BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!

James 4:13-15

13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

           Beware the Ides of March! You may hear that phrase today but you may not know the significance or origin of it. The Ides of March corresponds to our March 15^th and it marks the day in 44BC that Roman leader Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators he considered allies. A “seer” told Caesar that he would come to harm no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the senate, Caesar supposedly joked “The Ides of March have come,” to which the seer replied “Aye, Caesar, but not gone.”

           March 15^th was also the day that Romans were to pay outstanding debts. Our April 15^th has great significance to Americans and we generally approach it with great loathing.

           So, what spiritual application can be drawn from such a day as this? First, I think James had it quite right when he warned that “we do not know what is on the morrow!” We make plans but we have no guarantee that those plans will ever be carried out. Our life is like a vapor that appears in the morning and then vanishes with the late morning sun. Life is short. Spend it wisely.

           Secondly, I see a day to pay debts or rather to recognize that a great has been paid. My sin-debt was paid on Christ’s cross when he cleared my account of guilt.

O happy day, that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Savior and my God!
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.

Refrain

Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away!
He taught me how to watch and pray, and live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.

Dear Lord, thank you for that day when my sins were washed clean in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb. AMEN