Community Bible Experience: Day 5

We have reached the end of the first week of reading.  Whew!  Really, that wasn’t that difficult and it has been a very cool experience in reading the New Testament in this format.

If you haven’t joined me and my church in this effort to start the New Year off pouring ourselves into the New Testament, it is not too late!  If you would like some helps in being successful and a very interesting format to read, check out this link and download the resources that you might want to help you catch up with us.  Here is the link:  CBEresources.com/nt They have an MP3 version there, so you can listen, if you don’t have time to read.  They also have an eBook, reading guide and other materials to help you out.

Today’s reading was the culmination of the book of Luke as Jesus heads to Jerusalem and the events that would take place there.  I couldn’t believe how fast this section went when I read it.  It was exciting, terrible (at seeing man’s ability to be terrible) and encouraging in its message.

Here are my thoughts on today’s reading.

Jesus has to go to Jerusalem.  It is there that everything that He has come to do will be done.  It is there that He continues to teach His disciples the costs and the blessings of faithful following.  It is there that He confronts in mostly silence the epithets and cheers of many.  Epithets of the religious leaders, the politicos and even the commoner all mixed with the cheers of the needy, the seeker, the hopeful and the curious.

Their is a strange dance that has begun; one in which the triumphal entry moves to the terrible events of the passion and concludes with the resurrection.  At once there is joy, celebration and triumph at the entrance of the Messiah, Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.  Then there is horror, betrayal, violence and death at the crucifixion and its events.  The troika ends in amazement and disbelief.  The Messiah, the Lord, Jesus is NOT DEAD!  He has risen…the tomb is empty, the angelic beings speak and He Himself appears!

Amazement runs through the followers of Christ, because this has never happened before.  They saw Him beaten.  They saw Him maligned.  They saw Him nailed to the cross and die.  Yet He is not dead.  Amazing.

Disbelief also runs through the followers of Jesus.  Is this really Jesus?  Has He truly been raised?  Is that Him walking with us and talking with us?  Is He the reasons our hearts burn and our eyes are opened?  Is He a ghost?  How can this be?

The events recorded accost any careful and hopeful seeker.  The mix of amazement and disbelief are not only the sentiments of the disciples, but also mine.  How wonderful and marvelous scrawled on my logical mind next to how can this be?

If we are honest, this is what goes on in us when we are taken by these events.  It is an incredible mixture of awe and doubt.  This story demands belief or rejection.  It demands a response.  Curiosity surrounding these tidings must be fulfilled.  I think that is why Luke wrote what he wrote.  To help the hopeful see the truth, get the picture, stand in awe and doubt; yet still believe.

I know I do…

Okay, there is no reading until next Monday, so enjoy your rest and pondering of the things we have read.  We’ll start up again next week on our Day 6 reading in Acts.