Discipleship

Fight Like Jesus

March 8, 2023 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered, “Was Jesus a peacemaker and should His people take up His ways”? Maybe you have wondered, “Was Jesus a pacifist?”

If you are not reading Jason Porterfield’s book, Fight Like Jesus during Lent, there is still time to order it and start reading before Holy Week. His subtitle “How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week” sets us up to take a journey with Jesus through the seven days leading to the cross and the resurrection.

Jason began working out the realities of peacemaking in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. In the preface he confesses that he was young and naive, but that’s not the real problem. He goes on: “The combination of so many destructive forces at work in the Downtown Eastside soon proved too much for me… Over the course of a few short months, my neighbourhood’s brokenness had broken me. Despite my claiming to be a peacemaker, it was now readily apparent that I had no idea how to make peace.” p. 16.

Most of us are ill-equipped to actually make peace in conflictual settings, but Jesus affirmed the place of peacemaking among His followers as a response to His Kingdom. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:6) As well James, one of Jesus’ brothers who became a leader in the church in Jerusalem, affirms a distinctive quality of Jesus’ followers in the world when they have the “wisdom that comes from heaven.” He writes that we will be “Peacemakers who sow in peace” and that we will “reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:18)

So how?

Jason takes us through the lessons Jesus delivered to His disciples on each day of the week as He journeyed to the Cross in Jerusalem. I found myself at times surprised and delighted by Jason’s observations of Jesus’ journey and teaching. I learned something new in almost every chapter. Jason challenged the internal assumptions and reflexive movement toward violence that most of us have learned from our culture, our society and perhaps even from our churches. He shows how this reflexive movement toward violence colours how we read the witnesses of Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching. 

I imagine that most of us, as Jason notes, race through Palm Sunday into Holy Week and miss the announcement of Jesus’ theme for the week. The crowd is waving palm branches joyfully but Jesus is weeping. He cries out, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that make for peace.” (Luke 19:42)

Jason writes, “What if Jesus’ lament is more than just an intriguing glimpse into his innermost thoughts and desires? What if it was placed at the start of Holy Week as a marker so that it might guide us down the correct interpretive path? What if Jesus spoke these words on the first day in order to introduce his primary objective for the week?

Jason goes on: “This book makes a bold claim: Jesus’ lament is the interpretive key to Holy Week. His lament suggests that the events of Holy Week are best understood when viewed through the lens of peacemaking. And it encourages us to see the central struggle of Holy Week as a struggle for peace.” (p. 21)

In Fight Like Jesus, Jason Porterfield writes in a very approachable style as he examines the events and teachings of each day to draw out lessons for the peacemaker. He shows us how Jesus himself corrects our tragic approaches to life and conflict. He show us how Jesus makes it possible for us to live into and out of the love of God in a world that desperately needs His peace. 

Jason Porterfiled, Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week, 2022, Herald Press.

Change, Discipleship, Jesus

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Too Busy to Make a Home

August 9, 2022 0 Comments

Read John 14:22-30

“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” vs. 23

This Judas, not Judas Iscariot, was puzzled over the limited vision of Jesus. Why not show yourself to the world? Why are you showing yourself only to us?

Jesus’ answer is telling. God is a home-maker!

Jesus wants to a make a home with them in which the communion of God will reside. The ongoing work of being at home with God is one in which Jesus’ disciples must participate. The participation is founded on love and yields obedience. In the grace of loving Jesus, the disciples keep on growing by obeying Jesus. Jesus and the Father will come make a dwelling with them; the Spirit is coming!

Our imaginations regarding being at home even in these bodies with God are too small.

I remember as a kid, building “forts” with friends in the woods behind our homes. These forts become places from which great adventures were planned and performed. The “fort” was a dwelling a place for us to gather away from the regular paths of adults. As we got older the forts become more complicated and the planning became more ambitious until we too like the adults could not afford to enter into the play of having a fort. We were busy with other things.

Ah our life with God! Imagination is required. Yet, we are never too old to build an abode with Him in our hearts. But, we can be too busy!

Heavenly Father, enlarge my heart for loving you. Through Jesus your Son, captivate my imagination with the supreme worth of knowing You and being known by You. Through your Spirit empower me to obey you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Daily Readings, Discipleship

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DR: Beyond the Applause

August 5, 2022 0 Comments

Read Luke 4:14-30

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus’ reputation in ministry had preceded him. So when he went home to Nazareth all the good feels likely awaited him. But controversy was just below the surface. Jesus was aware. At home in the providence of His Heavenly Father he was handed the scroll of Isaiah. He read a passage and then declared “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Temptation abounds. Who’s “servant” would Jesus be? A servant of his hometown, moved by their applause and needs? Or would Jesus be the Servant of the Lord who ushers in a new era of life, faith and obedience. Jesus takes up the testimony of the Servant of the Lord and declares that “this” is who he is.

Applause as an external compass is fickle and can lead us places bound up in foolishness. We each need an internal compass formed in the reality of who we are in Christ and formed by reflection on what matters to us until we search out the values and principles that form who we are and guide our decisions. That’s a solitary work. Jesus likely did that over the years of labourer work in Joseph’s care. Jesus likely did that again in the 40 days of wilderness prayer.

Heavenly Father, May I move in the power of your Spirit who knows your heart and knows me. May the transforming work of Jesus be in me. Come Lord Jesus. Set me free. Help me see. And let my life be governed by love. Form within me such delight in you that I know what pleases you and willingly move accordingly. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Daily Readings, Discipleship

DR: Facing Temptations

August 4, 2022 0 Comments

Read Luke 4:1-13

“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”

After a high and holy moment Jesus was moved by the Spirit into the wilderness, into a solitary place and the devil came to tempt him. This too is a holy season as Jesus persists in setting Himself into the Presence and purposes of God.

It’s Jesus’ commitment to the Father and his commitment to the way of the Father that is being tested. The devil need not come himself to tempt us. He has his agents but there is more. The Apostle James says that “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). And then there are the systems of this world that are opposed to the knowledge and way of God. We are tempted by their promises all the time to act and live independent of God as He is revealed in His Word and by the Spirit.

Jesus shows us the way forward when tempted as he constantly returns to His life with the Father and the realities of His Word. He resists the devil. 

Heavenly Father, whether I find myself in the solitary places or in the wildness of the crowds I know I am tempted to wander from You and Your ways. Seek me and set me in the delight of your love. May no willful sin dominate me. Protect me from the evil one and the lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Change, Daily Readings, Discipleship

DR: Vital Connection and Vital Knowledge

August 3, 2022 0 Comments

Read Luke 3:21-37

“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus comes from the crowd that had gathered with John the Baptist in the wilderness and is baptized with them. Luke’s record does not include the conversation Jesus had with John.


Instead, Luke emphasizes the vital relationships of Jesus to the Spirit and the Heavenly Father.
Jesus is connected to the crowd. Jesus is connected to a long line of ancestors. But, his vital connection in God is also emphasized. Notice:

Jesus is praying.
The heavens open.
The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus.
A voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Vital connections are required for purposeful ministry. “Now Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.” Most essential from the Heavenly Father’s view seems to be the affirmation of Jesus’ belovedness. Perhaps this is vital knowledge for us too! Belovedness is not drawn from what we do, but from the heart of the Beholder.

Heavenly Father, As a child adopted into your family through Christ Jesus, I ask that you to send your Spirit to me again that I may know my belovedness before your eyes. I cry out to you and commit myself to the way of Jesus. Neither the crowd or my ancestors are adequately  sufficient for the task of filling my soul with purpose, love, and sustaining power for life. Come Lord, Come. In Jesus name, Amen.

Daily Readings, Discipleship

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