TRINITY SUNDAY
 
The most engaging and exhilarating contemplation for the Christian mind is the mystery of the great Three-in- One. A mystery, not in the allegation that it does not make sense, but in the fact that the three-ness or plurality of God can only be known by revelation - his own self-disclosure. The reality of the Triunity of God is a matter of enabled spiritual observation, not of human discernment or acumen or impossible mathematical juggling. The One Lord manifests himself as Three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Throughout the history of his Word, spoken to mankind via prophets, apostles and chosen witnesses, divine speech proclaims God as being internally, essentially, and by nature, a society of three members of the One Godhead, one Being diversified in three personal entities in harmonious communion, will, and action.
 
Many analogies have been posited to describe the Trinity, but none are exact, nor can our comprehension of the Trinity ever be exhaustive. It is a truth that is known because divine revelation has deigned to make it shown i.e. Creator (the Father), Redeemer (the Son), Life-giver (Holy Spirit). Yet each Person is also collaborative in the shared teamwork actual within the one Deity. This three-ness of God we encounter in Scripture time after time. We glimpse, we intuit, we marvel, we worship, we adore. We believe with heart, mind, and soul because God is close to us in the nearness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We relate to him in that way. He is in us, and we in him. Revelation, instinct, and experience correspond. We are privileged by grace to know God as he is: our Father Dear; our Elder Brother; our Companion and Counselor. And God in the fullness of his goodness is extremely rich to us in so many ways as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each sharing the gifts of their common wealth according to their Person and role.
 
Revelation chapter 1: A survey of this splendid chapter is a magnificent illustration of the life and work of the Triune God. It is worthy of prolonged and prayerful pondering.
 
vv. 1 - 3. The Lord Jesus is entrusted with a revelation from God (the word of God) which Jesus transmits to John by an angel, and John passes it on to his readers as the testimony of Jesus Christ. This reveals the entwining of minds between the Father and Son in the picture language of source and messenger, proposer and prophet par excellence.
 
v6. Our Redeemer is associated with the author of our salvation and receives acclaim due to God alone. He “has made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen”.
 
vv  9 - 10. Again, Jesus is associated in special intimacy with the word of God as its expression, reference is made to the Lord’s Day as an appropriate time for divine connection, and that occurs through the Holy Spirit: “On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit.”
 
vv. 12 - 16. John goes to some length to relay details of the majestic vision he receives of the Lord Christ. All the terms he employs to describe Jesus are due only to God and speak of the divinity of the Son.
 
vv. 17 - 18. Jesus is characteristically humane to the stunned apostle, comforting him with his right hand of effectual blessing, and assuring him of life perpetual as divine Lord and Benefactor. “I am the First and the Last - the Living One. The word of God pulsates with Trinitarianism.

RJS

ACTS 2:22 - 36

The interplay between King David and his greater Son in this passage is immensely intriguing.  We learn much about the perceptions of David as an inspired prophet.  We trace the exquisite origins of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  We move through the phases of our Redeemer’s obedient assignment from his Incarnation and then the consequent stages of his ordained life and ministry in fulfillment of the saving purpose of God:  Accreditation through miracles, wonders and signs (v22).  The agony of death on behalf of sinners (v23).  The resurrection (v24).  Exaltation to the right hand of God (v33a).  The donation of the Holy Spirit (v33b).

This great train of sacred events constitutes the composite accomplishment of human salvation.  The entire experience of Jesus, his every effort, and every event through which he passed is essential to our rescue from rebellion in sin and our restoration to the favor of God.  He is chosen as our Deliverer, he identifies with those he came to redeem, he dies in their stead to procure their ransom from sin and reconciliation to the Father, he rises again to confirm the success of his venture that salvages us from the doom of our wickedness, he ascends to the right hand of God as our tireless Advocate to ensure our eternal welfare through his priestly intercession, and he reigns over all things from the heavenly throne.  David was a faint earthly shadow of his cosmic sovereignty.

The words of the apostle Peter are a veritable wonder.  He encapsulates so much sublime truth in this concise summary of his Pentecostal sermon.  It all happens within the continuity of the single covenant of grace (which is administered under two dispensations i.e. expectation and fulfillment).

Peter is addressing Israel.  The Lord Jesus is the sum of Israel’s hope.  Culpably, the religious leaders of the Hebrew nation failed to accept the evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth.  They incited hostility toward the Lord and engineered his execution.  Evil men outrageously killed the Man.  It was a horrid, abhorrent, and unjust act.  At the same time it was divinely ordained.  God willed it.  The perpetrators were guilty.  Divine and human intent were ingeniously entwined in the plan of salvation which required the death of the Savior.  Both God and man placed Jesus upon the cross; one in love, the other in malice.

The most necessary act of atonement was performed.  Victory over evil and death was consummated in the Messiah’s rising again.  David, his predecessor of the former covenant shares his prophetic insight into the resurrection and exaltation of his Greater Son (vv. 25-28, 34-35).  Ah! The precious unity of the Testaments in their essential meaning and message.  In the glorious dual aftermath of the cross, the rising and elevation of Jesus (vv. 32-33), God fully accredits his Son.  Jews and Gentiles are to be assured of this and trust, adore, and obey Jesus the crucified One as “both Lord and Christ”.

RJS
 

Mark! 16:1-8
 
v1 Spices.
Mary Magdalene, James’ mother also named Mary, and Salome intended to anoint Jesus’ body with spices. It was an act of homage in belief that for their loved one death was a permanent condition. The women were performing an act of affection and respect and endeavoring to preserve a corpse for as long as possible. They had to do something immediately until their mood of mourning would gradually be transformed into manageable and cherished memory. Practical adjustments are necessary in order to cope with acute loss. Ceremony yields a small measure of comfort in bereavement. It is a token of farewell.
 
v2 On their way to the tomb.
The sorrowing party of devoted women were preoccupied with the pending problem that bothered them on their excursion to the tomb where Jesus lay. The grave hewn out of a rock face was sealed with a huge stone that could possibly be rolled along a runner, or shallow channel etched into the ground, if pushed with force and effort, a task too difficult for the small team off women approaching Jesus’ burial place. Their minds were agitated by a seemingly insoluble problem.
 
v4 The large stone had been rolled away.
Heaven had intervened. The women looked up and the stone had been moved aside. The tomb was open to the worried visitors. Then one of the angels within the tomb explained the absence of the body of the Lord. “He is not here.” The crucified one for whom the women were looking was no longer where he had been laid. The shelf carved out of the wall of the tomb where Jesus had been placed was no longer occupied by the dead. Only heavenly messengers of the resurrection were visible in the silent cave. They assured the stunned observers that there was no need for alarm. All was in accord with divine arrangement.
 
v7 Going ahead into Galilee.
Jesus would fulfill his pledge to his disciples and reunite with them in Galilee. The risen One had gone ahead to the appointed place of meeting. It was there that his beloved brethren would see him (Matthew 28:10). Jesu, Joy of man’s desiring, would grant his followers joy on familiar soil. The gospel of the resurrection has to be “earthed” and proclaimed where ordinary folk walk and work, sit and stand. It is the message of the new world bringing hope to the old world of sin and death. The place of former ministry receives new power.
 
Tell his disciples and Peter.
It is understood that Mark’s Gospel is the written record of Peter’s dictated memoir of Jesus and his ministry of speech, action, and sacrifice. The special mention of Peter is poignant to the apostle and to us. Peter is known for his differences with the Lord and his denials of the Lord. With bitter hindsight Peter recognized his sin and failure as a strong tendency in his character, and a regrettable trend in his discipleship. But Jesus’ love and loyalty to this unstable man were unbreakable. Peter was candid about his cowardice and profoundly moved by his Savior’s companionship and service of the kingdom.
 
“Tell Peter” was an affectionate message to a man of notable failure (as was Mark his fellow in human frailty: Mk 14:51-52, Acts 15:37-39). Peter and Mark collaborate to bring us the gospel of forgiveness and new beginnings (2 Tim 4:11, Colossians 4:10, Philemon v24). He has risen! is the confident apostolic message to the church. He is alive! is the church’s confident message to the world.


RJS

Mark 11:1 – 11

vv. 1 - 7   The tale of the triumphal entry is replete with enormous meaning. The preparation suggested by Jesus is an indicator of the great eminence of the rider on the donkey who rode into the city of Jerusalem, the place of such importance in the divine plan of salvation. Jesus had a plan of his own before he filled Zechariah’s prophecy (Zechariah 9: 9-12). Two of his disciples were assigned to go to a village to take charge of a colt that bear the Lord into the capital city of Judah. Jesus had already made arrangements for the donkey to be available. It was his donkey. He could say that no-one else had ever ridden it. Now he needs it in the carrying out of his great salvific assignment. It will be returned to its breeders in due course.
 
We can imagine Jesus acquainting himself with this beast of burden so that on the day he calls for it and sits upon it the ass will be familiar with Messiah and not buck or shy away. Tender, kindly hands will control and guide the animal along the appointed way of its historic journey. The carers of the colt knew the code word for its release to the disciples. “The Lord needs it.” They were sympathetic friends of Jesus. No essential detail in Jesus’ plan was overlooked. On delivery the disciples threw their cloaks over the back of the donkey for the Lord’s comfort and stability as Jesus rode astride the creature on this significant occasion.
 
vv. 8 - 11     As Jesus made his progress to the city limits crowds of onlookers formed and many spread their cloaks and branches fresh from the fields before Jesus as he wended his way forward. A swell of enthusiasm greeted him, and the people shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” Hosanna is the plea “to save now”. The people on the roadside had witnessed and heard of the great deeds performed by Jesus. Many had apprehended the prophetic importance of Jesus, and some had confessed him in the highest terms: Lord! Inaugurator of the coming kingdom foreshadowed in David’s dynasty. Hosanna in the highest! Before us is the bearer, the great undertaker, of God’s covenant saving purpose for his people.
 
These folk could hardly have been so fickle and treacherous as to call for Christ’s crucifixion a few days later. Like all communities there are persons of different type and divisions occur among them. The folk who bayed for Jesus’ death were motivated differently to the citizens and visitors to Jerusalem piously dedicated to the observance of Passover. Enemies of the Lord were able to stir up their supporters. Jesus knew the leading suspects and surveyed the temple. He knew the authorities were dangerously biased against him. He was pondering his destiny soon to be manifested in the very near violent and unjust future.
 
RJS

John 8:46-59
 
The claims of Jesus are colossal.  A moment’s reflection will prove them stunning.  Those whom Jesus called children of the devil were so theologically and spiritually blind that they alleged that Jesus was in league with Satan oblivious to the fact that they were themselves the devil’s captives.  How twisted can human perception become? 
 
Nominal devotees of Abraham and the prophets totally misconstrued the Scriptures of which they were supposedly dedicated scholars and masters.  Their connection with Abraham was totally ethnic, their ties to the prophets purely national in nature.  In fact the level of their religious thought and duty was entirely natural.  They had no concept or awareness of the evangelist’s teaching in his prologue to the gospel that “to all who received him (Messiah), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).  Ancestry did not determine as to who were the real children of Abraham but rather birth from above. 
 
Only the truly regenerate can receive spiritual truth and recognize Jesus for who he is.  “He who belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” (John 8:47).  That is straight and shocking talking to the leaders of Jerusalem.  All Jesus’ allusions to his deity scandalized the religious guides of Judaism.  They were not qualified to benefit the souls of their people.  They thought in temporal terms and human chronology.  Jesus was not yet fifty so how could he claim to possess and donate life that will never see death?  The Jews were acutely sensible of the meaning of Christ’s words and utterly incredulous and outraged. 
 
The fact that Jesus implied his deity by stating that Abraham saw his day from history afar and was glad in it was an insinuation that many modern scholars ignore as inconsequential but it incensed the members of Israel’s elite.  “Are you greater than our father Abraham?”  They got Jesus’ message and rejected it.  It was too bold and technically blasphemous. 
 
But for we who love and trust Jesus the claim is true and his due entitlement.  It reveals his dignity and lofty status delighting us in his excellence and worth and the fact of his divinity brings us much consolation and security.  For Jesus rises to the acme of self-disclosure that takes our breath away but sets our heart pulsating with extreme joy and adoration. 
 
Makes the grandest claim possible to the fuming enemies that will plot even more avidly to kill him.  “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” (8:58).  He takes the divine name revealed to the patriarchs, including Abraham, upon himself.  That is why he is greater.  We can only respond with lowly worship. 
 
RJS

By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org

The huge danger in Christian experience and discourse is over-familiarity with the sublime truths of our revealed faith. Beautiful concepts are reduced to banality, towering truth tumbles down to triviality, statements become stereotypical, and prayer becomes platitudinous. Our language becomes hasty, hackneyed and tedious. We communicate in almost casual commonplace style, not bothering to wield words of weight and genuine worth in our speech of God, our commendation of Christ, and what we say about him to the desperate souls of men. 

We have a store of stock phrases evincing the fact that much of our thinking and speaking is instinctive, unexamined and superficial, amounting to automatic and programmed response (especially in personal encounters where we are so often reluctant to listen, launching instead a volley of texts that we have probably not fully digested ourselves, and which we expect to work by virtue of mere repetition - the Evangelical equivalent of “ex opere operato”). Glorious Scriptural truth is conveyed cheaply, bandied about in thoughtless blather betraying shallow comprehension and the absence of sound apprehension incapable of any original grasp or possession of authentic conviction. The profundity of our faith is denied by slipshod grammar. 

The gospel becomes a series of slogans that slip off the tongue so glibly and easily, and so-called extempore prayer is set in a dull, inferior and habitual "personally contrived liturgy", in the sense of an unvarying form that has none of the quality of a well-composed collect or written petition for our corporate and individual approach to God. Sound liturgy, by the way, lends itself to well-constructed personal prayer, otherwise God gets the scraps of our cerebral offering and cold-hearted attention that is not animated by fresh desire, warm devotion and consciousness of who he is. Much prayer life is meagre in its expression of awed reverence before the Lord and simplistic in its appeals to heaven: “O Lord, we just . . . and for your glory. Amen”. Do we truly ponder that for which we ask in the interest of the kingdom? Are our prayers cursorily composed wish lists? Do we have a genuine glimmer of the divine glory and understand its implications in terms of the divine sovereignty and the appropriate response to be rendered to our requests? 

We do not work at our witness, nor try to be appealing in our testimony (especially in humble demeanor) - both to head and to heart. It is enough, seemingly, to be tiresomely formulaic and not to strive for fresh perspectives that address different persons and diverse situations in a way that is winsome and respectful, and aptly specific to the recipient we are befriending at that moment. Our medium of contact, so often, both to God and man, is monotone, predictable, inflexible, devoid of imagination that should be stimulated by all of the God-given phenomena that we encounter in creation, providence, and revelation. Deep meditation and evaluation is the missing ingredient. We are too dependent on prescribed methods and “how to” texts by famous soul-winners (buzz words from the Bible), eager for success as witnesses and debaters, rather than invested in the worth and actual wellbeing of the victim of our evangelistic technique. May the Spirit of God adapt us to any moment of personal contact. 

The poetry in each human soul should come to the fore when we address the living God, and the art of depicting him to others can be enriched by the picture language and dramatic vitality of the descriptive Word. Instead of warbling along in the same old way we ought to wrestle with God for access to his vivid presence and convey the liveliness in knowing him in our daily gait. It is not easy always to avoid the “cult of vain repetition” in our religious expression, or the tendency to cloak Jesus Christ in cliché-ridden terms. We need to request grace from God to relate the thoughts of the Dear One of our souls from the depth of our holy evaluation of him, and in order to fulfill the solemn but joyful onus of the vocation to which he has appointed us. 

Witness, worship, and “wording” to God, are costly. Some fund of deliberation stored in the mind should furnish all these holy activities even when we are called upon in an instant. Arrow prayers are always possible. But only the action of the sovereign Spirit of God is effectual. Without him all human effort is useless. The confession has to be made that he is rarely in our thoughts to the degree that he ought to be. We can be tense and off-putting in our self-reliance or dread-filled sense of duty to placate those who have, and perhaps enforce, a certain type of evangelism as necessary to divine approval. 

Richard S. Storr in his mammoth study of Bernard of Clairvaux opines severally:
His whole theological system, as I have said, implied preaching as the great instrument of grace, the means, under God, of quickening and nurturing in human hearts the desires, affections, high contemplations, the knowledge of the Word, and the intimate powerful bent of the soul toward God, the result of which should be in holy fellowship with Divine Persons and heavenly things, and at last in the Beatific Vision [page 379]. We are all preachers in some fashion called to fashion worthy representation of our Lord. 
​
Intensity of conviction was the force which moulded and pushed into utterance every sermon; and if ten thousand should be against him their numbers would only make it more needful that they be answered and overborne. According to his assured conviction, he stood on rock in his belief, and not on any precarious scaffold which man had builded; and the preachers of a later time, perhaps of our own time, whose principal creed has sometimes seemed to be the uncertainty of all things, - whose controlling conviction the impropriety of conviction, - might learn true wisdom from his example [page 381]. Many statements from Christian voices may have a veneer of orthodoxy but lack the essence of strong conviction. Uncertainty is now touted as the ultimate Christian attitude toward the dying verities of the faith (Bishop Butler, formerly of the Diocese of Southwark and BBC’s Thought For The Day). Conviction is cultivated in the pastures of the Word and in receiving the choicest feed from the hand of the Shepherd. 

Bernard's aim was "to make Divine thoughts clearer to men, and more profoundly impressive upon them, that they may be readier for the coming Tribunal, and for the supreme and ineffable Presence" [page 389]. 

By reason of (this) intimate and incessant conviction on the part of Bernard, his sermons, however deliberate or discursive in their general movement, are always instinct with moral earnestness. We may not perhaps be impressed by this at first, reading them in the atmosphere of a different century, and in a tongue not wholly familiar. But more and more we come to perceive it; while to those to whom, as to himself, the mystical theology was the supreme truth, who shared his spirit, and over whom brooded, as over himself, the nearing shadows of the tremendous Hereafter, each sentence was freighted with spiritual meaning and was alive with emotional force [page 392]. 

It is important to observe also the tender and loyal affectionateness of spirit by which his discourses are distinguished, and the free exhibition of personal experience which adds to their charm, and which gives them a strange modernist of tone. . . One always feels him to be a sympathetic brother-man, who has gone through the deeps in which others are struggling, and has climbed the hills on whose difficult steeps they are still stumbling, till he now has sight, from the delectable mountains, of the City of God; and who is ready to put all that he has gained at the service of his hearers. . . . But all is governed by a paramount purpose to reach and help others, setting them forward on their way, or guarding them against apprehended dangers; and to do this, if need be, by revealing his own spiritual feeling, the secrets and joys of his Christian life [page 408]. 

His early and brief studies in the schools, which had failed to deeply engage his heart and had soon been interrupted, could not in the nature of the case have contributed largely to the fascinating eloquence afterward shown in him. It was by incessant exercise and self-discipline, in the actual performance of public service, that he came to be what he finally was; and the comparison of his earlier sermons with his later makes this apparent. His instructor in preaching, as in the entire conduct of his life, was simply the Love, toward God and man, which urged him to speak of the Lord's redemption, in the way most moving and most impressive. Enthusiasm gave him both the impulse and training . . . . The concentrated purpose detected and defined the appropriate methods [pages 382-3]. 
(Bernard of Clairvaux: The Times, the Man and His Work, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1892). 

The example of St. Bernard, and so many others, means that the Academy can provide valuable resources, but it cannot make the heart of a true theologian: 'It is living, dying, and even being condemned which makes a theologian - not reading, speculating and understanding, states Martin Luther.' "To be a real theologian is to wrestle with none other than the living God - not with ideas about God, but with God himself. And how can a sinner ever hope to deal adequately with this God. If you want to be a real theologian, Luther insists, you must have experienced a sense of condemnation. You must have had a moment of insight, in which your realize just how sinful you really are, and how much you merit the condemnation of God" (The Renewal of Anglicanism, Alister McGrath, SPCK, London, 1993, page 87). 

The example of Bernard illustrates that sermon classes are not crucially essential to those called to preach. Their danger is artificiality, over-directive influences and formation in the image of the tutor, and, additionally, overmuch, even overweening, attention to performance and oneself. Attention to acceptable preaching and increasing pulpit experience will be the principal proof of the validity of the divine call. In so many things Christian in our era, priority is given to technique rather than the marvelous enduements of the Holy Spirit, and nauseating celebrity-ism is the dangerous fruit. 

Our sole reliance as faithful believers is solely upon our gracious God who strengthens our conviction and courage through Scripture, Sacrament, and Spirit, impressing his reality and reliability upon us thereby as we consider his revelation reflectively. And so we pray,

​Blessed Lord, you who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our instruction: Help us so to hear them, to read, note, learn, and inwardly digest them that, by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and forever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent.

John 6: 27-40
Refreshment Sunday 
 
The whole of Holy Scripture testifies to the supremely inherent dignity and lofty status of the Lord Jesus Christ both in his divinity and his humanity.  It is sheer delight to the believer to recognize and ponder the inexpressible excellence of the One we adore and trust as Saviour.  As earthly Messiah or heavenly Monarch we are captivated by him in his two perfect natures, human and divine, and the splendor of his Person and his salvific achievement on our behalf win the gratitude, reverence, and affection of our deepest hearts.  
 
The highest accolades are paid to our Redeemer in his offices as Prophet, Priest, and King.  His appointed vocation is comprehensive and executed to completion.  The sufficiency and success of the restorative assignment of the Son of God is entirely assured in the Lord’s great manual of heavenly Promise - the Bible!  The range of provisions that Jesus brings us, and variety of privileges he has won for us are beyond both description and calculation.  They will endlessly unfold throughout the unceasing aeons of eternity.  Jesus’ mercy toward us is infinite in terms of sufficiency and certainty.  The intentions and actions of the Lord Jesus cannot fail for he comes to us with the Father’s seal of approval. 
 
Sufficiency:  I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35).  
Jesus is the eternal and effective satisfaction of the human soul.  Human nature is hungry for a sense of inner repletion, fullness, and contentment.  Nothing physical, experiential, emotional, aesthetic, or intellectual can meet that constant yearning.  The world has no answer to our fundamental human desire.  Even our fondest desires meet with disappointment and our dearest pursuits, once gained, cloy; our best attainments either corrode somewhat through honest assessment or analysis, escape our consciousness with loss of memory, and mean nothing to us at the point of demise.  All our appetites are fed with the bread that eventually spoils.  How often the great ones of the earth recoil at the last from their successes and the empty praises of the people.  Without the sustenance and satisfaction that comes from heaven, embodied in Jesus Christ, the world itself becomes a veritable desert and existence a wilderness.  
 
The only truly rewarding work in this life is to believe in the One God has sent (John 6:29).  Since our first parents ate the fruit of temptation and fall we have never been able to assuage hunger or quench thirst.  Only the Maker of souls can truly nourish souls.  Life in its abundance can only be derived from his abundant grace in all its delicious forms. 
 
Certainty:  (John 6:37-40).  
The certainties of the gospel are myriad.  Yet we sometimes live below our privileges (Thomas Chalmers) by doubting them, and many more even dare to dispute them.  How well Charles Spurgeon advises us to believe and rest in God’s “wills and shalls”.  The Lord Jesus came to secure eternal life for his people (a gift) and in this undertaking he will not, cannot fail.  Every believer is picked out by God’s eternal love and entrusted to the Son for safekeeping.  “The Father gives them to me,” says Jesus; “they will come to me” (the wooing effectual call).  “I shall lose none of all that he has given me”… and then comes the fullest possible commitment on which his reputation hangs, “but raise them up at the last day”.  First, Jesus satisfies us.  Finally, he will have kept us. 

RJS

Peter is typical of us all.  He was a slow learner in the understanding of the divine mind.  This impediment ran counter to the confidence that was seemingly his by nature.  There was a boldness and brashness about Peter.  He was not slow in coming forward either by speech or action.  Hesitancy was not his way.  He was a born leader decisive and opinionated with strong reliance upon his instant judgment.  These qualities brought him success in his career as a competent fisherman well able to seek out a profitable catch from the waters he could skillfully read, and negotiate an acceptable price for his effort.  Galilean fish would reach the best tables in the Roman Empire. 
 
Peter possessed an all-round expertise; a man of action with acuity in doing business.  It was no wonder that he demonstrated a strong sense of self-reliance.  He rated his views highly and yet we see that in his association with Jesus he became spiritually schooled in the virtue of humility.  It is the tendency of humanity to over-rate its mental ability.  Even in the exercise of great mental power it cannot discern the thought and intent of the divine mind.  It misreads the things of God.  The natural man is a non-starter in matters of the Lord’s way and his unsearchable purposes.  From many of his instinctive conclusions Peter had to back down and learn from his vulnerability to error.  We trace through the details of the New Testament Peter’s descent from hubris to humbleness.  It is a moving pilgrimage through stages of grace for the lovable apostle. 
 
Three incidents stand out from several that illustrate Peter’s education in dependence upon the Lord for understanding of the deep things of God.  A person must be born of the Spirit and taught by the Spirit in order to grasp spiritual realities.  When Jesus posed the question, “Who do you say I am?” to his disciples, Peter answered, “You are the Christ” (Mark 9:29).  Here in Mark’s Gospel we detect something of the developing modesty of Peter, for he is the informant behind Mark’s account of the ministry of Messiah.  Peter does not embellish the narrative, but Matthew adds detail to the story, both Peter’s confession and Jesus’ reply:  “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven” (Matt 16:17ff).  Peter eliminates any tendency to pride in his standing before God.  It is alien to him suggest any tendency to boasting in divine enablement received.  Yet, when he is at fault a short while later, and rebuked by Jesus for issuing rebuke at him, Peter is willing to confess his presumptuous sinfulness, “Get behind me Satan!  You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (cf Matt 16:23).  
 
Such an address from the Lord Jesus would be witheringly radical and hurtful but Peter does not shy away from his shame.  He lapsed so quickly into contradicting Jesus’ exposition of his saving assignment.  He had no insight into his redemptive suffering, death, and rising again.  He thought as a mere mortal and had no comprehension of the divine method of human salvation.  Peter, accordingly, learned of the spiritual blindness of natural man even when he hears the very word of God (Matt 16:21-22).  Without grace our minds are helpless.  We are totally blind to the truth of the Gospel. 
 
But how Peter progressed in his understanding of the divine purpose of God realized in the Lord Jesus Christ.  At Pentecost there was full assent to the way of salvation:  “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  But God raised him from the dead… ” (Acts 2:22-24).  Peter learned cautiousness with words but boldness in the Gospel.  
 
RJS 

The Canaanite Woman
Matthew 15:21 – 28  

No one would be more unwelcome to a Jew than a Canaanite.  They were notoriously evil and superstitious and a traditional enemy and bad influence upon the Israel of God.  What is more a Canaanite woman would be unbelievably daring and exceedingly presumptuous to suppose that she might be able to gain an audience with Jesus.  She would be considered the ultimate outcast.  Not only her ethnicity but her demeanor would disqualify her from access to the Lord.  Very suddenly she emerges from within range of Jesus and emits a loud howl of anguish:  “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!  My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession”.  Its a moral situation that a Jew would almost expect from a despised pagan and the woman is creating an embarrassing public scene.  But Jesus neglects to respond to her.  The disciples are indignant and insistent that Jesus should firmly dismiss her.  Her wailing is uncouth and disturbing.  Jesus addresses her with a discouraging statement:  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”.  It was if he was intending to brush her aside.  But the woman was not put off by this negative reply to her plight.  Kneeling before Jesus she continues to plead with strong emphasis,“Lord, help me!”  
 
Again, Jesus is seemingly not moved by the urgency of her approach.  His answer is based on a matter of strict principle ostensibly at the heart of his divine assignment.  “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  Jesus holds to the fact that he is the prophesied Messiah promised to Israel.  What entitlement to his favor has as a member of a disgraced and degenerate people? - the Canaanites!  Moreover, whether as a pet or unkempt mongrel it is not pleasant or complimentary to be addressed as a dog.  Such a saying would have turned many away instantly.  But Jesus has his purpose.  Suddenly, the amazing faith of an unworthy and undeserving Gentile is revealed.  The woman has already manifested an appreciation of the status and ministry of Jesus way in advance of his own people.  She acknowledges him as “Lord” and “David’s Son”, very close to a recognition of his divinity, if not so.  
 
She turns an apparent rebuke into an utterly persuasive request that cannot be refused by the donor of divine compassion for it is the expression of sincere saving faith that God grants and seeks.  “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Jesus congratulates her before both skeptical onlookers and his immature friends:  “Woman, you have great faith!  Your request is granted.”  The demon possessed daughter is healed without delay.  
 
So much is disclosed in this reported eye-witness incident.  The miracle performed is of great power.  Satan’s reign in a blighted human life is overthrown.  Enormous kindness has been shown to two lost wretches - pagan mother and daughter that Jews would not have been regarded as candidates for sovereign grace.  From a social outcast a magnificent confession has been made - Jesus is Lord and David’s heir, i.e. Messiah King.  Great faith has been exercised from an unexpected source - someone outside the confines of Israel.  The elect are found beyond the nation.  Great clues are given as to how we are to reverently argue with God in persistent trust and appeal. 

RJS

The vital element in true religion is the inclination of the heart.  Appearances, profession, ethics, ritual, discipline, good actions may all play their part in appropriate manner and degree, but it is the set of the heart that determines authenticity, genuineness, sincerity, reality.  
 
Over and over again Sacred Scripture affirms that God observes, sees, searches, examines, judges the heart.  He knows its secrets, desires, direction, yearnings, its true content, motives, preferences, and designs.  The inmost core, centre, the most private chamber of our inner being is discernible, open, transparent, and known thoroughly by him.  As hidden as the heart may be from others and even from ourselves, God reads the human heart with total clarity, unclouded vision, and exhaustively to the point that he knows the spring, source, and essence of our true being without limit.  
 
Lent is the season of the examination of the heart, as to whether it is touched, made whole, and matured by Grace - ripened for a fruitful relationship with the Lord.  Lent is the wise pastoral provision of the Church to set aside every hindrance and distraction in order to be, as John Owen expresses it, seasoned by grace, to rearrange our spiritual priorities and cultivate with due care our companionship with God.  
 
Our opening Lenten lessons bid us to approach God with the earnestness and totality of our full interior being, not merely our formal and physical presence before him, but in the way that he invites:  “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12).  Nothing less really counts or matters.  “Rend your hearts and not your garments” (v13).  Externals are not of the essence of true faith.  Outward performance is only validated by sincere inward disposition.  
 
Jesus, observing the inadequacy of mere outward observances of any kind, counsels absolute sincerity and the ultimate secrecy of true oneness with Christ:  “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (see Matthew 6: 16-18).  We know the state of our heart by that which it most treasures.  This ready awareness is the infallible test of the heart’s preference.  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v21).  
 
John Donne takes us to the heart of the matter concerning grace: 
“God did not elect me as a helper, nor create me, nor redeem me, nor convert me, by way of helping me; for he alone did all, and he had no use at all of me.  God infuses his first grace, the first way, merely as a Giver; entirely, all himself; but his subsequent graces, as a helper; therefore we call them Auxiliant graces, Helping graces; and we always receive them, when we endevour to make use of his former grace." 

Its influence in our hearts begins with a sovereign God and his free determination.  Grace in the first instant is a gift, entirely of his giving.  Lent humbles us before him in earnest longing and patient waiting.  Because we desire him we cling to him, for what we seek is a priceless blessing concerning which we have no desert.  Yearning, says Augustine, makes the heart grow deep, and mercy granted satisfies the most thirsty heart. 
 
RJS
 

SEASONED WITH GRACE 

"The mighty streams of the evil thoughts of men will admit of no bounds or dams to put a stop unto them.  There are but two ways of relief from them, the one respecting their moral evil, the other their natural abundance. 
 
The first is by throwing salt into the spring, as Elisha cured the waters of Jericho - that is, to get the mind and the heart seasoned with grace. 
 
The other is, to turn their streams into new channels, putting new aims and ends upon them, fixing them on new objects: so shall we abound in spiritual thoughts; for abound in thoughts we shall, whether we will or no." 

JOHN OWEN