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Lent - Day 2
Posted on: March 2, 2020
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor
Day 2 Monday
THE MISSION OF JESUS
That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1: 3).
FOLLOWING THE SCRIPT
Matthew 9: 9-13
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at table at the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 10: 45
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.
Luke 19: 10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
John 3: 17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
CAST NOTES
In today’s passages we can connect Jesus’ love for his Father with his sense of mission. For Jesus, the purpose of the drama of Passion Week is to love his Father by redeeming lost humanity. Let’s follow the thread of the story line:
The heart of Jesus is his love for his Father.
The mission of Jesus was (and is) to do his Father’s will.
The will of the Father and the Son toward us is to call sinners, to seek and to save the lost, to give the Son’s life as a ransom for many, that the world might be saved through him.
The purpose of Jesus enacting his eternal love for his Father from within our humanity is our eternal salvation! To take away our sins. To include us in the Triune life! To give us a share in the Son’s sonship! To make everything sad come untrue and inaugurate the creation of the new heavens and earth.
To put it another way, Passion Week is the climax of the story of the Redeemer. The final battle of the hero along the way of his journey to save his people. He came from heaven to fight against the enemies of humankind and thus bring back to his Father a great gift: human beings ransomed, freed, restored and forgiven.
So Jesus can answer these ultimate questions for himself.
Why have you come here?
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10: 10
What gift do you bring us?
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10: 28
What promise do you make?
Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. John 14: 19b-20.
PRAYING IN CHARACTER
Once again, we will pray with Jesus using the words from his lips in Scripture. Pray these passages aloud several times, imagining Jesus in various Biblical situations. Feel his passion for us—for you—as you enter into the prayers he made on our behalf.
As Jesus prepares to teach his disciples:
I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you (Hebrews 2: 12; Psalm 22: 22).
As Jesus prays in Gethsemane before his arrest,
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. . . . I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17: 3, 24).
As he arrives in heaven after his ascension, making intercession for us,
Behold, I and the children God has given me (Hebrews 2: 13; Isaiah 8: 18).
Finish your prayers by recalling aloud the redeeming purpose of the Gospels:
These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20: 31).
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