Thursday…
Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
“Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
“I’m not including all of you in this. I know precisely whom I’ve selected, so as not to interfere with the fulfillment of this Scripture:
The one who ate bread at my table
Turned on his heel against me.
“I’m telling you all this ahead of time so that when it happens you will believe that I am who I say I am. Make sure you get this right: Receiving someone I send is the same as receiving me, just as receiving me is the same as receiving the One who sent me.”
After he said these things, Jesus became visibly upset, and then he told them why. “One of you is going to betray me.”
The disciples looked around at one another, wondering who on earth he was talking about. One of the disciples, the one Jesus loved dearly, was reclining against him, his head on his shoulder. Peter motioned to him to ask who Jesus might be talking about. So, being the closest, he said, “Master, who?”
Jesus said, “The one to whom I give this crust of bread after I’ve dipped it.” Then he dipped the crust and gave it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. As soon as the bread was in his hand, Satan entered him.
“What you must do,” said Jesus, “do. Do it and get it over with.”
No one around the supper table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that since Judas was their treasurer, Jesus was telling him to buy what they needed for the Feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
Judas, with the piece of bread, left. It was night.
When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!
“Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
Simon Peter asked, “Master, just where are you going?”
Jesus answered, “You can’t now follow me where I’m going. You will follow later.”
“Master,” said Peter, “why can’t I follow now? I’ll lay down my life for you!”
“Really? You’ll lay down your life for me? The truth is that before the rooster crows, you’ll deny me three times.”
(John 13, The Message)
After You Believe, conclusion
I hope you’ve had a chance to read after You Believe along with me during Lent. If you got in on this late, no reason to stop just because Lent ends this week. You can find the other posts in this series here:
Getting Started on After You Believe
For this final post, a story Wright shares that captures what this book has been about,
Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Roman Catholic priest who was sent to the Auschwitz death camp with his people. One day one of his fellow prisoners was being threatened with death for attempting to escape. The man began to weep: he had a wife and children he was concerned for. Kolbe stepped forward and offered himself in the man’s place. He went to his death calmly. The punishment was intended to be death by starvation, but when Kolbe was still alive after two weeks, he was killed by a lethal injection. The point is this: he wasn’t acting spontaneously or in obedience to a rule. He was doing something that came naturally, as the climax of a life spent in giving himself away, in following Jesus in the work of his pastoral ministry, and in the daily sacramental life…The thinking had been done a long time before, and the second-nature habits of self-giving love had been ingrained in him as a result. The moment came; the decision was made.
Monday (evening) Joy Report
This one’s a little late, but it’s still Monday. A few of the ways I saw God move among us on Sunday:
- VenuePM Afterparty! What can I say about this one? Cookies and milk, good friends, new friends…and best of all all volunteer led. Huge thanks to Abby Smith (she’s one of a kind), Emily Odom, Rachel Read, Andrea Chalker, and Amy Ann Arnold!
- God is love. What a simple and yet profound idea. I could preach on this topic every week.
- I love seeing people walking in with those palm branches as we say together: Hosanna! One week from Easter! However, I did miss Jim Asbury waving that palm branch around the auditorium in the VenuePM service.
After You Believe, week 5
I’m late on this week’s post, but I hope you’re still tracking along in After You Believe. If you’ve just recently bought the book, you might want to look over the reading plan I’m following, as well as week 1, week 2, week 3, and week 4.
Theological word of the day: eschatology.
It turns out it is important how we think about our present earth and how we think about the new earth. I will call this present earth Today and the new earth Tomorrow. Christians have always thought our world is going somewhere. Something will happen to this world we live in, something will happen to us. We call this kind of thinking eschatology.
Way too often we only think of Tomorrow as in the rapture, or the judgment day, or as some day in the distant future with no real bearing on today except that our judgment will be dependent on how we live now. Okay.
But there’s other ways to think about the relationship between Today and Tomorrow than judgment.
Here’s one way:
When we choose to live the life of virtue Today, we experience what eternal life (i.e. heaven) will be like Tomorrow. The choice of living in virtue (like love, or agape) is a taste of the eternal. When you choose love you are anticipating what heaven will be like, and you are choosing to spread God’s Tomorrow kingdom (rule, authority) Today.As NT Wright says,
Thus the agape we are called to practice in the present, to learn like a difficult but powerful language and to practice like a beautiful but complex musical instrument, will last into the future world- indeed, will be gloriously fulfilled in the future world- because it is the very essence of the God we know in Jesus Christ. (p 188)
I know this is super abstract, and probably doesn’t appear to help that much in your life Today, but it actually does. You will be faced with a multitude of choices today. Some of those choices will be how you respond to people or situations: anger or peace? hostility or love? greed or generosity? the list goes on-and-on. Your choice in that moment of temptation has eternal implications…not in the sense that you will go to hell if sin gets the best of you, but eternal implications in the sense that the life you choose to participate in Today indicates the life we will choose to live in Tomorrow.
With heaven in view, with a clear eschatology guiding our lives, the virtues (like love) matter. It’s not enough to say simply that I prayed a prayer when I was 13 and now it is all good. God calls us to live into that life. To grow into the life of heaven. To grow into the life of God. To grow into the direction of heaven.
Today matters because Tomorrow matters.
sin and vice (the visual edition)
my overly simple review of Love Wins…
Because I’m asked about Love Wins almost daily, here are some overly simple (and probably unhelpful) thoughts on Rob Bell’s book Love Wins:
- We need to be extraordinarily careful when using the “h” word. We are way too flippant in playing the heresy card. I do not think Bell’s view of repentance after death is heresy, nor is the idea that hell is empty. This is not to say I agree with it, because I do not.
- Asking questions is not dangerous. Not asking questions, or not allowing people to ask questions, is very dangerous.
- Rob Bell is not a universalist. Universalism has to do with salvation outside of the realm of choice and discounting the uniqueness of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The idea that hell is empty is not the same as universalism. Christians should hope that hell is indeed empty.
- Christian mission is not driven by the fear of hell. Christian mission is driven by the love of God.
- Heaven and hell are indeed present realities in this world.
- God’s love must include our freedom to choose.
- Now, with all that said…I expect more from Rob Bell. His exegesis is weak and unconvincing. I expected this book to be on par with Sex God, and Jesus Wants To Save Christians It is not.
- Where are the end-notes? How do you write a book like this and challege such traditional ideas without including detailed notes, as in Velvet Elvis, Sex God, and Jesus Wants To Save Christians?
- Do not argue this book until you have read it. Blog posts about a book do not count as reading a book. (Hear Rob Bell’s rant on this one).
I would be happy to elaborate any of these points further.
Monday Morning Joy Report
Each Monday I like to take a little time to name some of those holy moments from our time together on Sunday.
1. Baptisms! I was able to baptize 8 Confirmation students this week. I could do that every week!
2. I hate that Ben Kilgore lost his voice, but I loved seeing Jon Odom and Noelle Kilgore step in an lead the set.
3. A person after VenuePM told me that she has been wrestling with some direction from God and the message confirmed some thinking for her. I am amazed that God sometimes gives me worthwhile words. I am even more amazed by the people I run across at Asbury and how seriously they take God’s call for them.
4. I was not a part of this one, but sharing an office with Jon Odom let me see several of our new small group leaders coming in for a check-in meeting. I love what I’m hearing come out of these small groups. God is in the middle of these groups. I hope you’re a part of a small group at Asbury.
I would love to hear what you saw. Feel free to comment and leave your joy report…
People have been asking Rob Bell for clarity…
No personal comments here, just posting it for the conversation.
How do you define heresy?
I’ve been in a few conversations lately that are making me ask some questions about heresy.
I bet you can guess what book these questions are in reference to.
Obviously the heretic word is being thrown around from all corners of the church right now. If you can look past this partiulcar case and ask in a more general sense, how do you define the word heresy? When would you use it? What issues might warrant the heresy card being played?
Please comment and share your thoughts.
After You Believe, week 4
I hope you’re still tracking along in After You Believe. If you’ve just recently bought the book, you might want to look over the reading plan I’m following, as well as week 1, week 2, and week 3.
There seems to be this idea among Christians that once someone is “saved” (you can read some thoughts on salvation here, here, here, again here , and finally here) that we should expect to now be able to finally “be good.” For some reason, we think that the transformation the Bible describes should be instaneous and come with little to no struggle.
The benefit of this chapter, and this book, is to bring us back to the idea that the Christian life is going to be a struggle, a victorious struggle. If you are a person aiming for holiness, you need to throw away the idea that there is a quick-fix out there that will transform you all of a sudden. Throw away the idea that if you read the right book, heard the right sermon, believed the right way, or just willed yourself hard enough than you would arrive at holiness.
Holiness takes time, and usually a long time. I’m currently reading Eugene Peterson’s book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, which argues this same point. Peterson writes this,
The world is no friend to grace…One aspect of the world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once.
Wright teaches us a similar idea in this chapter, as well as the whole book, that we need to train ourselves. This is not an easy idea. Training is hard work. Any athlete can testify to that. Wright teaches that training ourselves
is a matter of consciously deciding, again and again, to do certain thins in certain ways, to create patterns of memory and imaginations.
Patterns of memory. Patters of imaginations.
Paul told us,
set your minds on things above
Why do we think this is going to be easy? Why do we think this is going to be quick?
God has given us a new life in Christ, but the aquisition of virtue is going to take a long time, like a lifetime. Are you willing to walk this journey with no quick-fixes, no easy solutions, but also a life that is filled with the Holy Spirit and is empowering us to take each new step?
