Would You Ever…

Hello Friends,

It’s SPRING!!!!! Spring officially arrived on Friday, March 20th at 9:46 in the morning. Are you excited that it is finally Spring: that days of cold temperatures and snow are in the rearview mirror and days of warm temperatures and being outside are just a round the corner. I know I am! I have been looking around the yard and taking note of what needs to be done and refreshed. (And believe me, the list is long!) I just hope the weather stays nice and the storms are limited. What are you planning to do this Spring?

Today, I want to talk about how Jesus is our friend. But first, I want to ask you a few questions that begin with the words “Would you ever.” Let’s try this out:

1. Would you ever share your lunch with a friend who forgot their lunch box?
2. … even if that meant you would be hungry?
3. Would you ever help your friend finish their chores faster so you could play?
4. … even if they had a lot of chores?
5. Would you ever let your friend borrow your favorite toy and take it home?
6. … even if you always played with it before bedtime?
7. Would you ever give your friend that same toy if they asked to keep it?
8. … even if they already had more toys than you?
9. Would you ever tell the mean kids to stop being mean to your friend?
10. … even if they would start picking on you instead?

 Your friends must be happy to have such loyal people as friends. In the Bible passage today, we are going to see how Jesus was willing to do hard things to help his friends too. Let’s look at the passage together.

Matthew 26:1-2 shares, “When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ‘As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.'”

That’s some serious news Jesus was telling his disciples. We know that nothing was a surprise to Jesus, but this was enough to make his friends very sad and a little afraid.

Does anyone know what crucified means? That’s right, it means put up on a cross until you die. It was a very bad thing they would do to criminals. So, Jesus’ friends were very surprised because he wasn’t a criminal but spent all his time helping people. Let’s look and see why that bad thing was going to happen to Jesus.

Matthew 26:3-5 states, “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or there may be a riot among the people.'”

There were a lot of people mad at Jesus because he told the truth from God. They were also jealous that all the people listened to him instead of them. Those people were the leaders and decided they were going to hurt Jesus.

But Jesus wasn’t surprised at all, he already knew that was going to happen. He was just telling his disciples so they would start to understand. He was going to do some very hard things to finish the work of saving people from their sin.

Some of Jesus friends were staring to understand. Let’s read about that.

Matthew 26: 6-7 states, “While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.”

That may sound a little strange, like she was pulling a joke on a friend. But it was something special in their culture. Pouring perfume on a person was a sign of love and showing that Jesus was the most important thing in her life.

But some of the disciples thought it was a wasted money.

Matthew 26:8-13 states, “When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. ‘Why this waste?’ they asked. ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’ Aware of this, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.'”

Was Jesus mad at the woman? No, he was happy and told the disciples to stop being mean to her. After that he repeated what he said about how he was about to die. She was doing something hard to show her love for Jesus, so he promised that her story would always be a part of his good news. That’s a cool way to say thank you!

In the rest of this chapter we see more hard things Jesus was going to do to finish his mission. Judas was about to betray him. Then he was going to let the soldiers arrest him. Then Peter would deny him. Then Jesus would be put on trial. It was going to be a very hard mission, but Jesus did not give up because he knew that was the way God planned to save people from their sin.

When we read about these things, we need to remember that Jesus is the best friend we can ever find. We can trust him to always keep his promises and do whatever it takes to make sure we get to heaven with him. So what would Jesus do to stand up for you? Would you ever stand up for Jesus?

Let’s pray: Dear Jesus, thank you for standing up for us. Thank you for being our friend. And thank you for showing us how important your love is. Amen.

Your Friend, Holy Spirit

Lesson Borrowed from: Tony Kummer, Ministry to Children, https://ministry-to-children.com/jesus-ready-for-cross-lesson/