Pinky Swear
Cross my heart, Scout's honor, Bet on it, Take my word for it...
Basking in the glory of Eastertide, my thoughts haven’t yet left the Resurrection.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
What I’m actually thinking about are the three places in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus predicts His suffering, death, and resurrection.
Right after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, Matthew tells us this:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
-Matt 16:21
The very next chapter, after His glory is revealed on the mountain, He says this:
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.
-Matt 17:22-23
He gets pretty detailed a few chapters later:
And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
-Matthew 20:17-19
For years, when I came across these passages, my mind would ruminate on the explicit details of His knowing His suffering. Indeed, it is amazing that Jesus knew the physical suffering He faced, even as He continued to move towards it.
But with Resurrection Sunday fresh on my mind, I keep coming back to this repeated line:
he will be raised on the third day.
In addition to knowing exactly how He would suffer and die, He also knew Resurrection was coming.
Here’s what hit me: We love a God who does what He says He will do.
A String of Broken Promises
I don’t have a great track record when it comes to keeping my promises. I made a promise in Kindergarten to Matthew Burris to love him forever. I managed to keep my promise until third grade when we took a field trip to the local high school to see a play. That’s when I discovered there were other, older boys in the world, and I was really limiting myself with ole Matthew.
We broke up.
There’s nothing like having a child that teaches you to withhold pertinent information until the last possible second, especially when you’re uncertain that a promise can be kept. I’ve broken dozens of promises to my children, including the promise of getting snow cones after school, only to discover the place closed. Or promise to go on some special outing only to wake up the next morning sick.
You get the picture.
As humans, we are wholly unreliable when it comes to keeping our word. This, of course, makes us skeptical of God.
The Promise Keeper
The Bible is full of texts that point to God’s character as Promise Keeper.
For instance, a major theme in the book of Joshua is the fulfillment of God’s promises. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, God chooses Joshua to usher His people into the Land of Milk and Honey.
God says:
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have give you, just as I promised to Moses.
-Joshua 1:3
The rest of the book shows the nation of Israel miraculously defeating their enemies to take possession of the land. Twenty chapters later, we read:
And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
-Joshua 21:44-45
In light of Resurrection Sunday, what does this mean for us today? What are the promises of God to us? What would happen to our lives if we allowed ourselves to believe this?
For the next few weeks, let’s explore the promises offered to us by Jesus Himself, and let’s wrestle with what it means to hold Him to His word.
.....and let's face it, some days that promise to your children of going to McDonald's feels like a journey through Mordor to Mt Doom and you'd just really rather not.
But in regards to Jesus, I've always been fascinated by His foreknowing of what all His task required of him. The sheer level of anxiety alone must have made everything else extraordinarily difficult to do, even the mundane things. Gives *me* anxiety just reflecting on it.
Wonder how He conceived of it, in a very human consideration.
Resurrection assurance? Gotta go deal to these chains of gloomy darkness flunkies? How did He motivate Himself through it? Prayer, sure, but the human mind is a funny ole place. There had to be that self-talk going on.