40 Days of Decrease
Decrease
Today’s Reading: John 12:44-50
Fifteen months1 after John the Baptist was imprisoned, Herod Antipas — the son of Herod the Great who reigned at the time of Jesus’ birth — beheaded John to save face at a banquet.2 John’s decrease was now complete. All eyes turned to Jesus. Matthew recorded that, “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place” (Matthew 14:13). In the manna-for-multitudes and gravity-defying miracles that follow, it is easy for us to overlook and underestimate Jesus’ grief. But after Jesus healed and fed the thousands who awaited Him in the no-longer-solitary place and before Jesus and Peter walked on water in a storm, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd. After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone. (Matthew 14:22-23)
At this point in Jesus’ life, few remained alive of those who had witnessed His angel-celebrated birth and grasped at least in part the heavenly weight of His messianic anointing. Zechariah and Elizabeth, righteous Simeon and the prophetess Anna, the Magi, the shepherds, and probably even Joseph had died. The crowds were curious as well as clueless. The disciples were devoted as long as there was little danger. But John knew who Jesus was. John attested to Jesus’ divine Son-ship when he leaped in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s greeting, when he baptized Jesus and heard God’s voice through the open heavens at the Jordan, and when he asked Jesus to confirm His identity from within the prison that would be John’s last home on earth.
Now, John was gone and Jesus needed solitude to pray.
John’s death marks a turn toward the cross in Jesus’ ministry. From this point forward, Jesus more intensely taught upon and demonstrated the revolutionary nature of His “upside down” kingdom.3 Consequently, the religious tension that eventually nailed Him to the cross dramatically escalated. Alone on that mountain, as Jesus grieved John’s death, He anticipated His own.
We have never reaped such a harvest from any seed as from that which fell from our hands while tears were falling from our eyes. ~ C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)4
[God] draws the curtain about the bed of His chosen sufferer and, at the same time, He withdraws another curtain which before concealed His Glory! ~ C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)5
Reflection
Bring to mind the names and faces of loved ones who have died. What deposits did they make in your life? How did you feel when you first learned of their deaths? Allow your experiences to infuse feeling into the written account of Jesus’ prayerful mourning on the mountainside.
Today’s Fast: Speeding Past Sorrow
Jesus sets an example for us all to sit with our sorrow. He could have easily kept moving in an attempt to distance Himself from sadness. Instead, Jesus sent everyone away and carved out space to pray in solitude. Deaths are defining moments in our lives. It serves us poorly to hurry past them. Today, honor the losses in your life. Instead of speeding past sadness, slow down and be present to your emotions. With Jesus, sit with your sorrow and let loss do its eternal work in your soul.
1. Since dates of antiquity are understandably difficult to assert with certainty, Throughout 40 Days of Decrease, I have chosen to reference time between events, as there seems to be more scholarly agreement with regard to the general ordering of events than the precise dating of events. Johnston, Ellisen, and Cheney suggest the dates of December AD 29 for John’s imprisonment and March AD 31 for John’s beheading, hence my estimate of fifteen months. See Johnston M. Cheney and Stanley A. Ellisen, Jesus Christ the Greatest Life: A Unique Blending of the Four Gospels, Logos Edition (Eugene, OR: Paradise Publishing Inc., 1999), 47, 65.
2. See Matthew 14:3-12 and Mark 6:14-29.
3. H. Spurgeon, The Saint and His Saviour: The Progress of the Soul in the Knowledge of Jesus (1857; repr., London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1889), 419.
4. Gayle Erwin, The Jesus Style (Cathedral City, CA: Yahshua Publishing, 2011), Kindle edition, loc. 113.
5. H. Spurgeon, “The Pitifulness of the Lord the Comfort of the Afflicted,” Bible Hub Online Bible Study Suite, accessed June 3, 2015.
Excerpted from 40 Days of Decrease by Alicia Britt Chole.
Today’s Reading: John 12:44-50
Fifteen months1 after John the Baptist was imprisoned, Herod Antipas — the son of Herod the Great who reigned at the time of Jesus’ birth — beheaded John to save face at a banquet.2 John’s decrease was now complete. All eyes turned to Jesus. Matthew recorded that, “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place” (Matthew 14:13). In the manna-for-multitudes and gravity-defying miracles that follow, it is easy for us to overlook and underestimate Jesus’ grief. But after Jesus healed and fed the thousands who awaited Him in the no-longer-solitary place and before Jesus and Peter walked on water in a storm, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd. After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone. (Matthew 14:22-23)
At this point in Jesus’ life, few remained alive of those who had witnessed His angel-celebrated birth and grasped at least in part the heavenly weight of His messianic anointing. Zechariah and Elizabeth, righteous Simeon and the prophetess Anna, the Magi, the shepherds, and probably even Joseph had died. The crowds were curious as well as clueless. The disciples were devoted as long as there was little danger. But John knew who Jesus was. John attested to Jesus’ divine Son-ship when he leaped in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s greeting, when he baptized Jesus and heard God’s voice through the open heavens at the Jordan, and when he asked Jesus to confirm His identity from within the prison that would be John’s last home on earth.
Now, John was gone and Jesus needed solitude to pray.
John’s death marks a turn toward the cross in Jesus’ ministry. From this point forward, Jesus more intensely taught upon and demonstrated the revolutionary nature of His “upside down” kingdom.3 Consequently, the religious tension that eventually nailed Him to the cross dramatically escalated. Alone on that mountain, as Jesus grieved John’s death, He anticipated His own.
We have never reaped such a harvest from any seed as from that which fell from our hands while tears were falling from our eyes. ~ C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)4
[God] draws the curtain about the bed of His chosen sufferer and, at the same time, He withdraws another curtain which before concealed His Glory! ~ C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)5
Reflection
Bring to mind the names and faces of loved ones who have died. What deposits did they make in your life? How did you feel when you first learned of their deaths? Allow your experiences to infuse feeling into the written account of Jesus’ prayerful mourning on the mountainside.
Today’s Fast: Speeding Past Sorrow
Jesus sets an example for us all to sit with our sorrow. He could have easily kept moving in an attempt to distance Himself from sadness. Instead, Jesus sent everyone away and carved out space to pray in solitude. Deaths are defining moments in our lives. It serves us poorly to hurry past them. Today, honor the losses in your life. Instead of speeding past sadness, slow down and be present to your emotions. With Jesus, sit with your sorrow and let loss do its eternal work in your soul.
1. Since dates of antiquity are understandably difficult to assert with certainty, Throughout 40 Days of Decrease, I have chosen to reference time between events, as there seems to be more scholarly agreement with regard to the general ordering of events than the precise dating of events. Johnston, Ellisen, and Cheney suggest the dates of December AD 29 for John’s imprisonment and March AD 31 for John’s beheading, hence my estimate of fifteen months. See Johnston M. Cheney and Stanley A. Ellisen, Jesus Christ the Greatest Life: A Unique Blending of the Four Gospels, Logos Edition (Eugene, OR: Paradise Publishing Inc., 1999), 47, 65.
2. See Matthew 14:3-12 and Mark 6:14-29.
3. H. Spurgeon, The Saint and His Saviour: The Progress of the Soul in the Knowledge of Jesus (1857; repr., London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1889), 419.
4. Gayle Erwin, The Jesus Style (Cathedral City, CA: Yahshua Publishing, 2011), Kindle edition, loc. 113.
5. H. Spurgeon, “The Pitifulness of the Lord the Comfort of the Afflicted,” Bible Hub Online Bible Study Suite, accessed June 3, 2015.
Excerpted from 40 Days of Decrease by Alicia Britt Chole.
Watch the Video for 40 Days of Decrease
40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger, A Different Kind of Fast by Alicia Britt Chole
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Lent is really about thinning our lives in order to thicken our communion with God.
40 Days of Decrease is a guide for those hungering for a fresh Lenten/Easter experience. Author Alicia Britt Chole guides you through a study of Jesus’ uncommon and uncomfortable call to abandon the world’s illusions, embrace His kingdom’s realities, and journey cross-ward and beyond. Through readings, refection questions, daily fasts, ancient quotes, and more, this is the dream of 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast. Every day offers a meaningful consideration of Jesus’ journey and then invites readers into a daily fast of heart-clutter, the stuff that sticks to our souls and weighs us down. Each daily entry will include:
Decrease—like increase—is only holy when its destination is love. Dare to live awed by Christ's resurrection! |
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