without a word...

Treachery Behind the Scenes

They said again and again, "But Jesus is making trouble with
the people! He teaches all around Judea. He began in Galilee,
and now he is here!" Pilate heard this and asked if Jesus was
from Galilee. Pilate learned that Jesus was under Herod's
authority. Herod was in Jerusalem at that time, so Pilate
sent Jesus to him. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very happy.
Herod had heard all about Jesus. So he had wanted to meet
Jesus for a long time. Herod wanted to see a miracle. So he
hoped that Jesus would do a miracle. Herod asked Jesus many
questions, but Jesus said nothing. The leading priests and
teachers of the law were standing there. They were shouting
things against Jesus. Then Herod and his soldiers laughed at
Jesus. They made fun of Jesus by dressing him in clothes like
kings wear. Then Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate. In the
past, Pilate and Herod had always been enemies. But on that
day Herod and Pilate became friends.

-- Luke 23:5-12 (ERV)

KEY THOUGHT:

The trials of Jesus were a mockery. None of them was about justice.
The Sanhedrin was not supposed to meet secretly at night.
Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent,
yet kept the legal proceedings going for political expediency. Herod had no desire to do the right thing; he was determined to do the politically correct thing. This was nothing more than treachery.
Jesus was not treated fairly. He did not receive justice.
What was done to him was what God decried throughout the Old
Testament through the prophets -- there was no justice in the courts
and those with money and power misused their influence. Sinners and
traitors convicted Jesus. He was the innocent lamb led to slaughter.
He was the perfect sacrifice for all who are sinners ...
even for us and those who put him to death.

TODAY'S PRAYER:

Father, it breaks my heart to see your Son treated with such treachery.
While it angers me, it also helps me bear those times that I am treated
unfairly. I know that Jesus is with me in those times and that he more
than understands my emotions. Thank you for walking in our unfair and
often cruel world as one of us so that we can share eternity with you.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.

*originally from www.heartlight.org*

God is the God of second chances...originally published in 2006

he didn't mean to do it...
he really didn't.
if you'd asked him just yesterday, he'd have told you twice.
"i won't deny You, my Lord - i won't!"
and we would have believed him.

see, peter was all about passion. . .
passion to fish, passion to fight and passion to love.
a huge burly figure,
peter never did things in a small way.
when his Lord and Savior beckoned to him to come
he put his roughened feet into the salty water
and went without a thought.

how about you?
is there something you've done -
something so awful, that you'd give
anything just to make it right again?
ever want to give up your place in the pig's trough
and run home again?
did you ever feel like you had passed the 'point of no return' -
that you'd sinned too much - and that this time it felt like there
simply wasn't enough grace for your Father to forgive what you'd done?

peter did...
he knew what it meant to deny and to run away from the only One
who would never deny or give up on him...
and when all was said and done and peter heard the rooster crow,
"he went outside and wept bitterly".

but Jesus wasn't done with peter...
no matter what he had done,
Jesus was compassionately moved to reassure, reinstate
and remind peter, that He knew this fisherman's heart,
and loved him no less for what he had done.

today, our precious Jesus, offers us this same sin-defying Grace.
and it is this same question that every human being will inevitably
be given to answer for themselves:

do you love Me? He asks. . .
how could we not?

{Peter declared, "Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will."
"Peter," Jesus replied, "the truth is, this very night, before the
rooster crows, you will deny me three times."
"No!" Peter insisted.
"Not even if I have to die with you!
I will never deny you!" }
*Matthew 26:31-35*