Resurrection Day

I am sitting here working on my sermon for Sunday and I find it interesting that as I look back over the past ten years of sermons I've only preached on the actual resurrection on Resurrection Sunday three times. This year is no different, as we continue in our series on Matthews Gospel we look at the story of Jesus walking on the water.

This is a foreshadowing of the resurrection though as Jesus illustrates for the disciples not only His divine power over nature yet again, but His perfect grace as He reaches out and rescues Peter who was sinking into the waves in need of a Savior.

Sometimes that reminder is all we need to make it, other times we need the waves to slap us in the face a little to remind us of who is actually doing the saving...

Blessed and Broken

Had this thought that I didn't include in Sunday's message but I still felt like someone needed to hear it. In Matthew 14 Jesus does something subtle that is often overlooked when we read because of the amazing. We are naturally drawn to the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the end result we often miss the process. Jesus blessed them and then broke them.  I find this order of events intriguing. He blessed the loaves and fish and then broke them. 

 ...taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied... Matthew 14:19‭-‬20 

Jesus could have broken and then blessed but He didn't, he blessed then broke. 

So often we get this entitled feeling that because we are "blessed" to be called a child of God we are above being "broken," that we shouldn't have to suffer. Maybe it's the Western Christianity rearing up but I think even Paul and James both express the suffering and inconvenience that they endured for the Cross. 

The bread wasn't blessed because it was broken rather it was broken because it was blessed... 

Don't avoid the adventure because it's hard... 

Don't stay silent just to keep the peace... 

The real question here is "IF" you are blessed are you ready and willing to be broken? He must first break us to use us so it's not a matter of if but of when... 

Are you in the process of being broken but fighting it or dodging the pain instead of moving forward with the plans He has laid before you? 

Or perhaps you have already experienced a great deal of brokenness and you are bitter. 

Maybe just maybe we should all reflect back to the brokenness Christ displayed by taking up the cross for us? The humiliation He endured so that we might be spared the cup of wrath being poured out on us...

Anyways just a thought...