Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 30: Saturday

Saturday’s Bible reading is Luke 23–24. In these last two chapters of his Gospel, Luke writes of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He also tells of Jesus’ journey on the road to Emmaus with two of His followers, His appearance to His disciples. Luke closes with Jesus’ ascension.

Most of this post is from 2011 when I first wrote about these two chapters in Luke. When I read the Scriptures that day God powerfully used them to comfort my troubled mind and heart. This year I find myself again with a troubled mind and heart, and as I read again what I wrote in 2011, God reminded me and reassured me of His care.

That Saturday in 2011 as I was thinking over the mission of the apostles as eyewitnesses to Jesus, I thought of these words Peter wrote as an eyewitness some thirty years later,¹ to those who had never seen the Lord Jesus:

In their distress over their various trials, those who had never seen the Lord Jesus needed the comfort and assurance that Peter, an eyewitness, could provide. In his commentary on 1 Peter, Edmund Clowney writes:

“Peter knows that his witness is true, that Jesus Christ is real. He has tasted that the Lord is good, and that his goodness will not fail. ‘This is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it’ (5:12).”²

When I first wrote this post, I was using the New American Standard Bible. I noticed then that Clowney translates, “have been distressed” as “have had to suffer grief.”³ I was glad to see that the Legacy Standard Bible has translated the phrase as “you have been grieved.” I think that’s a much more graphic and accurate description. In our trials we grieve over the pain we suffer. In those times we need the words of an eyewitness to tell us, to reassure us, yes, Jesus is real; yes, this is the true grace of God; yes, stand fast in it.

Clowney tells a very moving story about the suffering of some who had never seen Jesus, but believed in Him:

“The Museum of the Desert in the Cevennes mountains of southern France commemorates the sufferings of the Huguenot martyrs. When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes is 1685, Protestant public worship became a crime. Men caught at secret worship services in the fields were sent to the galleys. Chained to a rowing bench, they slaved at the oars until they died. A replica of one of the great galley oars hangs in the museum today. Under­neath is a model of a galley. Beside it are inscribed the words of a Reformed Christian galley slave: ‘My chains are the chains of Christ’s love.’

“Peter reflects on the love that his readers have for Christ, love that makes them ready to suffer so that their proven love can be his tribute. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Peter, of course, has seen the Lord. His love for Jesus could bring pictures to mind…Through the witness of Peter and the other apostles we learn about what Jesus said and did. They bear witness through the Holy Spirit, and by the witness of the Spirit we are brought to know and love the living Lord.

“We did not see Jesus; we do not now see Jesus; but we shall see Jesus. Peter contrasts the past and the present with the future (1:8). The day is coming when Jesus will be revealed. In that day the goal of our faith will be realized. Our eyes will behold the One we have trusted and loved.”⁴

I want to tell you another story. During my life I have suffered the loss of my hearing, lengthy illnesses, the death of my brother to AIDS, as well as afflictions of varying intensity because of my Christian beliefs (nothing like the Huguenots!). In 2011, the shock of the last few prior years was piled on top of those events of earlier years, and that impact combined with the severity of recent loss and abandonment made my grieving like a hemorrhaging wound. That year I had never gone through such storms of doubt as a Christian, and I had never gone through any affliction with so little comfort. When something like that happens, you keep going, you persevere—but the grieving is real because the loss is real.

That Saturday morning in July 2011, as I was praying, I told God my grief was a wound that kept hemorrhaging and would not stop; I could not end it, and I asked Him to stop the bleeding. I knew I was to read these last two chapters in Luke, and because I’ve read them before I generally knew what they contained, but I didn’t know how they could help me. As I read, however, I thought of 1 Peter, and then because I’ve been helped by Clowney in the past, I turned back to his commen­tary. I reread the story of the Huguenots and I reread his translation: “have had to suffer grief.” Grief, the same word I had used. It was a powerful moment of comfort from the Holy Spirit when I saw the word. I knew it was an answer to prayer. Grief was so descriptive of how I felt then, and it’s so descriptive of how I have been feeling now.

You see, suffering hurts. There is grieving over what has happened, over the loss we have incurred. When we suffer we need those who will weep with us when we weep. Their identification with our pain eases ours; their love witnesses to us that God loves us when our life has fallen apart, and their love helps calm our storms of doubt. Those storms can accelerate into hurricanes when the love of other Christians is not present.

Os Guinness describes the struggle to trust God so well:

“…the hard question is whether we can say, ‘Father I do not understand you, but I trust you’ while we are still in the darkness…

“Can faith bear the pain and trust God, suspending judgement and resting in the knowledge that God is there, God is good, and God knows best? Or will the pain be so great that only meaning will make it endurable so that reason must be pressed further and further and judgements must be made?…To suffer is one thing, to suffer without meaning is another, but to suffer and choose not to press for any meaning is different again.

“…To suspend judgement and simply trust is the hardest thing. Faith must reach deep into its reserves of courage and endurance if the rising panic of incomprehensible pain is not to be overwhelming.”⁵

Incomprehensible pain can almost overwhelm us. We need to read and know the words of the eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ to give us courage and endurance. God gave us His Word because He loves us, and He knew we would need to read what those eyewitnesses could tell us about the reality of His Son, Jesus Christ, as we suffer and struggle to trust Him. God knew the circumstances of my life, and that I would read Luke 23–24 and remember Peter’s letter. God knew that Dr. Clowney had translated Peter’s words with the same word I had used in my prayer that morning: grief. So the Holy Spirit comforted my heart and strengthened me in the midst of my darkness to trust God.

Clowney writes:

“Peter writes to exhort and encourage the scattered people of God. They will be facing fiery trials, but Peter can point them to a sure hope in Christ. Peter’s encouragement, however, is grounded in his witness. The verb for testifying, or bearing witness, is used in the Greek Old Testament for the testimony of witnesses to the deed of sale for a piece of property. Peter is appointed as an apostle to testify to the facts of the gospel. The gospel is true (1:12), and Peter can attest to its truth, for Jesus Christ chose him for that witness…

“Because Peter’s witness is true, his encouragement is real… Peter is concerned that his readers hold fast to the truth. They have received the gospel of God’s grace. Let them stand fast in it. They cling, not to an impersonal moral code, nor to philo­sophical abstractions. They cling to the grace of God; not what they have done for God, but what God has done for them in Christ.”⁶

“Peter knows that his witness is true, that Jesus Christ is real. He has tasted that the Lord is good, and that his goodness will not fail. ‘This is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it’ (5:12).”⁷

The faith of those of us who have never seen Christ, but who love Him reaches back to those first eyewitnesses who saw Him, loved Him, and who yet still bear witness to us about Him some 2000 years later.

“My chains are the chains of Christ’s love.”

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Croix huguenote au Musée protestant de la grange de Wassy (Haute-Marne): Ji-Elle: Cropped. GFDL-1.2-or-later. (CC BY-SA 3.0). (CC BY-SA 2.5). (CC BY-SA 2.0). (CC BY-SA 1.0).
^{1,2,3,4,6,7,8}Edmund Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1988) 23, Clowney dates 1 Peter as having been written about AD 63.; 25; 51; 53–54, The link is to an archived Le Musée du Désert site. The current site is here.; 223; 25; 222, This is Clowney’s translation of 1 Peter 5:12.
⁵Os Guiness, Doubt (Lion Publishing plc, England: 1976, Third ed., 1987) 206–207.

The National Huguenot Society has this explanation of the symbolism of the Huguenot Cross:

“The insignia consists of an open four-petal Lily of France — reminiscent of the Mother Country of France — in which each petal radiates outward in the shape of a “V” to form a Maltese Cross. The four petals signify the Four Gospels. Each petal, or arm, has at its outside periphery two rounded points at the corners. These rounded points are regarded as signifying the Eight Beatitudes.

“The four petals are joined together by four fleur-de-lis, also reminiscent of the Mother Country of France. Each fleur-de-lis has has three petals. The twelve petals of the four fleur-de-lis signify the Twelve Apostles.

“An open space in the shape of heart is formed between each fleur-de-lis and the arms of the two petals with which it is joined. This shape—a symbol of loyalty—suggests the seal of the great French Reformer, John Calvin.

“A descending dove pendant representing the Saint Esprit or “Sainted Spirit” — the guide and counselor of the Church — is suspended from a ring of gold attached to the lower central petal.”

The above thumbnail picture of a Huguenot cross was created by Syryatsu: GFDL-1.2-or-later. (CC BY-SA 3.0). (CC BY-SA 2.5). (CC BY-SA 2.0). (CC BY-SA 1.0).

John Calvin’s personal seal depicts a hand holding out a heart to heaven. The thumbnail is from a photograph in Dan Phillips’ post, The Extraordinary Life of John Calvin, Steven Lawson (PCRT 2009 Sacramento), at Pyromaniacs.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter