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Luke 19:41-42

20 Nov

41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.

Luke 19:41-42

Dear God, I’ve taken these two verses out of context because I want to sit with this this morning, but they are part of the Triumphal Entry story:

28 After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29 As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. 30 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

32 So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33 And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?”

34 And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

36 As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. 37 When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

38 “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

45 Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. 46 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

47 After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48 But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.

Jesus longed that the people understood the way to peace. So what is the way to peace? Reading The Communicator’s Commentary: Luke by Bruce Larson, I saw that “the donkey was a symbol of peace in those days. Horses were symbols of military might. Conquering generals came on horses. An ambassador coming on a peaceful mission rode on a donkey. Jesus was an ambassador of peace from the Ultimate Kingdom.”

I found myself wondering an impossible question to answer when I read this passage this morning: What if they had understood and gotten it right that day? What if the Pharisees embraced him and asked what they must do to repent? What if the people ignored Roman rule, the Israelites embraced Jesus as your son/the Messiah, and then took reconciliation with you to the Gentiles? What if everyone cheering and jeering Jesus that day embraced who he was and then started worshipping you with every thing they have and loved their neighbors as themselves? What if?

Of course, it didn’t happen that way. But is there a lesson for your faithful remnant now? As I see Christians striving for political power and influence, I can’t help but wonder if they aren’t making the same mistake the crowds made that day. In my opinion, they are. They do not “understand the way to peace.” Are they embracing reconciliation with you through Jesus? Sure. Are they taking that to the world and ungodly? They probably think so. But I think they see the more expedient path of doing it through power and control, and not the slow, deliberate path of loving one person at a time.

Father, I am reminded of the thing I heard once from John Dickson, that Jesus used (and gave to us to use) four tools, and four tools only, to impact the world around us: Prayer, Service, Persuasion, and Suffering. I don’t pray enough for people. I could probably serve more. My persuasion abilities on the ungodly are weak. And, well, let’s face it, I don’t suffer much. Show me what that means. Show me what it means to worship you through the deliberate acts of worshipping you, but also through the acts of Prayer, Service, Persuasion, and Suffering.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on November 20, 2025 in Luke

 

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Numbers 21:4-9

29 Jun
“Desert Serpents” by Tanja Butler as presented in Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups by Ned Bustard.

4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

6 So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. 7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

Numbers 21:4-9

Dear God, before I get into praying about this passage, I want to just spend some time with this image. Is there anything here I can learn from Tanja Butler’s “Desert Serpents”?

  1. I see Moses holding his staff which is shaped like a shepherd’s crook. Is that right? Were all staffs that way? It’s not important, I suppose, but it reminds me of all of the images of Joseph in the stable with Mary and the baby Jesus that portray Joseph as holding a shepherd’s crook. Why?
  2. The serpents on the ground are mainly black while the serpent on the staff has much more white in it.
  3. Moses has his hand up towards the serpent and he is looking at the serpent.
  4. I’m trying to tell what that is behind Moses. Is it supposed to be a hut? A pile of hay? I’m not sure.
  5. The staff upon which the serpent is mounted looks a bit like a cross as we perceive the Roman crosses to look later in history.

Really, that’s about all that I’m noticing. Bustard points out in his commentary that later in 2 Kings 18:4, the Israelite king breaks destroys this very serpent because the Israelites had turned it into an idol. And of course, Jesus references this serpent in John 3:14-15 when he’s talking to Nicodemus and he compares himself with this life-saving serpent.

I think about human nature and our wont to complain. Our wont to take over our lives ourselves and abandon you. Our wont to only submit to you after we’ve come to the end of ourselves.

I was listening to an interview yesterday with John Dickson, an Australian who was comparing Christianity in the United States with Christianity in Australia 12 years ago. I’ve heard him before. He is where I got the line that Jesus gave us four tools and four tools only to impact our world because they are the only tools he used: prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering. One comment he made is that now that Christians are a minority in Australia they no longer have the option of political power and enforcing their will on the minority, so they are having to lean into these four tools. His perspective is that even with Christians still in the majority in the U.S., if we don’t limit ourselves to Jesus’s example and continue to push to politically force our will on the rest of the country, we will only hasten our decent into what Australia has become.

Father, the thing I need to be better at is persuasion. I need to first understand why I believe what I believe. I need to not just spout off opinions without thought, but to think through why I believe what I believe and then form those thoughts into coherent, legitimate arguments to persuade my neighbor. And if I lose, then I need to lose well and prepare harder for the next time, both in exploring why I believe what I believe and then articulating it in a good way. So help me to do that. Help me to be the man you need me to be in the lives of others. Help me to love well.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on June 29, 2024 in Numbers, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups

 

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P.S.P.S. (Prayer, Service, Persuasion, Suffering)

11 Apr

Dear God, I was listening to an interview between Andy Stanley and John Dickson last summer and that the 40-minute mark Stanley asks Dickson about a quote in his book about how the early church strove to emulate Jesus. Dickson then said that Jesus used four tools and four tools only to influence his world–Prayer, Service, Persuasion, and Suffering–and that is all he left us as well. I didn’t want to lose that concept so I memorized the acronym P.S.P.S. Obviously, it has stuck with me.

So, it’s been about nine months since I first heard that interview. How am I doing?

  • Prayer: I think I am doing well with my quality time with you, but I don’t do nearly enough in intercessory prayer, either for individuals or societal/world issues that should have my prayer cover. I’m sorry for that. I need to come up with a better system for intercessory prayer. My wife is very good at that. I am not.
  • Service: I have actually worked different service things into my life. I could always do more, but I do have some things outside of my work, which is inherently service-oriented, that help me directly touch lives that might need my input.
  • Persuasion: This one is always tricky. I think my life directly influences a lot of people around me. And I think I am able to use that to get people to consider you more. But do I do enough?
  • Suffering: I really don’t have anything here. I mean, yes, I have some sorrows in my life. Some broken relationships. And at least one of them has at least some linkage to my faith. But for the most part, I don’t know what suffering is. Is this a problem? Is no suffering a sign that I’m not putting myself out there enough? Persuading enough? Serving enough? Praying enough?

One interesting thing I noticed as I did this list is that doing all of these things isn’t only good for the world around me, but it is good for me as well. If I pray more–good for me. If I serve more–good for me. If I persuade more–good for me. If I suffer more–good for me. All of these things, even suffering, will help refine me into being more and more Jesus-like.

Father, help me to be mindful of this today. Help me to love you well. Help me to find time to pray for others and your world. Help me to jump into service. Help me to be bold and loving in my persuasion. And help me to not resist or avoid suffering if it means doing something you called me to do.

I offer all of this to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on April 11, 2024 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories, Uncategorized

 

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The Attractiveness of Jesus

31 Dec

Dear God, my wife and I had dinner this last week with a young woman who is still in her teens. She’s really terrific, but she is still…searching. I think she’s finding herself. She’s graduated from high school, and is doing some college, but she’s young and unsure. I don’t perceive she has any use for organized religion or a formal relationship with you, but there was one thing I noticed about her that struck me: tattoos and jewelry with Christian imagery. A cross chain. A cross in the midst of wings. A large tattoo of rosary beads. I don’t even think she knew what she was was of rosary beads, but she thought they were pretty.

As I thought about it later, I went back to the talk I heard several months ago by John Dickson and Andy Stanley about the faith and Christian life Jesus authored vs. what Christians end up living (the 43:45 mark of this video). There is something so unique and beyond genius about what Jesus taught us: love your enemies, forgive those who harm you, serve the poor, love you with everything we have, etc. I think there are people who are searching out there and they know at the root that there is something to what Jesus taught us and the path he offers us to you that is the right thing, but they can’t bring themselves to embrace it because of how Christians have represented that path.

I told my wife it reminded me of the movie Jesus revolution. There is a scene where the hippie evangelist is talking to the traditional pastor, and he’s describing the hippies of the late 60s and early 70s (my paraphrase): They are looking for God. They just don’t know they are looking for God. And they are looking in all of the wrong places. And when they find him they are amazed!

I have a friend who shared this with me just a couple of days ago (names deleted for privacy):

“We spent the afternoon and evening with [a family]. Their daughter and live-in boyfriend are here from [another state]. It was obvious that [the parents] wanted their family to be in proximity to us because of our faith life. I kind of dreaded being with them because I knew of [the daughter’s] very liberal bent. She identifies as non-binary and has no point of reference for Christ. However, I immediately felt comfortable and easily connected with [her and her boyfriend]. We spent the evening engaged in lively and energized conversations about God, the world, and other things. We left their house with full hearts and grateful for the opportunity to simply leak out life with the beautiful bonus of observing [the parents] not holding back the joy of their [recent] salvation and their faith journeys. It was a truly beautiful experience.”

I replied, “I think you found to be true what Paul and Jesus taught. It is easy to show Jesus’s love to the lost. And to even be non-judgmental about it because they are lost. It’s when they see our love and come to faith that the Holy Spirit can start to work on them and earnest conversations can begin. But I think [the daughter and boyfriend] would have been very comfortable with Jesus so they were comfortable with you and [your wife] too.”

Father, as my friend puts it, help me to be leaky for you. Give me a bucket that leaks out your fruit into the world. Whether it be on my relatives, my friends, or even strangers who read this prayer I share with the world. You, Jesus, showed us an amazing glimpse of how the Father intends us to live. Holy Spirit, guide me into that. Guide my wife as well. Show us your path.

I offer this to you in the name of my Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2023 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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“Has Christianity Done More Harm Than Good?” John Dickson

03 Jul
This is a link to Andy Stanley’s interview with John Dickson about Christianity’s impact on history. I recommend the entire interview, but the parts I am referencing start at the 38:50 mark.

Dear God, I just finished listening to this interview Andy Stanley with North Point Community Church did with John Dickson. Apparently, about 15 years ago in Australia, there was a debate between people who think religion has harmed the world (particularly Christianity) and those who thought it had helped the world. In pre- and post-debate surveys, the overwhelming consensus among the attendees was that it had harmed the world. The debate did nothing to move the needle. How sad.

The tools Jesus gave us

I could go on an on about the interview and what he said, but if there is anyone who actually reads these prayers I do to you, I highly recommend listening to the entire interview. With that said, at the 38:50 mark, they start talking about one of his main theses in the book. It is that Jesus gave us a very limited set of tool to use to transform the world around us.

  • Prayer
  • Service
  • Persuasion
  • Suffering

It feels like the American church today has added influence and power to that list. Why? Because we are afraid, I think. I think we are afraid of not being able to persuade. I think we don’t really believe in our message to the point we can articulate it and offer it to others. No, the easiest thing to do is force them into our way of thinking. To gain power over them. To protect ourselves from them by any earthly means necessary. We have forgotten that we’ve already won the war. Satan might win today’s battle. Someone might harm me in some way because of my beliefs, and I might feel like I lost today. But I have won. I have won in you. I have won my loving you with all of my heart and loving others.

It’s the singer, not the song

The other thing that struck me (to the point of giving me chills) comes at the 43:15 mark. Dickson talks compares Jesus’s Christianity with a genius piece of music, “Bach’s Cello Suite in G Major, Prelude.” Jesus’s Christianity, even more so than Bach’s piece, of course, is perfect. What Jesus aspired us to through faith in him was perfect. It was attractive to humans because it was so good. The problem has been people’s interpretation of it ever since. If Jesus’ Christianity is the song, then Christians are the singer.

Dickson took two cello lessons and then recorded himself trying to play the Bach piece. It was lacking, to say the least. It didn’t communicate the intricate nuances or the beautiful structure Bach wrote. In short, he butchered it. But then he played a professional cellist (maybe Yo Yo Ma, I don’t know) playing it the way it is supposed to be played and the brilliance of the piece is obvious, even to the most novice of listeners.

To quote Mr. Dickson from the interview: “If you have been hurt by the church or by an individual Christian, it’s because Christians haven’t played the melody. It’s not because the melody isn’t beautiful. And I reckon, if you have been hurt by the church, every genuine Christian in this building and watching on would want to say to you straight and look you in the eye and say, “We are sorry. We are sorry that we haven’t loved like Christ loved us. And we beg you, despite our poor performance, to see if you can hear the melody again: ‘Love your enemies.’ ‘Do good to those who hate you.’ ‘Bless those who mistreat you.’ A melody Jesus took all the way to his cross for us.”

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, there are times when I want to use more power and influence to expedite me getting my way. Prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering are too slow. But at the end of the day, they are all you gave me. They are the only tool you gave me. And as soon as I start trying to use other tools I start playing notes to a different melody than the Christianity Jesus taught us. I am sorry. Hel me to be patient in your victory and to lean all of the way into prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering as the only melody I try to play for your glory–for your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I pray this through Jesus’ name because he taught us how to love you and he gave everything so I could be here this morning,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 3, 2023 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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