No Room in all the Right Places

No Room on the Cross

It is a question most often asked around Christmas time. Presents are under the tree, and the turkey dinner is planned for the holidays. We turn our attention to the manger; the inn with no room; the star; the wise men and Joseph and Mary. The question is, “Who was this Jesus?” The question is,  “Why did Jesus come?”

Today is Good Friday. It is the very best time to look for the answers.  If we can determine why Jesus came, then we can determine what happens if we ignore his coming. If we know what He had in mind for us, then we can more easily decide if we like what He is thinking, and consequently, what happens if we decide to ignore or accept what those thoughts mean for us personally.

In recent reading time, I discovered countless reasons why Jesus came. You might be interested in seeing them! Not a single reason is unimportant! Not a single reason can be ignored! I learned a lot about God’s heart toward you and I. Here are 21 reasons He came gleaned out of Scripture by a scholar somewhere...

He came…

1.               To fulfill prophecy. (Romans 15:7-11)

2.              To abolish the enmity between Jews and Gentiles by fulfilling the Law (Ephesians 2: 13-15) (Matthew 5:17-18)

3.              To save us

4.              To find us…to search for the lost. (Luke 19:9-10)

5.              To serve.

6.              To give His life as a ransom. (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45)

7.              That men might have life more abundant. (John 10:10)

8.              To reveal his Father. (Matthew 11:27, John 14:9)

9.              To do the will of God. (Hebrews 10:9)

10.            To preach. (Luke 4:43)

11.             To bring fire. (Luke 12:49, Matthew 11: 11-12)

12.            To bring judgement. (John 9:39)

13.            To be King (John 18:37)

14.            To bear witness to the Truth (John 18:37)

15.            To save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15)

16.            To be a faithful high priest (Hebrews 2:17)

17.            To put away sin (Hebrews 9:26, 1 Jn 3:5, John 1:29)

18.            To destroy the works of the devil  (1 Jn 3:8, John 12:31, Heb 2:14)

19.            To send and be a sword (Matthew 10:34-36)

20.           To bear our sin (1 Peter 2:24, Hebrews 9:28, 2 Cor. 5:21)

21.            To be the one to follow in holiness (1Peter2:21, Matthew 11:29)

Twenty one reasons that Jesus came… a simple list. It seems a little stark. Something missing in the equation. He came to live a perfect, holy  life. He came to be like me, so that I could be like Him.

Wait a minute… He came to be squeezed out of the inn because there was no room for him there. But He also came to squeeze me off of the cross and make sure there was no room for me there. He came to bring grace, initiate faith, set captives free and heal the sick, care for the wounded and broken hearted. He came to let us know Him by name…Jesus (Saviour) if we accept His sacrifice on the cross…Christ (Lord) if we surrender our lives to Him. 

He came to be who He was--JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE JEWS, CREATOR AND SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD, GOD. I hope you know that He came for you. I hope you know that He came to create no room in all the right places... no room for not seeing who He is; no room for ignoring his great love for us; no room to walk away. Visit a place of worship where they know who Jesus His this Easter. You will not be the same for it!

Moving From A Season of Lent to a Life of Given

Well, it is that time of year we call Lent. And it is that time of year that I usually hear conversations between people discussing what they are going to give up for Lent. "I am giving up cigarettes!" "I am giving up chocolate!" "I am giving up..."

That phrase catches my attention. "I am giving up..."

I wonder how our 'giving up' compares to the 'giving up' Jesus did? We tend to give up our temporary pleasures. But we know full well that at the end of Lent we will be free to pick them up again and fully indulge ourselves. He gave up himself. Yes, He would rise from the dead, but He knew He would never be the same again. He would be the Christ... the Saviour...the Messiah.

But I guess the reality is that He was always those things. What Jesus set out to do in history, he already was in reality. Since before creation He was the Christ, the Saviour, the Messiah. From the beginning His heart was to give himself for us.

So why do we think that our Lenten sacrifices can even come close to helping us be the people of Lent that He wanted us to be- that He gave up His life for us to become? Why do we think that our self-sacrifice in any way resembles His selfless sacrifice?

Perhaps there is a deeper Lent? Perhaps there is a fully embracing, thriving, selfless Lent that would so strongly point at Jesus that the message of Easter would be clear, concise and effective?

Isaiah 58 says this about true fasting...

¹ “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

² For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

¹¹ The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. ¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, ¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

One of my heroes says this about that...

"The cross is not random suffering, but necessary suffering. The cross is not suffering that stems from natural existence; it is the suffering that comes from being Christian. ... A Christianity that no longer took discipleship seriously remade the gospel into only the solace of cheap grace. Moreover, it drew no line between natural and Christian existence. Such a Christianity had to understand the cross as one's daily misfortune, as the predicament and anxiety of our daily life. Here it has been forgotten that the cross also means being rejected, that the cross includes the shame of suffering. Being shunned, despised, and deserted by people, as in the psalmists unending lament, is an essential feature of the suffering of the cross, which cannot be comprehended by a Christianity that is unable to differentiate between a citizen's ordinary existence and a Christian existence. The cross is suffering with Christ." Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Discipleship and the Cross
As translated by Barbara Green and Reihhard Krauss (2001)