Jesus arrives in Jerusalem as a King. But a different King. He is two things at once - a lion and a lamb. A conqueror and a peace maker. A savior and a sufferer. He is justice and mercy; truth and grace; judgement and mercy; offense and comfort. Fully God, but fully man. Jesus is what every human heart longs for: the epicenter of goodness.

Sometimes we want something so bad, we know it, we crave it, we chase after it, but the system we use — the system we’ve grown up using and have been taught to use — is the broken thing. Pastor Luke shares about how Jesus treats a young man just like this, and how we can break out of the system we are in and embrace what God truly has for us.

On the mountain of transfiguration, the curtain is pulled back and the true glory of Jesus is revealed. The purpose of this story is to remind us of God’s visitation on Mount Sinai many years before. But unlike that visitation, here no tabernacle is needed. The glory of the mountain has become a person—someone who we can see and touch. What’s more, that person (Jesus) has descended so that we might be lifted up.

At the end of the first part of the Book of Mark we learn the true identity of Jesus. He is the King. The Messiah. The Anointed One. The Christ. However, as Jesus explains, he is unlike any other king the world has ever seen. He is a king that hasn’t come to take up a crown, but a cross. He’s hasn’t come to take life, but to lay down his life. What’s more, he invites us to do the same.

The Book of Mark makes the astonishing claim that Jesus is not just a great moral teacher, but God himself come among us. But, this was anything but obvious even to Jesus disciples. They had to enter into a process of coming to believe in Jesus. But finally the light bulb when on and Peter saw clearly who Jesus was. He declared, “You are the Christ”. God invites everyone of us to take a similar journey and make a similar confession.

This Sunday morning is a prelude to our social justice event this Monday entitled, “Road to Reconciliation”. We’ll spend some time reflecting on the history of the doctrine of discovery and residential schools in Canada and the horrific impact these two things have had on First Nations people. Then, we’ll reflect on the stunning Biblical truth that God has entrusted to us (people who know Jesus) the life giving message of reconciliation.

We teach our children to thank people. Even people that are complete strangers to us. Why? When someone does something wonderful for us, we feel the impulse to pay them back and then some. Why? As a culture, we’ve set aside entire days in which to be thankful. Why? Could it be that we actually have something to be thankful for? Could our hearts actually yearn for a community of eternal thankfulness?