Author: John Tillman

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Heavy Loads Lifted

Scripture Focus: Matthew 6.24-34
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Reflection: Heavy Loads Lifted
By John Tillman

Christ’s moral teachings are the most popular thing about him.

The Sermon on the Mount is recognized worldwide as an aspirational description of a beautiful way to live. Even non-Christians recognize the Sermon on the Mount as the most astute moral teachings ever produced in the history of the world.

It may be a beautiful way to live, but isn’t it impossible? Rich Mullins confronts this humorously in the bridge of his song, “Hard.”

“Well His eye’s on the sparrow
And the lilies of the field I’ve heard
And He will watch over you and He will watch over me
So we can dress like flowers and eat like birds.”

It is hard to be like Jesus describes in these teachings. 

Jesus generally commended the Pharisees’ moral teaching. “Do what they say…Don’t do what they do.” He critiqued the Pharisees for tying up “heavy loads” of moral requirements but not lifting them themselves or helping people live them out. (Matthew 23.4)

Aren’t Jesus’ hard moral teachings “heavy loads”?

Who can dress like a flower?
Eat like a bird?
Continually turn the other cheek? 
Go the extra mile? 
Give unrestrainedly to the needy? 
Surrender our security for another’s shelter and safety?

In Mammon’s empire, how can we survive without accumulating wealth? In a world that denigrates the poor, how can we be unconcerned with clothing, food, and shelter? In a world where governments fight for the right to end the lives of the defenseless in the womb, the defenseless in war zones, and the defenseless in borderland river crossings, how can we not worry about our lives and the lives of the vulnerable God commands us to protect?

Who can carry this load? Who can “be perfect” as our Heavenly Father is perfect? (Matthew 5.48; 19.21) Not us. Only Jesus.

Jesus tied this load for his own back. He carried it perfectly. He carries it for us. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount glimpses the Kingdom of Heaven. One day, we will arrive.

It is too simplistic to say, “We don’t have to do it. Jesus did it.” However, we can say, “Jesus did it for me, and he is doing it within me now.” Together with the same power that raised Christ from the dead, strain toward heavenly living today. (Ephesians 1.19-21; Philippians 3:12-14) Don’t walk away discouraged or sad. “With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19.21-26) Heavy loads can be lifted.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lesons
I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7.18

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Hosea 1 (Listen 2:08) 
Matthew 6 (Listen 4:35)

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At the roots of the tree of the cross, we find healing, peace, and power. As we follow Christ, we will become like this tree.

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Maimed Yet Made Whole

Scripture Focus: Matthew 5.29-30
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 18.7-9
7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Reflection: Maimed Yet Made Whole
By John Tillman

Christ’s resurrected body was glorious and mysterious in many ways. Tangible, yet able to move intangibly from place to place. Physically identifiable, yet at times unrecognizable. Living, yet bearing deadly wounds.

So then, would our wounds persist if we took Christ’s words about removing hands or eyes literally? Will we “enter life” maimed?

If we attempt to interpret our Heavenly existence by these words, we have turned the instrument the wrong way around. This saying is not a telescope for looking into Heaven but a microscope for examining our hearts. It does not tell us what Heaven will be like. It tells us how to live on Earth until the resurrection comes. Yet, reflecting on the resurrection can help us live now.

The life we live now, in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God. In the resurrection body, we will live face-to-face with the Son of God. In this life we must discipline our bodies, our flesh, conforming it to the image of Christ. We begin and continue this work in faith partnered with the Holy Spirit but completion only comes at the resurrection. 

The point of the resurrection is not that life will continue as it is now. Thank God. After tasting this life, would we really say, “More, please.”? If we would, the fault lies in our limited palates and imaginations. There is a better world. A banquet worth indulging in.

The resurrection does not condemn the physical; it redeems it. Our bodies are not evil and our spirits good. The resurrection reclaims and restores our full nature as simultaneously physical AND spiritual. 

What we will be is yet to be known, but we will be like Jesus. Our bodies will be so mysteriously glorious that C.S Lewis said if we could see the average human now as we will be, we would be tempted to worship that glorious being as a god.

Resurrection life will be mysterious and unrecognizable to us now. We see through a mirror darkly, yet we know we will be changed. We will be like the angels. We will be as Christ is, transfigured and resurrected, maimed yet made whole.

Let us live now, straining toward what is ahead, with no regrets for what is behind but with wonder at what is to come. This life will maim us, yet we will enter life made whole.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again!

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 8 (Listen 2:23) 
Matthew 5 (Listen 6:03)

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Amazing Jesus

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Why The Cross?

Scripture Focus: Matthew 2.13
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 

Galatians 4.4-5
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Romans 5.7
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Reflection: Why The Cross?
By John Tillman

If salvation merely needed the blood of the sinless one, then any death would do. Herod’s soldiers could have killed two-year-old Jesus. He could have leaped from the top of the Temple as he was tempted by Satan. His friends and neighbors could have thrown him off of a cliff. He could have been stoned. He could have been beaten with clubs or killed with the sword.

Why the cross?

Inside and outside Christianity, people express discomfort with the cross. “Isn’t it gross?” “Isn’t it violent?”

Ancient people agreed. Perhaps the first historical depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion is the Alexamenos graffito, dated to about 200 AD. It scoffs, “Alexamenos worships his god,” under the image of a donkey-headed crucified man. 

I saw a set of memes recently from a former Christian who is now a skeptic/atheist. The AI-generated images showed life if Rome used guillotines rather than crosses. In a beautiful cathedral, a guillotine hung in shafts of stained glass-colored light during a wedding. Monks carried a flower-bedecked guillotine through festival streets. Elaborate guillotines decorated headstones and crypts in a peaceful graveyard.

Why is the cross worthy of architectural enshrinement in our places of worship? Why is it worthy of remembrance in festivals, jewelry, and decor? Why is it worthy of being a symbol of reverent hope on headstones? Why obsess over a gruesome instrument of torture?

In his sovereignty, out of all places, all times, and all means, Jesus chose the cross to bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil. (Romans 5.6; Galatians 4.4-5) 

Jesus did many good things before the cross. Healing. Teaching. Serving. Jesus did many good things after the cross. The harrowing of Hell. The resurrection. The ascension. The coming of the Holy Spirit. But on the cross is where he accomplished the ultimate good he came for. 

Every good thing before the cross pointed to it. Every good thing after the cross is evidence of the power broken on it.

On the cross, God was in Christ, reconciling us to himself (2 Corinthians 5.18-19), accomplishing all that scripture promised. Sin dead. Death defeated. Satan vanquished. 

The cross is worthy because of the work Jesus did on it: “It is finished.” (John 19.30) So, we are not ashamed of the gospel revealed on the cross. Let us continue to remind ourselves of it, center our teaching on it, and reverence it in every appropriate way.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress? — Psalm 22.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 5 (Listen 2:43)
Matthew 2 (Listen 3:18)

This Weekend’s Readings
Song of Songs 6 (Listen 1:48) Matthew 3 (Listen 2:17)
Song of Songs 7 (Listen 1:55) Matthew 4 (Listen 3:09)

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He is about to die on their behalf. The one who hung the moon will hang on a cross.

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Jesus knew that most of his audience would recognize the quote and understand that he was referencing the entire psalm.

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Inaugurating The Era of the Servant

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.20-21
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

John 13.34
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

From John: The “Maundy” of Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word mandatum, or commandment, reflecting Jesus’ words “I give you a new commandment.” May we walk in this commandment, in this new era of love and service.

Reflection: Inaugurating The Era of the Servant
By John Tillman

The three sections of Matthew 1’s genealogy mark important eras in the history of God’s presence with and relationship to his people.

Beginning with Abraham’s era, God was a promise-maker and promise-keeper. He promised children, kings, nations, and a blessing that would be for all people. God brought Abraham’s family closer and closer to himself, revealing more and more of his nature. He became their God, and they became his people. He made with them a covenant, a promise of promises, to be their faithful God.

Beginning with David’s era, God was the mighty king, dispensing justice and wisdom. In this era, he defeated monstrous animals, enemies, and empires. Even when human kings were flawed, unfaithful, and wicked, God was the faithful, righteous ruler.

Through the exilic era, God judged and punished his people’s wickedness but also protected and preserved the righteous remnant and was the redeemer who brought his people home. Exiled for their sins, this remnant took God’s presence and blessing with them, even into the bellies of the beastly empires that swallowed them. God brought judgment on those beasts in due time and brought his people out from captivity again.

A new era is announced to Mary and Joseph. Jesus is proclaimed as one who will save his people from their sins. Sin wrecked every era of existence. Sin broke the promises of the covenant. Sin turned the wisdom and power of kings to wickedness. Sin still haunted the hints of former glory in the restored Temple and the wicked rule of the string of Herods who called themselves kings of the Jews.

In this time, in this place, among these people, God revealed himself in Jesus as the savior, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sins of the world.

Jesus inaugurated the next era on the night of the Passover meal. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and declared afterward ​​“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13.34)

What era speaks to you? The promise-keeper? The King of Kings? The Redeemer? The Savior? The Servant? Jesus is the fulfillment of every era and every need. Today, his body, the church, is called to live out the era of love and service. Let us love one another so that the world can recognize who we are.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. — John 14.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 4 (Listen 2:46)
Matthew 1 (Listen 3:29)

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If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do?…Jesus washed each of the disciples’ feet…even Judas’s.

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Lament and Transformation

Scripture Focus: Psalm 70
1 Hasten, O God, to save me; 
come quickly, Lord, to help me. 
2 May those who want to take my life 
be put to shame and confusion; 
may all who desire my ruin 
be turned back in disgrace. 
3 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” 
turn back because of their shame. 
4 But may all who seek you 
rejoice and be glad in you; 
may those who long for your saving help always say, 
“The Lord is great!” 
5 But as for me, I am poor and needy; 
come quickly to me, O God. 
You are my help and my deliverer; 
Lord, do not delay.

Reflection: Lament and Transformation
By John Tillman

Psalm 40 begins with thanksgiving, but Psalm 70 (identical to verses 13-17 of Psalm 40) dives directly into desperation. It is pure lament, with no bright resolution at the end, only grim determination.

Federico Villanueva finds Psalm 70’s focus on pure lament a liberating message. He reflects, “It affirms the fact that there are times when the life of faith consists purely of desolation. We do not have to see ourselves always lacking in faith when we cannot find the answer to our situation right away. The psalm can be our companion as we wait for God.”

In the 16th century, St. John of the Cross described the “Dark Night of the Soul.” The term has become a cliche for any difficult experience. However, St. John saw it as not a minor misfortune but a major crisis. For spiritual growth to occur, he believed all Christians must experience it.

Our souls will go through dark times. We may weep at the beginning, the middle, and all the way through. It may help us navigate our souls’ dark nights to remember that Jesus went before us.

We memorialize Jesus’ dark night of the soul yearly during “Passion Week.” In this usage, “passion” does not mean strong emotions. The original Greek word meant suffering. His suffering began with the Triumphal Entry.

Jesus wept before entering the city. (Luke 19.41-44) He knew they welcomed him with impure desires. They wanted Rome’s power broken, but Jesus came to break the power of a far more dangerous empire—Satan’s empire of sin and death. Christ’s dark descent continued from the streets to the Temple, the garden, the cross, and the tomb.

Jesus is our companion in darkness and weeping, even when it is so dark, we lose our sense of his presence. Christ’s suffering, his dark night of the soul, had a glorious ending. The same can be true for us.  “We share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8.17b)

Don’t feel pressured to produce praise, happiness, or thankfulness during your dark nights. Feel the freedom of pure lament. Holding on to happiness is not the point of the dark. Transformation is.

May dark nights of lament lead to glorious transformation in our lives. Don’t waste the dark. Lament, weep, and transform. Following Christ’s example, our dark nights of the soul can go from crisis to chrysalis.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Early in the morning I cry out to you, for in your word is my trust. — Psalm 119.147

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 2 (Listen 2:15)
Psalm 70-71 (Listen 3:29)

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Jesus is more than death can hold. It tried. Death can hold worlds, countries, massive unnumbered masses. But Christ could not be contained or held back. 

Too Much to Hold

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