original posted on Facebook
Here, Jesus predicts his imminent death before the apostles and some visiting Greek believers who had asked to meet him.
I imagine fans motivated by Jesus’s many miracles and reputation for powerful preaching, keen insights about human nature, and loving forgiveness. They want to meet the legend, to be inspired and healed.
But this was no Tony Robbins motivational speech—not even close. It was the very opposite of what any of us wants to hear.
"You must die to live! Glory will come through death! If you love your life here, you’ll lose it. If you hate your life here, you’ll love it for eternity."
So radical and so different than what many of us hear on Sunday mornings these days.
Jesus also foreshadows his plea in the Garden of Gethsemane by asking rhetorically if He should ask His Father to get him out of this jam.
No, He answers Himself. It’s the very reason He came.
By way of divine affirmation, John reports that a voice from heaven audibly affirmed Christ’s imminent glory, a declaration that Jesus' remarks is for the benefit of the crowd, not His.
I can’t imagine how all this sounded to His audience that day. Where was the massacre of those oppressive Romans? Why didn’t Jesus overrun the Sanhedrin and set up His earthly Kingdom, sending those snooty, hypocritical Pharisees packing?
Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, but the real, eternal promise is that one day, Christ will return and establish His perfect kingdom here.
Until then, we wait in joyful expectation.
...as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
Good Friday comes before Sunday, but the Eternal Easter is coming.
PRAYER: Father, Thank You that Easter is coming and the promise that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17) and our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18). Help us endure grounded in the true hope of the coming resurrection. In Christ's name I ask it. Amen. Thank You. I love You.💖
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