Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

To the best of my recollection the first commandment was “Don’t eat.” OK, maybe I went back to far. Perhaps Jesus was talking about the Ten Commandments. No, wait, the first commandment was “I am the LORD thy God yea shall have no gods before me.” Am I confused here or is Jesus wrong?

We didn’t understand “don’t” if we had we would have obeyed. We didn’t understand worshipping false gods or we wouldn’t have done it. So Jesus clarifies what it takes to understand what the Father meant. Jesus is putting clarity to that thing we have demonstrated as not being able to understand. Now we can understand what He meant and obey.

Have we obeyed Jesus with “all”? Are we even capable of obeying mostly much less giving “all”? Well here is the Good News, it was never said again on this side of the Cross. On this side of the Cross we have an advocate that takes our prayers and our less than all obedience of faith and He cleans up the language.

“Father I know what it looks like, but You sent Me down to be human so that We could understand what it feels like to be one of them. I’m telling you it isn’t what it looks like. This is what it means.”

It all boils down to Jesus gave His “all” because He knew we could not. He went from explaining God the Father to us, to explaining us to God the Father.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Thank God for Jesus Christ who understands.

Acts 25:23 And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.

We do like a good show don’t we? If we cannot be the center of attention then we do our best to get really good seats. Celebrity gets courtside seating. It is built into us by nature and if we cannot have the best grapes, then they must be sour grapes.

Towering monuments to man’s achievements can be found all over the world. They are found in every culture regardless of faith or history. They are found even on desert islands thousands of miles from any other human contact. Rituals have been handed down thru generations and over time the original intentions have changed and forgotten. All that is left is the pomp and ceremony.

The wilderness tabernacle was designed by God to show the image and glory of the coming Christ. Everything from the materials to the colors and how it was laid out pointed to a man and in the heart of that man, the Holy of Holies, the mercy seat of God. Then a manmade temple has designed to honor God according to man’s desire, not God’s design.

Then God came down in the form of a man to show us how it is really done. He put on the show of shows, He showed us His Glory as He designed it. He humbled Himself and served all. He put the least before Himself. There was no pomp and little ceremony. One ceremony was baptism, the repentance of sin. The other was the communion of saints.

Not enough pomp and ceremony for some, so they put on a show of it. “This is the way it is done.” For some it has lost its humility. For some service isn’t even a part of the celebration. His Glory wasn’t spectacular enough for some.

Glory is the essence of who God is, not who we would like Him to be. A humble servant, humble unto death, to do the will of His Father.

John 21:19 This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.