Weary? Come to Jesus. [Mt 11.28-30]

Matthew 11.28-30 KJV

28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Some Christians describe Christianity as really easy: All we gotta do is believe Jesus is Lord. That’s all. We need do nothing more. Needn’t change our lifestyles or behavior; needn’t believe anything new; needn’t even study bible, pray, or go to church regularly. All we gotta do is believe Jesus is Lord. And we’re saved! And that’s all.

You’ll soon discover these particular Christians really suck at being Christian. Because they really don’t do anything more. They do the bare minimum so they can consider themselves Christian: They own a bible, which they only open when they’re trying to prove the bible says or doesn’t say something (and since Google is way faster at determining this, they now don’t open those bibles). They consider one of the churches in town to be theirs, even though they never go. They don’t know any Christian doctrine, or might, but only believe ’em if they like ’em. They pray when they’re in a jam, but otherwise don’t. Definitely don’t change their lifestyles or behavior; they’re indistinguishable from pagans. You don’t even know they’re Christian till you call them pagan, and they loudly object: “No I’m Christian!” Really? Couldn’t tell.

Then there’s the other extreme. These are the Christians who describe Christianity as really hard. Because they’re trying so hard to be Christian. Not necessarily follow Jesus, which is what it properly means to be Christian: They’re trying to do as their fellow Christians do. They go to all the church services and functions. They pray like Pastor encourages ’em to. They vote as Pastor encourages ’em to. They frown upon unpopular sins. They wear Christian T-shirts and sport Christian bumper stickers. And sometimes they get mixed up in white nationalism, which claims it’s really Christian nationalism, but since God’s kingdom includes every people, nation, tribe, and language, Rv 5.9 why are any of these “Christians” promoting anti-immigrant stuff at their functions? Y’all just swapped white hoods for red hats. But I digress.

The reason these Christianists think Christianity is so very hard is because they’re pursuing public approval. Not Christ Jesus. What’s he say about following him?

Matthew 16.24-25 KJV

24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Okay he does say that too. But he also says today’s memory verse up top: His yoke is easy. His burden is light. Way easier and lighter than society’s burdens and yokes, because Jesus is steering us in the right direction, and they are easily swayed by whatever angry preacher is most popular lately.

The legality of Jesus’s trial.

When you read the gospel of John, but skip the other three synoptic gospels, y’might get the idea Jesus never even had a trial. In John:

• Jesus gets arrested.
• He’s taken right to the former head priest Annas’s house for an unofficial trial.
• From there, to Joseph Caiaphas’s house for interrogation.
• Then to Pontius Pilate’s prætorium for interrogation.
• Then to Golgotha for crucifixion.

No conviction, no sentence; just interviews followed by execution. Same as would be done in any country with no formal judicial system: They catch you, they interrogate you, they free or shoot you.

But both Judea and Rome did have a formal system. John doesn’t show it because the other gospels do. John was written to fill in the gaps in the other gospels’ stories—which include Jesus’s formal trials. There were two: The one before the Judean senate, and the other before the Roman prætor. The senate, presided over by head priest Caiaphas, found Jesus guilty of blasphemy and sedition. In contrast Pilate publicly stated he didn’t find Jesus guilty of anything—but he didn’t care enough to free him, and sent Jesus to his death all the same.

Is Jesus guilty of blasphemy? Only if he isn’t actually the Son of Man, and of course the senate absolutely refused to believe that’s who he is.

But Jesus actually is guilty of sedition.

I know, I know: Christians wanna insist Jesus is absolutely innocent. He never sinned y’know. But this “sedition” has nothing to do with sin against God and the Law of Moses. It has to do with human laws, Roman laws. Jesus is the legitimate Messiah, the king of Israel and Judea, anointed by God to rule that nation and the world. He’s Lord; he’s the Lord of lords. And that’s a threat to everyone who figures they’re lord—particularly the lords of Israel at that time. To Caiaphas, Herod, and Cæsar Tiberius, “Jesus is Lord” is sedition.

To leadership today it still is. Many of them don’t realize this, ’cause they don’t think of Jesus as any threat to their power. Especially after they neuter him, by convincing his supporters he’d totally vote for them and their party—and his so-called followers buy it, and follow their parties instead of Jesus. So it stands to reason our leadership isn’t worried about Jesus. Yet.

But in the year 33, Jesus was tangibly standing on the earth, in a real position to upend the status quo. He was therefore a real threat to the lords of Israel at the time—whether we’re talking emperors, prefects, tetrarchs, senators, synagogue presidents, or scribes who were used to everyone following their spins on the scriptures. To all these folks, Jesus was competition who needed to be crushed.

Following Jesus instead of these other lords: Sedition. Totally sedition. Flagrant, indefensible sedition. But it’s not against God’s Law. It’s only against human customs, so Jesus isn’t guilty of sin in God’s eyes; still totally sinless. Relax.

Thing is, Christians don’t wanna think of Jesus as guilty of anything. We wanna defend him against everything. We don’t wanna think of his conviction and trials as valid. We don’t wanna imagine his execution was a function of a corrupt system; worse, that perhaps our own existing systems are just as corrupt, and if his first coming had taken place today, we’d’ve killed him too. Nor do we wanna recognize sentencing him to death is in any way parallel to the way we depose him as the master of our lives, and prioritize other things over him. We don’t wanna think of his trial as a miscarriage of justice; we’d rather imagine it as illegal.

This is why, every Easter, you’re gonna hear various Christians claim Jesus’s trial wasn’t legal. That the Judeans had broken all their own laws in order to arrest him and hold his trial at night, get him to testify against himself, and get him killed before anyone might find out what they were up to. It certainly feels illegal: If you ever heard of a suspect arrested at midnight, tried and convicted at 2AM, and hastily executed by noon, doesn’t the whole thing smell mighty fishy?

“You can’t do this without prayer.”

Last time I wrote about prayer, I brought up the story of Jesus curing a demonized boy. When Jesus comes upon the scene, his students had been trying to exorcise the boy, with no success. Whereas when Jesus gets involved, this happens:

Mark 9.25-27 GNT

25Jesus noticed that the crowd was closing in on them, so he gave a command to the evil spirit. “Deaf and dumb spirit,” he said, “I order you to come out of the boy and never go into him again!”

26The spirit screamed, threw the boy into a bad fit, and came out. The boy looked like a corpse, and everyone said, “He is dead!” 27But Jesus took the boy by the hand and helped him rise, and he stood up.

We don’t know how long the evil spirit pitched its fit—a few seconds or a few minutes; certainly not the hours and hours we see in bad movies. But it obeyed Jesus and came out of the boy. Jesus cured him.

A bit later Jesus’s students had a question for their master:

Mark 9.28-29 GNT

28After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn't we drive the spirit out?”

29“Only prayer can drive this kind out,” answered Jesus; “nothing else can.”

The Textus Receptus has Jesus say “This kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting,” Mk 9.29 MEV adding the word νηστείᾳ/nisteía, “fasting,” as is found in a few fourth-century New Testaments. A lot of ancient Christians saw fasting as evidence of devotion: A wishy-washy Christian didn’t fast regularly, but a hardcore Christian did. And prayed regularly. And only hardcore Christians were formidable enough to throw out such evil spirits.

Which… is probably quite accurate. And probably just what Jesus meant when he said this. He wasn’t trying to teach his kids, “Okay, whenever you find yourself dealing when an especially ornery demon, pray. Right then. Really hard. Oh, and start fasting—don’t eat anything while you’re trying to perform an exorcism.” The more we imagine Jesus teaching such a thing to his students, the more ridiculous it sounds. That’s how we know Jesus wasn’t talking about just then, in the moment, taking up prayer and fasting. There should already be prayer—and, optionally, fasting—in the Christian’s life, before that Christian is ready to face off against evil spirits.

Wasn’t there prayer and fasting in Jesus’s students lives? Maybe a little. Certainly not enough. Pharisees had already noticed they didn’t fast, and complained to Jesus about it, and Jesus’s response was they really didn’t need to. (This is why I’m inclined to say fasting is optional, and likely not part of the original text of Mark.) As for prayer, I’ve no doubt they prayed, but none of them were at Jesus’s level; not yet. They’d get there.

How about us? Are we trying to get there? Hope so.

Upbuilding takes priority over “freedom in Christ.”

Romans 14.19-23

Many a Christian likes to point to Romans 14 as the “freedom in Christ” chapter, and claim Paul therein teaches us we can do as we please so long that it doesn’t violate our consciences. And while that idea is certainly in there, it’s actually the opposite of what Paul’s trying to teach.

True, we’re free to do what doesn’t violate our consciences. But, more importantly, more the point of this chapter, we’re not free to do what violates others’ consciences. If they’re weak in faith, these things do violate their consciences. To their minds these things are sin. To their minds, when we exercise our “freedom in Christ” to do as we please in violation of their consciences, we’re sinning. To their minds, if we push them to do these things too—“Stop being such a spiritual baby and just eat and drink what I do”—we’re tempting them to sin. To their minds, if they listen to us, we got them to sin.

Their under-developed consciences are gonna bug them about it, and it’s gonna monkey with their Christian growth. They’re not gonna trust their consciences, instead of learning to hear the Holy Spirit through ’em. Rather than naturally move on to the next step, they’re gonna think every next step has to be offensive and uncomfortable—exactly like we made ’em feel by demanding they “grow up” too soon—and sometimes take “next steps” that don’t actually go in Jesus’s direction. Then live with those errors for a while… and hopefully realize they’re wrong and correct themselves, instead of leaping to the conclusion Christianity as a whole is wrong, and quit Jesus altogether.

Worst case, they’re gonna ditch all the Christians who are “leading them astray,” and go find a church full of fervent legalists who tell them yes, everything they believe is sin really is sin; plus hundreds of other things are sin, and the only safe thing they can do is give away all their possessions and move onto their compound and join their pastor’s harem. Yes of course I’m describing a cult. What’d you think the worst-case scenario was, apostasy? That’s awful too, but it’s actually not worst.

Ultimately this sort of callous disregard for newbies’ feelings tears them up, not builds them up, and Paul wants us to build one another up. As he says right here:

Romans 14.19-23 KWL

19So for peace, then,

we should also pursue building one another up.

20Don’t destroy God’s work over food!

“Everything is clean,”

but it’s evil for a person

to eat what trips them¹ up.

21It’s good to not eat meat

nor drink wine

nor whatever trips up your¹ fellow Christian,

{or makes them scandalized or sick.}

22You¹ have a belief of your¹ own:

Have it between yourself and God.

You who don’t condemn yourselves¹

for what you think is right

are awesome.

23One who still doubts it’s okay when they¹ eat,

was condemned because it’s not their belief.

Everything which isn’t their belief

is sin.

Instead of telling them, “Oh that’s not a sin; do it anyway” we need to recognize for them, for now, it is sin. And accommodate them, not mock them for their immaturity. Build them up till they can recognize on their own it’s not sin—not impatiently tell them, “You need to function on my level,” and ignore they’re not ready.

Prophets after the fact.

Today is 1 March 2026, the day after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, and reportedly killed Ali Khamenei, its supreme leader. I wrote and posted this before today’s Sunday morning church services in the United States—at which I guarantee prophets are gonna get up and tell us what they believe God told ’em about yesterday’s events, and the future of Iran.

I can also guarantee some of ’em are gonna start talking about all the End Times stuff this war either fulfills, or is gonna trigger. This, despite our Lord Jesus’s own statement to the contrary—

Mark 13.7-8 NET

7“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. These are but the beginning of birth pains.”

—but you know how some Christians follow their End Times timelines instead of the bible. But I digress; I’m talking about prophecy in general, not just the End Times fans.

What you’re gonna see in church today, is what you see in churches after every major disaster. After every war begins, every terrorist attack happens, every horrific fire, every natural disaster like a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, tsunami, anytime bad stuff happens. Immediately certain prophets step forward and declare, “Thus saith the LORD…”

And my response, and really all our responses, should be, “The LORD knew this was coming. Why didn’t he forewarn you? And if he did forewarn you, why did you sit on this information?”

When we deal with legitimate prophets, God should’ve told them what’s coming. Because he does that with the people whom he called to serve him as prophets, to share God’s messages to his people, who legitimately listen to him for this purpose. Exactly like he told Amos of Tekoa to tell the Israelis.

Amos 3.6-8 NET

6If an alarm sounds in a city, do people not fear?

If disaster overtakes a city, is the LORD not responsible?

7Certainly the Sovereign LORD does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

8A lion has roared! Who is not afraid?

The Sovereign LORD has spoken. Who can refuse to prophesy?

I’ve heard some after-the-fact prophets claim this prophecy totally applies to them—because in some translations, like the KJV, verse 7 doesn’t say “without first revealing his plan.” True, but not every bible translator has understood how to rightly translate Hebrew verbs. The imperfect verb יַעֲשֶׂ֛ה/ya’ašéh means “is doing,” which means we should translate verse 7, “For the Lord YHWH isn’t doing a thing when he’s not revealed his counsel to the prophets his slaves/servants.” God withholds his action till he’s first revealed his intent to his people. This way, people don’t have to guess at how involved God is, or why he did as he did; he already told us. He reveals, then acts.

Any prophet who claims God could act first and reveal second, either doesn’t understand this verse… or doesn’t wanna understand this verse, ’cause now they have to explain why they were not listening to God when he wanted to forewarn us of a coming disaster.

The Lᴏʀᴅ created the heavenly bodies.

Genesis 1.14-19.

In the Genesis 1 creation story, God separated waters below from the waters above, and put a רָקִיעַ/raqíya, “ceiling,” above the waters below, to keep back the waters above. The KJV translates raqíya as “firmament,” a solid object, and the ESV as “expanse,” a not-so-solid object. I say this because today’s Christians are obviously disagreed about what a raqíya is, since we’ve been to space and discovered there’s no such solid object up there. But the ancients and medievals believed it is a solid object—especially since today’s passage of Genesis describes God putting lights in this ceiling.

I know; other bible translations try to fudge exactly what he’s doing because the more literal they are, the less this looks like the actual universe. And as I keep saying, the point of Genesis 1 is not to describe the actual universe. It’s not a science book; it’s a theology book. It’s to emphasize God created everything. Including the lights in the skies.

Genesis 1.14-19 KWL

14God said, “Be, lights in the ceiling of the skies,

to separate between the day and the night,

Be signs for festivals,

and for days and years.

15Be lights in the ceiling of the skies

to light the land.”

It was so.

16God made two great lights:

the great light to rule the day,

and the small light to rule the night and the stars.

17God put them in the ceiling of the skies

to light the land.

God saw how good it was.

19It was dusk, then dawn.

Day four.

Y’might notice the author of Genesis—I’m gonna call him Moe for now—doesn’t use the words for sun and moon. Not because there weren’t any; there totally are. Psalm 104, the creation psalm, mentions them. Ps 104.19 Moe later tells us Joseph dreamed of them. Ge 37.9 These words are שֶׁמֶשׁ/šeméš, “sun,” and יֶרַח/yerákh “moon, month.” So why did Moe instead call them “the great light” and “the small light”? Because to ancient pagans, 𐤔𐤌𐤔/Šamáš, more often spelled Shamash, whom the Sumerians called 𒀭𒌓 /Utu, wasn’t just what you called our sun; it’s the sun god. Likewise 𐤉𐤓𐤇/Yaríkh was the moon god, and a pretty important god in Ugaritic mythology. Moe did not want his readers to think the LORD created these pagan gods; the LORD only created the lights in the sky. “The great light” and “the small light.” Which aren’t gods. Don’t worship them. Dt 4.19, 17.3

Moe also stated God’s intent for their creation: Timekeeping. Other than seconds, which are based on the human heartbeat, or weeks, which are based on… well, this chapter of Genesis, our whole concept of timekeeping is based on the relative position of these lights in the sky. The position of the sun indicates morning, noon, and evening; at what point in the day we are. The phases of the moon indicate at what point in the month we are—and when the Hebrew festivals take place, which are often on full moons. The positions of the stars indicate at what point in the year we are.

What about planets? Well Genesis says nothing about planets. The ancients noticed those—“stars” that move away from their places in the constellations, and started to speculate about what they mean… and came up with astrology. Christians noticed the magi tracked Jesus by following a moving star, and as a result too many Christians began to dabble in astrology. Since God said the lights in the sky were to be signs, some of ’em justified astrology that way. Through it they invented astronomy, and it took a long time before the science finally divorced itself from the superstition. Nowadays some Evangelicals assume astrology has always been forbidden to Christians, and are startled to discover Christian history shows otherwise.

The bible actually has nothing about astrology in it—neither condemning nor endorsing it. Mainly because ancient Hebrews simply didn’t practice it. There’s no point: If the Hebrews wanted know the future, if they wanted to know God’s will, they worshiped a living God. Unlike pagans, their God talked. Why bother to try to deduce stuff from staring at the sky when God will straight-up tell you?

And that’s what Christians should be doing today. Listen to God, then confirm it’s actually God talking. Leave astrology to the pagans who don’t know any better.

Jesus prays at Gethsemane, in 𝘓𝘶𝘬𝘦.

Luke 22.39-46.

Of the three different versions of Jesus praying at Gethsemane found in the synoptic gospels, Luke has the shortest version. Mainly because the other synoptics tell of Jesus praying thrice, but Luke only has him pray once. So he’s not coming back two other times to find his students asleep, wake them, remind them to pray, then go off and pray again.

Plus there’s this odd bit someone inserted about an angel, and sweat pouring off of Jesus in such quantities it’s like he’s bleeding. The story of it was told in the second century, and someone decided to insert it into the gospels in the third—either here in Luke 22.43-44, or right after Matthew 26.39. Preachers love to quote it to claim Jesus was sweating blood—ignoring the word ὡσεὶ/oseí, “like,” which clearly shows it was like blood, not literally blood. But that’s a whole other article.

Anyway once you ignore verses 43-44, which I put in brackets ’cause they were added to the text by the Textus Receptus the Luke passage gets even shorter. A little less intense, actually. Going off to pray three different times makes it sound like Jesus was really wrestling with his request. Praying once doesn’t give you that impression. Maybe that’s why the ancients inserted the bit about Jesus soaking himself in sweat. Well anyway, let’s get to the passage:

Luke 22.39-46 KWL

39Leaving the seder, Jesus goes as usual to Mt. Olivet,

and {his} students go with him.

40Coming to the place, Jesus tells his students,

“Pray to not enter into temptation.”

41Jesus draws away from the students—

like as far as a stone’s throw—

and takes to his knees and is praying,

42saying, “Father, if you¹ will,

take this cup away from me!

Only don’t do my will,

but yours.”

43{A heavenly angel appears to Jesus,

strengthening him.

44Being in agony, Jesus is fervently praying,

and his sweat is becoming like drops of blood,

pouring out onto the ground.}

45Rising from the prayer, coming to the students,

Jesus finds them sleeping from the grief.

46Jesus tells his students, “You’re² sleeping?

Rise up and pray, lest you² come to temptation.”

Because of the uniqueness of verses 43-44, preachers love to quote that bit, and ignore the rest. After all, if you wanna talk about Jesus’s intense spiritual struggle in Gethsemane, you’ve got the Mark and Matthew versions. The only thing Luke appears to offer is this “new” bit of information about an angel strengthening an extremely moist Jesus. Plus centuries of Christian commentators pointing out how very human Jesus’s flop sweat makes him sound. Plus, of course, all the preachers who suck at reading comprehension, and claim he sweat blood.

So for a change let’s not look at that part, and focus on what Luke actually did write.