Dividing lines Luke 23

And they cast lots, dividing up His garmens among themselves. Luke 23:34

Continuing on the theme...here is the passage that fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 22 we studied yesterday. David sees Jesus, torn and battered, forsaken by God, suffering immensely, and the added insult of taking the one thing he had, his clothes, and shooting craps to divide them up. I don't know why they would have wanted them. Were they a keepsake of the biggest day in history? I imagine they were blood-stained themselves if they made it up to the crucifixion site. Who would want bloody clothes even if they were unique and valuable? Blood doesn't really wash out very well unless they had some sort of peroxide that would take it out that I don't know about. Or if they were taken off and taken to the hill with him, was it a reward for the soldiers to get the victims' possessions? I'm not that historically knowledgeable, but there had to be something to be gained from owning them.

But the clothes were not the only thing being divided that day. For there were other divisions. The disciples and Jesus' mother and other women stood weeping while the rulers mocked him. His followers were sharply divided from His condemners. Then there were the soldiers, who also became divided...they started by mocking, but after the earthquake, one declared that He was a righteous man and knew this was wrong. It said the people looked on. Some were convinced that He deserved this for declaring Himself God, and other convinced that He was the Messiah and that this made no sense.

And then there were the criminals. They were divided, one on his right and one on his left. Matthew 27:44 says they were both insulting Him, saying He should save Himself. But Luke gives a different story. Is this a contradiction in scripture? No, I don't think so...because all of scripture is true. So let's work this out...

Jesus was on the cross for 3 hours. Many things happened over this time. Jesus forgave verbally. He talked to God out loud, crying out using Old Testament scripture. He took care of His mother. They had posted a sign above Him charging Him with being the Kings of the Jews. And in this time I do believe that the heart of one robber, as the Matthew text called him, melted. Even in the unrighteous death of Christ, He was not unrighteous. Even though blameless, He did not blame. He took this whole thing with an air about Him that showed that this was a mission, not a mistake. And the robber saw and realized that Jesus had done nothing to deserve the death that He was dying. And I never noticed before that he asked Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. What was Jesus charged with? Being the King of the Jews. We don't know if this robber was a Jew or not, but he realized that Jesus was THE KING, and that His kingdom was not of this world. That was the sort of kingdom, that of righteousness, sacrifice, love, caring, peace, and purpose, that he wanted to be a part of. He was begging not to suffer eternally for his sins. He realized that the earthly suffering he had brought on himself, and his eternal condition was not looking a whole lot better. But Jesus...He could and would do something about it, and when Jesus said he would be with Him that very day in paradise, well, that poor man could die in peace. Jesus divided the criminals. One looked only at the external, mortal, and selfish condition and scorned the one who would take his sin, and the other knew his pitiful state, his need to be saved from more than a mortal death, and looked to the one He knew had the power and authority to let him into the kingdom. Jesus divides people today into those same camps. There are the scorners and there are the followers, the accusers and the confessors, those who blame everything on someone else, and those who take responsibility for their errors and ask for forgiveness and new life.

So which side of the cross are you on? Or is your own heart divided? Are you not sure what to think of the cross, the men on it, or the reason He would suffer for you? Pick up a Bible. Read the New Testament first...you don't have to read it in order. Start with John, then Luke, then Matthew or Mark. Then move to Acts, read a few of the smaller letters, and then Corinthians. Save Revelation til you understand who this Jesus is...and then take on the first few chapters to see that He deals with the church before He deals with the rest of the sinful world, and then recreates everything so that sin will no longer have an effect on the universe.

Jesus calls you, He sets the example for you, and He tells you who He is, how much He loves you, and how that love is played out in a person's life when the Spirit comes and takes residence in your life. Don't skip any of it, or just turn to a preacher or church to figure these things out. Spend time with the One who calls you. We are called the Bride of Christ, which implies an intimate relationship, not just a king and His subjects. We are brides, brothers, priests, friends, and children, and all that those titles imply. Draw near, marvel like the thief did, and come to the same point he did. You won't regret it.

Divided we fall Psalm 22

They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Psalm 22:18

If you say, “You covered this verse before!,” you are right. It is quoted in the New Testament among the verses of the crucifixion. But Psalm 22 gives us the back story, more insight into the thoughts and feelings of Jesus while on the cross. The dividing of the garments was the fulfillment of this passage of scripture, one more proof that Jesus was the Messiah long foretold. How David saw this...what kind of vision, what kind of experience lead him to write this, we don't know. But he nailed it, literally.

The words of Christ on the cross start this Psalm. From the beginning we are caught up in the agony, despair, and torture of the One crying out. If you can envision Jesus on the cross, whipped into a pulpy mess, crown of thorns tearing at his face, people jeering and taunting while others look on in despair, it is hard not to weep with Him. This whole passage, when read parallel to the gospels points out even to their taunts of if He is the Son of God, why doesn't God bring Him down and save Him. They didn't realize that He was saving THEM, not needing saving Himself.

By verse 15, He is dying, with more accounts to follow of actions taken at His feet, one of which was the dividing of the only things He could call His own, His clothes. He was delivered from the sword, as it was only used on Him after He died. Even though God had turned His face away, God still heard the cries, which were not cries of pain and agony, but cries to forgive those who were torturing Him. Cries to be taken back into God's eternal favor.

And then vs. 25! The eternal celebration of the resurrection! Nothing, dead or alive, will be able to keep from bowing the knee and praising God for the awesome ransom He paid for the sinners who would come to Him, who would seek Him out! The tale of His amazing grace would be told to the dead and the dying, to the living and to those who would come after them, including you and me. The story would never die, the celebration would never end, and the glory of God would be available to those who do not resist His drawing love! No kingdom could ever raise up that would stand before Him, no family, great or small, would be freed from the impulse to worship Him when they eventually see Him as He is, great and mighty and seated at the right hand of the Father for His obedient walk on the earth, going to reclaim them from Satan's deception. Only those who choose to remain deluded will be, and even then EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER. NO ONE IN ALL OF THE EARTH WILL ESCAPE THAT CONFESSION! That is the amazing part of what Christ did. Though stripped of everything, clothes included, He will never be stripped of any glory ever again. Those who deny him here will not have the luxury of denying Him forever. So, if you will confess Him as Lord someday, why not now? That confession on the Last Day will be made at the crossroads...some joining Him in His kingdom, and the rest on their way to eternal doom. If you have to do it anyway, you might as well give in now. The seriously amazing thing about giving in to God now is that it leads to blessing! We have been deceived by Satan into thinking that giving in to God, confessing our need for a Savior, and giving our lives to Him is somehow a BAD thing. It is a bad emotion for a period of time, like the crucifixion was a bad emotion and experience for a few horrible hours. Like childbirth. Ouch. But once on the other side of confession, of seeing who you are and who Christ is, the results, like childbirth, are amazing. There is new life! A new, amazing, conscience clearing, God-guided, Jesus as big brother life! It is not something we can conjure up...we can't make ourselves at peace with God. Only He can do that...and if Christ would have died just to save you, isn't it worth it to take the hand of someone who would love you that much. HE IS LORD. Like the president, he is the ruler of the country whether you voted for him or not, whether you agree with him or not. You can't deny who He is. So it is a choice of whether you trust Him or not. Believe He loves you or not. Believe that He died for you or not. You can deny it now, but that does not make Him less than He is.

And He is GOOD. Good to all. He calls us to His side, spanks us at times to get our attention focused back on Him. But He does it BECAUSE He loves us. He wants us. He calls us. He reckons us righteous when we know we are wretched. And we WILL proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. Do it now so that when the Day comes, you will be doing it again with JOY and not terror. With extreme gratitude and not regret. You won't regret it in this life or the life to come.

Clothed with the slain Isaiah 14:19

But you have been cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch, Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword. Isaiah 14:19

OK, so we know by now that not all references to clothing in scripture is pretty...and this is one of those ugly ones. We are talking about the king of Babylon here, a wicked, ruthless man who let a wicked, ruthless nation. I think the New Living Translation gives us the picture, although it doesn't use the clothing word. “But you will be thrown out of your grave like a worthless branch. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will be dumped into a mass grave with those killed in battle.”

Proper burial was very important in ancient days. Seriously. Look at the pyramids, the references to Abraham buying Sarah's burial tomb, and Joseph's body being carried out of Egypt. Where you were buried and how spoke of who you were, how important, and what you believed spiritually. Here is the big shot of the world whose end was kind of like that of a mummy's tomb being raided for the treasures . The mummies themselves aren't worth much, or weren't to tomb-robbers. The mummies were dumped out of their gold sarcaphagi and left as trash. In this case, the king's body would be dumped with the rest of the common soldiers whose defeat came, and all would be tossed into a large hole. His covering would be the bodies of those who fell by the sword. He would be one of the first thrown in, a truly humiliating position for the ruler of the peoples.

We tend to look at God as a giant softie. He is good and merciful and forgiving. Yes, this is true, but that is half of who He is. He is also a raging fire and hater of evil. He doesn't mess around with the wicked. Look at the whole of Isaiah and see the God who pleads, punishes, reaching out and casts out, gives instruction and punishes those who refuse to obey. To those who call evil good and good evil, He shows Himself Righteous and True. There is no middle ground. He never gives up on people for the sake of His name and His promise to Abraham that there would be a remnant forever, and to the world that He would send the ultimate Redeemer, that those who would trust in Him would never suffer the consequences of their sins.

Yes, we all sin. We do. No matter how hard we try not to. No matter whether we want to or not. It is in our nature. It is who we are. We are born in sin...selfish and self-motivated, having our own opinions of what we think is right and wrong, acceptable and not. We, like Satan himself, want to show God who is boss. And that is our problem. We set ourselves up as the king of Babylon. We want to divide and conquer, reign on our thrones. “Wretched man that I am. Who can deliver me from this body of death?” asks the Apostle Paul. Here is the man God called to take the gospel to the Gentile world, and he ponders his own sinful state at the end of Romans 7. And THAT is the question, WHO. We cannot rescue ourselves. But we need to want to be rescued. We have to agree that God is God, and we are not, and shouldn't be. Face it, we all have the “if I ruled the world, things would be better” syndrome. We think if we impose our rules on others that the world would be a utopia. If the God of the universe chose to give us free will to defy Him, then we need to figure out that He is good to give us the chance to realize our sinfulness and look to Him for redemption.

And that He provided in the man Jesus, the God Jesus, the Spirit Jesus. The trinitarian Godhead reaches out, offers itself up as a sacrifice, and fills us with the ability to come to Him and become one of His. We have to agree that we are sinful, that Jesus takes that sin away if we ask in humility, not demand it as our right. There is no room for self-centered salvation. It is a gift from a tender, loving God. But rejecting that will send us to the bottom of the grave, covered with the rest of those who reject the tender mercies of the Lord. Accept or reject. Not do or don't do something to save ourselves. We can't. Not find or not find the answers. The answer is there. It is Jesus. We accept Him or reject Him. We believe that we need to be forgiven, understand that He is the payment, and accept the payment. If you can't pay the mortgage and someone offers to pay it for you, you can accept or reject the payment. You give up more than just the offer if you refuse. You lose it all. The house goes to the bank and you are homeless, all because you are too prideful to let someone else pay the bill, even though you have to way to pay it. Foolish, isn't it. When offered the way out of sin, to reject it is even more foolish. To choose evil over good isn't just foolish, it is willful suicide. Don't be a victim of your own pride. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up out of that mass grave and let you live an eternal life of beauty with Him. Hallelujah!