Following the fourth Wiseman- the upper room

April 17, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our traveler is making his way through the dark and deserted streets of a night where both men and women were afraid of what might come. The Roman’s were searching, convinced someone had stolen the body of the Messiah from the tomb. There was a strict curfew and the deciples were being hunted for questioning. Our traveler is careful to dodge all light from the torches in the city walls as he walks. Suddenly a man bumps into him. They look at each other in fear. Then they realize that they are in safe company. Our traveler recognizes the man as one of the Messiah’s followers. The other man invites him to join him, he is going to meet the other deciples in an upper room. Our traveler happily agrees. When they arrive the room is in a buzz as the deciples discuss excitedly an event that had just taken place.

John 20:19-23 ESV
[19] On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” [20] When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. [21] Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” [22] And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. [23] If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Our traveler is amazed he has so many questions, but to his shock the man with him denies what the others have said. He will not believe unless he sees it with his own eyes. Our traveler places a hand on the man’s shoulder. He had been the exact same before his time spying on the tomb in the garden. The hurt from what he had seen had made him doubtful, this man felt it too. By the looks on the faces of the others, our traveler can see that they too had veen skeptical at one time. But now that they had seen Him they could never doubt again.

When we have had a horrible situation it is easy to doubt that anything good can come from it. Even when we see something similar arise it’s easy to fear because of the past. We have been Thomas. Standing in the upper room full for grief, thinking the pain of loss has driven his friends crazy. Then Jesus appears and puts all the doubts to shame. Jesus is with us in the bad times and the good. We cannot cling to old pain, we must last it go and focus on what Jesus is doing now. He is always working something new, for our good.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- Rabboni!

April 16, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our Traveler has stayed at the tomb. He thought that something might happen to explain, well, what had happened. He had seen the Messiah buried there, and now the tomb was empty. As he watches and waits he sees the woman he had seen with the Messiah return to the tomb. Next he sees something he cannot explain.

John 20:11-18 ESV
[11] But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. [12] And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. [13] They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” [14] Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. [15] Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” [16] Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). [17] Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” [18] Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Our traveler wants so badly to rush from his hiding spot and to speak to the Messiah, but he is terrified, this man is truly Holy. To have been dead and to now be raised of His own accord with no one to intercede for Him. He is so pure that our traveler who has wanted to meet Him for so long, suddenly can’t.

Sometimes Jesus puts forward a destiny for us that we are too afraid to accept. Like our traveler being too afraid to run forward and to meet the messiah, who he has longed to meet for all of his life. Sometimes Jesus gives us something that He has planned for us or something we have asked for, longed for and once it’s in front of us, we are too afraid to accept it. Those moments can be so hard. Instead, we must choose to reach out towards His gift and to take it in our hands and to trust that He will help us in opening it, and in receiving it, and in going through it.
Jesus is always there. The best part about this is that even though Jesus is giving us a gift. He is always the ultimate gift.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- Where have they taken Him?

April 15, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our traveler begins to lead his camel out from the city. He feels defeated. He will return home after all these years having tales to tell of a man. A great man. But if He had been the Messiah as our traveler and so many others had thought, then how could they have killed Him. He chose to go to see where they had laid Him one more time before leaving the city. Suddenly two men run past him and our traveler has to restrain his camel. He recognizes them. They had been deciples of the Messiah. Our traveler urges his camel to follow him at a trot as he runs after the two men.

John 20:1- 6 ESV
[1] Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
[2] So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” [3] So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. [4] Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. [5] And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. [6] Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there,
As the two deciples leave our traveler decides to go and see what they had seen. Why was the stone to the tomb moved? As he approaches a wave of fear and excitement washes over him. The tomb is empty. There had been rumors that He had made statements suggesting that…. our traveler is hesitant to think it. It seems so strange. Could He have risen from the dead, just as He raised others?

Image they moment. Jesus. The man they saw crucified. Now gone from the tomb. Imagine being there. A thousand thoughts would go through your mind. Where was He? Did someone move Him? Was this a cruelty of the Roman’s? Perhaps this was a trick by the pharisees? Then a word by Jesus twinkles like a weak flame in the back of your mind. Something He had said that you did not understand so you had shoved it away as not important. In three days. He had told them so many times that He would need to die but that He would rise again. They just did not understand. Now they still did not understand, yet things were beginning to unfold and show the answer to their questions. We won’t always understand. But Jesus does always have a reason.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- I will raise this temple again in three days.

April 13, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our traveler sees the soldiers bring down the bodies from the crosses. A man comes whom our traveler does not know, and the man has his servants carry the body of the Messiah away. Our traveler sees the man Nicodemus follow and quietly goes to join him. The man looks at him.
“What is that in your hands?”
Our traveler looks down at the cloth. Something he had once thought was of great worth, “a gift, for Him.”
Nicodemus touches our traveler’s shoulder and they walk together to where the Messiah would be laid.

John 19:38-42 ESV
[38] After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. [39] Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. [40] So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. [41] Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. [42] So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Nicodemus looks at our traveler once again. “Did you hear what He said? Before the earth shook?”
Our traveler shakes his head.
“He said, ‘Father forgive them.’ He asked for God’s forgiveness for us despite all that pain.”
Our traveler feels his heart tearing apart inside him. “It is kind. We are all to blame.”
“If we believe the prophecies. Then yes.”
“Did you know this would happen?”
“No. But now that it has, the words of the prophets return to my mind, and I feel like I understand a little.”
“Then you are better off than I am. For I understand nothing.”
“Perhaps that is why we met. So when thos day came, I could be here with you. He said something strange.”
Our traveler laughs, “everything He said was strange. Yet, so true.”
“Yes but. Now I recall hearing that he had said if we destroyed the temple He would raise it again.”
“Yes, in three days. It made some of the… I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It made some of us religious leaders angry. But now I wonder at what He meant?”
“Why now?”
“I’m not sure. It just seems to be important somehow. Now more than ever.”

Sometimes God will bring someone you never expected into your life to help you through the worst times. Sometimes it’s someone you don’t like. Sometimes it’s someone you don’t know. Sometimes it’s a friend or relative. It is always amazing to see how God uses people in our moments of Sometimes. The saddest part of the cross was that Jesus was alone. He died alone. Yes, there were people who loved Him near by, but God turned His face from Him. No matter how surrounded by friend we are, without God we are truly alone. In the same light, it does not matter how alone we are, with God we are never alone.
Jesus was buried for three days. He fought the devil, took the keys and freed those lost to death. For three days He was in a battle and on the third He left the grave victorious. We can also leave the grave in victory, if we choose to die to our old selves and to live with Christ.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- It is finished

April 12, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our traveler is confused and angry. He does not understand. He looks around and can find no one to speak to who could stop what was happening. All those who stood around were laughing and taunting. In the distance our traveler can make out a figure of great power, the man whom had told him of his meeting on the rooftop with the Messiah, Nicodemus. Yet, when he begins to walk toward him oir traveler sees that the man no longer looks like one of power. He looks tired and worn. His eyes turn on our traveler and he shakes his head. There is nothing he can do. In desperation our traveler runs toward the cross. Determined that he will tear the horrible thing from the ground with his bare hands and save his King himself. But as he draws near he sees that there is nothing he can do. Now, there is nothing anyone can do.

John 19:28-37 ESV
[28] After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” [29] A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. [30] When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. [31] Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. [32] So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. [33] But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. [34] But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. [35] He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. [36] For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” [37] And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
The ground shakes and our traveler falls to his knees in the blood and mud around the cross. He takes the gift from his bag. The one he would have given to the Messiah all those years ago, if only he had made it in time. He holds it up.
“This my King…. this is for you. It is the finest linen from my part of this world. There is no linen softer, or made with a finer weave. It should have wrapped you as a child. Now I will give it to those who mourn you, and it can wrap your body for burial. I don’t understand. But as the man says. You must know what you are doing, even in this.”

It seems our traveler is always too late. Like he is forevermore missing his chance. Yet he has anyways been where he was meant to be. We often feel like we have missed our shot. Like we should have been someone else, somewhere else. Like the path we are on is one we would never have chosen for ourselves. Just because we don’t understand does not mean we have gone the wrong way. The path God chooses often feels wrong to us, that’s because the world gives us their opinion on what our lives should look like. Their ideas are not God’s, they could never begin to understand God’s path and will. Just because it feels like we are always too late does not mean we are late at all, it means God is holding us back for something else He has planned. It may not be something greater. Just different. Trust Him and His timing. He knows what He’s doing, even in this.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- He must know what He’s doing….right?

April 11, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Our traveler rushes to follow the crowd that follow the Messiah. Our traveler can not see Him and has not seen Him since the trial. The shouts of the crowd and the violence they give is frightening to our traveler as he ducks and dodges through the masses. Why were they in such an uproar? The Roman guards stood at the ready.
“This could turn into a riot.” Our traveler heard one of the guards whisper. “What has the man even done?”
The other guards eyes were red as though he held back tears, “my brother’s son, who was very ill, this man healed him.”
The first guard looked at him, “really? I remember his illness, they thought he would die. Why kill a man who would do such good things?”
A small shine touched the other guards cheek as a single tear managed to make it’s way past his resolution. “Why indeed.”
Our traveler rushes on past the guards and almost collides with a woman who is in near hysteria. Our traveler recognizes her. She was the woman at the well that day. She sees our traveler and grabs him, “they can’t do this! You must make them stop!” She shakes him and cries.
Our traveler pulls free, “I know. I am trying to get to Him.”
She steps away and let’s him pass. Our traveler sees the glimpse of figure huddled on the ground, a cross laying in the dirt next to Him. His body so broken it tears our traveler’s heart in two. He tries to push past the people who were crowding around but can’t make it. Finally the heaving of the masses pushes him to the top of the hill. He’s too late.

John 19:16-19, 23, 25-27 ESV
[16] So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, [17] and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. [18] There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. [19] Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

Our traveler looked at the sign and shook his head. He was so much more than simply the king. Laughter broke the hush that had fallen upon our traveler. It was so out of place that it frightened him. He turned to look.

[23] When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom,

Our traveler clenches his fists and then a voice tears his attention back to the horror of the cross.

[25] but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [26] When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” [27] Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

So this was it. He really was going to die here. All they had hoped for and waited for. The pain in his heart and anger in his mind was too much for him and our traveler screams and falls to his knees. It was not an uncommon sight at that hill so no one pays attention to him. He buries his face in his hands and cries openly.
A hand rests on our traveler’s shoulder and he stands with a start. He sees the man who he had met under the olive tree. His newly seeing eyes, full of tears.
“You knew Him too my friend.” The man says.
Our traveler nods, “I searched for Him for most of my life. I’m silly old man! What do my prophecies amount to now!”
The man who had once been blind and now could see, turned his new eyes upon the savior in agony on the cross. “I don’t know what to tell you. All I can say is, He must a purpose, even for this.”

When tragedies strike we question everything. We question our motivation. We question our friends. Our family. Ourselves. Most often we finish by questioning God. We searched for Him so hard and long. We longed for His embrace. We have given Him our time and our lives. Then we feel like He has failed us. We fail a big test. We have bad news about our health. We lose our job. Our child runs away. Suddenly God is no longer in control or else He is no longer good.
But even if not, He is still good. Recall the three Hebrew boys saying that? Even in the bad times when we don’t understand, He is still good.
Even when we fall hard He is still good.
Even when He is on the cross when we think He should be overthrowing our enemies and taking over as King, He is still good. In fact, He is better than good. He is working something new and amazing for our lives. Even if we don’t see it at the time.
We cannot know God’s plans, all we can ever know for sure is that, even in the worst, most heartbreaking, most confusing times, He must have a purpose.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- Time in the garden

April 9, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

It has been a couple of days since our traveler had heard of the Messiah washing the feet of the deciples. Now he was wandering through the streets. He had heard that the deciples had been seen recently around the city and he hoped he might finally meet his Messiah.
He sees a child weeping near the gates to a house and he stops to ask what is wrong.
The child looks at him, “oh sir, you must be the only man in the city who has not heard the terrible news. They have arrested Him. Jesus. They have taken Him to trial before the priests.”

John 18:1-9 ESV
[1] When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. [2] Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. [3] So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. [4] Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” [5] They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. [6] When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. [7] So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” [8] Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” [9] This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”

Our traveler staggers back and walks away without speaking. As he turns the corner and goes out of sight, his knees buckle and he falls to the dirt. Tears fall from his eyes without mercy, “Why?” He screams, “Why have you done this? We need you and you have let yourself be…” he shakes his head, “I say ‘who am I to question?’ Then you do this. I was so close. What was I searching for if you are gone?”

We have been there. Where were you God? What was the point? Why have you let me fall? The answers may never come. One thing we will never be able to ask God is ‘why did you leave me?’ Oh, many have asked this, but there is no true grounds for it, because Jesus never leaves us. I cannot imagine being one of the deciples or someone who had followed and searched after Jesus, in those last days. Suddenly the only one who mattered, who had shown Himself God, was being tortured and killed. They would have felt like they had lost everything. We are in last days too, but of a different kind. Yet in our last days Jesus is risen and we have the Holy Spirit. All the deciples had were His words to cling to, and in the moments of what they witnessed, those words faded from their hearts as grief took their place. We have been there. We know the promises of God, but grief takes over and we forget what He has said. We doubt. We return to fishing because we no longer know what to do with ourselves. We were happy, then one night in a garden destroyed it. Isn’t that how it all began too? We were happy in the garden where God walked, then a lie broke the stillness. Here a betrayal broke the stillness. It would have felt like drowning endlessly in darkness. Then the third day came.
We all we have experiences like the deciples in the garden (hopefully we will never experience what Jesus Himself went through in that garden. Yet, I know some have faced such pain that they have expressed a knowledge of Jesus’s feelings.) Yet after the garden, the cross and the tomb, comes the upper room and the day on the shore. The pain comes, but Jesus will always be there.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- How dirty are my feet?

April 8, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

We pick up again with our traveler as he bends to lift his foot to a cloth. He has walked so long that upon entering the house he would stay in for the night, the owner insisted he wash his feet twice. Our traveler smiled. He had heard and odd story about the Messiah. It had been told to him by a young woman who had brought bread and drink up to a gathering of people who were at her master’s house for the night.

John 13:1-10 ESV
[1] Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. [2] During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, [3] Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, [4] rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. [5] Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. [6] He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” [7] Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” [8] Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” [9] Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” [10] Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”

Our traveler wondered at what the Messiah had said. “Why were not everyone of them clean? Who was still dirty?” Our traveler finished drying his feet and went to his room. “Does it mean something specific that the Messiah said this?”
Our traveler blew out his candle and went to sleep.

You and I know that Jesus was speaking of Judas when he said not all of you are clean. I read something a few years ago that I have never forgotten.
“Jesus washed the feet of His betrayer.” I think it was Max Lucado who had done a sermon on this. However it was the first time I had thought of it. Jesus washed the feet of the man who would sell Him out, and He knew it. He knew Judas would betray Him and yet He washed His feet anyway.
Jesus knows who will betray Him. He knows who will walk away and stop loving Him. Yet He died for them anyways. For every person who said, “there is no God.” For every man who shouted, “I don’t need anyone but me!” For the girl who said, “I am the queen of my life and no one else.” For every person who walked away from Jesus and sought their own life a life without Him, a life not even half full, Jesus died for them. He washed their feet too. The brokenness of this world does not surprise Jesus, but it makes Him sad. We can hate Him and betray Him and He still loves us enough to wash our feet. If your feet are going to be dirty, let them be dirty from the dust of the road as you follow the Messiah.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- A false palm branch

April 6, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

We find our traveler once again being pushed and jostled by a crowd. He had heard people shouting, “Hosanna!” and knew in his heart that it had been because of the Messiah. Our traveler followed the voices and now he found himself in the midst of a crowd standing near the gate to Jerusalem. A woman bumps into him and looking at his hands she says,
“You do not have a palm leaf to lay down. Here, take one of mine.” She hands him a green branch and head on her way.
Our traveler looks with interest at the branch. Then he notices that people are waving the branches and placing them on the road. Our traveler rushes to the front of the crowd and adds his branch to the others just as the shiny young hooves of a donkey colt step past him. He looks up, “blessed….” he begins to say and then stops. The eyes that rest upon him are red with tears, but the face still smiled at him. The moment so enveloped him that our traveler forgot why he was there. He had been within speaking distance of the Messiah whom he had sought after for some 30 or so years, and he had been so sad at the pain in His eyes that he had forgotten to speak. To give his gift. To say “may you be blessed.” The moment had passed and the chance was gone.
“I did say blessed, I suppose that’s something.” Our traveler says to himself as He walks away.
Later he recalled all he had seen and had heard of the day.

John 12:12-16 ESV
[12] The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. [13] So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” [14] And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, [15] “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” [16] His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
We always see the triumphant entry as a happy moment. I mean, it literally called triumphant. Yet, it was a sad moment for Jesus. He had so badly wanted to see the people of Jerusalem change. He had wanted to love them. Yet they doubted Him. He rode in to cheers of the crowd, yet He knew their hearts were still cold. He fulfilled the prophecy. Yet it broke His heart. Hosanna. Save us we pray. How often do people shout Hosanna. Shout, save us. And don’t actually want to be saved. Save us, but let us stay how we are. Save us, but don’t change us or our lives. Save us, but leave us here to stay cold and dead inside. The people shouted Hosanna and then only a little while later shouted, crucify Him. How many false palm branches have we laid? How often have we shouted to be saved and not actually mean it?
Jesus came to save us in a very specific way. He did not overthrow the government. He did not kill the enemies of His people. He did not restore the earthly kingdoms. He came to save us from ourselves. To save us from our sins. Hosanna. Save us from the devil Jesus. Save us from falling into hopelessness. Save us from us.
Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

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Following the fourth Wiseman- The wool of the sheep

April 3, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

The soft wool of our traveler’s vest brushes against his cheek as he tightens his collar against the cold night air. The bleating of a far off flock reaches his ear and he recalls the words of the Messiah. Words he had been told by another who had been blessed to hear the words first hand.

John 10:11-15 ESV
[11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13] He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Our traveler smiles. What beautiful words. What a comfort to know that the King is willing to become a shepherd so that His lost and frightened and confused flock, will hear His voice and follow Him.

Jesus referred to Himself as the ‘good shepherd.’ He often used sheep and shepherds as His metaphor. Being from Bethlehem, and most likely returning there for the census from time to time, Jesus would have seen lots of sheep. In this He saw their simple and wayward ways and how they were like His people. He saw how the shepherd would take on injury and hardship for the sake of his sheep, and how the shepherds were like Himself in this manner. Many will come and claim to care about us, but when true hardships come they abandon us. They are not our shepherd. Some may stay by our side, but they are not the shepherd either. They might even fight for us. But they are still not Him. No, the shepherd is the one who dies for His sheep. All of them. Even the ones who run away. Even the ones who spit at him and kick him. Even the ones who nail Hin to a cross. The shepherd loves His sheep and will never leave them alone.