Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Cutthroat crowds

Saturday, March 17, 2018

From Jeremiah 11
Let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.

Jonah's final friend was a big fish. Elijah was sure there was "no one left." Jeremiah had one or two faithful friends, but he was left alone even in the Exile. At least Jesus had a dozen disciples, along with the "adoring crowds."

But mass mentality will have its way, and Jesus knowing this, cried out to the people, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

"And you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37).

Jonah, Elijah and Jeremiah might gather under a broom tree in heaven to gossip about Jesus. At this point it looks like he will join them soon. Jeremiah tries his own words out on Jesus: "God seduced you and you were seduced." Look at you now.

Elijah, faithful to God, brooked no resistance from Queen Jezebel, but she stood her ground even when God burned up her priests in Elijah's call-down-fire from heaven. She chased him and he ran into the desert. He was alone.

The crowds rejoiced in his words, and then ridiculed him. He was a hero and then he was a snake. Finally even the finger of God pointed at him. Accused? Singled out? Alone. "There is no one left."

Jesus, is this your story too? Are you Elijah after all? Should you follow that well-known trail of tears and return to the desert? Could you wait there for God's food and God's rest and God's word?

Jonah's bitterness tempts Jesus almost beyond endurance. "I know you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live ... please Lord, it IS right for me to be so angry, even unto death!"

While Jesus prays beneath the olive tree in Gethsemane, his ancestors woolgather under the broom tree in heaven. They are pretty sure they know what Jesus should do. Jesus listens to their words. He wonders where God has gone off to when he needs him more than ever. His disciples keep falling asleep. The desert beckons. Jesus weeps.

We know the rest of the story. What we don't know is what it's like to sweat drops of blood. Jesus turned away from every easy way every time, and because he did, we get to sing the Song.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Lord, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble on the day after the night after the day a couple weeks before your life blows out like a dead-wick candle, and then beyond all hope burns bright again, brighter than anyone ever dreamed. By that light we live, Jesus, by that light we live.

Devotions Archive

Cutthroat crowds

Saturday, March 17, 2018