JESUS SPEAKING

            “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mathew 11: 28-30.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

             During this time, the average people were being made to engage in ritualistic behaviors they couldn’t possible complete.  For example, on the Sabbath day, you couldn’t carry anything because that would constitute work.  When Jesus had healed a man who had been crippled, the man was carrying his mat, and the religious leaders scolded him for this.  He said, ‘the man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and go.’  They wanted to know who it was so they could go and scold the person who told him this, but the man did not know it was Jesus.  The religious leaders required so much from the people, but themselves were unwilling to do anything other than keep themselves pure and knock other people down who broke one of their rules.  Jesus presents the people with the solution to this problem.  The first thing he requires is that they come to him, and not the false teachers and those who were claiming to be Godly.  He is not giving them another ridiculous rule to follow to maintain a pleasing status with God; rather he is the thing that makes a person pleasing to God.

             Beasts of burden were usually yoked in groups of two.  When one oxen died, they would begin to train a new oxen.  The yoke was a harness for two.  As the mature and trained oxen plowed correctly the new oxen would be steadied and would only need to stay connected to his partner to stay on task.  He didn’t need to worry about doing it correctly, he just needed to stay in unison with the ox next to him.  Jesus wanted them to know that when they connected themselves with him, it would be their relationship with him that would make them disciples.  They needed only to be willing to walk as he walked, and to do as he did.  He wanted to teach them, and he wanted them to be teachable.  Jesus also wanted them to know that those who had a guilty and unsettled spirit could find peace with him; such as those who felt the weight of a lifetime of sin upon them; they needed only to yoke themselves to him, and he would take that sin upon his shoulders, and carry it.  He reminded them that he was gentle, in that he did not wish to harm them if they made a mistake (like the religious leaders were doing), but rather, he was approachable, loving, peaceful, and patient.  He is making the relationship between them and God no longer predicated upon rules and rituals, but upon a relationship.

             Today, Jesus is still calling out to those who are heavy laden and burdened down.  Many people are attempting to follow some set of rules, believing this will bring them closer to God.  They have not yet figured out that coming to Jesus is the only way to know God, and that it is our relationship with him that makes us more Godly.  Jesus is in heaven, but we are yoked with him in the form of the Holy Spirit.  In this place, we become more like him, each and every day, as we grow closer, and closer to him.  As we pray daily, as we talk with him, as we read his words, and let them move us in our actions, we are being transformed in to his image.  When we feed the hungry, when we love others, when we give without asking in return, it is because we are bonded to him, and we are his disciples indeed.

             “Lord Heavenly Father, we ask that You would help us to have this rest You promise.  Give us the lowliness in heart that You have promised us as well.  Give us Your burden, however light it may be.  Help us to learn from You, and to grow closer to You, and to become more like You each and every day.  We love You Father, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.

 JESUS SPEAKING

            And He said to them, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?” 

            So they said, “Nothing.” 

            Then he said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.  For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in me; ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’  For the things concerning me have an end.”  

               So they said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.”  And he said to them, “It is enough” (Luke 22: 35-38.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

             Here Jesus gave them a command that enabled his disciples to provide for themselves in his absence.  Jesus protected and provided for his disciples; when they had no food he made bread and fish from nearly nothing.  When they needed money, he provided that in a miraculous way.  When they needed shelter he produced willing persons who allowed them to stay in their’ homes.  Jesus is either telling these men that they need to protect themselves, or he is simply adding in large knife to the list of things that a man on the run may find handy, perhaps in the wilderness.  The Greek word for ‘sword’ is better translated as ‘dagger, large knife, or small sword as opposed to a large sword; used in sacrificing animals or cutting up meat’; something like what a butcher might use.  Jesus tells them to take a money bag, which anyone would do if they were leaving home for a period of time.  The same thing is true of the knapsack, which is referring to the type of bag a Sheppard would carry when he journeyed out in to the wilderness.  The dagger as well could be referring to an essential tool that most men who were traveling would have carried, for many uses. 

              Why might Jesus not be talking about using the swords against others seeking to kill them?  When the guards came for Jesus, shortly after this event, one of his disciples pulled out the sword and hacked at them, and cut off an ear of one of the guards.  Jesus responded to this action by saying, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword shall perish by it.”  He even heals the man’s severed ear.  We see then that his intended idea of what the swords would be used for may not have included striking out in violence at another human being.  On the other side of the coin, it is entirely possible that he might have been telling the disciples to use the swords to protect themselves.  Scriptures like these do present a challenge to anyone who reads them.  The meaning in light of all of the teachings of Christ presents a view of nonviolence; however this scripture taken simply, clearly sounds as though Jesus wanted them to use the swords to defend themselves.

              The meaning of this passage is not entirely clear.  The temptation is to make it say something it might not say.  Uncertainly is a frightening thing, and this fear causes many people to try to force a clear meaning where there is none.  Humility is the ability to accept a lack of understanding and clarity and be okay with that.  This scripture is a lesson in accepting a lack of understanding.  Many cults begin when a person believes they know something that no one else before them has known; as if God has given them the answers to a question that has been unclear since the beginning of the church.  God has not promised to allow us to understand all of his ways, nor every scripture that he has laid out in his book.  He has promised to provide us with a wonderful ability to know him.  God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit do provide us with all that we need today, and often times we don’t need to know.  And to those who are seeking answers, sometimes God provides humility instead of clarity.  He makes a person’s heart okay with uncertainty, and gives them a peace and a rest in the absence of complete understanding.

“Lord heavenly Father, we come before You today and we ask and pray that You would provide us with humility, that we would be able to accept not knowing and understanding all of scripture.  Help us to accept what knowledge You have given us as being sufficient, and allow us to feed off of Your spirit daily, in our hearts.  Give us more of Your Holy Sprit, and more of Your truth today Father.  We love You Lord, we thank You and we praise You and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.

JESUS SPEAKING:

                “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

                “Don’t stop him,” Jesus said.  “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us (Mark 9:38-39.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS:

                We see here that good done in the name of Christ can never be evil.  Yet, if we stand in the way of a good action, then we ourselves become evil.  The disciples tell Jesus that they attempted to stop a man from doing miracles in his name, simply because he was not associated with them (his disciples.)  Jesus is revealing that associations outside of his name do not make true believers; it is only the good that we do in his name that matters.  What that man shared was the belief in the very name of Jesus Christ.  He was a brother, because he acknowledged the power of our Lord, even though he was not a disciple.  The beginning of a Christian life, begins, and remains in the hands of Jesus Christ.  We, who call Jesus Christ master, are bound only by our servitude to him, and to one another because we serve him.

                Many Pharisees at the time of Christ attempted to stop Jesus from doing good, based upon rules of the law.  The law was not evil, yet men took it and twisted it, telling Jesus it was unlawful to heal a man on the Sabbath.   If the Sabbath gets in the way of the healing of a man, then it gets in the way of the working of God.  This is why; Christians are not under the law, but under the commandment of Love.  Anything that is truly selfless is not considered work, but service.  Through service we do all things in love.  Jesus has told us that the greatest commandment is to, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the First and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it.  ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All of the Law and the Commandments hang on these two commandments” (Mathew 22: 37-40.)  If we follow these two commandments we follow all ten.  When love God and others it is impossible to do harm to anyone, and we become obedient to the law, but not mastered by it so as to allow it to be a stringent boundary that would leave us unable to love someone through acts of kindness and goodness; even if, say, we did it on the Sabbath, if good was done to another, then it is the work of God, and not our own work (The Sabbath was a day out of every week that the Israelites were to keep Holy; they were not supposed to do work on the Sabbath.  The Jews, during the days of Christ, considered it work to heal people.  So they accused Jesus Christ of healing on the Sabbath, and thereby claimed he was breaking the Sabbath commandment.  Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it?

                Today, when we do good things for others in the name of Jesus Christ, we are revealing our love and faith in him, and I believe that anyone who tries to stop someone from doing good in his name, whether they are misguided or not, gets in the way of God.  To stop someone from being loved, is to is to go against our Lord and savior.  Doing good in the name of Christ, without stipulation, is the true working of God.  Catholics can do good, but not because they are Catholics doing good.  Protestants can do good for Christ, but not because they are protestant doing good.  Even Jehovah’s witnesses can do good, but they are not in the right if they do works under the name of being Jehovah’s witnesses.  Rather, the only affiliation that makes an action pleasing to God the Father is the action that is done in the name of his son.  I believe, that it’s hard to keep the gospel simple, and it’s hard to simply keep Christ in the center of the gospel.  No denomination will ever bring salvation; Jesus Christ is the name that carries power; that name alone is what binds together the faithful.

                “Lord Father we ask and pray today that You would give us discernment Lord, and we ask that You would allow Your faithful servants to see that it is Your Son that makes all things possible.  Lord, help us to not stop others from doing good in the name of Jesus Christ, but to do good ourselves in His name.  Lord help us to not call ourselves to faith in the name of a church or denomination, but in the name of Your Son, in whomever He dwells (the Holy Spirit), makes up the body of Christ.  Father, we pray that You will continue to bestow upon us the Holy Spirit, and that through us, Your miracles would continue to be done upon this earth.  We thank You Father, we love You, and we praise You in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.”