Monday: Mastering Our Jerusalems
WEEK 4
MONDAY
MASTERING OUR JERUSALEMS
1 Corinthians 16:8-9
We have seen that these disciples were mastered by Christ and mastered from within. His authority was within them by consent. They were no longer cringing vassals, governed from without; they were conquering victors, governed from within. Since the seat of authority was within them, they became authoritative. They took on the authority of that with which they were identified. And since they were identified with the risen Christ by complete surrender to him, they took on his authority. He had said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt 28:18 KJV). And since they were identified with him who had all power in heaven and on earth, they began to be manifestations of that “all power.” Not that they tried to be; they just were. It was effortless power and effortless authority.
So mastered at the center, they became masterful at the circumference. Life around them felt the impact of a new moral and spiritual mastery. A new, strange imponderable had come into being. And all life had to come to terms with it.
Look at the masteries that were coming into being. First, there was the mastery of the disciples’ greatest problem—Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the center of both political and religious hostility, so hostile that they combined and crucified their Lord. Before the storm of that awful hostility the disciples bent, and some broke, in betrayal and denial. And what breathtaking thing did Jesus tell them to do? Nothing less than “not to leave Jerusalem.” And the account begins: “he ordered them” (Acts 1:4, italics added). The only time it is said that he “ordered” his disciples. Why this insistence and emphasis? Apparently this: Jerusalem was the place of their failure; there they all forsook him and fled. They caved in. Suppose they had gone off to Galilee to a quiet mountain to receive the Holy Spirit, what would have happened? Down underneath they would have the feeling that all this would work in the quietness of Galilee, but it wouldn’t work in Jerusalem; that was too tough. But here was Jesus asking them to walk up to their most difficult problem—Jerusalem—face it and master it. And they did just that! Having mastered Jerusalem, they were ready for anything.
O living Christ, how relentless you are, not bending to our weakness but holding us to your highest. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am determined to walk up to all my Jerusalems today and face them, not dodge them.