Mark 12:35-13:13

Greetings,

 

One thought from this text that impressed me today is how things with Jesus appear inverted.  Have you ever noticed this?  This idea expressed elsewhere in scripture is that the first will be last and the last will be first.  Let’s look at some examples from our daily reading.  Fathers are typically greater than their sons yet the promised descendant of David was David’s Lord.  The religious leaders of that day appeared so holy and righteous yet their hearts and deeds were far from God.  Jesus and His disciples were watching as rich and poor put money in the collection box and the poor woman who gave the least actually gave the greatest because she gave all that she had and the others gave out of surplus.  The disciples were marveling at the impressive structure of the temple and Jesus responded by predicting its destruction.  Jesus is asked about the end times and includes the words, “everyone will hate you because you are my followers.”  Do any of these examples seem inverted to you? 

 

In the greater context of scripture (I Cor 1:26) we know that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”  Things with Jesus appear inverted because they are.  We, as sinful people, tend to want to trust in anything but God.  We want to trust in our own knowledge, our own strength, and the outward appearance of things.  But God is not found in those places, rather God is found and reveals Himself in suffering, in humble circumstances, in our weakness and need.  Ultimately, God is found and is revealed at the cross - the place of apparent failure, humiliation, suffering, and defeat, yet it is our salvation!

 

God’s ways are not our ways.  I can be sure that daily I need to trust Him more and more because I know I am apt to look in the wrong places to find God.  I can be sure that when life gets messy, it is a good place to be because when I have nothing in my own life to which I can cling, I have no other option but to cling all the more to Jesus, and the cross.

 

Pastor Adam