Luke 12:16  Then Jesus told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly."

A grievance sets the context of Jesus' parable. A person in the crowd asks Jesus to make a decision about a dispute with a brother over the family inheritance. But Jesus does not accept the mantle of being a legal judge. Instead, he responds, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (Luke 12:15).

Grievances and litigations abound in our society and in our world. It is a hideous illness that goes to the sinful core of beings. Even when we have an abundance of worldly goods, there is a temptation to hoard what we have. This is what happened to the rich man who had more than enough for himself. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God" (Luke 12:20-21).

When we seek righteous judgment in our grievances, we may not like the final judgment we deserve. But Jesus comes to render a different judgment on the cross, and abundant supply of his mercy, forgiveness and grace. This is the seed of richness we need. Out of his generosity toward us, we spread around his grace, even our very possessions, for one and all.

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Philippians 2:9-11  Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ does not come home empty-handed. Through the depths of suffering, trial and death on the cross, he brings humanity into reconciliation with God. When the victorious Lord sits upon the throne of glory, he has brought home with him all those strays whom he now prizes as his own kin and kind - the lost and alienated, the forgotten and abandoned, "the least of thee" that could not find their way home if their life depended on it (Matthew 25:40). And all these are welcomed home in the Father's grace.

In fact, it is those who thumb their noses at the weak and lowly who seem to disregard Christ's promise of glory the most. Such neglect makes its appearance in our prejudice and pride, setting aside the presence of God's glory. But Jesus comes for one and all. God alone is to be praised for the coming glory, but God's glory never comes alone. With Jesus, there comes a whole holy host of the world's most vulnerable. And God the Father, who so oved the world that he sent his only Son, accepts them all.

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Philippians 2:8 ...he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.

The two words human and humility share in common a Latin root word: humus, which means "dirt." Humility is perhaps the most human quality of all, for it points us to our created origins from the dirt, and to which in death we must return. Humiliation, however, is the violent act of the proud and arrogant who dismiss or violate others, reducing them to dirt. Such humiliation is a tragic and sinful reminder of our pride. And in it, we fail to realize that the cries of the humiliated reach the ears of God.

Jesus would know us not only in the truth of our humility but also in the tragedy of our humiliation. He was humbled as a human being, and he bore the great and terrifying humiliation of the cross. But through his obedience to this scandalous death, he takes upon himself not only the dirt of our death but the humiliation of being neglected and given no place in this world. None will be forgotten in Christ's cross and his loving embrace. We are no longer nobodies but somebodies living in Christ's freedom.

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Philippians 2:5-6  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped...

There is great cause for joy for the whole community of Christ to "be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind" (Philippians 2:2). Even in cases of division within the community of faith, we are likewise encouraged in Christ to be of the same mind - to regard Christ as our one source of unity and life together.

Pride leads us down a path of competition with one another. It denies not only the truth of our sinful humility but the humility that Christ bore for us all and encourages us all to have for one another. That is what it means to be of the same mind.

Christ Jesus was not simply an example for us in his humility, but he came humbly to bring us back into peace and unity with God. He didn't stay above the fray of our pride-filled humanity, grasping his advantaged equality with God in order to keep some heavenly distance from us. Instead, he entered into our very torn and divisive world, with all its self-righteous pride. He took all that to the cross to cancel out our sin so that we might be God's own loved, forgiven and healed children. This Gospel of Christ is the root of our same-minded status.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

Even when the ashes are washed away, the cross sinks deep into our hearts. There it finds a home to cleanse us from the inside, to create within us a new and right spirit. Made whole through Christ, we have purity of heart by faith.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Mark 1:14-15  Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

As we enter the season of Lent today, we hear the hard words of Jesus calling us to repentance. C.S. Lewis teaches us that repentance involves surrender, laying down our arms, saying we're sorry, and Jesus teaches us that, following repentance, we will find good news, which he invites us to believe.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Psalm 86:1-7

This is a psalm of David, and he is surrounded by enemies attacking him. The psalms provide a clinic on how to face life when it seems out of control. David feels solitary, defenseless. He responds by reminding himself over and over who God is. He most often calls God "Lord," the Hebrew word for adonai, meaning "sovereign." David is drilling his own heart to remember that God is in control. Discern how many of your most difficult emotions, bad attitudes, and foolish actions come from losing your grip, at that moment, on who God is.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,