Lent 41

This is a big day in Matthew. Who knew the Monday after Palm Sunday is when the entire gospel is preached by Jesus. Like all the red letters get written on this day in the Easter walk.

I like it, because it starts with Jesus, tired and still mad about all that hoopla in the Temple the day before, knowing deep in his heart that this is the beginning of The End (before the new beginning), and maybe a lot sad and afraid even - that guy, heads back into town on the Monday and walks past a tree that he wishes had figs for him to eat. And when it doesn't, he curses it. Fuck you tree. May you never bear fruit again. His sad was coming out as mad, and that can be bad. Even for Jesus.

But of course, because he's Jesus so he can turn it into a nice parable for his friends.  Mostly though, it's hard not to think he just had to take it all out on something.

Read Matthew 21 - 25 for all of the rest of the goodness that Jesus preaches, confounding all the religious smarty-pants and passing along all the last minute stuff he hadn't got to with the disciples in the previous 3 years. Many are invited, few are chosen, render to Caesar what is Caesars, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and Love your neighbour as yourself.  All of Jesus' greatest hits are in there.

I want to say at this point, that many of the bits and pieces I'll be pointing out this week were ably pointed out to me at church on Sunday by Mike Nichols and he should be referenced here to avoid any appearance of Jesus-y plagiarism.

And so it is in light of all of today's red letters, that I find myself extra-liking the verses in Philippians, and extra-extra-liking this: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3: 10 & 11)"

I think it's my favourite bit of Paul's writing, ever.  Once, there was time when even Paul didn't know how it would work, but darn if it wasn't just dying to know Jesus better so that somehow he (and me) could find a way to live.

Philippians 3:1-14

New International Version (NIV)

No Confidence in the Flesh

3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. ² Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. ³ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— ⁴ though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.