how to kill Jesus

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Matthew 12:1-21. In this selection, we read that the Pharisees plotted how to kill Jesus. What had He done to deserve death? He healed people. Why in the world would they want to kill Him for that? Well, because they had gotten the importance of their rules mixed up.

Their rules were important. Even Jesus didn't tell people to just ignore the rules. But the Pharisees were putting the rules before people's good... and they were putting them before God. That's a good lesson for us today. If your rules cause you to love people less, to treat them badly, to hate them... you might want to reexamine your rules. If your rules make going to church a drudgery and a hated chore... you might want to rethink your rules.

The Pharisees, because of their messed up ideas about rules, plotted how to kill Jesus. They were, in fact, deciding how to kill God. And they failed. As the Bible tells us, no one took His life from Him - He gave it willingly.

Over the course of the next 2000 years, we tried really hard to finish what the Pharisees started. We pushed God out of our lives, and explained Him away. We came up with theories of how the world got here, and how we all evolved, so that we didn't need to believe in Him anymore. (I'm not saying that evolution is an evil thing that is absolutely wrong... that's a different question for another time. I'm saying that atheists USE the theory of evolution to explain how the world doesn't need God after all). We got to the point where Nietzsche proclaimed, not that he had killed God, but that God was dead already. In the lives of thousands of people, God had no place. And that number is increasing today in the western countries - Europe and the US. We think we don't need Him anymore. In our minds, He is dead.

But the good news is that while we westerners are considering Him dead, other parts of the world are growing in faith. In fact, Christianity is growing in numbers across the world. When we think we've got Him in the ground for good, He comes back stronger than ever.

And that's true in your life too. Be encouraged. It can be hard sometimes. It can seem like He's really taking His time to answer your prayers. But just when it seems darkest - that's when He'll turn everything upside down.

God, thanks for teaching us that rules are important, but they have their place. And thanks for working everything for good - even mankind's attempts to kill You.