Mary of Bethany and her siblings were very dear friends of our Savior. It is quite possible that Jesus stayed in their home in Bethany many times when he visited Jerusalem, which was just a 20 or 25 minute walk just over the Mount of Olives.  Luke 11:38-41 notes one particular visit: “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.’ And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’”  Mary, her sister Martha, and their brother Lazarus were all disciples of Jesus.  But in this text, we are reminded of how important our discipleships must be to us, how carefully we must dedicate ourselves to them, and how sincerely we must devote ourselves to them.  Mary deserves our consideration as we examine the nature of our own discipleship.   I would like to meet her; I know I would like her very much.

Mary was born somewhere around 16-20 BC, and though we do not know where she was born, she certainly lived at least some of her teenage years in Nazareth of Galilee. The Galilee of the time of Jesus was not only the richest, fertile farmland, cultivated to the utmost – it was covered in towns and villages filled with working class families and served as the center of many trades and industries; it was important land for the nation of Israel. Galilee was in an area with several very busy roads that accommodated the commerce of the world at that time. Nazareth was a city with one of the great caravan routes – leading from the sea to Damascus. People of all nations, busy with another life than that of Israel, would appear in the streets of Nazareth daily. For Mary, this meant she was accustomed to many thoughts and associations related to the outside world that would be discussed and introduced in Nazareth by these travelers. Mary would have gone to the market and done her daily business in the streets with people from all over – with all kinds of new products and ideas.

In Acts 9, we view a small snapshot of the life of Ananias from Damascus. We meet him after he has accepted the gospel of the Way, in the capital city of Syria, about three years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We don’t know how Ananias has become a disciple of Christ, but verse 10 tells us that he is a disciple. It is possible that he has heard the gospel message of the new kingdom while visiting Jerusalem or another area of Judea or from another zealous disciple who had returned with the good news. But he is a Christian, he is living in Damascus, and he is defined by his belief and obedience to do the will of God. I would love to meet him; I know I would like him.

Several years ago, Russ, Lee, my nephew, and I stopped at a Taco Bell while traveling in Orlando, Florida.  As we walked into the place, all seemed calm; the seating area was clean but almost empty, and Donna greeted us from the register with a radiant and friendly smile and disposition.  “Whatcha need, baby?” she said as we stepped up to the counter.  As I proceeded to give my order, I glanced over to notice about 6 to 8 customers standing to my left and several of Donna’s colleagues answering questions and attending to the concerns of these customers the best they could.  

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

I love the song that Solomon wrote; it is one of my favorite texts to teach. There are several opinions about how many main characters there are in the beautiful “Song of Solomon.”  The opinion that I am most comfortable with is that there are three main characters who interact in the song.  There is the King, who I believe is Solomon himself.  There is a young Shulamite woman, who has been taken to the palace to become part of the court of young ladies.  There is a shepherd, who tends sheep in the hills of Ephraim having already won the heart of the young Shulamite.

Luke 19 tells us of an interesting encounter as Jesus makes his way through Jericho to the capital.

Sacrifice has, from the beginning, been a bond between man and God. God through grace and with mercy gave a series of instructions for His people concerning the sacrifices that they would continuously offer as they lived their days on earth. Leviticus chapters 1-7 are the instruction and guide for the faithful worshipers and priests, under the new law, concerning the burnt offerings, the cereal offerings, the peace offerings, and the transgression offerings.

There are no water bottles on the shelves of my local grocery store today, my neighbors here are preparing for the impact of a hurricane. The news stations are alerting citizens to get ready for the storm. “Do not be unprepared,” “Make sure you are ready,” “Be watchful and prepared for what is inevitable.” And, my neighbors are listening, they are hearing, and they are actively seeking the security that comes when preparations have been made.

After John the Baptizer is beheaded by Herod Antipas, Jesus retreats to mourn and makes the statement, “For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28). I sure would like to meet him; I know I would like him. 

I think I would like many of the folks who spent their days in the temple courts at Jerusalem during the days of Jesus. We are not given information of the many who must have daily spent hours there. However, there is no doubt that many faithful and righteous among those referred to as “the multitudes” in the Gospel messages were awaiting the arrival of the Messiah. Though disillusioned with the political nature of the leadership in the temple they clung to the sanctification and hope in the center of religious activity in the capital city. We read of two such righteous people; Simeon and Anna, and I think I would like them both.

I think I would like several of the Roman centurions who appear in the New Testament, they are a remarkable group. R.C. Foster tells us in his Studies in the Life of Christ that “they bear witness to a high degree of valor, good judgment, and honesty as part of this second line of officers in the Roman army.” The most famous among the centurions we read of in scriptures is surely Cornelius in Caesarea, the first Gentile to be baptized and enter the kingdom; there is no doubt in my mind that I would like him.

There are many people that I read of in the Bible, who I think I would like very much; I wonder what they must look like, what their homes must have been like, who their families were.  So many details are left unknown for us as we read of those who lived in the various days of the text we are given.  Isn’t it interesting how well we know them, though very few details of their lives are made known to us?

I got up early this morning, around 3:00 a.m.; I am preparing my material for a lesson that I will be presenting soon and wanted to get some thoughts on paper. I opened my shutters and looked out my front window and saw my peaceful neighborhood, with scattered streetlights and calm homes resting with no care. I start to wonder how we can ever properly perceive the battle that we are engulfed in, when everything around us takes us out of the foxholes and away from any battleground, providing only peace and prosperity. How is it that we remain the militant kingdom in a battle for our lives?

I often talk in my classes about the “chance of birth”. We do not choose the earthly circumstances of our own births any more than we choose the circumstances of our own deaths. We spend much time during the days of our lives talking about the external things of our lives; we speak of choosing our own destinies, controlling our own directions, choosing our own paths. But, in reality, the most fundamental experiences that impact our lives are not chosen or directed by us, nor do they define who we really are. We are born on the day and in the geographical location that chance has provided us. Our spirits and hearts are housed in earthen vessels (I Cor 4:7) that have an outward appearance that we may like or not like, that have elements of beauty, characteristics, and attributes distinctive to us but not changed by our own wishes or desires, as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:27, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” Our experiences and circumstances of life are mostly determined by opportunities afforded to us due to these fundamental beginnings. We speak languages, pursue courses of education, work in places, and even marry people that are part of our earthly experiences and situations.

Do you ever wonder about the encounter of Jesus and the woman at the beginning of John 8?  Though Jesus had been teaching now for some two and a half years, my guess is she had not been around Jesus much, if at all, before this morning.  One would suppose that she has been dealing with life, life burdened with the tangle of webs woven with sin.  It is evident that she, over the course of her years, has become entwined with the complexities of earth.