Obedience to God in Tough Times

 Psalm 130     Deuteronomy 17-18     Mark 14

We have all at times been overwhelmed by the sense that we can’t keep track of all the laws of God or of people in our lives. Just about the time we think we have it right and feel good someone tells us we have broken their law and we should pay the price for it. That is the way many that do not know God feel about the God we worship and offer praise to.

In this morning’s song we are reminded that God’s goal is not to execute judgement but to offer grace, undeserved forgiveness, and the chance to start again. For if the Lord was to mark and hold each of our sins, those things we do contrary to the laws of God, against us how would be able to stand before the Lord? The truth is that none of us would be worthy of God’s love and praise. And yet, the Lord offers abundant grace, forgiveness and joy to those that will seek him out and his way of life. It is the Word of God, the Bible, that offers us this hope when we take in the whole of scripture, not just the parts we like. God restores us to a new life and love and all it takes is a willingness to pursue his way of life.

After reminding the people of Israel that he has cared for them their whole life God makes clear he expects to be offered their very best and not the left over and defective things they are blessed with. Once again, we see God calling his people to be a people of integrity, requiring more than one witness and that the witness will be required to execute the judgement their witness causes. If they can’t decide it become the responsibility of the priests and judges to decide. Their ruling is then considered final and expected to be carried out.

While God want to be the ruler of the people it is clear that they will be satisfied with that and want a king like those around them. They need to choose carefully and make sure that leader is prepared to carry out God’s plan and not their own.

Mark 14 outlines those hours before Jesus is condemned to die. Eating with a group of people many who would have been unacceptable to many including one that comes and breaks a vile of perfume and anoints him with it. There is a cry because this is a waste of money. Jesus tells them that she is preparing him for burial and their focus should shift. Judas then heads out to make a deal to betray him.

Gathering with his disciples to celebrate the Passover and as part of the meal telling them that the bread represents his body and the wine the blood. He passes the bread and wine among his disciples and tells them that one of their very own will betray him. Jesus points out that the one that betrays him still breaks bread with them and it would have been better never to have been born. Then he tells them in fact that all of them will run and abandon him. Peter, as usual responds that he will never abandon him even if all the others run away. Jesus tells him that before the next morning he will deny even knowing him three times.

After crossing the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane he asks those closest to him to join him while he goes off to prayer. While praying about what he knows he faces in the coming hours they fall asleep. Judas then comes with the men to arrest him, betraying him with a kiss. After a brief struggle Jesus tells his follower to put away their weapons and trust him. They then flee as he had told them they would.

Jesus is put on trial in the middle of the night, beaten and mocked and they condemn him to death. Peter in the meantime has run off with the other disciples to hide. While he ventures in close again, he denies he even knows Jesus, just as Jesus said he would. When he realizes he has done exactly what Jesus said he would he begins to reflect on what he has done and weeps.

We find the people of Israel on the edge of the promised land and we find Jesus on the edge of prophecy told long ago. The question we all need to ask ourselves is who we would be supporting during this time. It is easy to look back through the cross and condemn those that rejected Jesus and all he taught but the reality is that if we honestly look in the mirror, we will often see ourselves as one of the ones disobedient to God and condemning him. During Lent we reflect on how much we look like Jesus and that includes our obedience to God in the face of adversity.