TUESDAY, DAY 18 OF LENT 2025

John 12 has a lot in it! Yesterday we reviewed the story of Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointing Jesus with expensive Oil of Nard and wiping his feet with her hair, and act of total love and adoration. We leap from that to verses 9 - 11, where we are told that the Chief Priests decided to kill Lazarus because so many people were coming to belief in Jesus because of that miracle. John doesn't tell us what happened with that plan, even though he likely could have, since he was writing well after the events that transpired. It leaves me wondering. I don't recall any further mention of Lazarus in the Bible.... Perhaps, since John didn't say, the focus returned to killing Jesus since that was their priority. John definitely clearly records that.

But, in the meantime, the next event John shares with us is the triumphal entry that we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Other gospel writers tell more of the story - how Jesus sent disciples to get a donkey with a young colt, and to tell the owner, "The Master has need of it." John just says, "Jesus found a young donkey, and sat on it...." John does make it clear that Jesus sat on the colt - and that in itself is a miracle to me. I very much doubt that the young colt was trained yet! I could be wrong, of course, but I doubt it! 

As John relates, when the large crowd in Jerusalem who had come for the Passover Festival heard that Jesus was coming, they ran out to meet him, waving palm branches, laying their outer wraps down on the road, like a glorious carpet, showing their adoration, respect, honor, momentary love and praise for the Son of God, Son of Man, the One many had come to believe was the Messiah...but they believed the Messiah was going to be an earthly king, and their story line fell apart soon after this event, because they didn't see through God's eyes. I suspect they thought this might be the day when he would take over, vanquish their foes, set them free from the bonds Rome had placed on them.... 

I don't always see through God's eyes either, but this is one of the greatest examples of that reality. The beautiful thing to focus on is that in that moment, on a 2-mile donkey ride from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus was given the praise and adoration he was due. Palms waving, people shouting 'Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Hallelujah!' Pure joyful adoration! I love that picture! 

[P S, I do realize that in following John sequentially in his writing we are getting way ahead of the story, but my blog entries this year are not meant to follow the daily journey to and beyond the cross, but to simply be a personal spiritual journey for this season.... If you want the sequential, you can order an online version of my book, LEAD ME TO THE CROSS, which does document the daily journey commemorating Jesus' journey to the cross and beyond. It is available as an eBook on Amazon.]

MONDAY, DAY 17 OF LENT 2025

John 12:1-8 brings us along to peek into one of the last meals Jesus will share with his closest group of friends, allowing us to join Jesus as he has dinner at the home of his dear friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany. Martha is serving the meal. Lazarus (who was just recently raised from the dead) is reclining at the table with Jesus, along with whomever of the other disciples that were present; and Mary, who adores Jesus, and who has often sat as his feet absorbing whatever he was teaching with enormous interest, gets out about a pound (according to the ESV) of very expensive ointment of pure nard, rubs it generously on his feet and wipes his feet with her hair. The generous use of the nard is unmistakable as the scent of the costly perfume wafts throughout the house. 

This draws the immediate ire of Judas, who declares that it should have been sold and given to the poor.  John adds a couple of editorial comments in this passage, since he was writing it "after the fact." One of those asides is that Judas didn't care in the least for the poor, but since he was the keeper of the group's finances (the moneybag) he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus does not call Judas out for his pilfering of their mutual funds - he merely tells him, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." 

What a reminder for me to take a moment whenever necessary and try to see through Jesus' eyes. It also gives me enormous joy to experience vicariously such a precious moment in Jesus' life, while knowing the end of the story. Historically I have often been too much like Martha, doing things FOR Jesus instead of prioritizing spending time WITH him. He wants us to have a balance of both - and we can only achieve that when he is the one in charge!

SUNDAY MARCH 23, THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT AKA THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Great Is Thy Faithfulness    

 

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father

There is no shadow of turning with Thee

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever will be 

 

Chorus:

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

 

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

 

Chorus

 

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

 

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness,

Great is Thy faithfulness,

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

 

..........

 

This song was written in 1923 by Thomas O. Chisolm, based on Lamentations 3:23.  The music was by William M Runyan, and the beautiful marriage of talents is evident in this wonderful song. 

I have been in the middle of a couple of challenging 'storms' recently - one piled on top of the other, and songs reminding me of God's faithfulness have been an important part of the journey. God is FAITHFUL even when we can't feel his precious presence. Even if we are faithless, he is faithful! It is his nature, and he cannot be anything else. 

Thank you, LORD!

SATURDAY, DAY 16 OF LENT 2025

John 11:47-53 reports the rationalization for "killing Jesus" and in this conversation Caiaphas declares that it would be better for one man to die for the country than for all of them to "lose their position - and even their country." What he said was prophetic - but the idea didn't originate with him. It originated with God. It is wonderful to be able to see the master plan when we look at it in the rear view mirror. We know the end of the story - and we know it all had to fall in place in God's timing. 

But - what is tumbling around in my brain most saliently is that they were under Roman rule, and they obviously very clearly knew that! Yet just a few chapters ago, in John 8, when they argued with Jesus (with their limited perspective and erroneous view) they claimed in John 8:33 that they had never been slaves of anyone.  Seriously? They were under the rule of the Romans at that point, and their people historically had been enslaved multiple times. 

The account in John 8 is a very interesting read. They were arguing from two totally different perspectives, yet the truths Jesus left for us are amazing and provide us building blocks for our Christian faith. I love Verse 8:58 that records Jesus statement to them: "Before Abraham was I am." Before he received his earthly name, Jesus (actually Yeshua) lived in heaven. He was "I AM", God! And he chose to come to earth to redeem us from Sin - to be the one and only sacrifice that could satisfy the debt that was created when Adam and Eve sinned. What an amazing God. The God who sees me, knows me - and loved me anyway. It is impossible to grasp the expanse of God's Agape love!

 

FRIDAY, DAY 15 OF LENT 2025

Continuing in John 11: Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after he was in the tomb for 4 days! When he called Lazarus from the tomb after the stone was rolled away, Lazarus shuffled out, bound from head to toe in strips of cloth, with a cloth over his face. That was their custom. (And we will soon see that done with Jesus' body as well.) 

Verse 45 provides us a segue to what happened next! Many of the Jews there that day believed in Jesus because of what he just did - that they saw with their own eyes, after hearing Jesus in a booming outdoor voice command Lazarus to come forth. He didn't have to be loud, but he had to be sure the people heard - for their sake, not God's. Verse 46 continues: 'But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done' - and their response was to plot to kill him! 

So after all the good things he had done, and John names some of them....: 

1. John 2. His first miracle of turning water into wine. Not just a few bottles, but I have heard it said the estimate  was likely 120 - 180 gallons!

2. John 4. "emotional and spiritual healing" for the Samaritan woman

3. John 4:46. Healing the official's son - long distance, I might add!

4. John 5. Healing the man at the Pool of Bethesda who had been blind, lame, and paralyzed for 38 years 

5. John 6. Feeding the 5,000+ from 5 loaves and two small fish, with 12 baskets full left over. 

6. Also John 6. Walking on water from shore to the disciples in the middle of the lake - and calming the storm

7. John 9. Healing the man blind from birth by Jesus making mud with his spit and dabbing it on the man's eyes, and telling him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam

After that, in John 10:32 Jesus asked the Jews who intended to stone him, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?" (He eluded their grasp.)

8. John 11. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. 

...and their response was, as I said, to hatch a plan to kill him. Heartbreaking!

It is really HARD to imagine, or is it, when we look at our own world today. Lord, have mercy!  

John 11:25-26 states, Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die...."And of course we know he was talking about ETERNAL life. And then - after weeping - he raised Lazarus from the dead!

THURSDAY, DAY 14 OF LENT 2025

John 11. I am intrigued by the account John writes in comparison to what Jesus actually already knew. John writes from his perspective, but it is clear that Jesus knew all along that Lazarus had died, and he intentionally waited to go to Bethany so God's majesty could be revealed. 

Even so, Jesus felt all the human feelings and the pain that his friends were experiencing in what they believed was a final goodbye, and he wept. He already knew he was going to bring Lazarus back from the dead, and he wept. 

How awesome it is to know we have a loving Savior who feels our pain, shares our sorrows, grieves with us. Jesus wept with those who thought they had lost Lazarus permanently - and he weeps with us!  

He also gives us HOPE for when we will be resurrected to eternal life with him. No matter what our "illness" or age that takes us from this life, his words are still true: "This illness does not lead to death." Yes, this cocoon stage of our body will end in physical death, but all who  believe in Jesus as their Savior are saved from eternal death - which is separation from God for all eternity. Thank God for that confidence. 

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)

WEDNESDAY, DAY 13 OF LENT 2025

John 10. What a beautiful picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. 

Only thieves and robbers try to get in by climbing over the fence - and their goal is to steal and destroy.

The Shepherd enters through the gate, because the Gatekeeper lets him in - and the Shepherd leads his sheep out to pasture and they follow him because they know his voice. Jesus' repetition of telling those who were in hearing distance of his voice that he is the good shepherd - THE GOOD SHEPHERD - is significant. It takes repetition to get the message across. 

And my favorite part of his being my shepherd is the affirmation that NO ONE can take us away. The thief and robber will try, but we are secure in knowing Jesus keeps us securely in his fold, and when he takes us out of that gate he guides us, protects us, leads us to good pastures. What a beautiful picture!