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He’s Joe, and I’m Moe

HE’S JOE AND I’M MOE
Mike Cunningham
Palm Sunday
April 13, 2014

As Matt was walking up the steps leading to the front door of the house where his Christian great-granddaughter lived with her unsaved husband he spotted the men coming towards him. They were the ones who were in the restaurant the previous morning where Matt and a few other missionaries to the Land of the Living Dead were having breakfast. The two well-dressed men were quickly walking down the street waiving their hands and motioning for Matt to stop.

One was a tall broad shouldered distinguished looking grey haired African American in his late sixties. The other man was probably in his mid thirties. He was a handsome,slender, rather jovial Asian American with jet-black hair. Matt remembered glancing at these men and occasionally wondering when the wait-staff would take their order.Actually the staff in the restaurant seemed to be oblivious of their presence.Now here he was face to face with these guys wondering who they were and what they wanted.

“Howdy, Matt,” said the older man. “He’s Joe and I’m Moe. God assigned us to assist you in your endeavor to persuade lost sinners to accept the gift of salvation from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“Ah, now I understand. You guys are angels. It’s a pleasure to meet you. What do you want?”

“We want to tip you off about a couple of things. Julie and Tom won’t recognize you and you won’t recognize them. They are a lot older than the last time you saw them, Matt, and you’re no longer a sickly old man. Folks won’t recognize you just as you didn’t recognize Jennifer the first time you saw her in the ICU. We want to jog your memory of what the Apostle Peter wrote in his second letter.

2 Peter 3:8-9 (TLB)
8 But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord.
9 He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent.

“Thanks guys. I appreciate your help. I needed that reminder.”

“It’s our pleasure, Matt. That’s why we’re here. You can’t tell Julie and Tom who you are. Remember that you’re on a secret mission. You need an excuse to call on them and Joe and I have it.”

“What is it, Moe?”

“The packet of mail that’s laying at your feet, Matt.”

“I never noticed it, Joe.”

“We know that you didn’t. It wasn’t there. You will be able to handle everything from this point forward. We have to go now, Matt. There’s a lot more work for us to do today.

Before knocking, Matt prayed to Jesus and asked Him to tell him what He wanted him to say and do.As usual, he acknowledged his total dependence upon the Lord. Then he took a deep breath and knocked on the door a couple of times. To say that he was surprised when the door was opened would be a gross understatement. Standing before him was a grey haired older woman.

“Who are you looking for mister?”

“I’m looking for a couple named Julie and Tom. I have some mail for them that was lying outside on the sidewalk. It’s a good thing that it was tied together with a rubber band or it would have blown all over the place.”

“I’m Julie and Tom is sitting over there at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee.”

“Tell him to come on in, Julie. And put a fresh pot on. We could use some company. So who are you, mister?”

“My name is Matt and I would love a cup of Coffee.”

“You’re in the right place, Matt. Julie brews the best coffee in town.

Julie brought the coffee over to the table and placed it next to the mail.
“Why don’t you put the mail someplace else, Julie. Like in in garbage. Ha, ha. It’s probably nothing but junk mail and bills. That’s all we ever get is junk and bills, bills and bills.”

“We’ve been going through a rough time, Matt. Tom lost his job a few months ago. At his age and the recession going on it’s hard to get another one.”

As she picked up the mail the rubber band suddenly snapped and the mail was scattered all over the kitchen table. Sure enough, there was some junk mail and bills. But, there was also a large baby blue envelope such as the kind that was used for greeting cards. It didn’t have a return address on it but it but it did have one of those first class Forever stamps with a red heart on it.

“This one doesn’t look like junk, Tom. I wonder what’s in it?

“Open it up, Julie.”

She opened the envelope slowly and took out the card. It was a simple greeting that said, “This is an answer to your prayers.” Then, with joyous tears trickling down her wrinkled face she slowly counted the hundred dollar bills.

“Praise the Lord, Tom. It’s the exact amount that we need to pay the rent and make the co-payments on your prescriptions. I’ve been telling you for years that God always has and always will provide for us. He met each and every one of our needs throughout our lives, and He has never given us a burden that was more than we could handle. Never! We just have to trust Him”

“If you don’t mind me saying so, I have to agree with you, Julie. That’s been my experience also. Well, I have to leave you folks now. I want to go to the Palm Sunday service at the little church that’s down the road.”

“That’s the one that I attend, Matt. I’ve been going there for years. Please come with me, Tom.”

“Ok, Julie, but just this one time. Maybe our luck will change for the better. I have a hard time believing that this Jesus guy loves me. If he did He would have seen to it that I wouldn’t have had to struggle so hard just to make ends meet all these years.”

And so, Julie and Tom and Matt attended the Palm Sunday service at the little country church. Matt silently thanked God for sending Moe and Joe to assist him in trying to lead poor lost sinners such as Tom to Jesus. During the beautiful Palm Sunday service the pastor related the incredible supernatural account of the followingevents that happened thousands of years ago.

John 11:1-57 (MSG)
1 A man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 This was the same Mary who massaged the Lord’s feet with aromatic oils and then wiped them with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was sick.
3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Master, the one you love so very much is sick.”
4 When Jesus got the message, he said, “This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God’s glory by glorifying God’s Son.”
5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,
6 but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days.
7 After the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
8 They said, “Rabbi, you can’t do that. The Jews are out to kill you, and you’re going back?”
9 Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in daylight doesn’t stumble because there’s plenty of light from the sun.
10 Walking at night, he might very well stumble because he can’t see where he’s going.”
11 He said these things, and then announced, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I’m going to wake him up.”
12 The disciples said, “Master, if he’s gone to sleep, he’ll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.”
13 Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.
14 Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died.
15 And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.”
16 That’s when Thomas, the one called the Twin, said to his companions, “Come along. We might as well die with him.”
17 When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already four days dead.
18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, only a couple of miles away,
19 and many of the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary, sympathizing with them over their brother.
20 Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him. Mary remained in the house.
21 Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.
22 Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”
23 Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.”
24 Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”
25 “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.
26 And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”
28 After saying this, she went to her sister Mary and whispered in her ear, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”
29 The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him.
30 Jesus had not yet entered the town but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31 When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her, thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there.
32 Mary came to where Jesus was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him.
34 He said, “Where did you put him?” “Master, come and see,” they said.
35 Now Jesus wept.
36 The Jews said, “Look how deeply he loved him.”
37 Others among them said, “Well, if he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”
38 Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it.
39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”
40 Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41 Then, to the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.” They removed the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me.
42 I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I’ve spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.”
43 Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him loose.”
45 That was a turnaround for many of the Jews who were with Mary. They saw what Jesus did, and believed in him.
46 But some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus.
47 The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. “What do we do now?” they asked. “This man keeps on doing things, creating God-signs.
48 If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.”
49 Then one of them—it was Caiaphas, the designated Chief Priest that year—spoke up, “Don’t you know anything?
50 Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?”
51 He didn’t say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for the nation,
52 and not only for the nation but so that all God’s exile-scattered children might be gathered together into one people.
53 From that day on, they plotted to kill him.
54 So Jesus no longer went out in public among the Jews. He withdrew into the country bordering the desert to a town called Ephraim and secluded himself there with his disciples.
55 The Jewish Passover was coming up. Crowds of people were making their way from the country up to Jerusalem to get themselves ready for the Feast.
56 They were curious about Jesus. There was a lot of talk of him among those standing around in the Temple: “What do you think? Do you think he’ll show up at the Feast or not?”
57 Meanwhile, the high priests and Pharisees gave out the word that anyone getting wind of him should inform them. They were all set to arrest him.

John 12:1-19 (MSG)
1 Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living.
2 Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table with them.
3 Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The fragrance of the oils filled the house.
4 Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, even then getting ready to betray him, said,
5 “Why wasn’t this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces.”
6 He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them.
7 Jesus said, “Let her alone. She’s anticipating and honoring the day of my burial.
8 You always have the poor with you. You don’t always have me.”
9 Word got out among the Jews that he was back in town. The people came to take a look, not only at Jesus but also at Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead.
10 So the high priests plotted to kill Lazarus
11 because so many of the Jews were going over and believing in Jesus on account of him.
12 The next day the huge crowd that had arrived for the Feast heard that Jesus was entering Jerusalem.
13 They broke off palm branches and went out to meet him. And they cheered: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in God’s name! Yes! The King of Israel!
14 Jesus got a young donkey and rode it, just as the Scripture has it:
15 No fear, Daughter Zion: See how your king comes, riding a donkey’s colt.
16 The disciples didn’t notice the fulfillment of many Scriptures at the time, but after Jesus was glorified, they remembered that what was written about him matched what was done to him.
17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, was there giving eyewitness accounts.
18 It was because they had spread the word of this latest God-sign that the crowd swelled to a welcoming parade.
19 The Pharisees took one look and threw up their hands: “It’s out of control. The world’s in a stampede after him.”

“Wow, I’m impressed,” said Tom as they filed out of the church.

“Please come to the Easter service next week, Tom. Please!”

“I just may take you up on that offer, Julie.”

“I plan on attending also folks. I just got word (from Moe and Joe) that the pastor is going to tell a story about three little words. I wonder what they are.”

“Actually, I could care less, Matt. Seeing that Jesus is in the miracle business I just want to hear Him tell me that, “I love you, Tom.”

Lord willing, next week….

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April 13, 2014 Posted by Categories: Stories Tagged with:
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