Wow – we’re almost there…just a few more days and it is Christmas. I can hardly believe another season has come and almost gone.
Today’s reading:
Matthew 25 – several parables about the 2nd coming of Christ…at least that is what I have been taught that is what these verses are about. But they are parables, which means they might just be stories Jesus used in order to make a deep theological point to us. I really do not know and again can’t wait to have more resources at my fingertips to study things such as this.
My diversion today: Max Lucado’s book. I warned you that this was my favorite book for this time of year. Every time I read it I am BLOWN away at the simple yet deep truths Max brings to the forefront. So instead of focusing on the 2nd coming of Christ, I figured I would spend time thinking, pondering, wondering in amazement about the 1st time He came and what that must have been like.
The excerpt I will leave you to mull over today is from the chapter “Just Call Me Jesus”. Max points out that God didn’t choose an unusual, obscure name for His son…but one that was as common as John or Joe is today. A name that wouldn’t separate Him from the crowd, but one that would show His humanity and how He desired to truly be one walking among us, with us…not as Almighty God the Reverent, but as our compadre. He STILL beckons, STILL invites us to come to him.
He was touchable, approachable, reachable. And what’s more, he was ordinary. If he were here today you probably wouldn’t notice him as he walked through a shopping mall. He wouldn’t turn heads by the clothes he wore or the jewelry he flashed.
page 38
There is not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near to him. There were those who mocked him. There were those who were envious of him. There were those who misunderstood him. There were those who revered him. But there was not one person who considered him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected.
Remember that.
Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures.
Or the next time acidic accusations burn holes in your soul.
Or the next time you see a cold cathedral or hear a lifeless liturgy.
Remember. It is man who creates distance. It is Jesus who builds the bridge.
“Just call me Jesus.”
page 39-40
Just today as I was listening to King’s Cross by Timothy Keller, I learned that in Jesus’ time it was unheard of for a Rabi to call his disciples. It was the one wishing to be discipled that would go out and seek a Rabi. Once again Jesus was turning man’s way of doing things on its head, upside down and inside out. It reminds me that I have SOO much to learn, actually so much to un-learn as I look at the life of Christ and try to figure out what makes Him so special and so different…even from when I first saw him over 15 years ago.
I ask my last question today not as one that has all or really any of the answers for that matter…but as one that is searching to know for herself just as I pray you are as well:
Who do you say Jesus is?
