Matthew 2:1-12
This advent season, we are going to approach the Christmas story through the lenses of the other people and characters involved. There is a lot to learn in how people encountered the birth of Jesus Christ.
In the account of Jesus’ birth in Matthew chapter two, we have three distinct groups or individuals mentioned besides Mary and Joseph. First, we encounter the Magi from the east. There is a lot of mystery surrounding these men, and that may actually lead us to some interesting conclusions about their relationship to Jesus. All we know for sure is that they come from the east, they were likely Chaldean or Arabian by descent, and that they were aware of what was happening in the birth of Jesus Christ. The journey they endured took a significant amount of effort and time. We learn later in chapter 2 that Herod is worried about baby boys at and under the age of two, so their journey brought them to Bethlehem up to two years after Jesus’ birth.
The second group we read about is often overlooked in the story-the scribes and priests. When Herod hears of the Magi’s visit, he is concerned about the birth of a king and asks the experts in the Law where the Messiah is to be born. Note two things about their reaction to the question. First, they know exactly where he is to be born. Second, they don’t go.
And thirdly, Herod provides a fascinating and tragic story. Historically, we know this Herod died a suspicious and hated ruler. By the time of his death he had assassinated at least three of his own sons, several wives, many beloved local tribal and political leaders, and several hundred baby boys in Bethlehem.
Observing Herod, we have our first lesson in encountering Christ. Herod reacted in fear and hatred. Ironically, Herod understood the Kingship of Jesus better than most Christians do. He knew that if this child were to grow to be King, his power and sovereignty were gone. The birth of Jesus meant he was no longer King. Likewise, the birth of Jesus means I am no longer the sovereign of my own soul-Jesus, and no one else, is King.
Encountering Jesus means not just coming to terms with my Savior, Redeemer, and Friend, but with my Lord and my King as well.
The priests and scribes reacted with distracted apathy. They knew exactly where, Herod had given them the when, but they made no attempt to make their way to the Messiah. Their preoccupation with their religiosity blinded them to THE moment in their nation’s history. There is nothing wrong with religious ritual, but it is intended to be a means to Christ, and not an end in itself.
Our religious observance should be a tool in the hands of God to help us encounter Jesus Christ. Once it becomes an end in itself, it becomes a blinding idol.
I am going to use the phrase “spiritual endurance” to describe how the Magi encountered Christ. They had no political, military, religious, or social investment or expectation in the birth of the Messiah. They did not journey in order to find their next political savior. They endured their long and arduous journey to do nothing but worship. They did not ask a thing, demand a thing, and they did not leave with a thing. They endured the journey to do nothing but present gifts to a baby-to worship the King.
What am I willing to endure just to worship? I am typically more ready to endure in order to ask, expect or even demand of Jesus, but can I be like the Magi and endure all time and hardship to do nothing but worship my King?
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Contagious Worship: Jeremiah 17:26-27
Jeremiah 17:26-27
At the tail end of a passage in which God teaches on the topic of keeping and breaking the Sabbath, there is a final blessing added to the community that faithfully keeps it. Here God promises that if the people of God worship Him the way He ought to be worshiped, people will come from the surrounding nations to worship with them.
26And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
The problem Judah has with surrounding nations at this time is not that they are being ignored, but that they are flocking to Jerusalem to destroy them. Jeremiah has made it clear time and time again that Judah has turned its back against God, and that foreign nations are coming to enact judgment on their sins.
As we noted in the previous section, God uses some surprising language regarding the Sabbath. It is the kind of language we would expect to be connected with murder or idolatry. But nonetheless, this rather strong language applies to the keeping and the breaking of the Sabbath. Ultimately, keeping the Sabbath is an act of outward faithfulness expressing an inward disposition of worship and sanctification. We keep the Sabbath-we observe days and times of worship-because we are willing to prioritize our lives around God, and not vise versa. We stop the routine of our week, take ourselves someplace other than work, school, or any of our other normal destinations, and take ourselves to worship.
Judah was failing to worship on the Sabbath. According to scholars, the Sabbath command was unique among the ancient Jews. In fact, the only other culture to pick up on the same notion is the New Testament Church. The Sabbath made the Judean culture different, but different in such a way as to be a symbol of God’s lordship. Without the Sabbath, and by conducting commerce on the day of rest, Judah became just like any other culture.
When we take our time and energy to worship, we make ourselves different. And we are different in a way that points to the lordship of Christ. Some say sticking out might be a bad thing-it might attract the wrong kind of attention or repel people from the church. But that is not what God promised. He promised that proper, enthusiastic, whole-hearted worship would draw the nations in.
People were born to worship. The church of Jesus Christ should be able to point them to the one worthy object of worship; our worship can be and should be contagious. May we learn to lift up Christ and allow Him to draw all people to Himself.
At the tail end of a passage in which God teaches on the topic of keeping and breaking the Sabbath, there is a final blessing added to the community that faithfully keeps it. Here God promises that if the people of God worship Him the way He ought to be worshiped, people will come from the surrounding nations to worship with them.
26And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
The problem Judah has with surrounding nations at this time is not that they are being ignored, but that they are flocking to Jerusalem to destroy them. Jeremiah has made it clear time and time again that Judah has turned its back against God, and that foreign nations are coming to enact judgment on their sins.
As we noted in the previous section, God uses some surprising language regarding the Sabbath. It is the kind of language we would expect to be connected with murder or idolatry. But nonetheless, this rather strong language applies to the keeping and the breaking of the Sabbath. Ultimately, keeping the Sabbath is an act of outward faithfulness expressing an inward disposition of worship and sanctification. We keep the Sabbath-we observe days and times of worship-because we are willing to prioritize our lives around God, and not vise versa. We stop the routine of our week, take ourselves someplace other than work, school, or any of our other normal destinations, and take ourselves to worship.
Judah was failing to worship on the Sabbath. According to scholars, the Sabbath command was unique among the ancient Jews. In fact, the only other culture to pick up on the same notion is the New Testament Church. The Sabbath made the Judean culture different, but different in such a way as to be a symbol of God’s lordship. Without the Sabbath, and by conducting commerce on the day of rest, Judah became just like any other culture.
When we take our time and energy to worship, we make ourselves different. And we are different in a way that points to the lordship of Christ. Some say sticking out might be a bad thing-it might attract the wrong kind of attention or repel people from the church. But that is not what God promised. He promised that proper, enthusiastic, whole-hearted worship would draw the nations in.
People were born to worship. The church of Jesus Christ should be able to point them to the one worthy object of worship; our worship can be and should be contagious. May we learn to lift up Christ and allow Him to draw all people to Himself.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Clearing a Path: Jeremiah 17:19-27
Jeremiah 17:19-27
This little section of Jeremiah contains some teaching and warning about a very specific violation: the breaking of the Sabbath. Of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath law is maybe the most difficult for us to wrap our lives around, and the one we might be most inclined to think no longer applies to us. But we must be careful with such inclinations. In the Old Testament we discover that the Sabbath is a pervasive reality in the life of the observant Jew. And in the New Testament, it is an assumed observance amongst Christians. The biblical teaching about the Sabbath begins in Genesis 1 and wraps up in Revelation 22; it is a thread throughout literally the whole Bible.
So what does Jeremiah have to tell us about the Sabbath? Here, Jeremiah confronts a culture that has become accustomed to working and bearing burdens on the one day God instituted for rest. And the warning is introduced by some pretty stark language-the kind we might expect when God wants to talk about idolatry or murder.
21. Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
When God begins to promise the blessings attached to Sabbath observance, the first one listed is that the rightful kings will be able to come in and out of the gate. The imagery is crucial. As long as there is clutter in the streets and the gate the king cannot enter, but if the clutter is cleared, the king will freely come and go.
24. But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25. then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David,…
The Sabbath is ultimately about setting ourselves aside from the rest of the world and focusing our time and attention on God. It is ultimately about worship and sanctification. We deliberately take our time and our energy and clear a path for God to reenter our hearts and minds. The imagery used by Jeremiah says this very thing: if the streets of the city are full of wrongful clutter, the king cannot come and go. But if the people properly worship God and remove the market from the streets on the Sabbath, the rightful king will reign.
Ours is a cluttered life. We are constantly plugged-in and we are constantly in touch with just about any part of the outside world through 24/7 media, cell phones, and ubiquitous access to the World Wide Web. Each of these vies for our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical attention. For us, then, a Sabbath act of worship will likely involve the deliberate clearing of the clutter so the King can come and go.
We need to take purposeful and effective steps to disconnect ourselves from the mindless flotsam we live in. So how can we, in a culture so different from the ancient Jewish culture, affect Sabbath in our lives? I have three suggestions, and they may be ones you have heard before.
First, we should pay attention to prayer in our lives. Instead of praying out of habit or circumstantial compulsion, we need to pray deliberately. It can and should act as divine water washing out the debris in our hearts and minds. Secondly, Scripture reading is reorientation. Being so inundated with the pagan culture’s worldview, reading Scripture should help reorient us toward God’s point of view. And thirdly, corporate worship is a whole-body/soul experience in which we take our time, our mental and emotional energy, and we worship God with brothers and sisters in Christ.
Are the pathways in your heart and mind filled with the kind of flotsam and jetsam that hinders the coming of your King? Do you hear the blessing promised by God for clearing out the clutter and allowing Him to enter? May we pay more attention to the Sabbath and the kind of relationship with our Lord it promises.
This little section of Jeremiah contains some teaching and warning about a very specific violation: the breaking of the Sabbath. Of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath law is maybe the most difficult for us to wrap our lives around, and the one we might be most inclined to think no longer applies to us. But we must be careful with such inclinations. In the Old Testament we discover that the Sabbath is a pervasive reality in the life of the observant Jew. And in the New Testament, it is an assumed observance amongst Christians. The biblical teaching about the Sabbath begins in Genesis 1 and wraps up in Revelation 22; it is a thread throughout literally the whole Bible.
So what does Jeremiah have to tell us about the Sabbath? Here, Jeremiah confronts a culture that has become accustomed to working and bearing burdens on the one day God instituted for rest. And the warning is introduced by some pretty stark language-the kind we might expect when God wants to talk about idolatry or murder.
21. Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
When God begins to promise the blessings attached to Sabbath observance, the first one listed is that the rightful kings will be able to come in and out of the gate. The imagery is crucial. As long as there is clutter in the streets and the gate the king cannot enter, but if the clutter is cleared, the king will freely come and go.
24. But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25. then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David,…
The Sabbath is ultimately about setting ourselves aside from the rest of the world and focusing our time and attention on God. It is ultimately about worship and sanctification. We deliberately take our time and our energy and clear a path for God to reenter our hearts and minds. The imagery used by Jeremiah says this very thing: if the streets of the city are full of wrongful clutter, the king cannot come and go. But if the people properly worship God and remove the market from the streets on the Sabbath, the rightful king will reign.
Ours is a cluttered life. We are constantly plugged-in and we are constantly in touch with just about any part of the outside world through 24/7 media, cell phones, and ubiquitous access to the World Wide Web. Each of these vies for our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical attention. For us, then, a Sabbath act of worship will likely involve the deliberate clearing of the clutter so the King can come and go.
We need to take purposeful and effective steps to disconnect ourselves from the mindless flotsam we live in. So how can we, in a culture so different from the ancient Jewish culture, affect Sabbath in our lives? I have three suggestions, and they may be ones you have heard before.
First, we should pay attention to prayer in our lives. Instead of praying out of habit or circumstantial compulsion, we need to pray deliberately. It can and should act as divine water washing out the debris in our hearts and minds. Secondly, Scripture reading is reorientation. Being so inundated with the pagan culture’s worldview, reading Scripture should help reorient us toward God’s point of view. And thirdly, corporate worship is a whole-body/soul experience in which we take our time, our mental and emotional energy, and we worship God with brothers and sisters in Christ.
Are the pathways in your heart and mind filled with the kind of flotsam and jetsam that hinders the coming of your King? Do you hear the blessing promised by God for clearing out the clutter and allowing Him to enter? May we pay more attention to the Sabbath and the kind of relationship with our Lord it promises.
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