Check the Task

Mark 15:44-45

      One of the important steps in any project is to check to make sure it is finished. No one likes loose ends.  We want to answer the question, is it complete? Our minds like closed loops, tied knots, periods on the end of sentences.

      This is especially true when we have delegated a task to someone else. If we have not been there to do the task ourselves, and the task is important, we want to make sure it has been completed.

      This is one of the most important and often neglected tasks of a good manager. They hold people accountable for their actions. They ask for updates and progress reports. They check to see that things are actually getting done. People need to know that their work matters enough for someone to check.

      It is not that the manager doesn’t trust them to do the job, or at least good managers trust their people to do the job, but that checking creates a connection between the task assigned and the task completed. If the manager just throws out tasks, but then never checks to see if they are done, then how does the person know if the task is important? Is everything the manager say of equal importance?

      This kind of accountability helps build great organizations. Every time a check is made or a progress report is given it is an opportunity for feedback and encouragement. It also gives the opportunity to refine the task, a task that might need some adjustments because of changing circumstances. This is the give and take of good management. People are able to give their input along the way, input that is valuable because it is closer to the actual task, input that can be closer to the people.

      Pilate gave the order for Jesus to be crucified at the beginning of his workday. Now late in the afternoon he gets a request for the body to be released for burial. The his takes Pilate by surprise. Jesus died fairly rapidly by crucifixion standards. So Pilate asks for accountability. He calls in the commander on the ground, the man in charge of the crucifixion detail.

      I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be that commander. He might have been in charge of those hundred soldiers, but he wasn’t of high enough rank to be comfortable going before the most powerful Roman official in the area. This would have been the normal job of the Garrison commander. This man would have had more regular contact with Pilate, since he was the most senior military advisor in Jerusalem. He would have been part of Pilate’s inner circle. All things military would have had his input.

      But now the lowly Centurion must give an account of Jesus. We know from the other Gospels that they performed the official check, a poke in the side with a spear, to confirm death. Even a severely weak person would react to being stabbed in the side. Jesus doesn’t react, and He leaks water and blood, a sign of the beginnings of decomposition. The Centurion would have had to confirm the diagnosis himself. He was responsible for accomplishing the task. Pilate was now holding him accountable.

      And now he gets called into the principal’s office, I mean Pilate’s office. Not a pleasant walk. He confirms Jesus’ death to Pilate and Jesus’ body is released to Joseph. End of story. Jesus is dead.

Teaching Amazement

Mark 11:18

      Have you ever had anyone teach you something in such a way that it amazed you? Or maybe it wasn’t the way they taught you, but the content that amazed you. I’m talking jaw-dropping amazement.

      The spiritual leaders of Jesus’ day had a big problem. Jesus! His teaching had such a ring of authenticity that people were gathering around Him, rather than around them. They were losing their grip on the people. They were losing their carefully scripted place in their world. And if they lost that place, they would have a much more limited place of leadership, if any place was left.

      So they had to do something.

      Fear can be a powerful motivator, for both good and evil. Fear is one of our most basic emotions, driving right to the core of our being. When we are afraid we can do little else. Fear can take over our life.

      What is amazing is that Jesus’ teaching put fear in the hearts of these seemingly fearless leaders. And what do they do with the fear? They turn it into a murder plot. That probably wouldn’t be my first choice, although I have to admit, when I allow my sinful self to imagine, murder does sometimes pop to the surface. Now before you get a spiritual on me, murder has flashed across your mind too!

      But these leaders do more that flash murder. They begin to look for a way to do it. They begin to take steps to make it happen.

      Jesus has put His finger on their spiritual pulse and found them flat-lined. They were the den of robbers. They were the ones corrupting the LORD’s temple. They are the ones preventing prayer from happening in the temple courts. They had authority over that space, and they were giving authority to those who were doing the selling. Their permission was needed to be there, so they were part of the problem.

      Is murder part of godly living? I didn’t think so either! But if we followed these religious leaders, we might think it was, the ends justifying the means. Killing Jesus would help the greater cause. They certainly didn’t want any trouble with Rome. They were charged with keeping peace in their little corner of the Roman empire. And Jerusalem had a bad reputation for brewing dissidents. Or at least dissidents would show up in Jerusalem preaching their rebellion.

      These religious leaders had a vested interest in keeping the status quo. They didn’t want any change. Things were fine just the way they were. Change meant the unknown. The unknown brings uncertainty, unpredictability.

      Sometimes we need to shake up the status quo. Sometimes things need to change in order for things to get better. Are you ready for some change?

An Errant Wish

Mark 5:13-14

      Have you ever wished or prayed for something, and then when it happened it wasn’t at all what you expected? It was what you had expressed in your wish or prayer, but when you expressed the desire of your heart you hadn’t realized all that having this particular end result would entail. You hadn’t thought about all the other things that would be affected when it came true. You hadn’t looked at the affect on your relationships, your bank account, your work environment, your family. All you could see was the pain and you wanted it to go away.

      Our text has just such an outcome. The demons inside this man have had a place to hang out for years. They have had the run of the place. They were in charge. But that rule is challenged in an instant when Jesus’ boat pulls up on shore. They know judgment has arrived on their sand and they want some way of wiggling out of the inevitable turn of events.

      Jesus takes charge and they try to get Jesus to stop the proceedings, to go into a recess, to give them time to think. But Jesus has one thing in mind: bringing freedom to this man who has been in agony. The demons have wrecked his whole being, body, mind and soul. Jesus wants to bring freedom to his whole being. They don’t want to give up control. They are in such a hurry to keep some semblance of control that they look around and see the pigs, a whole heard of pigs. There is lots of empty space over there. We could each have a room to ourselves! No more standing in line for the bathroom. No more bossy relatives. No more having to do what someone else wants. I can be on my own. I can remain in charge.

      But what they hadn’t counted on was Jesus’ full knowledge of what would happen if they entered the pigs. I am sure they didn’t count on the pigs staging a full walkout, closing down the pork chop assembly line. But of course Jesus knows the future. And Jesus has a plan.

      Jesus plan includes not only deliverance for this one man filled with the demons, but a radical opportunity for that whole part of the land. He knows that when the pigs run off the cliff those tending the pigs will become a new PR firm. The public relations campaign that begins that day affects tens of thousands of people in that whole region. In places that had not heard the name of Jesus and the power of God that was demonstrated, suddenly hear of this man who has authority that only God possesses.

      The shift workers run in to management and report the workplace accident. They were following all the appropriate workplace policies and procedures, but then the unprecedented happened. The whole line malfunctioned at once. They lost the whole run. And all the equipment was destroyed in the process. All the pigs ran off the cliff. This year’s crop and all the breeding stock run off the cliff together.

      When those being told hear the news, they have to see it for themselves. They want to make sure the shift hasn’t perpetrated some kind of heist in the middle of the night and made off with their profit. They want to see the dead pigs for themselves. When they arrive I am sure they can see the paths through the vegetation next to the cliffs where the 2000 pigs ran. And then they look over the cliff and there are the pigs, smashed to death at the bottom.

      Now I know I have used my imagination to fill in details, but doesn’t that sound like what could have happened? I know I would want to see how my 401k went belly up and hold the appropriate people accountable.

      Not at all what the pigs had expected. They are suddenly without a home, just what they feared would happen when Jesus showed up. And Jesus has created a situation that guarantees news of His authority gets broadcast to thousands who haven’t heard.