Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings in the morning, dear ones.

I'm beginning to behold enough light out my window to provide a little bit of definition to the trees.  The limited lighting seems to have a golden tint to it.  I heard there may be a little rain in the weather mix today…but we’ll see.

The two little boys are up.  They’re at the table now for a pre-breakfast snack…and robbing Becki of the tea I made for her…part of our morning tradition.

I definitely have another heavy list.  I’ll try on a jog…then get active with my list.

I keep meeting people who seem to have a huge misconception about God…that He is way off somewhere doing His thing, and I’m down here doing my thing.  They can’t seem to connect the glaring dots that what they are doing down here is actually the result of what He is doing…(Oh my…here I am in the process of making this big profound statement, and little Nicholas comes and demands to get into my lap…so I had to pause to go through a little slide show of some of our family photos…ending up with two little boys in my lap.  Whew…now I’ll try to carry on with my thought ... after all, the breathing of our lungs, the digestion of our food, indeed our very lives are what He is doing.  Why is that so hard to comprehend?  I can’t see any other explanation for life other than it is the obvious display of a supernatural intentional act of God.  I mean, what are the chances that dirt could generate life and think all this up?  As Paul affirmed on Mars Hill, “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27).  Think of it…my BEING is what He is DOING!  If I can grasp that basic idea, why would I not choose to SEEK HIM?  Here I go getting carried away again.  Oh well…

May your day go as it should.

Love, Dad/Ray

Jesus had informed the disciples of what was about to take place.  “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified” (v.2).  No, they didn’t know—but they should have known.  Jesus had told them clearly enough.  They simply could not yet embrace the idea that a suffering Messiah was required to precede a conquering Messiah in prophetic fulfillment.

The disciples were all good Jews.  From early childhood they had participated in the annual celebration and ceremony of the Passover Feast.  By now they could probably quote the entire script by memory.  It’s possible that they were doing that very thing in their minds when Jesus took the bread and said, “Take and eat, this is…” But at that very point Jesus interrupts the traditional wording and says, “This is my body.”  I can only imagine that their minds, if they were even paying attention, stumbled over those words.  “Hey, wait a minute!  That’s not how it goes.  Did He forget His lines?”

If that wasn’t shocking enough, Jesus goes on to change the script further.  He took the cup and said, “Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (vv. 26-28).

No. Jesus didn’t forget His lines.  He was in fact stating the most wonderful words of truth the human race would ever hear.  He was giving confirmation that He was “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world” (Jn. 1:29).  These were “wonderful words of life.”  And it was by no means coincidental that Jesus was crucified during the Passover Feast celebration—an amazing fulfillment of that ancient tradition.  (Read Exodus 12)

Be reminded again of the glory of the Gospel.  Be reminded of your salvation roots.  And be reminded of what our eternal status would be if it were not for this Passover Lamb of God.