The Last Supper

My father-in-law, used to collect displays of Leonardo DaVinci’s The Last Supper.  He had several of them arranged around their home in Michigan and whenever he made the trek to Minnesota, he would hit the local antique shops looking for other unique opportunities to expand his collection.  His assemblage included paintings, printings and wood carvings. 

The image is iconic.  It is the depiction of what is found in Matthew 26:14-30. Most people can recognize this famous work of DaVinci at a mere glance.  Yet, I wonder how many people would be able to actually name and identify each character in the piece?  When I was in college, I was required to write an extensive history paper on the painting of The Last Supper.  In doing so, I had to identify each character and assign reasoning as to what they may have been thinking, saying or acting at the captured moment within the painters mind. 

Even to this day, I remember…absolutely nothing…about what I had learned.  In fairness, most of my research was probably done in the final 24 hours of the deadline and I deserved every bit of grace I received to get a C- on the assignment. 

What has struck this week, as I have reflected on that famous painting of the 12 men with Jesus, is that from a distance, Judas could have been any of them.  As you get closer to the work you can identify Judas by the money bag in his hand but you still cannot see what is in his heart.  In truth, who’s to say that the betrayer couldn’t have been any one of them?  A quick look reveals nothing about what’s in a person’s heart. Of the 13 images in that picture, only Jesus knew who the betrayer was and what was in his heart, but for the rest of us…it could have been anyone.

We know that it is Judas, I am not arguing that.  What I am saying is that, who’s to say that, I wouldn’t have the same tendency within me.  The same could be said for Thomas, Matthew, Peter or even John. 

Each one of us is born with that nature…the sin nature…within us.  We are born to be betrayers…but Jesus changes all of that.  He takes me…a sinner…a betrayer…a denier, and he covers me in his goodness, not because of what I have done, but rather because I have said yes to what He has done.

May we come to see how the goodness and grace of Jesus can cover all of our depravity.

Alabaster Jar

It is difficult to know what exactly makes us the way that we are. Certainly, there is some God created science behind our height, skin color and hair quantity, but what about the things that we like and dislike and the things that value and the things that we demerit? For example, my wife greatly values traveling.  She grew up going on vacation to different states and enjoying such experiences.  I on the other hand have mixed memories of vacations that include broken down trucks on the side of the road and riding 30 hours to Florida in the hatchback of a Chevrolet Chevette…notice that it only “rhymes” with Corvette. 

One area that my wife and I both share is that of frugality.  I have been called, “cheap” by a number of acquaintances over the years, but I prefer the term “hyper-thrifty.”  I am generally a very “non-wasteful” person, so much so, that I tend to repel wastefulness. My mother has learned to either discard leftovers out of my sight or simply offer them up to me to take home after our visit.  Here lies my dilemma. When I read Matthew 26:1-16, I find that I most likely would have sided with the disciples in their rebuke of the woman with the alabaster jar.

I kind of feel humbled and even ashamed by the reaction that I know that I would have had.  So here is what I am learning.  I am learning that I tend to value the items in my hands more than the greatest treasure the world has ever known. 

The incredible act of this woman reveals that her heart has been transformed by Jesus.  She is the one who sees the true value of Jesus, more than the disciples and certainly more than me. 

May we all come to see more clearly the great value of Jesus and then respond to him as extravagantly as he deserves. 

 Dad Can Fix It

Just as my daughter was arriving home from work this past week, her passenger side headlight assembly fell out of her car.  The unit dangled from the “eye socket” of her right fender, being held by the minimal optic nerve of the wire harness. The lens bounced and rattled on the outside of the fender until it finally fell off and was crushed under her front tire…and then pulverized beneath the rear tire.  All the while, her mother was calling to her to “stop, stop,” while I was in the house watching and yelling, “Why aren’t you stopping?”

I immediately pulled out my laptop and ordered a new lens from Amazon.

This seems to be a crazy pattern in our lives, so much so that it feels that we are living within the spin cycle of washing machine of destruction.  Recently, as I was performing a simple oil change on my son’s truck the oil filter collapsed as I was wrenching it off. Even after completely destroying the filter and hammering endlessly with my air chisel, I failed to find success.  After 2 hours of hammering and frustration I towed it to the local mechanic who removed it in about 25 seconds for $25. That translates to about a dollar a second…I am a cheap man…but that was worth every penny,

The air conditioner broke this past Tuesday, (hot week for that, I can tell you).  Fortunately, after paying 3 times the fair market value for a new capacitor, at a local establishment, the AC was up and running again in a matter of hours. 

It seems that I am constantly fixing everything around me. I am currently needing to fix; a clock, boat motor, boat hull, boat transom, house shingles, roller shades, brakes, idler pulley, lawn mower deck and a list of other things that I can’t even remember.

As a dad who is too cheap to hire most things out and tends to be a lifetime learner…I end up being the one…mostly by choice…who inherits the role of Mr. Fixit.  I know that I am not alone in this. 

Because I take this self appointed role of fixing the family dilemmas seriously, it becomes particularly difficult to find your children off to college, hours from home with broken vehicles.  It has happened to both our oldest daughter and our son. 

A couple of years ago our daughter found herself with a flat tire and could not find a place that was willing to fix it for less than $300.  “Great Scott! Hannah! You can’t pay that much!”

“I know Dad! But what am I supposed to do?”

“If I was there I could deal with it for you!”

“I know, but you are not here.”

I called my sister and brother in law who lived relatively close to our daughter.  “Matt, would you be willing to take a look at Hannah’s tire and see if it can at least be plugged, so that she might be able to get home I can deal with a more extensive repair?”

In a matter of hours, my brother in law, had the tire plugged and holding air. 

Matt’s willingness to help out his niece was an act of service directly to me. 

I think that it is times like this that reveal perhaps what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25:31-46.  Here Jesus affirms those who serve him by serving one another.  Jesus tells us, that it is this kind of service that is as if people are serving him directly.

May we come to have the same heart of Jesus…a heart that loves him and loves others well.