Here are some of the best thoughts I’ve run across. May you be as challenged, stretched, and inspired as I have been.
Joe Long (via Facebook):
“And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem” (Luke 13: 32-33).
Herod is a “fox”, who thinks he’s king of his own kingdom and making the important decisions and scheming the schemes for himself, just as we think we’re “in charge” and doing important things…but the Lord has him in derision. “Tell him he can kill me when I have TIME to let him kill me; I’m busy right now.” (Elsewhere He declares, “I lay down (my life) myself; no man takes it from me.”)
“Fox” is also a bit sarcastic; it’s more “he thinks he’s pretty slick”, than any suggestion that he really is.
Pharisees were the ones warning Christ of the death plot. They get a bad rap – but many of the greatest leaders of the Church were drawn from among the Pharisees. Pharisees were serious people, scholars and “seekers”, prone to grievous errors but also sometimes profound insights – and Jesus loved them enough to confront and chasten them, over and over and over again.
The irony, indeed the black humor, of vs. 23 is not what we expect from the blue-eyed, curly haired character from the Sunday School paintings, who’s always holding a lamb. “I’ve got three days of hard travel ahead, but after all, prophets HAVE to be martyred in Jersualem!” That’s the Man I want to follow – not the smiley cartoon caricature
Jonathan Grubbs (via Facebook):
When Jesus said, “It is finished!” on the cross, it wasn’t simply a statement referring to the end of His suffering or the end of his life. The Greek word Jesus spoke here is tetelestai, a legal term of His time that means “paid in full.” The payment that was required for the sins of the world past, present and future was “paid in full” by Jesus that day on the cross!
James P Bowers (via Twitter):
The darkness before the dawn.
Athena Buckner Davis (via Facebook):
This night must’ve been the darkest night… so full of fear and emptiness… so devoid of hope… I wonder what it must’ve felt like for them, not knowing that Sunday was coming? I wonder how many in the world right now feel that way? I wonder why we aren’t falling over ourselves to tell them about Sunday?
Leonard Sweet (via Twitter):
Holy Saturday, aka “the longest day,” is when Jesus’ mission moves from the tomb into dark womb of the earth.
Rob Alderman (via Facebook):
Death took a bite and said, “Hey… There’s something different about this guy. I suddenly don’t feel so good.”
Kevin Trowbridge (via Twitter):
Will you follow or unfollow? Now is the time to decide.
