WATCH TODAY’S EPISODE ON YOUTUBE.
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
John 19:38–41 NIV
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
CONSIDER
We don’t know a lot about Joseph of Arimathea, but we tend to like him. I wonder, though, would we like him if he hadn’t shown up at the cross and taken care of the body of Jesus?
It seems up to that point Joseph had a lot of “want to” when it came to doing the right thing, but he had a lot more “need for” when it came to being recognized for doing the respectable thing. Joseph, like so many men (and women), was more interested in being respectable than actually being respected:
Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.
It’s interesting how living in fear of other people creates this condition. We conform to the expectations of others in order to maintain our respectability with them. We don’t respect them; we fear them. And the truth is, they don’t respect us either. Meanwhile, we live in the shared self-deception of respectability. One doesn’t receive respect from working to be respected; one gets respectability.
Truth be told, we don’t really know too many Peter, James, and John characters. We know tons of Joseph and Nicodemus types. They run our towns, our local governments, and civic organizations. They usher at church, teach Sunday school, and generally do what is expected of them. We are good, God-fearing, respectable people. Our respectability gives us access to both the chief priest and the chief justice. We are as at home in the chamber of commerce as we are in the church. And all of this can be quite good.
I’m trying to point out a critical distinction between crowd-level churchmanship and courage-based discipleship. The difference is respectability versus real respect. We will never stop talking about Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus—not because of their high standing in the community, but because they stepped out of the shadows of their secret discipleship and comfortable reputations and did something courageous.
This was not a self-interested act of community service. They had no notion of any impending resurrection. Because they broke ranks with respectable religion and associated themselves with a crucified Messiah, they will live in the eternal respect of the risen Lord (and ours).
PRAY
Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who walked into the world of respectable religion and called us to follow him into courageous discipleship. Awaken us to this opportunity and let us never look back. We pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
JOURNAL
Why is respectability so seductive? What is the difference between wearing your religion on your sleeve and being publicly associated with Jesus? What do you think of this distinction between respectability and respect? What are we afraid of?
SING
Today, we will sing “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” (hymn 150) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
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John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas.
3 Responses
The fear of losing respectability keeps Christians focused on burying and embalming the dead Jesus instead of on surrendering to and radically obeying the inner rivers of the Jesus who lives within them. (Colossians 1:27) Let me tell you about my Jesus and His glorious inner rivers of living water! Hallelujah!
Supernatural fruit and gifts are released in human beings when the inner rivers of Jesus’ Spirit are allowed to freely flow from deep inside of a person’s innermost being. Christ’s spiritual rivers can be cultivated or quenched. They can be surrendered to or suppressed. They can be relied on or denied. They can be released or rejected.
A lifestyle of humility, tenderness, sensitivity, purity, brokenness, surrender, and obedience open up a human heart to Christ’s inner flowing. Developing those characteristics prepares the way for the Lord’s spiritual rivers to freely and powerfully flow from deep within a person.
Society and even religion too often train us humans to rely only on the workings of our intellect, our undisciplined desires, and our own efforts and abilities. They teach us that Jesus’ inner flowings are merely unreliable intuition and irrational imaginings. They tell us that the inner release of God’s supernatural fruit and gifts needs to be feared and avoided.
Society and even religion have brainwashed us humans to be respectable, proud, hardhearted, insensitive, impure, faking mental health, rebellious, and disobedient. No wonder we’re mostly unaware of and missing out on God’s inner rivers of wholesomely beautiful spiritual fruit and supernatural gifts.
Christians desperately need to wake up to the glorious reality of God’s spiritual rivers. (John 7:38-39) We need to wholeheartedly embrace them. (Colossians 1:27) We urgently need to set aside our own feelings and desires and instead to be supernaturally swept along and led by God the Holy Spirit’s inner rivers both day and night. (Romans 8:14)
Thanks J.D.
This reminds me of a quote I heard when I was a Boy Scout leader. “No man stands so tall, as when he stoops down to help a boy.” That’s respectability, and I sought that then.
Now, I realise it means infinitely more when I (we) stoop down and love someone’s unloved son or daughter, despite their appearance or situation.
Only with Jesus abiding in me can I see them in His love and stoop down and love them. Help Us Lord do that.
Help me (us) Jesus do just that, despite my (our) fear of losing respectability.
I’ll share with you my entry today from the journal prompts; because I feel like you value our opinion and our responses. And you leave this comment box for a reason. And you’ve proven to me that you do recognize and peruse them so here you go:
“Why is respectability so seductive? “
Because it feeds the ego and is often an instant gratification. I don’t know about wearing religion on my sleeve. I have always been convicted by the spirit when I have tried or inadvertently dawned it. If I display religion, it is motivated by my sincere pride for his awesomeness. I know I am publicly associated with Jesus, though, because those that see me walk daily have told me it is a defining characteristic, and when I sink below the joy of the Lord, they encourage me back into it. I need thee ,oh I need thee every hour I need thee. Hear oh, Lord, come through me!
I am respected only by those who are not threatened by a real relationship with the Holy Spirit. The distinction between respectable and respected is fear of the Lord versus fear of man. I only fear his disappointment, not his correction! His correction is my design and my desire.