Thought for March 27, 2024

•  1513: Ponce de Leon sights Florida
• 1836: First Mormon temple dedicated [Kirtland Ohio]
• 1855: Abraham Gesner patents kerosene
• 1915: Typhoid Mary arrested and returned to quarantine after evading authorities for 5 years
• 1939: First NCAA basketball championship--Oregon beats Ohio State
• 1952: Sun Records begins releasing records
• 1964: Great Alaska earthquake--9.2
• 1972: Adolph Rupp retires
• 1977: Two 747's collide at Tenerife killing 583
• 1980: Mt Saint Helens erupts
• 1995: "Forrest Gump" wins Academy Award
  
• 2020: $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed by President Trump
• Born: Nathaniel Currier [Currier & Ives], Wilhelm Rontgen [x-rays], Henry Royce, Patty Smith Hill [wrote "Happy Birthday to You"], Gloria Swanson, Sarah Vaughn, David Janssen, Cale Yarborough, Quentin Tarantino, Mariah Carey
• Died: Yuri Gargarin, Milton Berle, Dudley Moore, Joe Bellino

Thought:

Reading Luke 22:66-71 today. Here is the question everyone must answer. " Are You the Christ? Are You the Son of God?" Notice who asks the questions--the chief priests, the elders in the Sanhedrin. These are the learned ones. The Biblical scholars. The most respected and revered men in Israel. Those that claimed to live lives of obedience to the Law and to fulfill all the rituals of the Law. The chief priests had been in the Holy of Holies in the very presence of God. And here they ask the questions. 

Christ is the Anointed One or Messiah. For hundreds of years the people had been waiting for the Messiah promised by the prophets. He would come and free His people. He would come and defeat their enemies. He would come and establish a kingdom of peace and plenty. Now, here is this mason/carpenter from Nazareth. He doesn't look like a king. He doesn't have an army, just a band of rag tag people. He doesn't come organizing resistance to the Romans; in fact, He teaches that we give to Caesar that which is Caesar's. Are you really the long expected Messiah? You don't act like the Messiah we are expecting. They were looking for someone to defeat the Romans and their other earthly enemies. They had the wrong enemies in mind. He came to defeat the real enemies, death and Satan. I find myself often thinking about the wrong enemy. Lord, help us understand who the real enemy is. 

Have you ever read about someone or heard about someone and then met them face to face and thought--you are not at all what I expected. I thought you would be taller, younger, older, more beautiful or handsome. I thought you would be the person I created in my mind--my dreams. Now, here you are and you are not what I expected. Unfortunately, the Sanhedrin was not really interested in whether Jesus was the Messiah, they were looking for blasphemy that called for condemnation and death. 

Are You the Son of God? Jesus claimed to be God's only begotten Son. [John 3:16] As an aside, the word "begotten" as used with reference to Jesus comes from the word "genos"  meaning unique in kind [monogenes]. Jesus is God's unique Son. There is another word translated begotten which derives from the word "gennao" which means to beget as used in the old Testament to describe those physically born of another. 

Notice what Jesus says in response to the questions. First, you will not believe what I say. Your hearts are hard. You are not really looking for truth. But if you want the truth--I will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And "yes" I am God's Son. Here is a man who has raised the dead, cleansed the leper, healed the blind, cast out demons. Here is a man who has just replaced the severed ear of the chief priest's servant. He has spoken with authority. He has answered all the trick questions of the scribes and Pharisees. And the reaction of the Sanhedrin--we have heard enough. He has confessed to blasphemy. 

I guess my question for today for Larry is "do you really believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God."  If you really believe that, are you living like you believe it and are you telling everyone you can that the Messiah has come? 

Blessings

Larry