It’s Monday. To me it’s just another day of the week. For many it’s the start of another work week after a weekend of decompression. For those going back to work, Monday creates a noise in their souls, like gears grinding against each other, as a giant clock once again gongs every hour, for eight, ten or twelve grueling hours. I get out of bed, walk 30 feet to the coffee pot, hit the switch; walk another 30 feet to my office, and raise the blinds. I sit at my desk and touch the keyboard and my computer is jolted back to life. I check my email, check the news, flop around FaceBook for a few minutes, all the while listening for the sound I long to hear … the beep… beep… beep… that my coffee is finally ready! This beep jolts me to my feet as I almost run to the caffeine. Monday… or every other day of the week… this is my normal routine. I’m not really awake until I’ve experienced the shock factor of my morning brew.
I read an interesting article this morning about alternatives to coffee that offer you a morning jolt. Matcha is a powdered Japanese green tea. Licorice tea is an herbal tea made from licorice root. Wheatgrass is suggested as a natural energy booster. Chaga Mushroom tea, traditionally used as a Chinese medicine. And finally, Yerba Mate which apparently is very popular in parts of South America. To read the article and benefits of each drink click here.
Here’s the thing. None of these options sound good to me, and even the details in the article don’t really jolt me into attempting to find in them an alternative to my morning coffee. I like my coffee. I add a little sweetener, but I’m not a cream or fancy coffee guy. What works, just works, and I don’t really like messing with it. At times I’m shocked I’ve become so set in my ways. But it happens.
The first day of the week, in the Jewish culture of the 1st century, that day was Sunday. What the Jewish Sanhedrin didn’t know… because they were all probably still sleeping at the time… was that they were in for a big jolt of reality. It would really help if we could watch a live video feed as word of the empty tomb of Jesus spread throughout the city. First to the Jewish community, then to the Roman cohort who took place in the crucifixion on Friday. These folks were going to have a really bad first day of the week. They would need something stronger than a caffeine jolt to get them through it.
The shock factor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is still compelling. The facts of it are hotly debated even in religious seminaries across the world today. The suggestion that it is a myth fabricated by the disciples to carry on the legacy of Jesus, is often adopted by those who find this explanation more palatable than the shocking truth that jolts them to the core of their existence. Coffee doesn’t cut it for them either.
The shock factor of the angels, waiting on the women who came early to this tomb to tend the body of Jesus, jolts us into that cross over realm between our reality and God’s spiritual realm and the kingdom of heaven. We have trouble comprehending the disciples reactions when Jesus appears to them, arrives in their company, when they know they locked the door after every one arrived. Like a heavy jolt of shock therapy, the narrative opens the eyes of any seeker to see the total picture. The story of Jesus includes: being born by a virgin, living 30 years as a carpenter’s son, and learning that trade, ministering for three years, being crucified on a Roman cross, being buried in a borrowed tomb, and three days later… reclaiming His life to demonstrate His power over death. This narrative is electrifying!
No coffee in the world can shock you like this. No matcha, licorice, wheatgrass, chaga mushroom, or yerba mate tea will do the trick either. The jolt that comes from seeing the Divine acts of God intervening in human history, is like none other in the world.
But if you think this is shocking… God has reserved in His plan of redemption, another coming advent from the Son of God. One day, Jesus is coming again.
The world is not ready for the jolt of reality this second coming will bring.
Are you?
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As I was saying... 