Tag Archives: Jesus

desperate encounters – the finale

She still can’t believe he’s gone. The ache in her heart compels her once again to go to the grave. She knows he isn’t really there, but she finds her only comfort in the place where his body lay. She just wants to be near him.

A Delivered Woman

She was among those who traveled with Him as He preached good news. (Luke 8:1-3)

She was with Him at the cross. (John 19:25)

She was at the tomb when He was buried. (Matthew 27:57-62)

And early in the morning, while it was still dark, she made her way back to His grave.

John 20:10-16

“Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.  They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’  ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.'”

She had come to be near Him, only to find Him gone.

“At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.  ‘Woman,’ he said, ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.'” 

She saw Him, but in her grief and desperation, she did not “see” Him. She just wanted to know where He was, and was even willing to go get His body. Do you hear her desperation?

Her name was Mary Magdalene, and she followed Him with the devotion of one who knows what it is to be rescued from darkness. It is here, at the tomb, that we see the impact Jesus had on this woman. Once He had set her free, she no longer wanted to be without Him.

And with one word, one intimate word spoken by Jesus, her desperation was answered.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.'” 

In the deep place, where desperation resides, Mary was desperate for His presence. And in that moment when her desperation collided with the One she couldn’t “see”, He revealed His presence through the intimacy of calling her by name.

I am very fond of Mary Magdalene. While I have not been delivered of seven demons, I have been rescued from darkness. And like Mary, I am utterly devoted to my Deliverer. But so often I find myself unable to “see” Him, and I feel that same desperation for the presence of the One my heart loves. And then…He calls my name. Water for a thirsty, desperate heart.

 We’ve stepped into the world of four desperate women who encountered Jesus. These women lived their desperation out loud. Many of us work so hard to keep ours silent.  Too often, we are women who are strong and self-sufficient…keeping our desperation at bay, but barely.  We are afraid to be desperate, believing it to be a sign of weakness. But in the Gospel, I make a wonderful discovery.

Jesus is drawn to weak, desperate people.

The world offers us many things to distract us from our desperation, and quiet that inner ache. And yet, desperate people are all around us, both outside and inside the Church.

Nothing the world can offer will satisfy our desperation. It may hide it, it may numb it…but only when Jesus encounters it, is our desperation satisfied.

Perhaps surprisingly, it is in the secret place that I have encountered Him most. Not at church. Not at a conference. Not in the right setting with the right lighting and the right worship song. I have encountered Him most when I have been alone with Him in His word, as the truth of His love and mercy washed my soul.  In those times of silent prayer, when my lips had no words and I just had to trust He could hear my desperate heart…this is when I’ve heard Him call my name.

Encounter Jesus.

desperate encounters – pt. 3

This is part 3 of a 4 part post in which I look at four women, desperate for different reasons, who encountered Jesus. In part 1 I highlighted the woman at the well. You can read that here.  Then we looked at the woman with the issue of blood in part 2. Today I want to get to know one of my favorites. Actually, they are all my faves, but today’s desperate woman just speaks to me.

From Luke 7:36-48

The Sinful Woman

To be invited to a Pharisee’s home for dinner was not a small thing. It meant you were “somebody”. To have the lastest teacher or prophet at your home was an honor. No doubt Jesus’ popularity meant Simon the Pharisee wanted to be seen with Him. Given the fact that the Pharisees were always trying to trip Jesus up, this dinner party could also have been an opportunity to publicly embarrass Him. We really don’t know. What we do know, is that Simon did not extend customary hospitality to his esteemed guest, so I’m leaning toward Simon’s motives being a little shady here. Nevertheless, Jesus reclined at Simon’s table. Dinner would have been eaten around a very low table, and Jesus would have been reclining on one arm, supported by divans or cushions.  His feet, sandals removed, would be stretched out behind Him. And to those sinless feet, a sinful woman would come to worship.

sinful womanThink about her life:  No husband, alone, no way to support herself, known all over town as “a sinful woman”, which most likely meant she was a prostitute. Her prospects did not look good. Few men would marry such a woman. She would have been shunned by respectable society and prohibited from participation in the local synagogue.

She was unclean, unwanted, unacceptable, uninvited and unwelcome. So she came to Jesus with nothing but her desperation and an alabaster jar. And with these, she made a public display of repentance and worship. She pushed past the scorn of those around her, and she worshipped the One who could forgive her sin.

                             Our desperation can take us into many places before we finally let it drive us to the feet of Jesus.

“When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner.'”

But He did know. And when He was finished with Simon, the Pharisee also knew what kind of woman she was. Forgiven. Publically, for all to hear, Jesus gave her worth and dignity.

He honored her in front of the very ones who considered her unworthy of honor.

 I think of this woman, and I remember. I remember my own desperation,  having nothing else to offer Him. I too wept at His feet many, many times as the forgiveness I had received from Him gave way to an outpouring of worship from within me.

Yes, I think of this woman. Desperate enough to go where she was not welcome, to encounter the Savior. In that encounter, she found forgiveness, and offered her worship to the Forgiver.

sinful woman2A most beautiful encounter.

 Read the Finale of Desperate Encounters

desperate encounters – pt. 2

This is part 2 of a 4 part post in which I look at four women, desperate for different reasons, who encountered Jesus. In part 1 I highlighted the woman at the well. You can read that here.

From Mark 5:25-34

The Bleeding Woman

woman with issue of bloodThis is the story of a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. The cause of the blood flow can only be speculated, i.e. menstruation, uterine tumors…we don’t know (although most agree it has to do with menstruation). What we do know is that it was an abnormal, chronic condition that brought her to desperation. To understand just how desperate, we need some background information.

She was a Jewish woman, so she would have been under the law of Moses. Leviticus 15:19-30 deemed her “unclean”.  That means that everything and everyone she touched became ceremonially unclean. She would have been shunned by her community, including her family. It is very likely that this woman had not been touched in twelve years. If she had been married, most likely her husband would have divorced her, as any sexual relations would have been unclean. She would not have been allowed to share in the annual worship celebrations that were considered important  in Judaism. She was not allowed to go into the temple courts, she could not light the candles for the Sabbath evening, nor could she participate in the Passover meal. It would have been as if she was non-existent in an existing world. She had every reason to be desperate.

And then she heard about Jesus, and her desperation drove her to do the unthinkable. She made her way through the crowd and touched the hem of His garment. Had He been a normal man, her touch would have made Him ceremonially unclean. And to compound it, as a woman she was not allowed to touch a man in public.

An unclean, desperate woman touched Jesus with faith that He could heal her, and the power of God was released.

So often we wait for His power to do something in our lives so that we can believe Him. Perhaps He is waiting for us to believe Him so that His power is released. 

It is here, in that moment of her touching Jesus that we learn something of the character of God. We learn it as much from how He did not respond, as from how He did respond.

He did not shame her for being unclean. He did not punish or even chastise her for breaking the law. He did not pull away from her. Instead, He called her “Daughter”. She is the only woman in scripture He addressed with that title, so, I have to wonder…why her? Could it be that this woman, untouched for so long, an outcast from her community of faith and her family, desperately needed to know she was still a “daughter of Abraham”?

An unclean outcast who touched Jesus. And in response, He publicly declared her to be clean, and called her Daughter.

I imagine this woman and her desperation. I would have been longing to be touched, to be accepted, to be healed. But having come to Jesus as an unclean woman myself, I know what it is be desperate to be clean.

While this woman lived under the law that said Jesus was untouchable, I lived under the lie that said He was untouchable. Because of the life I had lived, and was still living, I believed Jesus would have nothing to do with me.  Coming to Jesus meant coming to “religion”, something I just wasn’t ready to do. Until desperation drove me to Him, and I learned the truth.

The untouchable God became touchable through His Son, to a people who desperately need to be made clean.

Read part 3 of Desperate Encounters

 

gung ho

I had a strange conversation with someone a little while ago and it’s messin’ with me. When things mess with me I blog about them. It helps.

The conversation was with a newborn Christian. Maybe a couple of weeks old. I think he may have been under the influence, evidenced by the smell of beer, the slurring, and a somewhat glazed look in his eyes (yeah, it’s hard to get anything past me). Yet, he still managed to say something that I found odd. He told me that he had been talking to a Christian couple recently, discussing the “Christian faith”, and that “they weren’t as gung ho about it as you guys are” (meaning my husband and I). I couldn’t tell if I was being praised or insulted, to be honest with you.

Gung ho. I haven’t heard that term since I was in the Army. Gung ho soldiers were the ones that were “all in”. They lived and breathed being a soldier. So I don’t mind being called gung ho for Christianity. I minded something else. I minded that this brand new baby Christian saw people who were less than “all in”, and thought that might be the better way to go. I minded that. A lot. I’m not judging the less than all in people (or maybe I am. I’ll think about that later). And can I stop saying “all in” now, and just call it lukewarm? Yes, I am peeved that someone played off their lukewarmth as being perfectly ok to someone who doesn’t know any better.

So I think I need to say something to my slightly inebriated fellow, and to the people, who I am sure are perfectly nice people, that may have messed with his baby-faith. None of them read my blog, so I’ll mostly be talking to myself. Again.

Jesus came to this earth to take upon Himself the punishment that was rightly ours. The whip they used tore open His back for us. He was spit upon and beaten for us. They made Him drag the heavy crossbeam, the instrument of His own death, up the hill to Golgotha…after the whip tore open His back for us. His hands and feet were nailed, yes nailed to that cross and then it was dropped into the ground. A crown of thorns…sharp, 2″ thorns, was shoved into His skull for us. He hung there, the King of Heaven, separated from His Father by our sin, until He finally died for us.

God came for us, and then died for us. And now you and I have been deemed forgiven. Forever. Why? Because He offered His death to us as God’s gift of life, and we took it.

So, do you think He was “all in”? Was every single moment of every single day of His life on this earth spent on us? Or were we just part of His life here?

He left heaven for earth and died a wretched death in our place. Because He wants us with Him.

Tell me, friends. Do you think Jesus is gung ho about you?

P.S. ~ I was right. Blogging helped.

truth revealed

I was all set to talk about rest for the weary in Matthew 11:28-30 because it’s one of my favorite passages. But I can’t, because I’m stuck on the scriptures before that, when Jesus thanked His Father for hiding and revealing truth. (v.25-26) His prayer comes directly after His pronouncement of “woe” upon those cities who saw His miracles, yet would not repent.

“At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

I keep staring at these verses, trying to discover what I’m supposed to learn from them. Perhaps it’s that somewhere along the way, I grew from a child to an adult.  I gathered enough information to make me “wise”, and stopped watching Jesus with wide eyed wonder and trust.  Have I settled for studying His Word so that I can learn all about Him, rather than running after Him because I thirst to know Him? It begs the question, “what has been hidden from me because I thought I already knew it?”

Maybe the lesson is that the miracles that Jesus did were not to teach His followers how to heal or cast out demons, but they were God saying, “This is My Son. My Messiah. You should turn around and follow Him.” Perhaps I’m supposed to learn that when I see Jesus, He isn’t looking at me with disappointment because I’m not doing this “christian” thing right. He’s looking at His Father, wanting my gaze to follow His.

I’m still not satisfied that I’ve learned what I’m supposed to know.  Something is missing. So I read the verses again. I am aware that there is something of God’s heart here, and I want it. And then the little child’s heart in me skips a beat as I hear God speak.

“Truth is not learned. It is revealed.”

My Father is truth. He doesn’t want me to learn Him. He wants to reveal Himself to me. It brings Him pleasure. It’s as simple as that.