1 Sept 2014 - amazing day

Jesus give us glad tidings today!  He wants to give us the freedom of the Sons of God, freedom from the fear of death that makes us slaves (cf. Heb. 2:15).  He wants to give us sight by being light for us in our darkness.  He wants the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened so that we can know the hope to which he calls us and so that we can know the greatness of his power at work in us.  The world tries to oppress us like Egypt oppresses the ancient Israelites.  It tries to tie us to systems that degrade us and sap the life from us.  Jesus sets us free!

But he doesn't do it in the way we expect.  His message isn't persuasive. It is powerful.  Are we ready for that difference?  We don't have a problem with power.  But we would prefer "sublimity of words or of wisdom" and instead we get "weakness and fear and much trembling", the weakness of the cross.  There is definitely power in his words.  No one ever spoke like this man, a Roman guard can't help by notice. Jesus telling the guards "I am" is enough to knock them backward to the ground (cf. Joh. 18:6).  Yes, his word has power. It is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (cf. Heb. 4:16). But oddly, it won't allow itself to be enthroned alongside other earthly kings.  Strangely, it insists on moving toward the cross.

Event though his word is strange in that way it doesn't require prelude. It requires proclamation. It's strength is self-manifesting. When we listen we are "amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth" but then we often we insist on human wisdom.  We begin to think in worldly terms.  We expect a long preamble explaining everything. We want to know exactly how cause leads to effect and again to cause. We start asking questions like, "Is this not the son of Joseph?"

The thing is to let the proclamation by fresh.  It is fulfilled in our hearing today. Now is the acceptable time! Today is the day of salvation (cf 2 Cor 6:2). But the more familiar with it we become the less we hear it today. Instead, we remember hearing it yesterday. And this is how we strip the word of its power.

This is why the psalmist approaches the word of God in the way he does.

How I love your law, O LORD!
It is my meditation all the day.

In quiet and in prayer the word is always waiting to speak itself afresh to us.  Let us not turn away from it. God himself wants to teach us (cf. 1 Joh. 2:27).

This morning God wants to fill us with faith in all of the promises of the prophet Isaiah for freedom and hope. And he wants this faith to rest on his power and not on our human wisdom. Listen, and be amazed!