Saturday, December 27, 2008

Some unknown folks who knew stuff the disciples didn't

In Luke chapter 22 Jesus tells his servants to go into a town and a man with a pitcher will meet them.

In the feast at Simon's house, a woman comes in to prepare Jesus for his burial by anointing him with oil.

Jesus tells his disciples to go and get a colt upon which man never sat.

Now these folks are not regular disciples of Jesus. Imagine the man with the pitcher. We can assume that somehow Jesus got to this man somewhere --without any of the disciples present-- and told him to prepare this meal. I can't see that happening. What I'd like to imagine (and what I feel really happened) is: the man got up and had a feeling in his spirit that he should walk out with that pitcher. Even stranger, he had a feeling in his spirit that he should prepare an upper room for Jesus' last passover supper.

The same thing with the woman who anointed Jesus for his burial. I suspect the holy spirit (yes, the holy spirit was around...but not everywhere) came to her and she had this feeling that she should carry the oil to Jesus to anoint him for his burial. I suspect like Anna who prayed in the temple she was told Jesus would die. And it probably took a lot of faith for her to believe that he was going to die -- after all, she was probably hoping he would be the Messiah. But it took even more faith for her to buy this alabastar bottle of ointment and walk over to the house of a judgmental Pharisee and to throw it all over Jesus' feet. Yet she did it.

Think of the man whose colt was taken away. Did he get up that morning and hear within his spirit: "The Lord will have need of this colt?" Or even if Jesus asked him for the colt and said, "I'll need to sit on him." Imagine this man believing this colt will allow someone to sit on him! Colts that aren't trained to carry humans are not going to allow anyone -- except the Creator-- to sit on them.

The kingdom of God is a heart kingdom. Things are revealed in the heart. One hopes with the heart. One acts on decisions made in the heart.

2 comments:

Gary Wood said...

Excellent post. Jesus was always telling his disciples that the son of man must be delivered up and executed but they could never understand. Others did.

Carole McDonnell said...

Thanks, Gary!

Have a wonderful New Year! -C

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