Jared Longshore's Blog, page 7

Do This in Remembrance of Me

It is a common joke among Christians that the Sunday School answer is always Jesus. Many remember the middle school boy who came out of his day dream only to realize the teacher had asked him a question. So he says, “Jesus,” hoping the question was “Who is the Son of God” when in fact it was, “How many plagues came upon Egypt?” The best of these boys, in the circumstances, goes on to explain the intricate relationship between the number ten and Jesus.

This Sunday School answer trope has stayed with us because Jesus really is the answer to our fundamental problems. But it is one thing to remember Jesus in a daydream and another to remember Him on Tuesday morning when the anxiety fit is setting in. Remembering Christ can sound trite because we are so good at remembering Christ tritely. Calling to mind the Lord of the universe sounds like an abstract exercise becuase we so often call Him to mind abstractly.

But when our Lord inistituted this table, He said, “Do this in rememberance of me.” He no doubt understood our weakness. He was aware that we would easily forget Him. And He understood we would attempt to be think of Him like a Buddhist monk sits idlely thinking of his thoughts. 

So in order that we would learn the more excellent way, Jesus gave us real bread to eat and real wine to drink; and He told us to remember Him in the feasting. 

Learn to do this in rememberance of Christ and you will be freed from that pesky problem of trying to live in the past, or live in the future, or worst of all live in that daydream in your head. It is far better to live in the moment, eating real bread, drinking real wine, remembering the real Christ. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Lesson of Hezekiah

One of the themes that appears routinely in Scripture is that of God blessing His people only to have His people grow prideful and then suffer wrath. This was the case with King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good king in Judah, who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. God worked remarkably in his day. The Assyrian army encamped agaisnt Jerusalem, only to have God send the angel of the LORD upon them to slaughter one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers. God then extended Hezekiah’s life fifteen years. 

But after these remarkable works of God, Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up and in his pride he showed a Babylonian envoy all the treasures of his house. As a result there was wrath upon him, Judah, and Jerusalem. A sobering word comes in 2 Chronicles 32:31, “God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” Now God already knew all that was in Hezekiah’s heart, so I take that text to mean God left Hezekiah so Hezekiah would know all that was in his heart.

The import of this is not that we should attempt to know all of the gnarly inner workings of our hearts. But rather that we should humble ourselves and ask the Lord not to leave us to such a discovery. God has struck down thousands of your enemies. And He has saddled you with more blessings than that King of Judah had in his house. So ensure you have a solid answer to the question, “What would happen if God left you?” With that clear answer before you, make your prayer that wise and simple prayer of David, “LORD, take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” 

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The Church Now and Then

We must understand the kingdom of heaven in one sense as a kingdom in which both are included, the man who breaks what he teaches, and the man who practises it, though one is the least and the other is great in the kingdom, while in another sense it is a kingdom into which there enters only the man who practises what he teaches. Thus where both are to be found we have the Church as it now is; but where only the one kind will be found, there is the Church as it will be, when no evil person will be included. It follows that the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven.

Augustine, City of God

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Break Your Fast

The Christian life is marked by humility at every turn. And that is no more clearly seen than at this table. We come lowly to eat of this bread and drink of this cup.

Saul was struck down to their earth when his pride was in full stride and so it was with us. Saul lost his sight before he gained it and so it was with us. He also went hungry and thirsty for three days before he was filled with the Holy Ghost and baptized. So it was with us. The text goes on to say that afterward he received meat and was strengthened. So it is with us.

As you come to eat this bread and drink this cup do so renouncing all faith in yourself. You are poor, hungry, blind, and lame if left to yourself. All of your strength is found in the Lord of this table.

Paul said that we are the true circumcision, who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence in the flesh has been cut away, leaving us with only one source of power.

You have abundant need for strength. The duties set before you are manifold and every one of those duties requires an energy that you do not have, a wisdom that you do not have, and a righteousness that you do not have inherently.

But all of the sustenance and more that is required is found in this body and this blood. Put no confidence in your flesh, but do make sure to put all of your confidence in His flesh. Come blind and receive sight here. Break your fast by partaking of this heavenly bread and wine. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Where Are Your Levites?

When Abijah, the son of Rehoboam came to the throne in Judah, the kingdom of Israel was only freshly torn in two. Jeroboam still ruled in the northern kingdom of Israel with his two golden calves in Dan and Bethel. This wicked king of the north prohibited the Levites from executing their priestly office in the north. So all of the Levites scattered throughout the northern kingdom had come back to Judah. 

Abijah, king of Judah, then set out in battle array against wicked Jeroboam only about 20 miles north of Jerusalem in the land of Ephraim. Abijah had four hundred thousand men to Jeroboam’s eight hundred thousand men. Facing an army double his size, Abijah had the high ground, as he and his army stood on Mount Zemaraim and looked down on Jeroboam and his army.

From that mountain, Abijah warned Jeroboam to lay down his weapons for it was impossible for him to win the battle, even if he did have more men. The Levites stood at the heart of Abijah’s confidence. Abijah yells to Jeroboam and his army, “Havae ye not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? . . . But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business” (2 Chronicles 13:9-10).

You must stand on Mount Zemaraim with Abijah, confident of victory because your High Priest waits upon his business. And, you must remember that worship stands at the heart of our warfare. You will win the battles laid out in front of you because you offer yourselves to God as living and holy sacrifices. Serve Him here and God will strike your enemies.

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Boil It Down

“Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags.”

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

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The Table Comes to You

Every week you are told to come and welcome to Jesus Christ at this table. But that is only possible because this table first came to you. We would not be able to partake of this bread if the bread from heaven had not come to earth. Keeping that order in your mind is essential to the welfare of your soul.

You are an active church. And this puts you in the position of being blessed with more oportunities for action. Our Lord said, “Whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more in abundance” (Matthew 13:12). You who have been faithful over little find yourselves being given even more to be faithful over. This growth is a blessing that is according to plan. But the leven of the kingdom expands kingdom responsibilities as much as kingdom blessings. And the whole thing can be a lot to carry.

So let this truth set in as you tend to the load of blessings the Lord has given you: The bread of life has come into the world. And this bread of life has come to you particularly. This bread will continue to nourish you.

Christ said, “Go, make disciples of all nations [was the command] . . . and lo, I am with you always [was the promise].” He is with you now at this table. And He will be with you on your drive home. He will be with you when you lay your head on your pillow tonight and when you wake to your Monday morning duties.

You will do greater works than you have before because this table that has come to you will keep coming to you. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Sin of Burying Talents

When Christ rose from the dead, He did so with authority. His resurrection was explosive, ushering in a new age. There was nothing stagnant about this new age and there was nothing sluggish about mission of Christ’s followers in it. They went from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. They went to deserts, caves, and halls of power. Their operation was a risky one and no doubt they had Jesus’ parable in their heads, the one about the talents.

That parable can make conservatives nervous. Conservatives like to conserve, after all. And if conservation is the only standard, why did the wicked servant who had received one talent get condemned? He did keep what was entrusted to him. Evidently, our Lord expects us to use the gifts He has given us and turn a profit on his investment.

Each one of you have gifts from the Lord. Some of you have a been given wisdom, others the ability to lead with zeal. Some of you have the gift of generosity and others of you bleed mercy anytime you are pricked. Discovering your particular gifts is not nearly as important as using them.

The tendency for conservatives is to ride the brake. We recognize there are risks with every action and it is right to count the costs. But we can forget that inaction is quite risky itself. Pharaoh’s chariots behind you are just as much a threat as the Red Sea in front of you. The desert swallows up your people if you don’t enter into the land and giants will attempt to when you do. 

But what God said throuhh the prophet Moses, He says all the more to His new covenant church through the Greater Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.”

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No Disposable Ladder to Heaven

It is a false piety that walks through creation looking only for lessons which can be applied somewhere else . . . The child’s preference for sweets over spinach, mankind’s universal love of the toothsome rather than the nutritious is the mark of our greatness . . . The world is no disposable ladder to heaven. Earth is not convenient, it is good; it is, by God’s design, our lawful love.

Robert Capon, The Supper of the Lamb

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Eating Grace

Any good Christian will be falsely charged at times with being a mindless slave and at other times, paradoxically, with being a free loader. At one moment, the world tells the saints they must be liberated from the tyranical lash of religion and at another they scoff at free grace and the death substitute which leaves the forgiven getting off scot-free. Both slavery to Christ and free grace are depicted at this table. But I would like to focus this meditation on the latter. 

As you partake of this bread and wine today, remember that you receive the body and blood of Christ at no cost to you. None of us have earned our seat at this table. The meal was purchased. But not by us. The meal was supplied. But not by our broken bodies. Call us free loaders if you must. But our message to the dead and dying is, “Come, by wine and milk without money” (Isaiah 55:1).

It is very true that you reap what you sow, but this sacrament reminds you that at the bottom of everything lies the blood of Christ which you didn’t earn in the slightest and which you did not sow. That blood feeds you now at this table. And that blood goes on feeding you. You feed on grace at this table and you will go on feeding on grace your whole life or you will starve. There is no other bread, after all. As there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, so there is one bread. Eat this grace or go hungry.

So do you live by grace? Have you been living, forgiving, rejoicing, teaching, leading, buying, selling, and raising your children by the power of this free meal? 

If not, then let this meal do it’s work on you. The blood hear calls to you. And it doesn’t say come and buy. It says come and welcome. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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