Thought for Today
Exodus 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Exodus 23:2 You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice;
Mark 16:7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."
Acts 23:11 That night the Lord stood near him and said, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome."
Being a Christian entails a bit of what we remember from elementary school as “Show and Tell.” During Holy Week and maybe especially on Good Friday, we are reminded of the words of that young man in the tomb, “go, tell.” As I have already written this week, all Christians are included in that command because we are disciples of Christ. Also, in a sense, many of us are like Peter. At some point in our lives, many of us have denied Jesus, denied knowing Jesus through our thoughts, our words and/or our actions.
So today, this Good Friday and all the rest of the days of our lives, what exactly are we to “go, tell?” Jesus said, "John 8:31 If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Freedom from the bondage of sin; freedom from the hopelessness of living apart from our Creator God.
Easter Week has attained a special status in our modern world. Although it has not yet been secularized to the extent to which Christmas has, many of the trappings of Easter have a very tenuous association with the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It seems even more so to me this year when Holy Week coincides with the NCAA basketball tournaments for both men and women. But, it has long been so in our country.
In all the hullabaloo of Easter Parades, Easter bonnets, Easter Bunnies, egg hunts and so on, Christians are also called to center their spiritual lives around the very disturbing reality that this week commemorates humanities slaying of the Son of God. Today is Good Friday; but, think for a minute about what Good Friday is. “Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. . . . 'Good Friday' comes from the sense 'pious, holy' of the word "good". . . . According to the accounts in the Gospels, the royal soldiers, guided by Jesus' disciple Judas Iscariot, arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas received money (30 pieces of silver) for betraying Jesus and told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest. Following his arrest, Jesus was taken to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. There he was interrogated with little result and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest where the Sanhedrin had assembled.” (Wikipedia)
God told Paul, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome." God is telling Christians throughout Christendom, today and everyday we are to bear witness in all the Romes in all the countries around the globe. We are not restricted to merely telling through words. We are to bear witness through the lives we live, the way we treat each other, the love we show towards God and neighbor. We are not to only do this during Holy Week; we are to do so every week of every year.
Yesterday, I mentioned the hymn, They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love. We need to make sure they will. We need to live out those words about walking hand in hand, about spreading the news that God is in our land. We need to work with each other, side by side, to guard each person’s dignity and save each person’s pride. That is how Christians are called to “go, tell.”
If we always, continuously, daily live such lives, truly they will know we are Christians by our love.
Stay safe, live like you are Christian, trust God,
Pastor Ray