Joshua 8:1-9:15
God wants his people to do well. He is also pretty smart. I’m sure the people doubted it as they stood at Mount Ebal for hours on end listening to every single word that Moses had written and they clearly forgot it when those jolly japesters from Gibeon showed up. But it is true and it is something we can totally rely on. It was demonstrated in the positive when Joshua took time to ask God his opinion about Ai and in the negative when he didn’t bother to ask about the Gibeonites. A Vineyard distinctive is that we try never to move until we feel the Lord has called us to. Sometimes its hard work but, on the occasions we get it right, it is utterly amazing. God really does want us to do well and he is pretty smart at working out ways of getting us there.
Luke 22:63-23:25
As the gospel reaches boiling point we find a single message emerging from the flames. The essence of Jesus, the central claim about this extraordinary individual is that he is king. That is the thing that sticks. The assembly accuse him of it, Pilate grills him on it and Jesus confesses it. What the assembly just can’t accept and Pilate can’t grasp is that Jesus is not just king with a small ‘k’ but King of all Kings whose reign and dominion will know no end. And, as Luke makes clear, kingship is about jurisdiction. Herod tries to claim to that Jesus is under his jurisdiction but Jesus is having none of it. He won’t humour the puppet king, the sham king of the people of God and while Herod and his cronies mock him for it Jesus busily goes about usurping him of all of his jurisdiction. And he also usurps all the other kings, including Caesar, while he is at it. There have been many short summaries of the good news about Jesus that have been used over the ages but I think “Jesus is King” is one of the best. It is so simple and yet so significant. It points to his authority and his power and yet, by tying them simply to the name of a bloke who walked about on the earth, it also hints at mercy and compassion. And so Luke plays out the drama of the King of Kings acting in mercy and compassion to his people. Jesus allows himself to be subjected to the will of the crowd and they, in a tragic irony that outdoes anything that Ms Morissette could sing about, kill him and pin their allegiance to the violent buffoon Barabbas who couldn’t even wrest a tiny kingdom out of the hands of Herod. There is only one King worth backing and his peaceful insurrection of the cross has already gained him a triumph of all eternity.
Psalm 51:1-9
What the heck is hyssop? I think I need to get me some.
