Jesus was just a few days away from the day of His death, and He knew it. And, He was focused on that event and what that event meant. He was a dead man walking.

What does a man on the way to his death think about? I suppose the answer varies with each person but for Jesus He was thinking about the will of the Father. He told His disciples “for this purpose I came to this hour” (John 12:27). Then He said to His Father, “Glorify Your name” (John 12:28).

Something cataclysmic was under way. Jesus and “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) were on a collision course. On Golgotha forces would collide and Jesus would die. In His death, however, the unthinkable, the unimaginable would take place and the ruler of this world would be cast out. Jesus said that in His being lifted up onto a cross and expiring on that cross He would draw all men to Himself (see John 12:32). The possibilities of redemption would be once and for all forever engrained into the very fiber of reality.

To this reality Jesus calls His disciples. He said to them, and through them to us, “If anyone serve Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:26). Jesus did not run away from the approaching collision but right into it; and so must we. Where I am, there My servant will be also.”

The greatest victory in all the world was won in the place of defeat. Just how big a victory it was would be seen on Easter Sunday morning. And, the ripple effect goes on and on and on. Let us be where Jesus is!

All four of the Gospels tell the story of Jesus feeding over 5000 people with a boy’s lunch comprised of five barley loaves and two fish. On our best day this stretches our imagination, doesn’t it? We call it miracle because that is the only word we have for it.

The apostle John called it a sign. For him, the mind-boggling size of the miracle wasn’t as important as was the One who worked the work. The sign pointed to Jesus. The issue wasn’t that everybody got a free lunch. The issue was the authority and power that were at work in the person of Jesus. This is quite an issue.

John said that when “the people saw the sign…they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world’” (John 6:14). What Jesus did that day evoked a response of faith and the people saw something they had never seen before. They didn’t understand it fully, but they knew they had witnessed an act of God, an act that led them to believe that something very unusual and different was afoot. Could it be that this one is the One we’ve been looking and waiting for?

People, being people, they wanted to make this wonder working fellow their king but Jesus would have nothing to do with that kind of thinking. They didn’t need a powerful king; they needed a powerful Savior. He didn’t come to pontificate monarchical strategies; He came to redeem a broken and hungry world.

I look at this sign and realize that the best thing we can do in our lives is to be as faithful to God as we know to be and to let Jesus do what Jesus does. He can make something out of nothing, a lot out of a little, and He does it all just because of Who He is. Truth is we don’t need a miracle so much as we just need Jesus.

Do you remember the story of Jesus turning water into wine? Just about everybody does. But, do you remember the story of Jesus turning the church back into the church? You can read about it in John 2:13-22. It is an intriguing story and at the heart of it is one angry Messiah.

Jesus had come into the Temple at Passover and noticed that the Temple had become a place of business rather than the place of spiritual formation. Sacrifices had to be made during Passover and the Temple leaders thought it might be profitable if they went into the sacrificial animal business. So they set the place up for honest and sincere seekers to buy the animal, sacrifice it, satisfy the law, all in a one stop church experience where the perceived needs of the worshipers outweighed the real need to come before God in worship and joy, brokenness and humility, and in praise and adoration.

Do you know how easy it is to turn the church into something God never intended it to be? At the heart of this radical renewal of church life probably lies honest and sincere motives; though motives are sometimes very difficult to discern. Yet, whenever the Church is made to be what it isn’t, even if it is in the name of God, it finds itself under judgment and perhaps the watchful eye of an angry Messiah.

Let the Church be the Church is our cry. To be anything other than what God desires is to set our minds on man’s interests rather than God’s. And, do you remember what Jesus said to Peter when he made this mistake? “Get behind me, Satan” (Mark 8:33).

Okay! He’s got my attention. I’m certainly listening.

On the journey to Golgotha Jesus reminds His disciples of how profoundly important it is for them to yield their lives to God and to live unashamedly for God in the days of their lives. He calls them to set their minds on the interests of God not man’s, and to take up their cross and to follow Him. The challenge is given extreme value when Jesus asks them “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (See Mark 8:31-38).

These are days when the economic systems of the world have been shaken and, for many different reasons, multitudes of people have lost fortunes, their retirement funds, and life savings. We are told by those who study these things that some people will never recoup their losses, and that for others it will take years to recoup if things go well in the future.

Some people have been duped, some misinformed, and others are so filled with greed and evil that it matters not to them that people are suffering. For some the world is not enough and they are never satisfied. In a profit and loss world there are some people who are forfeiting their souls for what economics can bring to their table.

In essence Jesus asks WHY. Why do people hang on to mist and wind when there is so much more to living than what the dollar can buy? For some people the question doesn’t even make sense, but to those who see beyond the moment and have a glimpse into eternity it is a crucial question. One of these days the great equalizer, otherwise known as death, will speak, and from that moment on somebody else will spend our money.

Jesus calls us not to think in terms of profit and loss but to think in terms of profit and forfeit. Can we be bought? What will a man give in exchange for his soul” {Mark 8:37). They don’t talk about this on the nightly news, do they?

Can you picture this? Coming up out of the baptismal waters of the Jordan, Jesus experiences a dove descending upon Him and a voice out of the heavens saying to Him, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:9-11). Then, IMMEDIATELY, the Spirit of the Father “impelled” Jesus to go out into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). Jesus obeyed and spent the next forty days in the wilderness tempted by Satan (Mark 1:13).

Jesus goes from the emotional affirmation of baptism, the dove, and the Voice, to forty days in the wilderness “with the wild beasts” where Satan assaults Him and seeks to bring Him down (Mark 1:13). But, there in the real valley God does not forsake Him. God sent angels “And the angels were ministering to Him.”

Have you ever been assaulted by Satan? I mean really assaulted? He hits you time after time after time until you are tired and fatigued and restless. You feel like you just can’t go on, and then he assaults you again. We all have experienced this, haven’t we?

When you feel tempted and assaulted by the enemy don’t think for a moment that God has forgotten you. He hasn’t. He is near. You may have to go through what you are going through, but never embrace the thought that God has left you alone. Sometimes obedience will take you into a face-to-face confrontation with the enemy. Just ask Jesus. It was the Spirit of God that impelled Him to go into the wilderness. This wasn’t an unplanned outing; this was a divine appointment. And, in the desert God came near and gave His Son the power needed to overcome the evil one.

Be alert because God is in the midst of your story.