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Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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Cowards With Clean Feet

At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.  Matthew 26:55-56

Let me set the stage for you. It’s Gethsemane; the witching hour. Time for truth to play its ultimate hand. Eternity had submitted to a ticking clock. That clock’s alarm had suddenly gone off. Divine perfection had humbled himself within the confines of a human body. And now, this one-and-only instance of faultless humanity was about to take his iconic stand.

Evil’s shadow hung over this scene like a black fog. All of his actors were in place. They didn’t realize they were little more than sock-puppets of darkness masquerading as religious power brokers, Roman governors, professional soldiers, and fickle mobs. The coup Satan had started so long before was about to be completed. Or, so he thought.

Fortunately, Jesus wasn’t alone. He had his carefully chosen band-of-brothers surrounding him. Sure, one had already sold him out. In fact, he was leading this group of temple security thugs to capture him. But he still had the ones left.

No.

He didn’t have the twelve, or the eleven that were left, or even one of that collection of disciples he’d poured the last three years of his life into. There was no one to draw ranks around him and protect him from the hell that was in the process of breaking loose. But none of this took him by surprise. He was running solo. He’d known this for some time. He’d talked out the final scene with his Father in heaven, and then had stood up to carry out what he had come here to do. He was alone.

That was okay with him though. He knew going in the price he’d have to pay to redeem the people he so deeply loved. Humanity had been kidnapped. Sin and its ugly twin brother death held the human race hostage. The only begotten Son of God would have to die to pay the price for their freedom. The very people he came to save were going to leave him on his own to face this moment. But the evening before this early morning nightmare, Jesus had done something practical as well as symbolic to prepare them for this time when they would let him down.

He had washed their feet.

Feet. Those smelly, disgusting things at the end their legs. Those cracked and gnarly appendages they brought to dinner covered in filth and sweat. Those left and right instruments of cowardliness they’d use the next morning to put distance between them and the Savior … Jesus had gotten down on his knees, taken those feet in his hands and with water, soap and towel, washed them clean. He’d stooped lower than his disciples in order to do for them what they should have been doing for him.

Do you ever wonder what Jesus was thinking when he washed Judas’ feet? Before their final hurrah meal was even over, Judas would already be racing off on his spanking clean feet to see how much Jesus’ enemies would pay him to set an ambush. Still, Jesus took his betraying vile feet in his hands and scrubbed them clean. How about Peter? This Galilean redneck was full of spit and bravado, usually the first one to want to turn nasty circumstances into a bar fight. Before the morning rooster would complete his obligatory wake-up call, Peter would triple down on his denial of even being acquainted with Jesus. Knowing full well what was going to happen, Jesus still gave Peter the best foot scrubbing he’d ever had.

It was alright, though. Jesus understood. He knew that man, with all of his pride and cocksure confidence was helpless to stand on his own two feet when facing the full forces of the Prince of Darkness. And even without Satan messing with their minds, man had an historical record of being high on promises but low on follow-through.

Thus he had washed their feet so that when it was time for them to let him down, they’d at least have clean feet on which to run away.

Man has had millenniums to reflect on all of this. We now see clearly what Jesus’ disciples were blind to at the moment. Jesus donned towel and water at the Last Supper to illustrate man’s universal dilemma and God’s divine solution. We were stinky, gnarly, and filthy in our sin. Our only way out was for God to assume the form of a servant and stoop down to make us clean.

The night before, Jesus had used water to wash off the temporal miles of grime from their feet. This next day, this Good Friday, he’d wash off a lifetime of sin … with his blood. His disciples ran away from him on clean feet he’d washed the night before. Meanwhile, before the day was done, Evil would pierce his own precious feet with spikes. And in the process, Jesus would give mankind an opportunity to have a clean heart.

The only difference between the disciples and us is that we weren’t there to join them in the abandonment of Jesus. But, just like them, he still loved us enough to do what had to be done to give us clean hearts, clean lives, and clean destinies. He’s the love of God wrapped in a towel and holding a basin of water. He’s the gospel hanging on a cross. He’s our eternal hope outside an empty tomb calling us to come to him on our feet of clay and receive his gift of eternal life.

Can you identify with the cowardly disciples with clean feet? How does God’s grace in your life give you strength and courage when all hell is breaking loose around you? What does Jesus’ attitude towards the cowardly disciples with the clean feet teach you when it comes to your children’s tentative response to all of the gracious work you’re doing in their life?

© Dr. Tim Kimmel 2012 All Rights Reserved

Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much.

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Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My: the Underbelly of Quick Success

“The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.” Deuteronomy 7:22

I wonder how often our prayers that ask God for bigger-than-life favor on our efforts (and sooner than later) actually come off as ranting and whining in His ears. We’ve made big plans for our marriage, our kids, our job or our dreams and we’re frustrated that things aren’t happening as fast as we’d prefer. For instance, you spent all that time getting a couple of degrees from college and figure that by thirty years old your salary ought to have at least six digits in front of the decimal point. This fast track quid pro quo attitude is why God prefers to run our lives rather than giving us our photo-shopped desires. We’re too naïve and preoccupied to see how stupid and dangerous our selfish hopes for our personal lives really are.

Speaking of grad school, the nation of Israel had spent 40 years getting a PhD in walking around in circles. The Promised Land now lies sprawled out as far as their eyes can see; just over the glistening waters of the Jordon River. There are some nasty nations with intimidating names occupying the land: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizites, Hivites, Jebusites. These were people who had cut a deal with the devil centuries earlier. They chose to thumb their nose at the God who made them and instead bowed their knees to evil itself. The stench of their vile lifestyles had reached God’s nostrils. Their wholesale disregard for human life—even the precious lives of their own children—finally determined the dénouement of their existence. They had to go (Leviticus 18:24-25; Ezra 9:10-12). Israel was chosen to administrate their ultimate demise. In the process, she was also going to finally get to claim the land grant God had promised to her patriarch, Abraham, so many years earlier.

But God made an interesting passing statement to Moses as he was telling him how the land grab would ultimately come down. He said although the nations would fold like broken lawn chairs before them, the actual conquering of the land would be done methodically over a prolonged period of years. Then God slipped this reason into the mix: so that the wild animals wouldn’t multiply so rapidly that they couldn’t keep them under control (my paraphrase of Deuteronomy 7:22; Exodus 23:29-30).

Literally, God is referring to wild boars, jackals, leopards, hyenas, mountain lions and bears. We know these types of animals existed in Israel (Judges 14:6, 1 Samuel 17:33-37, 1 Kings 13:23-25). But the presence of all of those challenging nations mentioned above kept these animals from over-populating. God promised to go before Israel and conquer these nations. The deal was simple: as long as Israel kept their trust in the Lord, He would fight their battles for them. None of these nations stood a chance. But there was a threat that lived in the shadows and crevices of the land they were conquering that God knew would be too much for them if Israel was allowed to get the upper hand too soon. He didn’t want the hunters to become the hunted.

These wild animals in the back story of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land serve as a metaphor for our lives too.

They are the same reason God usually doesn’t grant us our prayer requests for jobs that come easy or payoff early, hassle free marriages, kids without selfish wills, and friends without issues. All of these things we’d prefer to have in our lives have something in common: they don’t require our daily dependence on God. Having to develop wealth or achieve a certain level of prominence the old fashion way—by humble and hard work, living below our means on a budget and saving as we go puts us in a position to not only appreciate wealth and status when and if it finally comes, but know how to handle it. The struggles of love, goofy kids and unstable friends keep us in our Bibles and on our knees. But if everything came easily and quickly (the way too many people would prefer), we don’t realize how many predators would be waiting in the wings to take us out.

Blood feeders like pride, arrogance, entitlement, ease, idleness, self-sufficiency, close-mindedness and elitism love to slip in and devour the hearts of people who have life served to them on Wedgewood opportunities. I’ve seen too many who enjoyed beginners luck end up with winner’s remorse. I’ve also seen too many early retirements lead to divorces and too many silver-spooned kids self-destruct. There’s a reason why God usually allows success to be found at the end of a long and winding road. You’ve got to depend on Him to lead you, trust His maps when the path seems wrong, and keep your hand clenched tightly in His when liars bid you to take their shortcuts.

Trust Him when he says, “But I will not drive them (the hassles of your normal life: like work, love, family and friendships) out in a single year, because the land (your personal life) would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them (the hassles and challenges) out before you, until you have increased enough (matured in Christ) to take possession of the land.” Exodus 23:29-30 (parenthetical statements added).

The good life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Those glowing eyes blinking in its shadows are reason enough to let God decide how much and how soon you’re ready for more.

Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much.

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 “And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver …”  Joshua 24:32

It’s the next to the last verse of Joshua; a postscript to an amazing story that started back at the beginning of the book of Genesis. The mummy of Joseph was finally buried alongside his ancestors in Shechem – over 400 years after he’d died. For the last forty of those years, a group of people were assigned the job of carrying around his remains in the wilderness. This story is about them.

Let’s get some context: God had created the universe, made the human race in His image and gave man the option to choose to trust him out of love rather than being programmed to obey Him. Man didn’t do well with that responsibility. But if love doesn’t require choice and responsibility, it can’t be love, can it?

Out of man’s bedlam, God decided to do what the law of cause and effect would never have suggested—He gave grace. He chose a childless, ripened old man named Abram and his fading wife Sarah to birth a nation that would ultimately give way to a Savior. A nation from an infertile couple; it’s a story only God could write.

Abram was renamed Abraham. Ultimately, he had 12 great grandsons. One was named Joseph. If you know anything about this young man, you know that he was another exception to the law of cause and effect. Bad things are supposed to happen to bad people, not the other way around. In spite of his nobility and righteousness his spiteful brothers grew to hate him and everything he stood for. That hate turned into a plot to murder him, but instead they sold him as a slave. In slavery, Joseph was falsely accused of sexual assault and landed in the Egyptian version of Alcatraz. Again, cause and effect turned on its head.

In fact, the miserable events that defined his young life were actually part of the Grace Manifesto God began with that tired old man and his barren wife. God’s sovereign movement of circumstances were woven with divine threads. Joseph’s humble obedience—in spite of the horrific reverse of fortunes in his life—set him up to become second in command over the nation of Egypt. Against the backdrop of the Pyramids, Joseph assumed the position of prime minister of an empire and deliverer of his own family.

This led to “the reunion.” Desperate to avoid starvation, his brothers unknowingly found themselves in front of the brother they’d betrayed. Witness some of the Bible’s most riveting reading when Joseph reveals his identity to the very brothers who plotted his murder and sold him into slavery. But this man, who had the authority and ability to crush them like bugs, instead chose grace. “What you meant for evil, God has intended all along as a vehicle for good (Gen. 50:20).

It was in Egypt that God turned this third generation of Abraham into a nation. But just before Joseph died, he made the leaders of his extended family promise that when God ultimately brought them out of Egypt, they were to take his remains with them and rebury him near his father in Shechem.

Hundreds of years later God raised up Moses to lead this exodus. Joseph’s coffin was taken from its tomb in Egypt and joined the massive departure of the nation his faithful obedience had helped create.

If you can, visualize the King Tut likeness painted atop his coffin, being lugged by its assigned pall bearers over the serpentined, forty year journey to the Promised Land.

What you may not have considered is that according to the ceremonial law of Israel these pall bearers were assigned a task that automatically declared them “unclean.” Nonetheless, one of the great patriarchs of this supernatural epic had made a request, and their ancestors gave their word. It was the least these agents of Moses could do.

They were men who believed in keeping promises; regardless of the personal price. They were men who honored the prominent role of legacy.

And so, they carried the encased remains of a faithful Israelite through the Red Sea, around Mount Sinai and ultimately across the Jordon River. While Israel grumbled, they carried Joseph. While Israel lost their mind at the altar of the golden calf, they guarded the casket. While Israel paid a forty year price for their unwillingness to trust, they hoisted the body on their shoulders and lowered their heads into the desert wind. A generation of men gave their lives to this task and then charged their sons to do the same. Ultimately, they brought the remains of Joseph back to where his divine odyssey began, almost a half a millennium earlier.

These men remind me of someone. You. Me. We are pall bearers of requests made in the past and curators of promises meant to be kept in the present. We are called to carry on the good of those who went before us and to finish the work they began. The paths our families take may get sidetracked as a result of folly, but we’d all do well to take note of these men’s faithfulness and make it our aim to follow their example.

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Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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We’ll Leave the Lights On For You

“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:6-7

The Innkeeper. He usually gets an honorable mention from the pulpit each December. And over the years, a decent share of people have tried to flesh him out. He deserves this back story because what he did created the scene that has since captured the heart of the entire world.

Even people who aren’t inclined to bow their knees to the Calvary story still stand in awe of the drama that happened in Bethlehem three decades before the cross. Mary and Joseph are household names because of the extraordinary courage and humility they brought to their circumstances. The unwashed shepherds and the privileged Magi bracket the manger scene as representatives of the two respective ends of the human continuum.

But the whole nativity picture pivoted on a decision of an innkeeper who was willing to think and act outside of the confines of his situation. God loves to involve people in His plan who tend to pay closer attention to the moment. He found a willing heart in this innkeeper. And because he did, the whole world’s a better place.

Just for the record, let’s at least acknowledge the possibility that the innkeeper might have been a woman. It’s always assumed that it was a man—perhaps because of the diminished priority that that era of history placed on women’s contributions. But whether it was a man or a woman, one thing that was going to change as a result of the baby born in his or her stable was that women were going to begin to be shown the honor and respect God had originally designed into their gender.

Bethlehem wasn’t much of a town back then. We do know, however, that it was bursting at the seams with an influx of people who had doubled back to the tap root of their family tree to check in for a Roman census. Government proclamations seldom come with any grace attached. That’s why Mary found herself on this road trip on the launch date of her first born child.

We don’t know whether the inn was a five star venue with lots of amenities or a simple B&B. It doesn’t matter. There were no rooms anywhere to be found. We don’t know if the baby was born the first night they moved into the stable or whether they had been there a while. We don’t know whether it was a lean-to, a full fledged barn or a cutaway in the rocks. We’ll leave that to the artist’s imagination.

But there’s something we do know; every inn had a stable. They had to. It was the equivalent of a parking garage. People who stayed had to have a place for their means of transportation.

So every hotel that Joseph walked into and every front desk clerk he talked with had the same option. But only one seemed willing to slip outside the confines of the standard innkeeper mentality. Let’s call it SIM for short. You’d only know it if you are an innkeeper, but the object of the game is to provide a room to a customer for a price. Once all your rooms are occupied, you get to put a “No Vacancy” sign in the window and sit back and count your money. When people inquire, you simply point to the sign, give them a shrug and go back to your calculating.

But here was a couple who didn’t have the luxury of going online in advance to reserve a safe, warm place to be in at the official start of their family. Obviously, emergency wards and delivery rooms weren’t yet on the city map. This innkeeper didn’t look at Joseph and Mary with a “too late, not my problem” attitude. He (or she) saw a couple in need and offered them something that would at least spare them the humiliation of having to deliver their child on the street.

We’ve got to be careful reading too much into the unknowns, but there’s one thing that is certain: this innkeeper didn’t look at people as customers. He (or she) looked on people as people. This young couple had a need he felt he couldn’t ignore.

It’s interesting how life changes when we make it our aim to think like this innkeeper. Life has a lot less hassles when you stick to the SIM. But it’s amazing, in fact, beyond amazing, what God has in store for those among our ranks who are determined to see people the way God sees them. It’s a grace-based commitment to leave the lights on for everyone. And based on what the Light of the World did for us, it’s the least we can do in return.

Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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The Unnamed Thief

⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:32

It was Friday afternoon. The three men hanging on the crosses just outside of Jerusalem had been slowly dying since the moment earlier that day when they had been violently nailed into position. Their silhouettes scarred an otherwise pastoral horizon. Everything good and perfect on earth was embodied in the man hanging on the middle cross. The men bracketing him were summaries of everything wrong in the world.

For all of the generations who have looked back on this scene, Jesus will always and should always remain the central focus of this story. Without him, there is no story. Without Jesus, it’s little more than a sad and ugly picture of a couple of guys getting what their selfish actions deserve. Their pitiful lives were being snuffed out at the hands of a system of justice that knew how to punish a person as much as it could for his wrongs.

We never caught their names. We were never given a rundown on what they stole. Did they know each other before they were brought to this horrible place? Had they been partners in crime? If their mothers or fathers were in the crowd watching them die, were they wondering where they went wrong as a parent? Did any of their victims come out to see them get this well-earned justice?

But when you step back and take a broader view of what was going on, the men on either side of Jesus played a key role in illustrating the overriding point of this event. Two hopeless men started their last day on earth with their cynicism well defined. But before they finally succumb to the talons of death, one went through a dramatic transformation.

It’s such an amazing ending to a day that started out so badly. The one thing both of these thieves knew when those soldiers stood over them that morning with the nails and hammers in their hands was that they weren’t coming out of this alive. Their hopelessness simply accentuated their cynicism.

It was a cynicism that paralleled well with the fickle crowd’s arrogance. Perhaps it was a way of taking the focus off of their own agony, but that morning these thieves had joined with the spectators in collectively hurling insults at the God/man in the middle. The faces in the crowd, as well as the religious leaders who helped orchestrate this injustice, went out of their way to mock Jesus. But Matthew 27:44 says, In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. Robbers … plural.

But something happened to one of them. Somewhere between the time their crosses were set in place that morning and this moment in mid-afternoon, one of these thieves had a change of heart. This man who lived his life according to the motto, “What’s yours is mine,” was altered by his exposure to a Savior who lived his life according to the motto, “what’s mine is yours.” He could tell by the accusations of the crowd that whatever it was that this “Jesus” guy had done wrong, it certainly didn’t deserve crucifixion. Yet he didn’t defend himself.

And then there was the concern for his mother and him asking his friend to take care of her for him (John 19:26-27). What kind of loser has the mind to do that? But above all else, there was that wholesale and generous forgiveness. It came almost as soon as their crosses were raised up that morning. It framed the whole event and defined Jesus’ attitude toward the heartless torture and all of the insulting words that were thrown at him the rest of the day. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

There was love on the center cross … there was mercy … and grace. It sobered one of the thieves of the pride and self-righteousness that had led him to this day of his demise. Luke 23:29-40 records the beginning of the transformation: ³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

The sign above Jesus said, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews (John 19:19).” It all started to come together in this thief’s mind. This man is a king, his kingdom isn’t of this world, and I believe he has the power to take me with him to that kingdom. It’s actually pretty sophisticated theology for a man with such a brief and limited exposure to the heart of Jesus. But it was enough.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” It was all that was required—humility led him to a simple acknowledgement of who Jesus was and an equally simple faith allowed him to believe that Jesus could do what he said he could do. That faith gave this nameless thief the privilege of being the very first recipient of God’s grace through his sacrificial death. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this man is part of the welcoming committee when we get to heaven. And anyone who brings the same three qualities to the Savior can some day find out: humility, acknowledgement and faith. They worked for an unnamed thief; they’ll work for you.

Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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The Donkey Whisperer

“Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” Mark 11:2-3

The Jerusalem tourist season is at its high water mark. Spiritual pilgrims from every point on the compass have been arriving for days as the Children of Israel count down to their biggest celebration of the year—The Passover. It’s a day when they remember their divine deliverance from Egypt as well as look ahead to their ultimate deliverer, The Messiah.

Of course, neither the locals nor the out-of-towners have any clue what’s about to happen, or the personal part they’ll play in all of it. But the stage is set. All that the Passover symbolizes will be fulfilled before the week is over. The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, will be sacrificed and the promised Messiah will show up as a risen Savior.

This calls for a parade!

Old Testament prophecies had scheduled Jesus to kick off this redemption week by riding into Jerusalem and receiving His rightful reception as the God of the Universe. Yet, he knew he’d run into problems if he applied for a parade permit from the religious nutjobs who were presently running the show. Early on in his public ministry he’d learned to ignore these guys and do whatever he wanted. In fact, he knew they were, at that very moment, plotting his demise. Why not give them something huge to talk about. While he’s at it, he could use the parade as the perfect illustration of the fickle nature of the human heart. The same people who would be yelling “Hosanna” that Sunday would be screaming “Crucify him,” by Friday.

Jesus, the King of Kings, deserved the finest horse in the land as his mount. Instead, this “man of sorrows” chose an untried and untrained donkey. Isn’t it ironic that when God wants to make a big splash, he loves to tap out the most obscure and unqualified to help him drive home his point? Nothing could illustrate this better than when he sent for this little animal, climbed on his back and headed up the parade route.

This donkey was an “extra” in this drama, little more than a prop for the man of the hour. But, boy oh boy, did he carry out his role well. We’d all do well as humans to have a fraction of the class this little donkey had.

He was available. He wasn’t out wandering around, but right where he was supposed to be when Jesus needed him.

He was teachable. He’d never been ridden before, but Jesus did some instant donkey whispering. In spite of his lack of experience, he rose to the challenge.

He was humble. In a lot of parades, the horses are so magnificently saddled and tacked out that they show up the rider. Not so with this little guy. They covered him with their robes so that all you could see was his nose peeking out the front and his tail wagging in the back.

He was faithful. He was a young colt carrying a full grown man. He was going uphill as people chucked palm fronds in his way. And if that wasn’t enough, they were yelling their adoration just inches away from his sensitive ears. Heavy. Complex. Frightening. Great excuses to quit, but this colt just kept clip-clopping his way up the steep hill and through the gate.

It’s hard to be available to God when we’re wondering off in a selfish life of sin. It’s hard to be teachable when we’re always looking at magnitude of our assignment instead of the magnitude of our God. It’s hard to humbly serve God and others when our ego has grown accustomed to hearing its name called out over the PA system. It’s hard to stay faithful when we’re whining about the weight of the challenge, cursing the obstacles that litter our path, or allowing the intimidation of the moment to define our attitude.

On the other hand, when Jesus calls on you, and whispers into your heart his desires—and you’re ready to respond—there’s no limit to what he can do in, on, to, with and through you.

I know this for a fact. I learned it from a donkey.

When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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Lap of Luxury

 “And taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.’”  Mark 9:36-37

Who knows whose kid he was? The account doesn’t say. We know that Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum and went to “the” house. It wasn’t “a” house in general, but a particular house. So this boy might have been one of the children of the owner of the house that they were accustomed to staying at when their travels passed through Capernaum. Or, perhaps, he was one of the disciple’s kids who happened to rendezvous with his dad in the midst of his travels. Whoever he was, he was more than a child at the right place at the right time. Indeed, he was one of the most fortunate people in Jesus’ entire three years of public ministry.

That’s because he got to sit on the lap of Jesus and actually feel the arms of God wrapped around him. I know lots of people who’d give every dollar they have just to trade places with him.

If you were some street-level passerby hearing about this after the fact, you might be inclined to think it was simply a random act of affection by a kind rabbi. But God doesn’t operate by accident. He’s spontaneous, mind you, and there’s no doubt that He loves surprises. But even God’s most out-of-context events are part of His deliberate and determined plan to create a heart connection to his favorite created beings.

Some might look at the bigger context and think that the boy was just a fortunate prop in Jesus greater teaching; a human object lesson used to put the disciples in their place. Jesus didn’t need to pass out cheap affection to drive home an urgent point to his disciples. On the contrary, Jesus was doing what he was always doing when he tried to make a point with people—he was making several of them.

For the record, the disciples had been having a whisper-level argument among themselves during their recent road trip. Jesus already knew exactly what it was about. He knew that they were quibbling among themselves about which of them was going to have the greatest reputation and status in the greater kingdom of God. We know that He knew this for two reasons: first, He’s God and knows everything, and second, He immediately singled out this child to make a point about true greatness.

Here’s Jesus with the 12 executive VP’s He’d chosen to launch His new Christian world order. Here’s a no-named kid who’s expected to be seen but unheard. Twelve men at the top of their career path are over-shadowing a young kid at the bottom of the social food chain. And Jesus, knowing that the disciples were worried about personal status, proceeds to drop a pile driver on their egos. “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.” That’s not what they were hoping for. And then he calls this child over, pulls the boy up on his lap, wraps his arms around him and uses his actions to remind his disciples what really matters.

The boy showed loving trust, immediate obedience, and was grateful for just the opportunity of being loved. What a contrast to the disciples who should have had all of those attitudes and more based on their age, their calling and their exposure to Jesus. Instead, Jesus took a child to show them what they were missing.

I’ve always felt that if I could change places with anyone in the Bible, it would be this child. And when I someday get to heaven, I’m going to look him up. I want to know how long he lived and find out if he married and had children of his own. I want to know what he thought about when he held his own children on his lap.

He had sat in the lap of divine luxury with the arms of the Savior of the World tenderly holding him close. In that gentle moment he had been center-stage in a lesson about what matters most. His story has remained fresh and new for thousands of years. And we should all take notice. His story teaches us to be like Jesus in how we view people’s importance and to be like this child when it comes to avoiding the petty arguments of people who miss the point and simply bask in the comfort of God’s grace.

Back Stories - When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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Mi Upper Room es Su Upper Room

“As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.” Luke 22:10-12

It’s crunch time. The road trips are over. Q & A’s at the synagogues are going to be relegated to the historical record. What Jesus came to the world to do is finally staring him dead in the face. It’s time for the cross.

No event of this magnitude occurs in a vacuum. To a certain degree, everything he’s done since his birth in Bethlehem has been part of the build up to this moment. But now that the event is less than 24 hours away, he’s got to take care of some of final details regarding his disciples. Then all hell is free to break loose.

Jesus had some major theological lessons to teach his disciples about new covenants and the coming Holy Spirit. He had some practical lessons they’d need right away regarding servant attitudes (through washing their feet) and unity. He had a betrayer to confront. He had one of his closest confidants that needed to be prepared for those moments the next morning when his feet of clay would crumble beneath him.

If John 13-16 is any guide, this was no quick eat-n-run meal. Jesus had a lot to say; several layers of grace and truth to apply to their hearts. He needed a quiet staging area for this tender moment that offered the comfort and wherewithal to experience it with the least distractions.

We don’t know whether Jesus personally knew the owner of this house. Logic says that most likely he did. Perhaps their paths crossed in a previous visit to Jerusalem. He might have heard one of Jesus great discourses, observed one of his run-ins with the religious power brokers, or had a front row seat to one of his miracles. Maybe Jesus pulled him aside at some point and said, “I’m going to need a place to stage a final dinner party with my disciples before I activate my ultimate Kingdom plan. Any chance I could use that big room you have on the top floor of your house?”

Regardless, whatever it was that he needed and whenever it was that he needed it, there was a man ready and more than happy to accommodate him. So Peter and John did what Jesus said. They went to the gate, saw the servant carrying water, followed him to the address and were welcomed by a generous homeowner who held everything he had in open hands.

But he was more than that. He had to be. We can assume he was a conscientious steward of his talent, a careful handler of relationships, a person who maintained priorities that kept the eternal in perspective, and he was obviously a person who handled his money well. He’d have to be and do all of these things in order to have the kind of substantial, comfortably furnished, and well-stocked upper room/kitchen needed to accommodate 13 men and the wait staff required to serve them dinner at a moments notice.

When the disciples came knocking, there wouldn’t have been time to do a thorough cleaning and replace missing or unacceptable furnishings and kitchen utensils. It could never be perfect, but it had to be more than adequate and ready. And so it was.

It’s hard for God to call on undisciplined people. When spiritual opportunity knocks at our door it’s too late to decide to get our act together. On the other hand, when ordinary people decide to format their lives to bring glory, dignity and accommodation to an extraordinary God, there’s no end to how and when he will use them to make an eternal difference.

A faithful man said “Welcome.” Mi upper room es su upper room.” Feet were washed. Disciples were fed. Heads and hearts were taught. Betrayers were singled out. Friends were prepared for the worst. And then, just before Jesus headed out to fulfill His destiny for us, He made sure everyone got on the same side of the table for one last group photo.

Back Stories – When you peek between the lines or catch a glimpse of the shadows slipping quietly behind the scenes, there are a lot of people in the Bible—often nameless, faceless people—who play a huge role in the final outcome of the story. Theirs is the back story—those quiet dramas in the background that appear so obscure and trivial at first glance yet put in motion so much. These are men and women, sometimes even boys and girls, who made choices or took actions that either made an enormous contribution to God’s unfolding drama of redemption, or cost His Kingdom dearly. These are their stories.

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A boy, a mom, and a lunch

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” John 6:9

The needs of the crowd were sincere. They longed for a word of hope and a healing touch. That’s what brought them out in such large numbers. “Jesus is here.” The One whose teaching had baffled the religious elites was up at the top of the hill with His disciples. That rabbi with the miraculous medical track record was close enough to make house calls.

And so they came … by the thousands … to get near enough to hear His voice and feel His power.

It’s easy to become so preoccupied with urgent demands that you overlook obvious needs. The disciples made a habit of this, but Jesus never did. And in this remote place, with so many people turning to Him for help, Jesus not only sensed the deep longings of their souls, but the practical demands of their stomachs. This crowd was getting hungry and someone needed to feed them.

Seldom does Jesus teach a singular lesson in whatever it is He does. This situation was no exception. The crowd needed fed, but the disciples needed to know how to follow God’s orders even when there’s no human way to pull them off. Jesus knew He would soon be heading back up to heaven. The price for our sins would be paid and a fresh relationship with the human race would be established. He knew that not only His disciples, but all of His followers, were going to have to know how to trust Him to do extraordinary things through them in spite of their limited abilities. Which is what prompted Him to ask where they could purchase enough food to feed this crowd of over 5,000 people. Of course, He had no intention of them buying anything. The pieces and players of this miracle were already in place for Him to do what needed to be done, all because a mom had played her part so well.

You don’t meet this lady; only her boy. And as it is, he remains nameless to this day. The role he played in this wonderful story was precious mainly because of a mom standing off stage who did something priceless.

After it was obvious to the disciples that they had no clue what to do, a boy stepped forward with an offer. We don’t know whether the disciple, Andrew, had discovered this boy with the lunch or the boy had been close enough to the back-and-forth exchanges between Jesus and His disciples to know the dilemma. Regardless, Andrew passed on the boy’s suggestion. “For what it’s worth, tell Jesus He’s welcome to my lunch.”

In a crowd this size, logic dictates that this boy wasn’t the only one standing there with food on him. He’s just the only one who was willing to give it away. He could offer it because a mother had carefully prepared him to play a strategic role in the success of this miracle.

Obviously she had packed his lunch. It was a meal fit for a young boy; thus the smaller proportions of fish and bread. But she had also packed a sense of adventure in his head, generosity in his heart and faith in his soul. All of these prompted him to step forward with his meager offering and place it in the hands of the God who ultimately offers the bread of life.

The lunch, by itself, would probably have been consumed in private. But someone had seen fit to build a bigger vision for life into this boy. Jesus took his sense of adventure, his generosity, his faith and his lunch and turned them all into a divine picnic.

He’s still willing to do this through our kids. But He loves it when we play our part. You may feel bored with the mundane or ignored when you whisper those greater lessons of life into your child’s spirit, but don’t quit and never stop believing. Your devotion to an eternal vision for your children is all God needs to take what little they have in their hands and turn it into extraordinary blessings for many.