6 July 2014 - little ones

6 July 2014 - little ones

Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall come to you;
a just savior is he,
meek, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.

King Jesus comes to us.  He does not come as one who conquers, but as one who is welcomed.  He does not force his way into our hearts.  He asks us to welcome him.  If we realize how good his presence is, how much we need what he does in us, we will join the crowds in shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David" when he comes.

He is the king of heaven yet he stoops down to meet us where we are.  He is in the form of God but doesn't grasp equality with God if it means that he is thereby able to reveal the Father to us.  He allows himself to become poor that we might become rich.  Jesus has this meekness because, in a sense, he is the little one of the Father.  He is able to trust the Father entirely and therefore to offer himself completely.   He doesn't have to insist on his own rights because he knows the Father protects him.

By becoming a little one Jesus reveals the greatness of the Father.  But it is not only indirectly that he reveals this.  He invites us to share in his own relationship with the Father.  He invites us to embrace his littleness and his trust.  Only if we do will the Father truly be revealed to us.  Only when he is thus revealed will we find rest.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.

When we do come to Jesus, when we welcome him with shouts of Hosanna, his Spirit begins to dwell in us.  We can truly embrace what it means to be little ones.  Obedience, even obedience unto death, is possible if we walk in the yoke of Jesus, the yoke from his loving Father.  This is true because we know that no matter what we face, we can trust the Father to get us through it.  Even death doesn't have the last word.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.

We once lived according to the flesh.  But that way of life leads to death.  And if we face death on our own apart from the Spirit we cannot make it through to the other side.  Fortunately, God delights to give us his Spirit, so that we can embrace his yoke, and receive life even to our mortal bodies through his Spirit in us.

We are not consistently faithful or holy.  We are constantly falling.  We are constantly bowed down in failure.  But we have the ever greater Father in heaven to support us.  And he is all we need.

The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.