Today is Holy Thursday, the beginning of the celebration of Jesus' passion, death and resurrection! I do love this time of focusing on His ultimate sacrifice for our salvation! Thank You Lord!
This morning I am reading out of Paul's second letter to Timothy. I was very conscious of the fact that this letter was written from Paul to Timothy, as a Father in the faith would write to his son in the faith. It is more than pastoral, it is personal. I am blessed to have good friends and family with whom I can have similar conversations! Our faith is meant to be shared and lived in each other's lives.
The focus this morning is on the end times (which we are certainly closer too than Paul and Timothy were when Paul wrote these verses) and I find Paul's comments very accurate. Here are the verses - 2 Timothy 3:1-5,10-17 NIV:
[1] "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. [2] People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, [4] treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--- [5] having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."
[10] "You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, [11] persecutions, sufferings---what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. [12] In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, [13] while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. [14] But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, [15] and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. [16] All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, [17] so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
These two paragraphs have, in my mind, a bit of a cause and effect relationship. Pau tells Tim, effectively, in light of verses 1-5, live you life as I describe in verses 10-17. This is good fatherly advice. I wish Paul would have left out Verse 12, for that is one that I certainly don't like reading, for I certainly don't want to be persecuted, but in light of verses 1-5, I say the probability of persecution is getting higher and higher. Lord Help us all.
There are days when I am very introspective, looking at how my life will be affected or impacted by the Word I am studying, and today these verses could certainly provide an on-ramp to such reflection. However, today being Holy Thursday, I am taking this reflection down a different path, recognizing that Jesus' passion, death and resurrection, were for such times as these! Our Lord's life is meant to be a light to us in dark times! His sacrifice made a way for the Truth of His Love to be victorious, for the Gospel of Grace to shine with a radiance that will attract the whole world!
His personal sacrifice has opened the way for us to be in relationship with Him and made it possible for us to receive the Holy Spirit that we might be empowered to live our lives for Him, hidden in Him, yet visible to all! This relationship was that which Paul held onto in the midst of the the sufferings he briefly described in verses 10 and 11, and this relationship should be our tether to Truth and Life in these last days.
I am reminded of an encouragement from the Letter to the Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV:
[1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, [2] fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. [3] Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
As we fix our eye and hearts on Jesus, holding tightly to our relationship, we can persevere through any and all troubles. This is what Jesus did in the midst of His passion and death, He help onto His relationship to the Father, and looked towards His relationships with us, as joy set before Him. He understood that dark times would come, but He also knew that His sacrifice of Love would be victorious, and would endure!
In the same way, we can hold onto our relationship with Him, knowing that He has provided the way and the ability for us to endure in our faith in Him, despite persecutions and struggles of our own. Today we celebrate the beginning of this great sacrifice, this opening of a way for us to be reestablished in relationship with God. Today, we remember the humility with which Jesus came and submitted Himself to the the plan that would set us all free from the power of sin and death! Today, we hold onto that which we know of Jesus, for we just don't know about Him, we can know Him personally, and Paul's encouragement in verse 14 above can be embraced by us all.
Jesus thank You for making a way for us! Thank you for laying down Your life! Thank You for calling me out and into relationship with You! Thank You that this relationship will endure!
Amen and Amen!
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