospect I thought I was too ignorant to speak up with naturalists and atheists in England.  In England there seems to be an air of intellectual superiority adopted by anyone who denies the existence of God.  Now, of course I believe that your existence and place in the world is as rational as any other explanation, but at that time I had a fear that they were right.  I have denied your existence at times by living as though you did not exist or as though I did not know you.  I have become infatuated with a woman, an activity, or a place and immersed myself in it without thought of you.

There is nothing good outside of a life with you.  There is no life worth living that denies you.  I believe that in home, school, work, and play we need to think of you in all your glory.  It is human for us to forget, but like Peter, help us to see that it is a big deal.

Questions

1. What causes Peter to deny Jesus?
2. How does the way he feels differ from Judas?
3. If the story ended here, what would be the future for Peter?
4. How do people deny Jesus today?
5. How can people deny Jesus in less and less areas of life?