1 Corinthians 13:11-13

Most people long to be understood. We may have many acquaintances, but we all have a deep need to feel truly known by those we love most. This is because we were created in God’s image–He also desires to be intimately understood and loved by us.

Just as you don’t want to be known for only the superficial details of who you appear to be, it’s not enough to know about the Lord. He wants us to learn how He thinks and feels, what’s important to Him, and what His purposes are. Of course, it’s impossible for man to completely know the mind of the Creator of the universe. In Isaiah 55:9, He tells us, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” The depth and breadth of His mind is so great we will never be able to fully grasp it in this lifetime.

However, we can better understand God’s heart and character by seeking Him and learning day by day from His Word. If we genuinely desire to walk in His ways, we must first genuinely know Him. We come to know our friends better by sharing more experiences together. Similarly, we will also understand God better the longer we walk with Him and meditate on what He has revealed about Himself in the Bible.

God wants you to seek Him with all your heart, and He promises that when you do, you will find Him (Jer. 29:13). So, the next time you’re feeling a need to be better understood, turn to the One who understands you perfectly. Even more importantly, ask Him to help you know Him better

The passion narrative of John, the writer’s witness to the events leading up to the cross, often seems like something of a game of push and shove. The push and pull of an honor and shame culture, where all behavior and interaction either furthers one’s vital position of shame or honor in society, is unquestionably at work here, both in the various characters and stories Jesus tells and in the minds of the audience John is addressing. John offers repeated scenes in his narrative that comparably seem to suggest the coming reversal of honor and shame, with Jesus hinting among the poor and the powerful that power may not be all they believe it to be. Yet Jesus himself is still clearly shamed, and shamed profoundly. Shame in such a culture included public rejection, abandonment, humiliation, and victimization—all of which factor heavily in the passion narrative. Shaming also occurs when blood is intentionally spilled, when one is beaten, especially in public, with there bring no higher shame than being killed, and the shame of death on a Roman cross the vilest of all. All of this is the passion. While there are undoubtedly scenes where Jesus seems to take himself out of these systems of honor and shame, suggesting a different system entirely, he is just as often, and profoundly so, on the losing end when the theme is in play. In something of a parabolic push and shove of words, there always seems much going on under the surface of John’s passion narrative:

“Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. And Pilate said to the Jews, ‘Here is your King!'”

Here, I also think the theme of insider and outsider is a thrust for John and his intended audience, where insight of kingship (revealed in various levels of clarity and ambiguity) portrays one further in or outside of the kingdom. John is intent throughout his gospel on the revelation of Jesus as king, clearly a title and position of honor. But it is also true that throughout his gospel this kingship is understood by some and completely missed by others, at times in the same instance. Kingship is seen ironically in thorned crowns and purple robes and paradoxically in lowly but good shepherds. Even the phrase “King of the Jews” in the passion narrative itself is an example of how the same title can be used both with the thrust of honor and glory for some and the intent of shame and ridicule for others; with both an eschatological vision and with a vision clouded by human jockeying for power and position—simultaneously. Behind this common usage is the reality that there are all around Jesus those who see like the blind man in John 9 and those who do not see like the chief priests and Roman authorities, those who either do not know or falsely think they know.(1) Thus to outsiders, Jesus’s blood is spilled, and in his death there is neither hope of retribution for this shamed one nor satisfaction. But to those who see Jesus’s hour now at hand, blood is spilled as the good shepherd who has just laid down his life for his friends.

In the vile shame of death on a cross rests a peculiar beauty, an invitation even within our dismissals. Here is your King.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

  (1) Cf. John 3:8; 8:14; 9:29 and John 6:41-42; 7:27-28.

Morning    “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.”

Matthew 26:56

He never deserted them, but they in cowardly fear of their lives, fled from him

in the very beginning of his sufferings. This is but one instructive instance of

the frailty of all believers if left to themselves; they are but sheep at the

best, and they flee when the wolf cometh. They had all been warned of the

danger, and had promised to die rather than leave their Master; and yet they

were seized with sudden panic, and took to their heels. It may be, that I, at

the opening of this day, have braced up my mind to bear a trial for the Lord’s

sake, and I imagine myself to be certain to exhibit perfect fidelity; but let me

be very jealous of myself, lest having the same evil heart of unbelief,

I should depart from my Lord as the apostles did. It is one thing to promise,

and quite another to perform. It would have been to their eternal honour to have

stood at Jesus’ side right manfully; they fled from honour; may I be kept from

imitating them! Where else could they have been so safe as near their Master,

who could presently call for twelve legions of angels? They fled from their true

safety. O God, let me not play the fool also. Divine grace can make the coward

brave. The smoking flax can flame forth like fire on the altar when the Lord

wills it. These very apostles who were timid as hares, grew to be bold as lions

after the Spirit had descended upon them, and even so the Holy

Spirit can make my recreant spirit brave to confess my Lord and witness for his

truth.

What anguish must have filled the Saviour as he saw his friends so faithless!

This was one bitter ingredient in his cup; but that cup is drained dry; let me

not put another drop in it. If I forsake my Lord, I shall crucify him afresh,

and put him to an open shame. Keep me, O blessed Spirit, from an end so

shameful.

 

 

Evening    “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their

masters’ table.”

Matthew 15:27

This woman gained comfort in her misery by thinking great thoughts of Christ.

The Master had talked about the children’s bread: “Now,” argued she, “since thou

art the Master of the table of grace, I know that thou art a generous

housekeeper, and there is sure to be abundance of bread on thy table; there will

be such an abundance for the children that there will be crumbs to throw on the

floor for the dogs, and the children will fare none the worse because the dogs

are fed.” She thought him one who kept so good a table that all that she needed

would only be a crumb in comparison; yet remember, what she wanted was to have

the devil cast out of her daughter. It was a very great thing to her,

but she had such a high esteem of Christ, that she said, “It is nothing to him,

it is but a crumb for Christ to give.” This is the royal road to comfort. Great

thoughts of your sin alone will drive you to despair; but great thoughts of

Christ will pilot you into the haven of peace. “My sins are many, but oh! it is

nothing to Jesus to take them all away. The weight of my guilt presses me down

as a giant’s foot would crush a worm, but it is no more than a grain of dust to

him, because he has already borne its curse in his own body on the tree. It will

be but a small thing for him to give me full remission, although it will be an

infinite blessing for me to receive it.” The woman opens her

soul’s mouth very wide, expecting great things of Jesus, and he fills it with

his love. Dear reader, do the same. She confessed what Christ laid at her door,

but she laid fast hold upon him, and drew arguments even out of his hard words;

she believed great things of him, and she thus overcame him. She won the victory

by believing in Him. Her case is an instance of prevailing faith; and if we

would conquer like her, we must imitate her tactics.

 

. . . When he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels.

Mark 8:38

If we have been partakers with Jesus in His shame, we shall also share with Him the luster that surrounds Him when He appears again in glory. Are you in communion with Christ Jesus? Does a vital union bind you to Him? Then you are today with Him in His shame; you have taken up His cross and have gone with Him outside the camp bearing His reproach; you will doubtless be with Him when the cross is exchanged for the crown.

But examine yourself this evening; for if you are not with Him in regeneration, you will not be with Him when He comes in His glory. If you run from the dark side of fellowship, you will not understand its bright, happy chapter when the King comes with all His holy angels.

What! Are angels with Him? And yet He did not take up angels–He took up the seed of Abraham. Are the holy angels with Him? Come, my soul; if you are indeed His own beloved, you cannot be far from Him. If His friends and His neighbors are called together to see His glory, shall you be distant? Though it be a day of judgment, yet you cannot be far from that heart that, having admitted angels into intimacy, has admitted you into union with Himself. Has He not said to you, O my soul, “I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy”? Has He not declared us to be in union with Him? If the angels, who are but friends and neighbors, shall be with Him, it is abundantly certain that His own beloved in whom is all His delight shall be near to Him and sit at His right hand. Here is a morning star of hope for you, of such exceeding brilliance that it may well light up your darkest and most desolate experience.

The family reading plan for March 26, 2012

Proverbs 13 | Ephesians 6