MARCH 26, 2024 - NOT YOUR STANDARD DIRECTIONS

 TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2024 - HOLY WEEK - NOT YOUR STANDARD DIRECTIONS

“Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

So, he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

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So, Jesus tells two of his disciples (we don’t know who) to look for a man carrying a jar of water.  Then they go to a house, where they ask about a room.  He is only identified by the name, “The Teacher.”  

Maybe it could have been more like this: go into the city to address 123 Olive Street. It is owned by Eli Greenbaum.  Get Eli and tell him that Jesus and his disciples need a room for the Passover.  

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Have you ever been given directions where the speaker tells you, “You can’t miss it”!!

Here are a couple of direction examples. In the town of Madison, locals know the area fairly well. You might be told, “Go to Firecracker Stand Road, and go north—look for the farm with the red barn.” 

A better version might be to go east on County Road #36 to the first road heading north, go north on County Road 457 Avenue, 2.3 miles to a house with the mailbox labeled “Molstad.”.  The house will be white, two stories, with a paved driveway.  

Going farther east on Old Highway 34, you will come to “Norwegian Boulevard.”  The road isn’t named that - it is county road 21.  But, when that area was first settled, there were a lot of Norwegian families there.  

How about you go east until you get to Norwegian Boulevard, then north until you read the old Johnson place—the place you want will be just north of there. Now you understand the Johnsons haven’t lived on Country Road 21 for many years—and to complicate things, the house that was there burned down five years ago. 

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Aside from that, my friends in New Jersey give directions like this: Go south on Road 17 until you can hardly breathe because of the chemical place. Then go to the tire dump, which was on fire the last I knew, and then to the sewage treatment plant.  (I hope you don’t have a bad sense of smell).

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Another one of the directions is in Mark chapter 11.  ““Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt? "Hey answered, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”

What if the colt had been moved when the disciples arrived? 

(Aside from that, I’m going into my luxury car dealership (say, BMW). I will go in and get the keys to the most expensive car on the lot.  If somebody asks me, I will say - “The Master needs it”.) 

The concept illustrated here is Omniscience - which is defined as: “unlimited or infinite knowledge.”

Jesus KNEW that the colt would be there; Jesus KNEW that the Upper Room would be available for them.  

I’ve written several times that I don’t understand infinity - well, Omniscience is in the same ballpark.  Jesus has unlimited knowledge.!!!

Psalm 139 says, 

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely.

Luke 12:7 is similar, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.”  

Yup - God knows how many hairs are on my head.

You know - that’s kind of scary.  God knows when I look at a person with lust in my heart, God knows when I’m thinking of stealing the item from the store.

So, what does “free will” mean to you in light that God really knows all our thoughts and words?

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, March 26, 2024