THE KING OF LOSERS

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the last week of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday over a month ago.

Jesus was welcomed into the city with accolades and praises. For Jesus things wound down pretty quickly after that, turning his parade of victory into what may be seen as a series of failures that wound up parading him right back outside of the city, up a small hill to the place of capital execution, called Golgotha. There, at the top of a wooden scaffold that held his body, a sign was tacked that read, “This is the king of the Jews,” written in three different languages, according to John’s Gospel, evidently so no one in the city could miss the irony.

Just as his title King of the Jews was nailed on his cross together with his frailed body only one of his disciples was brave enough to stand among the crowd to watch him die. All the rest went into hiding all afraid of being identified with him and thus be implicated. A criminal dying on another cross that same hour hurled insults at him. Soldiers mocked, "If you're king of the Jews save yourself." Three hours from high noon He died. He died because nothing in our lives is well. We're a bunch of losers! We're sick!

In this way, as his story becomes our story, we have less need and desire to deceive ourselves into thinking all’s well when really, all’s not well. And we learn that what we can not do for ourselves, God did on our behalf - he overcame our failure already and all we need do is let out a last gasping sigh of relief and live into the truth of it. The weight of failure lifted from us, releasing us into a new freedom.

As Paul will eventually write once he comes ‘round to the truth of it for himself, once he finds the awful weight of failure lifted from his life: “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart’” [1 Cor.1:18-19].the

One of the reasons we know Jesus swallowed up all the failure in his story is what happened to the failed disciples afterwards. They found resurrection. From out of their failure, a great, great hope sprang forth.

Here’s the ultimate irony: turns out that the man on the cross is a true king after all. He reigns in the kingdom of humility where up is down and down is up, where first is last and last is first, and where weakness and failure become transmuted into the very power of God.

Jesus is God’s cure for what ails us.

I invite everyone in Metro Manila to come to GCF's Service of the Tenebrae on Good Friday at 1PM.

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Readings:

1. Stephen Bauman, A Cavalcade of Failure, CCNYC, 040107

2. J. Sidlow Baxter, The Master Theme of the Bible, Tyndale House 1980

3. Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment, Zondervan 1999

WHEN CHRISTIANS GET SCARED

It's strange that I received the following message eleven times today:

Calling all intercessors:
please intercede against the upcoming
national and international gathering of
satanists and witches to be held here in the Philippines,
Capiz and Siquijor. April 9-10.
Primary objective: To destroy Christian Churches.
Please Fast and Pray.
From: CCC (Campus Crusade for Christ)

Call me apathetic, but I for a number of reasons I could not even pray against the said "meeting" even as I received and read the message eleven times!

As I walked into the GCF building on a way to a meeting this afternoon, someone approached meand asked if I received the message. I smiled and said, "Well, I did, eleven times, in fact." He then continued, "Pastor, we must pray that they will not succeed against the church!" Again, I smiled and this time with an air of authority and seriousness in my voice. I told him, "Brother, I find it strange that Christians could be alarmed with such a text message/news! I will not pray for that they will succeed because long before this message spread, Christ had already spoken a word of victory! Matthew 16:18-- 'I will build my church and even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'"

When Christ said that, he wasn't guessing that the church might succeed, instead, it was a firm declaration of fact. Believers may fall into the enemy's snares, but we, whether individually or collectively are victors in Christ! The enemy has no power over believers! He is defeated already!

Another thing, if it were true that there is going to be a gathering of such, why would they meet on Good Friday and Black Saturday-- days that are most memorable to the devil and his demons themselves? Good Friday commemorates the death of Christ on the cross-- the death that gave way to eternal life and victory over sin and the grave!

I remember a time when I was 13 when my a 17-year-old kid came gasping for breath for my dad who had just concluded a Midweek Service sermon. The young man was sent to get my dad to help "exorcise" demonic spirits tormenting a girl named Marian. Marian was 14, who at age 9, following an accidental fall down their stairwell that left her lame since had become so strong that despite her inability to stand and walk could not be restrained by as many as 8 men!

The family had already sought the help of the local parish priest who came armed with three bottles of "holy water" which he emptied on Marian to no avail. It was strange because in a town as small as ours where the most powerful man was the parish priest ended up frustrating hundreds of people for not having exorcised the demons inside Marian.

The priest was just about hop to back into his car when my dad, together with a couple of dozen folks from our church arrived. The priest smiled at my dad rather sheepishly and said, "It's a hopeless case." When we got to Marian's house, there were countless people in the yard praying the Rosary. There was great shouting on the second floor of the house which only meant that people were restraining Marian. My dad was led upstairs together with some prayer warriors. As a curious kid, I went up with the team. I remember the horrible sickening stench that filled the house! Looking through an open door, I realized that the girl Marian was my second grade classmate who had to stop schooling because of the accident! She'd been drenched with "holy water," her eyes were red and fierce, her scream sounded like an angry man's voice!

My dad opened his Tagalog Bible and read Mark 5 aloud. After which, I remember my dad asking in Tagalog, "What is your name?" Marian spoke in a loud voice as though trying to scare and taunt my dad, "Why do you want to know my name? How dare you ask, scum!! " My dad, whom I have never seen so fearless 'til that night spoke with so much authority, "I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ....Do you remember Calvary?" Upon hearing that Marian screamed, she stiffened and after a few seconds went into a convulsion. My dad commanded, "In the name of Jesus Christ the risen Lord, leave Marian's body and never ever return!" Within a minute or two of violent convulsion the demons left. My mother started singing, "There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder working pow'r in the blood of the Lamb..."

In less than 30 minutes, Marian was conscious however greatly weakened by the torment she had. She was served food to eat. My dad shared the Gospel with the entire family and everyone under the sound of his voice.

Real authority rests in Jesus Christ, and according to Him, the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church! We are protected by the name of Jesus!

SOMETHING HAPPENS by Prestonwood Baptist Choir

(i don't like the photos, but the song is amazing!)