Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – John 20:24-29 (day four)

This story has earned Thomas the nickname “doubting Thomas” for quite some time. It is often said with the intention of being a tad derogatory toward him. And yes, Thomas expresses doubt that Jesus is alive. But look at what Jesus does in response! He comes back, walks through another locked door, and ministers to Thomas, giving him exactly what he needs. He doesn’t chastise him or belittle him. He knows Thomas’ heart, and he comes back for him.

Jesus is the good shepherd. When one of his sheep is missing, too grief stricken to know what to do, he comes back for that sheep, and gives it exactly what it needs. Jesus doesn’t despise our feelings of doubt, and I don’t think he would have called Thomas by his unfortunate nickname. Rather, he draws near to us in our doubt, and just like with Thomas, he gives us the gift of his presence.

Re:Verse passage – John 20:19-23 (day four)

The breath of God is more powerful than we could ever imagine. In Genesis, man gets his very life from God’s breath. Psalm 33 proclaims that the breath of God created the heavenly host. Job tells us that the breath of the Almighty gives understanding. Here, Jesus simply breathes, and the disciples receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God himself, the third member of the Trinity, imparted through breath.

It’s by this Holy Spirit that we can participate in life with God. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to live in a new way. Right after he breathes the Spirit onto them, Jesus starts talking about forgiveness. Of all the ways that the Spirit changes our lives – Jesus chooses to talk about how the Spirit empowers us to forgive. Overcoming unforgiveness is one of the most powerful ways the Spirit acts in our lives. Are you having trouble forgiving someone who has wronged you? Take it to the Lord. When you walk with God, he has given you his Spirit through a simple breath. Through that Spirit, forgiveness is possible.

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day four)

When we look at Jesus’ life, we find that every moment was filled with intention. Nothing was haphazard. Always look for who is around at the turning points in Jesus’ life. When Jesus is born, the angels first bring the news to poor shepherds working in the pasture over night. These men were often looked down upon in society, yet the good news of Jesus’ birth was brought to them first. Give this some thought – why them?

Now, at the resurrection, at the most significant moment in human history – look who’s there. The resurrected Jesus first reveals himself to women. The first person to witness about the resurrected Savior was a woman. Women, too, were treated poorly in society. They weren’t allowed to participate in the synagogues, they didn’t have any social or economic power of their own. And yet, it is to them that Jesus reveals this good news. Why them?

Jesus keeps interesting company. The people around him aren’t who you’d expect. And now, we’re included in that wonderfully weird company that he keeps as well. Why us? Why does he draw near to us? In response, we can follow the example of the shepherd and the women – we can go and tell.

Funerals evoke all sorts of emotions. We feel sad as we miss our lost loved one. We might feel angry at ourselves for things left unsaid. We might feel relief that the person is free from pain. We might be fearful as we consider a future without that loved one. We experience these darker emotions at funerals because they remind us of the darkest part of the human experience – death.

But can you imagine what Joseph and Nicodemus felt at this funeral? This surely isn’t how they thought it would go. They would have never thought that their Savior and Messiah would be left alone at his death. They wouldn’t have imagined that they would have to come out of hiding in order to be both pallbearer and undertaker to their King. As they gently took care of Jesus’ body and laid him to rest, I’m sure this felt like the darkest moment in their entire lives. Almost as dark as Genesis 1:2, when “darkness hovered over the surface of the deep.” Thankfully, the Light they knew could not be extinguished. As John says in the beginning of his gospel, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5).

Re:Verse passage – John 19:31-37 (day four)

“Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

Have you noticed the small differences in John’s gospel from Matthew, Mark, and Luke? Throughout the whole book, John focuses less on what Jesus said and did, and focuses more on showing us who Jesus really is. Here, John is showing us that Jesus is the true Lamb of God. John takes the time to remind us that this is all taking place during Passover, the annual Jewish festival commemorating God’s faithfulness as the angel of death “passed over” Jewish homes with the blood of a sacrificial lamb over their door. The Jewish people knew that they couldn’t leave the crucified bodies out in public on the holy day of Passover, so they asked for them to be taken down.

It’s ironic, isn’t it? The Jewish people made sure to keep their Passover customs, even though they had just put to death the One who would fulfill the Passover for all eternity. Jesus is the true Passover Lamb, breaking the chains of captivity and sparing His people from death. John is bringing us back to his first chapter, verse 29, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” This was lost on the Jewish people at the time, but John makes it clear that Jesus is the Son of God, the one who’s blood spares the sinner from death. That is who our savior is.

Re:Verse passage – John 19:28-30 (day four)

“It is finished.” These three words changed everything. The soldiers who crucified Jesus probably heard them as an admission of defeat, as if Jesus was saying, “Alright, the jig is up. You got me, I’m finished.” But we know that this isn’t the end of the story. We know that it wasn’t an admission of defeat, but a statement of victory. At these words, the whole world became a different place. In a single moment, the veil was torn, the earth shook, rocks split, tombs were opened, the bodies of saints were raised. Heaven broke into earth with a cosmic victory too great for our understanding.

What’s interesting is that even though Jesus said, “It is finished,” the story isn’t actually finished yet. There’s still more coming – Sunday is still coming! The resurrection is still coming! And we still wait on Jesus coming again. But these three small words ushered in a reality that stands outside of time. Jesus won the victory, even though it still looked like defeat to everyone else. The Kingdom of God is here now, yet we still yearn for it to come.  Jesus won a victory so great that it stands outside of time, and we get to share in that victory with him. We know that it is finished.

Re:Verse passage – John 19:17-27 (day four)

Often when I read this passage, I put myself in Jesus’ mind, looking from his view, down at the crowd that had gathered as he was raised up on the cross. Today, though, I find myself in the crowd, seeing these events play out from Mary’s vantage point. She saw it all happen, huddled there with her faithful friends as her firstborn son was put to death. And in his last moments, Jesus ensures that Mary will be taken care of. Jesus accomplished everything he set out to do. He didn’t die with anything left undone, there were no loose ends left to tie. Taking care of his mother was one of his final acts.

When Mary heard Jesus call out from the cross, “Woman, behold your son!” and realized that he had given her into John’s care, I wonder if her mind returned to Bethlehem, where she gazed down at her son lying in the manger. As the angels sang and the shepherds came to behold the child king, Luke 2:19 tells us that “Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” While she couldn’t have known then how things would play out, I wonder if these quiet ponderings from long ago strengthened her faith in this moment of grief. Mary had a unique vantage point to see Christ’s life lived out with heavenly purpose. From start to finish, she saw the Lord’s faithfulness in and through her son. What a promise we have from Jesus – that he will be faithful from start to finish.

Re:Verse passage – John 19:5-16 (day four)

It’s easy to breeze over Pilate’s words here and treat him with unnuanced disdain. We often consider him to simply be a tool used to bring about the next part of the story. But that’s not how Jesus saw Pilate.

Jesus had a habit of seeing people for who they really are, and knowing their heart before they ever spoke a word (the idea of being “fully God” comes in in a relational way here). And Jesus saw who Pilate really was – a man desperately trying to live up to his family’s legacy of military prowess and political influence, a man with equal parts power and insecurity as he tried to rule a people group that he didn’t understand during their biggest holiday season of the year (Passover), a man on unsure footing with his boss, King Herod, wondering if his life would really turn out the way he imagined.

When Jesus speaks to Pilate here, he doesn’t speak with anger, but compassion. He simply speaks the truth. And while we know Pilate’s anxiety eventually leads him to give Jesus over to be crucified, I have to imagine that these interactions with Jesus were etched in his heart. After all, you can feel it when you are truly seen and known by someone.

You are fully known by Jesus. What will your response be?

Re:Verse passage – John 19:1-5 (day four)

In the passage we read last week, Jesus finally claims his kingship for the first time. “You say correctly that I am a king,” Jesus says. It’s not until this moment that he verbally claims that title. And how does the world respond? We get a glimpse of that this week: they mock him, they beat him, they reject him. The truest king to ever live finally claims his title, and the world can only scoff at him, blinded by sin at the glory before them.

There were times before this when if he had claimed to be king, he would have been carried on people’s shoulders, had the red carpet laid out for him. In the moments where he would have been treated like royalty, he says nothing of his kingship. But now, after having been betrayed, accused, thrown into the hands of an unjust ruler, when no good could come of it, he says it plainly: I am a king.

The soldiers meant only to mock him, but his mock coronation testifies to the truth that he is the one true king, and that his death will actually be his hour of glory. They meant to degrade him, but they unknowingly affirmed his eternal reign. The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone – here in this very moment.

Re:Verse passage – John 18:33-40 (day four)

I love that we are reading this portion of Scripture in the middle of Advent. This isn’t the kind of passage we typically read this time of year, but I think it makes the waiting, the yearning, the expectancy of Advent even more rich. In the very hours before Jesus’ death, he makes a statement about his birth. He brings us back to the nativity.

He says “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Charles Spurgeon says of this passage: “Truth never exerts as much power as when it is embodied. Christ both spoke the truth and was the truth. Truth embodied in flesh and blood has the power over flesh and blood. This is why he was born.”

If we’re going to truly celebrate his birth, we have to remember why he came – he came that we might know truth. He came so that this beautiful, powerful, flesh-and-blood truth might rule in the hearts of his people. When we yearn and wait for Christ in this season, we are yearning and waiting for truth itself. And by the grace of God, we have received it in full.