Instructions

Mark 14:13-15

      Men are rumored to not want to stop for directions or read the instructions included with things that need to be assembled. I’m not sure how the rumors got started, but I am here today to put an end to them. Instructions are our friends. They will help us.

      As I am getting older, I am finding that I can’t summon the resources to remember a series of instructions. In need to write things down. Maybe I am just tired. I could always blame the medication I am taking. All I know is that I find myself making lists. I have learned to make them on my phone. That way I don’t have to wonder where the list is! I would always seem to lose the paper ones.

      I hope I am not the only one who needs lists. I would like to think of myself as somewhat normal. I know I live in God’s Waiting Room, Florida, but I don’t think I am that old yet.

      The disciples are given a list of things to do, instructions to follow, so that they can make the preparations they want to make for the Passover meal. Look at the steps.

      Go, follow, say, prepare. Into the city, the house he enters, where I may eat, he will show. Some people hate instructions. They feel it stifles their individuality or their creativity or their freedom. There are reasons for those “Do not enter” signs. Danger often lurks behind restrictions.

      We might look at these instructions and see Jesus’ extraordinary knowledge and insight into the future. He knows about the man carrying the water jar. He knows which house he is going to enter. He knows the owner of the house has a large upper room. He knows it is furnished and prepared. He knows it is available for Him.

      Or we could see that Jesus had already made arrangements in advance. He might have already set things up with the water jug man and the owner of the house.

      Or maybe it is a combination of the two. He has insight into the servant’s movement that will bring them to the prearranged house. We will never know.

      I love that Jesus includes His disciples in the meal. They are trying to make preparations for Him to eat, and He tells them to make preparations for ‘us’ there. Jesus wants to include His disciples. He wants them to know they are part of the activity, not just cogs in the wheel of time. Their role is important, and they are going to participate in the event, not just sit on the sidelines.

Keys

1 Corinthians 15:1-7

There are some things in life that we need to remember, like our car keys. We all know what it is like when we need a key and we forgot it or can't find it. Frustration! At that moment we get consumed, don't we? Nothing else seems to matter. For some people just remembering their name is something important! The Silver Alerts on Florida highways emphasize this.

For most of us, the things we forget aren’t really that important. Buying milk, paying the electric bill, and feeding the cat are not as important as helping a choking child, bringing a meal to a bedbound mother of three toddlers, or taking the car keys out of a drunk friend’s hands. Oops won’t suffice.

The same is true in our spiritual life. Some things are necessary for us to know and believe if we are to have eternal life. Paul outlines them starting in verse three. Christ died. His death was what the Old Testament Scriptures had said would happen to the Messiah. He was placed in a grave where He stayed until the third day. On the third day He was raised back to life just as the Old Testament Scriptures had said would happen. Then He appeared to individuals, groups and crowds. This wasn’t a secret reappearing, or a spiritual resurrection. This was the real death deal.

This is what the Corinthian believers were in danger of forgetting. There are not many things that make up the core of the Gospel. This is pretty much what is important, and what we must not forget. Without it we are sunk! Other things might be helpful and beneficial, but they don’t rate as important as these things. Don’t forget it!