Praise the Lord for
another brand new day the Lord has blessed us with that we might rise up and
walk in the newness of life, glorifying Him and in grateful recipients of His
blessings and grace. We have been blessed once again with some friendly rains,
saturating the fields, farms, hills, and dales. The flowering trees
are in bloom in various areas with so much color and beauty. The
larger trees are budding and coming into leaf.
In
John 20, Mary mistook the Risen Lord as a Gardener. In a deeper
sense He is the Gardener. He is the reason for the presence of the tiny
flowers and majestic trees, like the Red Wood trees of Californian. Jesus
is the Gardener who causes the flowers to bloom again, and the
trees to bud again with so much brilliance and beauty. My grandpa,
who was the first Christian convert in my village, was a farmer. He
loved to plan seed, and he also loved to plant fruit trees such as mango,
jackfruit, orange, and grapefruit. I love to plant seeds and
trees. At one of the churches we served I had planted 12 fruit
trees. They bloom every spring and are starting to bear fruit in the
summer. The other day I drove by to see some of fruit trees and flowering
bushes I had planted, my heart overflowing with gratitude and joy.
The magnolias, azaleas, daffodils, tulips, and crocuses are in full bloom
and the peonies are strong, preparing for their future bloom and
intense fragrance. The fruit trees, such as Pears, apples, peaches, cherries,
and plums have begun to bloom. The birds were serenading. The
Lord makes every place a bird sanctuary. Every place becomes a garden where He
longs to meet with us. "And the joy we share as we tarry there none
other has ever known.
As
we get up to begin this day let us pause and gaze at the beauty of the
Lord all around us. The hills, the dales, the fields, and the meadows are
laughing again. Jesus is Risen. He is alive and well. Those
who have been met by the Lord and whose hearts have been made strangely warm
have been given eternal purposes and ethereal reasons to live with gusto and
zeal. Jesus is the gardener in our lives. He is also the dispenser
of New Wine, which ferments our lives. He makes our lives colorful and
sweet. WOW!
I read a fascinating story some time ago
in which a 39-year-old man stationed himself next to a trash bin at the
L'Enfant Plaza subway station in Washington, D.C. He had on a sweatshirt
and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. He was a busker—a street
entertainer familiar to those who frequent public transportation. He opened a
violin case and seeded it with some change. He started to play, but he
did not play just anything; he started with a Bach composition that is one
of the most challenging pieces for violin. He was not playing just any
violin; He was playing a 1713 violin handcrafted by Stradivari, which was so
famous that it had been stolen twice.
The
violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest violinists
alive today. He was an accomplice of the
Washington Post newspaper, who willingly participated in an experiment: Would
the greatest violinist in the world, playing the best music ever written on the
most expensive violin, get anybody's attention at rush hour? He looked
like a common street entertainer, standing by a trash barrel. What
happened?
3
minutes into his performance, after 63 people had rushed by, one man
finally slowed down and looked—but did not stop. It was six minutes into
it before one man stopped, leaned against a wall, and listened. In total,
1,070 people rushed by without giving any attention at all over a period
of 15 minutes. Twenty-seven people threw change in as they were
running by, for a total of $32. Josh Bell usually makes $1,000 per minute
at concerts. The resulting newspaper article won a Pulitzer
Prize. One line of print leaps out to me: "He is the one who is
real. They are the ghosts."
Something
about incognito stories grabs our attention as greatness goes unnoticed,
talent ignored, fame overlooked. The first Easter Sunday evening is the
greatest of all incognito stories. Two disciples( belonging to the inner
circle) were walking from Jerusalem to a village seven miles away, along
the road with others, going home after celebrating Passover in
Jerusalem. Dusk darkened the dirt. They were disheartened,
depressed, dejected, and the mood of the walk was glum. They were
talking back and forth, perhaps in low, hushed voices. Maybe
their conversation was intense as they were finishing one another's sentences.
"I
thought he was the one, the prophet, but—"
"I
know. You cannot kill our Messiah. He came to reign …"
A
stranger overtook them, someone else was going home after Passover.
There were the sounds of feet behind them, maybe a sense that someone
is gaining on us. . The stranger strode alongside them. A
stranger asked them what they are talking about; they asked him if he is
the only stranger in Jerusalem. The word suggests a resident alien who
just showed up, a gentle reproof, a half-joke, with the other half a rebuke.
It was as if they were saying, "What planet did you come from?"
Luke
then lets us in on the plot. We know it, but the other people
in the story do not. This is the Son of God, crucified on Friday,
raised from the dead that morning, who has already been to the glory and is now
on a dirt road at dusk. Jesus shows up when you least expect it.
After all the disciples had seen and heard, who would expect the risen Son of
God on a dirt road in the dark? One of the disciples on the road has a
name, Cleopas. The other is anonymous. I think the second is
nameless so we can insert our name there. I can put my name there
and so can you.
In
an art museum in Florence, Italy, there are rooms of priceless masterpieces
from the Renaissance. When you come to the exit, you find a
surprise. At the end of all the masterpieces, there is an empty frame at
the end of the wall. You can walk behind the wall and put your face in
the frame. This nameless disciple is like an empty frame. You can
put your face into the story.
The
New Testament has intriguing supporting characters, for which I am
glad. It encourages me that Jesus made his first recorded personal
appearance in Luke after his resurrection not to the leading characters, but to
two supporting characters: one of whom we do not know.
I have been blessed during my lifetime to have met some of the outstanding
men and women of faith. I have met missionaries, theologians, Bishops
(including the Archbishop of Canterbury late, Sir Michael Ramsey, the
late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin. Praise the Lord that Jesus does not
just show up for some prominent church leaders, officials, or people in power,
who have prestige, prominence. He is the Lord today who does not
only show up for the theologian, the archbishop, at the university, at the
palace, or at the cathedral. He does not just show up for the leading
disciples like Peter, John, or Matthew; he shows up for some regular folks
walking home in the dark of disappointment. He is the Lord who is in that
little room we inhabit, that walk-up apartment, that windowless back
room where we toil all day. He is there. He is Emmanuel
God with us. He is wonderful,compassionate friend. He is our
Eternal contemporary and companion.
As
the hymn goes:
Jesus knows all about
our struggles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
"No friend like him is so high and holy,
No, not one! No, not one!
And yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
No, not one! No, not one!
He will guide till the day is done;
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
"No friend like him is so high and holy,
No, not one! No, not one!
And yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
No, not one! No, not one!
In Christ,
Brown
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