Bible in one year, day 152 2Samuel 1:1-2:7; John 20:10-31; Proverbs 13:20-14:4 2Samuel 1:1-2:7… David’s and incredibly gracious guy. He’s never been anything but a faithful subject of Saul. It was Saul who viewed David as an enemy, not vice versa. Nonetheless, given that Saul had pursued David all over Israel and had made no attempt to hide his desire to see him dead, you could forgive David for not liking Saul too much. But that’s not the case. When this messenger, who it transpires finished Saul off, tells David that he’s dead, David doesn’t smile and rejoice. He doesn’t let out a sigh of relief. No, he goes into full scale mourning: ‘David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan.’ Moreover, David composed a lament and ‘ordered that the men of Judah be taught’ it. It mourns the fact that ‘the mighty have fallen.’ It lauds Jonathan and Saul’s bravery. And, even after all that Saul had done to him, David encouraged the daughters of Israel to ‘weep for Saul’ and remember his generosity towards his people. In all honesty, David grieves a bit more for Jonathan, who was his best friend. So close were they, in fact, that David wrote, ‘your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.’ But, the point is, David was loyal to the king God had anointed over Israel and he mourned when he heard that he was dead. How gracious is that! How gracious are you? A bit after, David headed to Judah and the men there anointed him as king over that section of the land. Again, he celebrates and applauds loyalty to Saul: ‘The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him.’ At the same time, though, he’s aware that his own journey to kingship over all Israel has now really begun. There’s a long way to go yet, though. John 20:10-31… They say that seeing is believing… Mary Magdalene, despairing because she couldn’t find Jesus body, saw him and believed. Sure, she thought he was the gardener at first, but after he spoke her name she knew who he was – it only took one word. And she embraced him. His reply, though, was ‘Do not hold onto me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.’ She wasn’t to hold on to him because he now needed to go up to heaven to prepare a place for Mary and the disciples and for you and for me. Mary thought that it couldn’t get any better than holding onto the resurrected Jesus in the garden and so didn’t want to let go. Little did she realise that Jesus had something so much more amazing in store and so she needed to let him go in order for him to get everything ready. And so he sends her off to tell the disciples the news and she uses the words, ‘I have seen the Lord!’ Seeing is believing. He then appeared to the disciples coming to them through locked doors whilst they’re still paralysed with fear. And he said, ‘peace be with you.’ And they rejoiced when they saw him. And he says something really significant to them: ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ We don’t do mission because it’s a nice idea… we do mission because the Father sent Jesus and he sends us. The mission of the church (your mission and my mission) is, actually, God’s mission. And Jesus breathed on the disciples and, in so doing, gave them the Holy Spirit to enable them to go in his name. And he gives us the Holy Spirit to empower and equip us too. Only Thomas wasn’t there that time and the disciples told him, ‘we have seen the Lord.’ Seeing is believing, they thought. And Thomas agreed. ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’ ‘A week later’ Jesus enabled Thomas to do just that and told him that, on one level, seeing is believing but that, actually, those who believe without ever seeing are even more blessed. That’s you and me, by the way. We have never seen Jesus with our eyes and yet we believe in him. And he says to us, ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ Perhaps seeing is not believing after all. Or, perhaps, believing is about much more than just seeing. And then John leaves us in no doubt as to the sole reason he wrote his gospel. He could have written so much more. But what he did write was ‘written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ That’s a pretty awesome reason for writing, don’t you think? Proverbs 13:20-14:4… Keep reading, learning and growing wiser.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 11:15:12 +0000
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