Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
   “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
   “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
   “Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:6-9 NIV)

As we look towards the cross and the brutality that it represents, we thank God that we can now look beyond it because of what Jesus did. The New Testament writers give slightly differing views of how this happened.  For Matthew, who we are told was writing for a predominantly Jewish audience, Jesus is presented as a driven purposeful man on a mission. Most Jewish people believe they are special and they have a highly developed sense of what it is to be human. Although Jesus was a Jewish man, his task was to enable the whole of humanity to understand what to be fully human is. So rather than focus on his Jewishness, his focus was on the cross and on the rest of humanity, including you and me.

This mission would be perfected at the cross where the great transaction would be accomplished. Matthew’s perspective is wonderfully refreshing, consider the following; while Jesus is on his way to the cross Matthew records him still performing miracles, 20:29-34; still telling parables 21:38-46 and still confronting the hypocrisies of the Scribes and Pharisees, 21:15-22 & 23:1-36. At no time is he presented as someone who was unaware of his impending fate. Nor does he shrink away from the responsibility.  He knew he had the sin of the whole world on his shoulders and fulfilled his task. This was to bring the glory of God back to humanity so that the father’s will be done on Earth as it was done in heaven.

As we reflect on the hope that the cross brings lets us reflect on a the chorus from the song, crucified by Lenny LeBlanc: Crucified Laid behind a stone, You lived to die, Rejected and alone, Like a rose Trampled on the ground You took the fall And thought of me Above all.

He took the fall and thought of me above all so that today once I put my hope in Jesus, I too can live a purposeful and driven life. What sort of things or people do you put your hope in?

Pray with me, ‘dear Jesus thank you for dying in my place so that I can live, in your name, amen’.

Read the scriptures cited; Matthew 20:29-34; 21:15-22; 38-46; & 23:1-36.