Palm Sunday

Holy Week has arrived, and it begins with Palm Sunday, the day that celebrates Jesus entry into the holy city of Jerusalem, riding upon a donkey. Much has been made about this dramatic action as a deliberate claim to Jesus' messiahship, but it is possible Jesus had another intention in mind. One of the dark days of ancient Jewish history came around 175 BC when Antiochus Epiphanes captured Jerusalem. He was determined to replace Judaism with Greek culture, so he deliberately profaned the Temple by burning pigs flesh on its altar and making sacrifices to Zeus, even turning the Temple into public brothels. It wasn't until the Maccabees rose against him that the Jews reclaimed their Temple and restored it. In 2 Maccabees 10:7 the rejoicing of that day is described as people carrying ivy-wreathed wands, branches and palms. On that day the people carried their palm branches. From all appearance Jesus had reenacted that day when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Why?

Perhaps Jesus was giving a warning - that he had come to cleans the Temple, not unlike what happened when the Jews reclaimed it and restored it under the Maccabean revolt. Consider what happened when Jesus entered the Temple following the entry, and drove out the money changers saying, "It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." - Matthew 21:13 By saying this Jesus was referencing their attention to Jerermiah 7:11. The point of the cleansing is that it took place in the Court of the Gentiles, where Gentiles were supposed to come and discern God in prayer. All this leads me to a question: What will people find in our churches when they come this Easter? Will they find a house of prayer where they can connect with God? What they find may depend on the people they sit next to in the pew. As you prepare for Easter this holy week, remember what is written in Hebrews 10:25 - "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Shaking Your Bucket

Years ago I heard someone say, "No one is expendable. We all can be replaced. If you want to know the truth, just put your fist in a bucket of water, and the hole that is left when you pull your fist out, is how much you will be missed." When I first heard this I thought "how true." Of course, we will all be missed by some people when we leave our buckets in life, but in time, the hole becomes filled and new personalities ride toward the next sunrise. But lest we begin to feel that we have little value, just remember, no one can shake the bucket like you can. We all have our own unique way of shaking our presence in the water buckets of life. The real question is - what will we do with the time we have while shaking the bucket?

In his booklet, Live to Make a Difference, Max Lucado writes, "No one else has your version. You'll never bump into yourself on the sidewalk. You'll never meet anyone who has your exact blend of lineage, loves, and longings. Your life will never be lived by anyone else. Life is racing by, and it's not enough for you to do well. You want to do good. You want your life to matter. You want to live in such a way that the world will be glad you did." The point of it all is that you can make a difference with the life you've been given, and you can make that difference in a way that no one else can; and it begins with the people who walk into your life on each given day. Many want to change the world, but it starts one person at a time.

Why not try shaking your bucket today and share the water of a good smile, a warm handshake, or even an encouraging word. Then, if you are really brave, try saying a prayer for those you meet, or sharing your witness so that they might discover the living water that will never leave their buckets dry again. God works in mysterious ways, and you might want to consider who God will send your way to fill your bucket.

Dennis

What's In Your Dirt?

One of the many metaphors Jesus used when he spoke of the kingdom of heaven was the image of buried treasure. It was not uncommon for people in Jesus' day to experience the reality of discovering buried treasure while plowing their fields. The middle east was a battleground in the ancient world between foriegn invaders who used the land as a highway to move from East to West. As John Claypool writes in his book on "Stories Jesus Still Tells" ... "People who had to live through foriegn invasions soon learned that the earth was the only safe place to protect their possessions. The folk who took such precautions were often killed themselves, so their treasures remained in the earth, only to be discovered accidentally by someone else." I think it is interesting that many treasures were discovered by people who were at work in their own dirt, making the discovery purely by accident. What if God's grace can be discovered in similar ways? We live in a world where people try to find God's grace in places other than their work, but what if grace is in the dirt of our lives? Think about it the next time work gets really dirty. Your mind may be on your work, but underneath it all, there lies buried a treaure for you. God is at work in the dirt.

Dennis