Is This Mardi Gras?

Having grown up in New Orleans and going to 11 Mardi Gras celebrations, I saw many people who I did not recognize. People dress up as anything their imagination can conceive of and they usually wear some kind of mask to hide their identity.

In Luke 24:13-17 there is the story of 2 guys walking on a road from Jerusalem to Emmaus who are discouraged about life now that Jesus is out of the picture or so they think. Jesus shows up on the road and walks with them but they don't recognize him for whatever reason. He even talks with them and they still are so focused on their discouragement they do not know who is talking with them. Maybe Jesus is wearing a mask.


If we were on this road and Jesus came up and started talking with us, we would certainly recognize him wouldn't we? There are times in our life or our day when we get into a funk like these guys and we conclude the whole thing sucks. And to make it worse, Jesus shows up in some way but we do not see him at all. It may be in a kid who is laughing and having a great day or a sunrise that is so filled with orange and red colors that it is hard to describe. Maybe it was a song that attempted to stir your spirit. Maybe a homeless guy held out his hand as we walked along.


It is easy to miss Jesus. Sometimes we won't open the Bible and Jesus is there ready to speak to us but we have to get on with life and we will spend some time looking at it later. But later never opens the door.


Look around and listen. Jesus is here...now.

Oops, sorry I forgot

Now, if you and I hung out with Jesus I am sure we would be hanging on every word he said. We would probably write them down in our journal. I mean really, these conversations would not be like listening to politicians endlessly discuss health care. No, these would all be powerful words you would not forget.

Right. Except that is exactly what these women did. I mean if someone said they would be killed but you would see him later and have dinner, you think you would remember that one. These women were no different than you and I. It is easy to read the words of Jesus and just pass them by not really believing what he said. Take John 4:14 where Jesus says if we live by his life and words we will never be thirsty for anything else that really doesn't matter. How many times have we read this? Yet we long for things that do not matter at all. We have forgotten his word.

Jesus told these people in Luke 9:22 exactly what was going to happen to him. They forgot but when these two angels reminded them, they remembered.

What does it take for you to remember Jesus' words? The discipline of scripture memory which is usually the one that we stop doing, or the process of consistent Bible study which no one really has time for, or daily time with Jesus in a quiet time that is squeezed out by busy routines all contribute to our forgetting what Jesus told us about how to live life.

To forget what Jesus said is really to forget Jesus.

What's going on here?

Luke 23:34   Familiar? Yes, but are we thinking far enough? This statement was definitely focused on the event of the cross and how those not following Jesus were viewing the event. They did not know what they were doing in killing Jesus. Instead of anger on Jesus' part, he asked the Father to forgive them. He asked the Father to not hold it against them.
But I believe there are more things God wants us to understand as we and others try to "figure out life and faith." Those who do not know Jesus and many who do are doing their best to understand what Monday, Tuesday and the other 5 days are about. What the spank are they supposed to be doing to make sense out of the life they are living? They may or may not know there is more than the 20-30 minute commute to work, work, watch a little TV, tell the kids goodnight and crash into bed.
Those perhaps without a spouse or kids desperately search for some fulfillment on Facebook, Twitter or any other .com sight that might offer some relief from the almost pointless track that they run on daily.
In our attemps to find meaning, we consistently miss why Jesus lived, died and left to be with the Father. And he says again "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."
How can you minimize these words of Jesus in your life? I mean how can you live so you don't have to hear it so often? He is always there to forgive but let's give him something else to say when he thinks about us.

Is anyone angry, frustrated or upset?

We can learn something from each day in Jesus' life. Here is one. Jesus was being accused by people who had no intention of listening to, thinking about or doing what he was saying. As far as they were concerned if it did not have the right label on it, it not only could not be right but it should be outright rejected... and that included Jesus. Take a look at Luke 23:5,13 and 14. His teaching offended them and was contrary to their tradition and they were determined to put an end to it.

Thinking and teaching something new or different is not important unless God has spoken and then it is critical that it be shared. It does not matter if people do not agree with it. They still have to deal with it. Jesus made these people come to a decision about what he had spoken to them about. He was willing to stir the pot even if it meant he might lose his reputation or life.

Have you heard from God lately? Has he spoken to you about something new, against a traditional religious belief or something that will cause people to want to avoid you? More than likely they are not going to want to kill you as these people did but they definitely will want you out of the room.

Jesus was thought of as a man who was inciting people to rebellion. The harder people fight against something can often indicate the truthfulness of what they are fighting against. If what Jesus was saying was true, they were in big trouble and they knew it.

Don't be afraid of causing people to think. If you have heard from God, people need to know what he said to you. It will help those who really want to follow Jesus have a clearer picture of what that looks like.

Did you hear that?

There were a bunch of religious guys trying to trap Jesus and they talked with him about who he was. They were not really interested in anything he said except that they wanted to nail him with violating some religious rule they had developed. He was more than ready to deal with them and give them an answer that they would later use to accuse him of a violation. Their conclusion in Luke 22:71 says it all. "We have heard it from his own lips."

These guys were not even followers of Jesus but it was unmistakable what he just said. For my purposes, it does not matter what Jesus said. It rather is that he said it and they heard it. You could easily say that of course they heard it. He was standing there talking.

But then every time we open the bible, Jesus is there talking...and specifically he wants to say something to us. We read it but do we hear him speak to us? When was the last time Jesus said something to you that you had no doubt it was him talking to you? We have to act on what he speaks to us about or we will not hear him again unless he speaks the same thing to us again. We can open our Bible all we want but if we treat what he says as an option, we're done and might as well play golf or whatever.

Do you have people in your life who are listening and hearing God speak to them? Are you one of those people? Is it a common thing for you to visit with someone at the church you show up at and have a conversation about what God has been talking with each of you about or is the conversation about weather, politics or some other fascinating subject?

Are you kidding me?

Luke 22:13 Jesus had given the guys something to think about as they thought about what he just told them. They were to go and make preparations for the Passover meal. They were to go to a man and talk with him about the guest room for Jesus and them. We do not know if they were surprised at what they found but their faith in Jesus had to have been strengthened by the event. and we know that they did exactly what Jesus told them to do.

Why does having to know the why's and how's of what God is speaking to you and I about become such an important aspect to our doing what he is speaking to us about? When do we experience the joy? While we act on what Jesus has spoken to us about or when we see the result of our believing him? There is as much joy in the anticipation of what God is going to do as there is in the completion of it. And I believe God is more pleased in our acting on what we do not really understand than in our trying to talk him out of what he has just spoken to us about.

Sometimes I know we do not really believe God talks to us like this. Isn't this just reserved for pastors or those in the Bible? The reason we think like this is partly due to our not having an adventurous relationship with Jesus each day. When we take Jesus at his word, as someone said "life becomes a romance."

Maybe we are anticipating being disappointed in God's not coming through with what we believe he is speaking to us about. Whatever the reason, most people never experience the joy of responding to what God is saying.

When was the last time you were filled with joy at knowing God had spoken to you about something and you trusted him with no reservations?

Have you seen Long's Peak lately?

I can see Long's Peak from my home window. At 14259 feet above sea level it is quite a sight to see anytime of year. As awesome as this sight is, it does not challenge my mind or heart as thinking about what God has done throughout the history of our world. Or does it inspire me more than what God has done because I have not personally seen or experienced who he is or what he has done? Do I really stand in awe of God's deeds?

Am I convinced that God is really who he says he is, that he has done what the Bible says he has done or that he is committed to working in my life? How do I know? Do I want to know? It becomes too easy to enter into a long journey of mediocrity in our Christian life. Conversations that focus on the insignificant, life that steals joy, relationships that never develop or mature all can cause me to move from an emptiness to hopelessness too easily.

I want God to be more real to me in everyday life so I can say with this ancient prophet " I stand in awe of your deeds, oh Lord." But what will it take to really mean this? What might God want to do in my life? I don't need him to make 5 more Long's Peaks but I would like to see some attitudes change in me. To see God make my heart tender to those who do not see things as I do would cause me to "stand in awe"of God's working in my life. How about you? How honest are you in wanting to see God work in your life? Don't settle for just talking about or wishing this could be true.