This weekend, we celebrated my daughter’s sixth birthday. Highlighting this momentous occasion was the infamous inflatable bouncer. No doubt each of you has seen these contraptions before. Making appearances at car lots, family parties, school fairs, shopping centers and church events, these devices have become the new normal when it comes to childhood play.
As the dad, the task of acquiring, assembling and maintaining this strategic piece of equipment naturally fell to me. Doing what all good dads do when tasked with such a sacred duty, I immediately called for reinforcements. Luckily my dad and his truck were available and we headed out to conquer the shadowy kingdom of the Party Store.
There was much chaos and no small amount of drama when the clerks attempted to do a bait and switch on us. However, in the end, we prevailed and were soon heading back with a pink and purple castle rolled up snugly in the bed of the truck. We then began the process of getting it unloaded, unrolled and ready to inflate. This was no small task either as the thing weighed a ton and had no real place to grip. Yet we men dug in and persevered until the bitter end.
It was with a sense of accomplishment that I hooked up the hose to the fan, pronounced an invocation and powered it on. Like a majestic giant slowly rising from the deep, our ugly pile of canvas soon unfurled into a grand and glorious bastion of bouncing. Within seconds the delighted squeals of my daughters announced their arrival as they blew past me in streak of pink and yellow, and plunged straight into the heart of the beast. As the guests arrived, it became clear that the castle was a hit.
Things were going great in the beginning. I had anchored the straps and carefully barricaded the sides and back so no one could go around and mess with the cords. We kept an eye on the kids and made sure they were playing safely. Yep, we had everything under control. Just when I was sure that things were going to turn out perfectly, it happened. An extra springy bounce dislodged the inflation hose from the fan. Immediately the castle began to deflate. Luckily there were only two kids in there at the time, but they sank like rocks. No one got hurt and there were plenty of giggles afterwards, but it illustrated a point. The moment you remove the source of air from the bouncer, the entire thing collapses.
In Ephesians Chapter 3, Paul talks about the importance of being filled with the fullness of God.
14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. *
It doesn’t matter how long the journey has been, how many people have helped us along the way or how much effort we feel like we’ve put into it, if we try to live a Christian life under our own power and by our own strength, we will find that it simply collapses in on top of us. In this passage, Paul reminds us that it is the power of the Spirit within us that brings the fullness of God.
It would be pretty ridiculous for me to have unrolled that bouncer, left it laying flat on the ground, and asked the kids to jump in it without ever plugging in the fan. How much more rediculous would it be to try to live the Christian life without plugging into His Spirit.
Prayer: My prayer for you today is that you will allow God's spirit to fill you with strengthen you this week.
Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-19
* New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica
Triumph to Tragedy
Growing up, one of our favorite weekend pastimes was loading up into my parents’ station wagon and driving to do a time share tour. Not that we ever actually owned a time share. Nor did my parents every even seriously consider buying into one. That wasn’t the point. When we arrived on property, we had one goal and one goal only. To attain the door prize. Well, that and to allow my dad the entertainment of proving the salesman’s numbers were, in fact, inacurrate.
Truth. Sometimes it’s inconvenient.
Or so I’ve been told.
Anyway, it was the promise of prizes that made the hunt so enjoyable. You know the ones. The flyer comes in the mail advising you that you are guaranteed one of three prizes and all you have to do is attend a “brief” sales demonstration, sometimes spend the night at a ridiculously reduced rate, and BAM. It’s yours baby!
Over the years we attained some pretty cool prizes. The first two VCR’s my family ever owned came from time share tours. When combined with a gas grill, a nineteen inch color TV, a croquette set, 4 tickets to Medieval Times, and an assortment of coolers & tool kits, you can see that we were well rewarded for our weekend romps. Well, sort of anyway.
Yet of all the prizes that our time share touring brought in, none ever quite compared with the infamous “boat and motor.” I remember well the day the letter arrived. Unlike the traditional “You’ve won one of these three prizes,” spiel, it only listed one prize. In fact it not only listed it, it guaranteed it. Yes sir, right there in black and white it stated for all the world to see that we, the lucky recipients of this sacred envelope had indeed laid claim to the grandest grand prize of all, a brand new “boat and motor.”
Driving down that weekend, my mind raced over the scene that was sure to await us. I envisioned a reserved parking spot with a covered awning. A welcome reception with confetti and fruit trays where we would be awarded our grand prize amidst a cheering press corps who had been called out to document this once in a lifetime occasion. I resolved that I would not gloat over our new found fame and fortune. I would be mindful of those less fortunate time share attendees who had to content themselves with a utensil set or a soft sided cooler. No, we would accept our prize with dignity and humility and save our celebration for our first day out on the lake. When I closed my eyes I could almost hear the waves lapping the bottom of the boat as we skimmed across the water on our way to a new fishing hole. This was going to be AWESOME.
When we arrived, we discovered the time share office was actually a doublewide trailer. I looked about for our prize, but it was no where in sight. No doubt they had it secreted away somewhere and would wheel it out at the end of the tour. We got all checked in and before long, we found ourselves in a golf cart, bouncing down a dirt path to stare at the dirt lots that would eventually house the time share units.
Once this ritual was completed, we were off to the sales office. My excitement was building by the moment. After endless rounds of “looking at the numbers” and realizing that trying to manipulate numbers with a math teacher was an exercise in futility, the sales rep finally left to get our prize. I could hardly contain my excitement. I watched out the window to see them pull our boat around. After only a couple of minutes, the salesman returned and much to my confusion, handed us a small box and a bag.
There must be some mistake. We were guaranteed a “boat” and a “motor” to boot. And that was exactly what we got. An inflatable 2 man “boat” and an electric “motor”. I was beyond disappointed. This was NOT what I had in mind. Laughing it off, my dad said we’d still try it out at the lake. Soon enough, he and I headed out to give the thing a shot.
That’s when things went from bad to worse. After putting together the “motor”, we realized something. It was wonky. Instead of the J shape that one expects in a trolling motor, the propeller attached directly to the end of the shaft. This meant that when you had it pointed down in the water, the propeller pointed straight down instead of to the rear as one would actually expect from a “motor”. The entire thing looked remarkably like an oversized hand blender.
We hooked it up to the battery (which was NOT included I might add) and tried to hold it at an angle that instilled forward motion. The only way to achieve this was to point the goofy thing nearly straight out. This of course left half of the propeller sticking up out the water and resulted in a lovely rain of lake water into the boat. Thirty minutes later, we had gone about 12 feet.
I kid you not.
We kept with it, hoping we’d be able to “get the hang of it” before finally admitting defeat and hauling our already soaking wet selves to the shore. It was then that my disappointment turned to anger. This was NOT what you were supposed to get when someone offered a “boat and motor”. It didn’t fit the profile. It wasn’t what I expected.
All four Gospels give the account of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. It is what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. John’s gospel describes it this way:
12The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna! "
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!" 14Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
15"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."(NIV)
How strange is it that just a few short days later, this exact same crowd would go from praise to anger, and rather than shouting “Hosanna”, they would instead be shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”.
What was it that changed? What could cause such a dramatic shift in the thinking of this crowd?
To understand that, we need to look a bit of history.
Two hundred years before the Triumphal Entry, the city of Jerusalem was living under a military occupation just as it was at the time of Christ. Whereas in Jesus’ day, the nation of Israel was occupied by Rome, two hundred years earlier, it had been occupied by the Greeks. The Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanies believed that Jerusalem needed to be Hellenized, so he erected a statue of Zeus in the Jewish temple. Those who refused to follow the new pagan customs were arrested and executed.
A Jewish priest named Mattathias survived the slaughter of thousands and organized a resistance. Upon his death, the guerilla army was led by Mattahias’ son Judah Maccabeus. Maccabeus routed the Seleucid forces from Jerusalem and re-consecrated the temple. Then something interesting happened. Maccabeus mounted his war horse and rode through the streets of Jerusalem and the people waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna” which by the way means “save us!”
Now fast forward 200 years. Jesus begins his ride through the streets of Jerusalem, but rather than sitting high on a war horse, he is riding on a young colt. There is no sword at his side, and no army trailing behind. Once again the people line the streets. Once again palm branches are waved. Once again the shouts of Hosanna fill the air.
The people are excited. This is their savior! This is the Messiah! He has come to fix everything that is wrong with their lives. They envisioned him conquering Rome and raising up Israel as the highest nation on earth. They saw a savior who was sent to rule an earthly kingdom. They saw Christ as Maccabeus 2.0.
Yet that was not what Christ was here to do. His kingdom was not an earthly kingdom. His mission was not on an earthly mission. He came with one goal, to die so that you wouldn’t have to.
When the people realized that this Messiah had no intention of defeating Rome, of making them prosperous and wealthy, or of giving them everything they thought they wanted in life, they became angry. This was not the deal they had signed up for. This was not the Messiah they dreamed about. And in their anger, their shouts of praise turned into shouts of hatred, shouts that led our Lord to the cross, shouts that still ring out across history.
Crucify Him.
Prayer: That this Easter season, God would remind us of the true reason Christ came to die.
Scripture: Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19
1 New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica
Truth. Sometimes it’s inconvenient.
Or so I’ve been told.
Anyway, it was the promise of prizes that made the hunt so enjoyable. You know the ones. The flyer comes in the mail advising you that you are guaranteed one of three prizes and all you have to do is attend a “brief” sales demonstration, sometimes spend the night at a ridiculously reduced rate, and BAM. It’s yours baby!
Over the years we attained some pretty cool prizes. The first two VCR’s my family ever owned came from time share tours. When combined with a gas grill, a nineteen inch color TV, a croquette set, 4 tickets to Medieval Times, and an assortment of coolers & tool kits, you can see that we were well rewarded for our weekend romps. Well, sort of anyway.
Yet of all the prizes that our time share touring brought in, none ever quite compared with the infamous “boat and motor.” I remember well the day the letter arrived. Unlike the traditional “You’ve won one of these three prizes,” spiel, it only listed one prize. In fact it not only listed it, it guaranteed it. Yes sir, right there in black and white it stated for all the world to see that we, the lucky recipients of this sacred envelope had indeed laid claim to the grandest grand prize of all, a brand new “boat and motor.”
Driving down that weekend, my mind raced over the scene that was sure to await us. I envisioned a reserved parking spot with a covered awning. A welcome reception with confetti and fruit trays where we would be awarded our grand prize amidst a cheering press corps who had been called out to document this once in a lifetime occasion. I resolved that I would not gloat over our new found fame and fortune. I would be mindful of those less fortunate time share attendees who had to content themselves with a utensil set or a soft sided cooler. No, we would accept our prize with dignity and humility and save our celebration for our first day out on the lake. When I closed my eyes I could almost hear the waves lapping the bottom of the boat as we skimmed across the water on our way to a new fishing hole. This was going to be AWESOME.
When we arrived, we discovered the time share office was actually a doublewide trailer. I looked about for our prize, but it was no where in sight. No doubt they had it secreted away somewhere and would wheel it out at the end of the tour. We got all checked in and before long, we found ourselves in a golf cart, bouncing down a dirt path to stare at the dirt lots that would eventually house the time share units.
Once this ritual was completed, we were off to the sales office. My excitement was building by the moment. After endless rounds of “looking at the numbers” and realizing that trying to manipulate numbers with a math teacher was an exercise in futility, the sales rep finally left to get our prize. I could hardly contain my excitement. I watched out the window to see them pull our boat around. After only a couple of minutes, the salesman returned and much to my confusion, handed us a small box and a bag.
There must be some mistake. We were guaranteed a “boat” and a “motor” to boot. And that was exactly what we got. An inflatable 2 man “boat” and an electric “motor”. I was beyond disappointed. This was NOT what I had in mind. Laughing it off, my dad said we’d still try it out at the lake. Soon enough, he and I headed out to give the thing a shot.
That’s when things went from bad to worse. After putting together the “motor”, we realized something. It was wonky. Instead of the J shape that one expects in a trolling motor, the propeller attached directly to the end of the shaft. This meant that when you had it pointed down in the water, the propeller pointed straight down instead of to the rear as one would actually expect from a “motor”. The entire thing looked remarkably like an oversized hand blender.
We hooked it up to the battery (which was NOT included I might add) and tried to hold it at an angle that instilled forward motion. The only way to achieve this was to point the goofy thing nearly straight out. This of course left half of the propeller sticking up out the water and resulted in a lovely rain of lake water into the boat. Thirty minutes later, we had gone about 12 feet.
I kid you not.
We kept with it, hoping we’d be able to “get the hang of it” before finally admitting defeat and hauling our already soaking wet selves to the shore. It was then that my disappointment turned to anger. This was NOT what you were supposed to get when someone offered a “boat and motor”. It didn’t fit the profile. It wasn’t what I expected.
All four Gospels give the account of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. It is what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. John’s gospel describes it this way:
12The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna! "
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!" 14Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
15"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."(NIV)
How strange is it that just a few short days later, this exact same crowd would go from praise to anger, and rather than shouting “Hosanna”, they would instead be shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”.
What was it that changed? What could cause such a dramatic shift in the thinking of this crowd?
To understand that, we need to look a bit of history.
Two hundred years before the Triumphal Entry, the city of Jerusalem was living under a military occupation just as it was at the time of Christ. Whereas in Jesus’ day, the nation of Israel was occupied by Rome, two hundred years earlier, it had been occupied by the Greeks. The Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanies believed that Jerusalem needed to be Hellenized, so he erected a statue of Zeus in the Jewish temple. Those who refused to follow the new pagan customs were arrested and executed.
A Jewish priest named Mattathias survived the slaughter of thousands and organized a resistance. Upon his death, the guerilla army was led by Mattahias’ son Judah Maccabeus. Maccabeus routed the Seleucid forces from Jerusalem and re-consecrated the temple. Then something interesting happened. Maccabeus mounted his war horse and rode through the streets of Jerusalem and the people waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna” which by the way means “save us!”
Now fast forward 200 years. Jesus begins his ride through the streets of Jerusalem, but rather than sitting high on a war horse, he is riding on a young colt. There is no sword at his side, and no army trailing behind. Once again the people line the streets. Once again palm branches are waved. Once again the shouts of Hosanna fill the air.
The people are excited. This is their savior! This is the Messiah! He has come to fix everything that is wrong with their lives. They envisioned him conquering Rome and raising up Israel as the highest nation on earth. They saw a savior who was sent to rule an earthly kingdom. They saw Christ as Maccabeus 2.0.
Yet that was not what Christ was here to do. His kingdom was not an earthly kingdom. His mission was not on an earthly mission. He came with one goal, to die so that you wouldn’t have to.
When the people realized that this Messiah had no intention of defeating Rome, of making them prosperous and wealthy, or of giving them everything they thought they wanted in life, they became angry. This was not the deal they had signed up for. This was not the Messiah they dreamed about. And in their anger, their shouts of praise turned into shouts of hatred, shouts that led our Lord to the cross, shouts that still ring out across history.
Crucify Him.
Prayer: That this Easter season, God would remind us of the true reason Christ came to die.
Scripture: Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19
1 New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica
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