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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Here is My servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring
justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the
streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff
out.”
Isaiah 42:1-3a
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Life can be rough. Live it long
enough and you will find yourself agreeing with that statement.
There’s certainly more than a few
challenges or adversities that we might come up against at one time or another,
sometimes singularly while other times collective and cumulative. Over time,
dealing with these difficulties and hardships can wear us down and wear us out,
sapping our strength and bringing us to places of weakness, to places where we
sometimes feel like we just can’t go on anymore.
The people of Israel had certainly
endured their share of troubles in their history as we look at our verses
written from the period of the prophet Isaiah. They had endured consistent
attacks and threats of annihilation as well as captivities and exiles. They had
journeyed for first days, and then years just to occupy the land that God has
set aside for them and when they finally earned their way there through
obedience to God, they turned right around and went back into doing what they
wanted to do, actions that brought on God’s further consequences. Yes, the
Israelites brought a lot of their problems on themselves by disregarding and
disrespecting God, choosing sin and wickedness over His righteousness.
Perhaps the largest penalty they
had paid was the seventy year exile to Babylon, an exile that vacated the land
God had given them as the people of Israel were hauled off into captivity in a
foreign land. Imagine being under oppression and without freedom for seventy
years. It couldn’t have been a lot of fun and there would be at least one
generation who would never get the chance to return to their homeland,
perishing as strangers in a foreign land. Even for the ones who were able to
return, there was the task of completely rebuilding the holy city of Jerusalem
as it had been laid to waste during the Babylonian invasion. It was a harrowing
undertaking, one that you can read about in great detail within the Books of
Ezra and Nehemiah, and even after the Israeli remnant reconstructed the blessed
Jerusalem, they still weren’t free, still under the rule and reign of the
Persians with the Roman occupation looming on history’s horizon.
The people of Israel were in need
of a fresh start, a breath of fresh air to bring a new sense of hope and
strength that would bring them new freedom from the repressive rule they were
under.
Enter the Messiah, Jesus, who was
coming to be God’s modest, restoring servant. Our verses today tell us as much.
Look again at them now:
“Here is My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight; I
will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. He will
not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will
not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.” Isaiah 42:1-3a
As we saw yesterday, God had placed
the matters of justice on the shoulders of His Son, the perfect servant who not
only came to please God and usher in the coming of the Holy Spirit but to bring
justice to the world as well as we saw in yesterday’s devotion. Jesus was, is,
and will always be the Judge of all mankind, receiving authority to do so from
God, His Father and ours.
There was only one slight problem.
You see, the Messiah the people
thought they were getting and the One who actually came to walk among them were
not one in the same.
The people expected that their
coming Messiah was going to slay the oppressors who had taken away their
liberties. This Messiah would be a bold and brash, authoritative soldier of all
soldiers and no opponent of Israel would be able to stand against Him. In fact,
you may recall when Jesus finally entered the city of Jerusalem. The people
came out to greet Him and gave Him a king’s welcome, waving palm leaves before
laying them along with cloaks on the path Jesus traveled, an event often
referred to as the Triumphal Entry (Mark 11). These actions were accompanied by
shouts of praise from the people as they lifted their voices saying:
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna
in the highest heaven!” (Mark 11:9). Sadly, a week later many of the voices who
were singing the praises of Jesus would be shouting for Him to be crucified,
for they failed to see Jesus for who He truly was.
You see, this Jesus, the perfect
Servant and Savior of the world, did not come with boisterous fanfare. He didn’t
shout out or cry out, raising His voice in the streets. Rather, Jesus came as
the humble servant of the Lord God Almighty, choosing humility over fame for
His only real motivation was to honor and glorify His Father God, even to death
on the cross of Calvary. Jesus could have saved Himself and brought legions of
angels down to obliterate those who attacked and crucified Him but it wasn’t
about Him. Rather, it was about carrying out His Father’s will to fruition and
that will was to die so that others could live. Truly, it’s in this modest
Savior Servant Jesus that we see the purest sense of love, affirming His very words
from the scriptures and showing us that Jesus didn’t just tell us how to live,
He showed us as well:
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s
life for one’s friends. John 15:13
In between the start of His adult
ministry and death, and then thereafter, we find a Jesus who was not only
modest and humble but also all about restoration. Look at His work with others
and you will find it defined out of a constant, driving desire to help people become
better than they were and would construct His teaching to that end. He was not
willing to let anyone who was broken remain that way (a bruised reed He will not break) or permit someone to lose hope to
the point where their spirit dwindled away (a smoldering wick He will not snuff out). Instead, Jesus was always
trying to edify and build people up, showing them that they could do all things
as long as they relied on His strength and power, not their own. If the flame
of someone’s faith and spirit began to flicker, threatening to extinguish,
Jesus would fan the flame and help them to renew their strength and soar on
wings like eagles, running and not growing weary, walking but not growing faint
(Isaiah 40:28-31).
Indeed, Jesus was sent by God to
serve and save, and He did both perfectly and humbly. We would be well served
to do likewise and if we follow Jesus as we are to do as Christians, then we
will be able to do just that, becoming servants that are modest and restoring
as we carry out the will and way of the Lord each and every day while living
this life He has blessed us with.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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