Bottom line up front: The devil loves distraction.

The enemy of truth loves to distract people. That way, forces of evil more easily slither in to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). It’s easy to forget the most important truths. Therefore, let God’s people be those who remember accurately.

Historical context: I was studying Isaiah 22. It’s an “oracle” passage. Oracle in theological realms means a pronouncement/announcement from God. Today’s generation might think of computer software when they hear the term “oracle.” Readers may think of Delphi in Athens, Greece. But an oracle in Scripture denotes a pronouncement/announcement from God. Oracles divide into two types: oracles of weal/blessing and oracles of woe/judgment.

Isaiah 22 is an oracle concerning Jerusalem in the 700s B.C. Guess what it was about? You guessed it. The people had forgotten God. They suppressed the truth of God. They took the blessings of water and prosperity as evidence of their importance, their name, their abilities. But God spoke an oracle to call them not to be distracted by the trappings of perceived blessing. He called them via his oracle to remember the fount of all blessing: God.

The oracle reads this way: “You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him [God] who did it, or see him who planned it long ago” (Isaiah 22:11, ESV).

Encouragement/takeaway: It would be hard to think of a time when people can be so easily distracted. There’s seemingly no end to scrolling, memes, videos, etc. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman remains a classic read for a reason. The devil loves distraction. Why? Because people can so easily default to self-worship, self-centeredness rather than the worship of God, God-centeredness, and selfless service.

God spoke via an oracle through his servant Isaiah to remind his people: Don’t fall for the distractions. Focus on God. Cut through the pretenders. Love good and hate evil. As Paul phrases it in the New Testament, “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9b, ESV). Don’t fall for the distractions; discern the true and enduring.

It would be utter folly to try and improve upon the pathos of the biblical account. Therefore, here is Matthew’s version of the crucifixion of the Christ. (A few of my comments follow the inspired text.)

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

Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Mt 27:32-54, ESV)

Encouragement/takeaway: Today I closed my office door and read Matthew’s account. No one who knows me will be surprised that I wept as I read it.

He told them exactly what they would do. And they did it all. He told them exactly who they were. And they proved it. He said who he was, and they mocked him. And yet he lived it out till the cross and even beyond the cross, just as he had said.

Here was the only truly fully good man ever. And the world system hated him because of that. It’s tragedy at a level unsurpassed. I don’t care if it’s in Milton, Dante, Shakespeare, McCarthy, Faulkner, Aeschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles, or another. I’ve studied them all. No one was like the Christ. No man ever spoke and lived like that–not even close.

For those who might find themselves within the hearing of the gospel this Sunday, pay attention. Even if the speaker is weak, unprepared, self-absorbed, or worse, don’t focus on that. Focus on the truth of the message: This God of consummate glory came for sinners. And as such, you qualify. Listen to him; study him; read his Word. And come. You are welcome.

Three main images/places/events fill the pages of Scripture on Thursday of Holy Week:

• The Last Supper (Passover)
• Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse
• Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane.

In a few hours, Jesus would be betrayed for a month’s wages, arrested, subjected to a mock trial, condemned, shamed publicly, scourged, stripped, crowned with thorns, spat upon, and nailed to the wood.

Matthew’s account reads as follows:

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Mt 26:36-46, ESV).

In Matthew 26, we see how Jesus prayed in his familiar spot in Gethsemane. Judas knew Jesus would be there. And in John 13-17, we see Jesus wash his disciples’ feet, predict Judas’ betrayal, and continue his discourse about the exclusive salvation wrought by Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.

In Luke 22, we see Jesus teach his followers the gospel and how he is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, and that the Old Testament promises are fulfilled in him (Christ) and his church, the true Israel of God, and Christ institutes the Lord’s Supper with his disciples.

It all coheres. The entire biblical narrative fits together seamlessly because it is one coherent story. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper with his followers, he connected the theological doctrines regarding the Suffering Servant and spotless Lamb from Isaiah 53 to himself.

When he taught the disciples in the Upper Room, it was gospel 101—how we sinners are under just judgment, but that Christ is the substitutionary atonement for all who come to him in repentance and faith. And when Christ prayed at Gethsemane and his betrayer did what he did, again it was all in precise fulfillment of the Old Testament (Psalm 41:9; Zechariah 11:12-13, e.g.).

Encouragement/takeaway: If I were an honest skeptic of the Christian faith, I would be drawn to this. Why? Because truth is what matters most to me. If Christ was and is who he demonstrated himself to be, then, as Flannery O’Connor’s character said in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find, “If [Jesus] did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but thow (ibid.) away everything and follow Him.”

O’Connor put those words in the mouth of a very sinful character. But as with most things, O’Connor was spot-on, bull’s-eye in her stories. Why? Because all of us must deal with the truth claims and evidence of Christ and the Scriptures.

We can ignore them, suppress them, and mock them, but truth has a way of conquering those who might labor to bury it–even bury it in a tomb in Jerusalem, Israel 2,000+ years ago. After all, Resurrection Day (Sunday) was coming. Again, just as foretold.

Just two days remained before Jesus would go to the cross.

It was Wednesday. Matthew 26 is riveting in its pathos:

When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. (Mt 26:1-5, ESV)

Historical Context: Jesus taught in the temple for days: “And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him” (Lk 21:37-38, ESV).

People recognized that no one taught like this. Jesus’ authority was clearly superior to the false religious leaders of the corrupt system of his day. That’s why the entrenched system of self-serving religious hypocrites hated Jesus; he (Christ) called their bluff. He saw through them, and they hated him for that reality.

And yet Christ would die for the ungodly.

The chief priests and the elders, Matthew writes, “plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him” (Mt 26:4, ESV). Catch that? By stealth. Secretive schemers. Conniving murderers. The innocent Lamb of God was being betrayed, framed, and subjected to a bogus arrest and mock trial, and it was all unfolding per the direct sovereign hand of God.

As Peter says it, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23, ESV).

In other words, God used the evil of men to bring about the redemption of all who repent and believe upon Christ. The men are responsible for their choices, their evil. And yet God would use it all to redeem a particular people for himself.

In two days, Jesus would carry his cross as far as he was humanly able, until another had to help him. He had been beaten and scourged so profoundly, he was the flayed suffering servant. And yet he would complete his mission. The cross was still ahead for him.

The Last Supper was coming. And Jesus praying in Gethsemane was closer now. And of course Judas’ ultimate betrayal of the holy.

This–all of it–fulfilled in precise detail, just as was prophesied and written.

Tuesday. This was the day Judas Iscariot made his damning deal. He conspired with the Sanhedrin to betray the Lord Jesus. Betrayal is perhaps the ugliest of sins. It reveals a toxic love of self over and against and in spite of goodness and beauty, truth and righteousness.

Even Dante in his Inferno pictures Judas in the ninth circle of damnation, along with Cassius and Brutus (among others), as men who betrayed royalty.

But Judas didn’t betray just any royalty. Judas betrayed the holy one, the righteous one, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the one who came, and bled, and died, and gave his life as a ransom for many–the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 20:28, ESV).

Here’s the way Matthew describes part of Judas’ treachery on Tuesday of Holy Week:

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him (Mt 26:14-16, ESV).

I know of no one who names his/her son Judas. The name causes a bilious reaction of the normal person’s conscience. But Judases are still with us. There’s no paucity of those whose god is money, power, or applause from wicked men. There’s no lack of that type at all.

The marvel of it all is that Jesus knew Judas through and through, and still went to the cross.

This is why we should never get over verses like this one: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, ESV).

Christ died for us, the ungodly ones.

And this year, may we go forward yet again, heralding that same message: “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy.”

Introduction: The world system scoffs, of course, but the tomb of Jesus Christ is still empty. No one has produced his body. And no one will. He will come again, just as he said. Holy Week is upon us. This is the week when Christians remember the passion/suffering of the Christ. On Monday, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, Israel, where he would go to the cross on Friday. But everything about the week unfurled in precise detailed fulfillment of prophecies. Even as the world system scoffs, it is nonetheless helpful for believers to know what happened. Why? It bolsters our faith that the events yet to be completed will also unfold just as written.

Matthew’s Record of this Monday in History: “In the morning, as he [Christ] was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once” (Matthew 18:18-19, ESV). This event symbolized God’s judgment upon Israel’s lack of faith and hypocritical religiosity. Where there should have been spiritual fruit, there was corruption. Where there should have been evidence of true conversion to the truth of God in Christ, there was lip service.

Then Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem. And it wasn’t Jesus “meek and mild” or “gentle and lowly.” Instead, the Jesus of history flipped tables and made of whip of cords. He drove the hypocrites from the temple. He poured out the coins of the moneychangers in the temple (Mt 21:12:22; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48; Jn 2:13-17). The world system hated him for it. Why? Because he testified that their deeds were evil. So, they resolved to get rid of him.

That’s just part of Monday in Jesus’s final week, Holy Week, as he entered the city where he’d give himself as a ransom for many on Friday. But much was still to come during that week of suffering. More to follow tomorrow.

Takeaway: Most folks will simply enjoy a day off from work and never connect the dots to the person and work of Christ in history in Jerusalem, Israel on Golgotha’s hill 2,000+ years ago. But the events of that week undergird the history of the world, and one day, each and every knee will recognize it in all its power, grace, judgment, and glory.

Introduction: I was reading the book The Daniel Dilemma: How to Stand Firm & Love Well in a Culture of Compromise recently. It was a gift from friends from Sunday school class. It was an easy read; yet it contained several nuggets of wisdom. One such nugget of wisdom was this: “. . . remembering that our days are numbered can keep us focused on making the most of the time we have.” That is well said. It calls Scripture to mind: “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, ESV).

Connections to Daily Life: Being separated from my family 6/7 days a week gives me a lot of time to realize just how much I miss them. I am profoundly grateful for my military opportunities, but at the same time, I do not relish the family separation it has entailed. I realize viscerally that time ticks only one way, that my time is fleeting. I won’t have opportunities to make up for time that’s elapsed. Our children have grown up way too fast, and I have missed way too much of that time. And that’s one of the reasons that little quote from the book sounded a chord in me: “. . . remembering that our days are numbered can keep us focused on making the most of the time we have.”

Encouragement/takeaway: When I was a student in university many moons ago, I remember watching a movie again and again, Robin Williams’ Dead Poets Society. Williams played the character of a classics/English instructor at a preparatory school for boys. I imbibed the film because it referenced scores of writers with whom I’m quite familiar—Shakespeare, Thoreau, Whitman, etc. One scene particularly gripped me. Mr. Keating (Williams’ character) had the boys look at the faces of boys who had passed through the prep school years and years before. Mr. Keating said to the boys, “Lean in and listen.” The boys, a bit confused by their teacher, thought it strange that their teacher would have them focus so much upon former students who were now long dead. Then Mr. Keating uttered into the boys’ listening ears: “Carpe diem, boys. Carpe diem. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.”

Taken to an extreme, of course, that counsel would be folly. There’s a difference between seizing the day and burning oneself out: balance is crucial. But this little book from Hodges, coupled with the film from the 1980s, reminded me of God’s wisdom: “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, ESV).

Bottom line up front: Where True Greatness Lies

Introduction: In some of my recent studies, I have been concentrated upon the Old Testament judge Samuel and what it means to be a spiritual leader.

Samuel: In 1 Samuel, we see so much of the life of Samuel unfold. In 1 Samuel 7, for example, we see that Samuel calls people to follow the Lord: “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam 7:3, ESV). The focus of true man of God is God himself. As the hymn phrases it, “Ture your eyes upon Jesus; look full in his wonderful face . . .”

Secondly, Samuel was placed in the position of knowing that God was going to judge the people’s sin because they demanded a king other than the Lord. That sad reality broke Samuel’s heart. Why? Because he (Samuel) knew the people better than they knew themselves. Samuel understood that God was using the people’s sinful demands as judgment upon their own heads.

Just listen to what the Lord tells Samuel: “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them” (1 Sam 8:7-9, ESV).

See it there? Despite the biblical and Godly leadership of the judge Samuel, the people were fickle. They wanted what they wanted instead of what God wanted for them. And God allowed it. Why? As judgment.

Saul started off seemingly pretty well; he led a few victorious battles. But the forces of evil arrayed against the forces of good were the much more significant and lasting wars. Eventually (it took a while, of course), but eventually the people saw. But by then it was too late. Judgments were falling upon the people. And through it all Samuel had warned the people. If you want a summary of it, just read 1 Samuel 12-13; there it is laid out in plain terms for you.

Encouragement/takeaway: In the sovereign ways of God, the Lord puts Samuels in our lives. They have an impossibly difficult duty: to bear witness to the truth to people who don’t want to hear it, and the true prophetic voices suffer endure persecution for speaking truth. But Samuel was right, you see. Through it all, we’re supposed to learn from the years of Saul. We’re to learn that we should heed God’s man (Samuel) rather than the shortsighted sinful ways of the crowds (Saul’s legacy). Samuel was God’s truthteller, a type of the greater Samuel who would come—not just David, but the ultimate David, Christ the Lord.

The Question: The question is found in Luke 13:

²² He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. ²³ And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ²⁵ When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ ²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. ²⁹ And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30, ESV)

Teaching: One of many indicators the Bible is indeed trustworthy is because it speaks what is true, not what is popular. It reveals what we are really like, not what we’d like to think we’re like. It reveals our evil, our whole nature, not just our veneers and facades. It contains hard questions and often caustic answers from God.

The question asked of Christ was blunt. No sugarcoating involved. And Christ answers clearly. He teaches the questioner that the true prophets, men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, e.g., were saved. So are all who truly repent and believe upon the Lord Christ.

But Jesus’ answer also contained a stunning indictment, namely, that there will be many surprises (in men’s eyes) about who was real and who was not. Jesus told the questioner that God will say to many “Depart from me, all you workers of evil” (Luke 13:27, ESV).

That’s arresting language, is it not?

This morning I received a text message from a friend about a pastor in a town where my family and I once lived. The pastor has been arrested. Why? He’s been charged with “multiple counts of Theft by Conversion, Theft by Taking, Computer Theft, and Pandering.”

There are already surprises, see? Sometimes you don’t have to wait, but only discern.

Encouragement: In my many years of Christian ministry to soldiers and civilians, I have said to audiences and to myself more times than I can count: “Keep short accounts with God.” What do I mean? Simply that God sees all, and that we are accountable. Because God is holy, and because we are sinful, wisdom demands we flee to the cross of Christ in repentance and faith. Christ answered the questioner that day, that “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30, ESV), or as one of my seminary professors and mentors told me again and again, “Jon, there will be surprises.”

Bottom line up front: “Moving Towards the Friction”

Introduction: Recently I listened to a senior Army officer speak of “moving towards the friction” as part of his remarks. That phrase struck me. Why? Because resistance is inevitable if you’re moving forward. You’ll encounter it. Be we dare not ever accept defeat. Do we all suffer setbacks? Yes. Do we all know disappointments? Of course. Do we all have areas to improve? Always. “Moving towards the friction” is equally true in our spiritual lives.

Relevance: In a book I read this week, the author penned these words: “How often do you pray and ask God to test you? More frequently it’s the other way around for many of us—we want God to spare us from trouble and remove all obstacles from our paths. But when we ask for that, we’re essentially praying that we won’t grow . . . Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, reminded us, ‘The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts’ (Proverbs 17:3, ESV). If we want to grow, we can’t back away from places where we see our faith clashing with the culture around us. Instead, we can view that friction as an opportunity for our faith to be tested . . . Embrace that conflict with the courage of the Lord.”

Encouragement/takeaway: There’s a vast difference between bravado and courage. Spiritual warfare is just as real (I would argue that it’s more significant, in fact) as armed conflict. Artillery, infantry, reconnaissance, and engineers are not military means alone, in other words; their invisible but quite real spiritual corollaries undergird the world of ideas that rule the world. Ergo, as we move towards the friction, may we do so grounded in redemptive truth.