“And it was the third hour when they crucified him. ²⁶ And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” ²⁷ And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. ²⁹ And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,³⁰ save yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. ³² Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.” Mark 15:25-32

As Jesus hangs on the cross, the people cry out to him “…come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Coming down from the cross may have been quite a sight, and may have brought some to faith, but Jesus refused to give signs or commanded people not to tell anyone, because he did not want people to believe in him only for the miracle cures, the other healings, or great miracles. His resurrection gives a more compelling reason to believe, yet many still choose not to believe because it requires something that is more difficult to grasp – this thing called faith. What is faith? We can have faith, lose faith, think faith is elusive. Faith is not tangible, and it can be rather fleeting. We do not need to see to believe, for we will never be able to gather enough tangible evidence to convince people that Christ was the Messiah and that the resurrection actually happened.  All that we need to do is to show them the church – its existence is enough to bolster our faith and should be proof enough. If there was nothing to this cross and the resurrection, then churches of Christ would have died off centuries ago—just like Christ. But it has not died—and has continued to live in the faith of Christ for two thousand years.

Pastor Dave

They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” ⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the Lord? That will not succeed. ⁴² Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³ For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” ⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, even though the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, had not left the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah.” Numbers 14:40-45

When we follow G-d’s command reluctantly and give a half-hearted response to G-d’s calling, is it no wonder that we often find little success? The people Israel, after learning that they have once again incurred G-d’s wrath, they decide to invade the land hoping to avoid G-d’s wrath rather than trusting that the Lord will provide. Even though they are warned to avoid this course of action, they decide to launch an attack and are soundly defeated. We are reminded that we should heed G-d’s calling – even if we are fearful – we need to trust in the Lord. Discernment is often a painful, lonely process, bringing fear of what following G-d might bring, and fear of what might happen if we do not follow. Trusting G-d will not always remove our fear. But trust in G-d can sustain us through those times of uncertainty. Can we afford not to trust or to respond?

Pastor Dave