Tag: blessing

Devotional 134: His Blood Be On Us

smithaw50Leave a comment

Matthew 27: 21-26

 21 The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”

They said, “Barabbas!”

22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”

They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”

23 Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?”

But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”

24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”

25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

26 Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.

What a powerful curse the people called down on themselves! If not for Jesus interceding, even as He was dying, the Father’s wrath may have well been visited on Israel’s misguided religious leaders and the Roman empire. (Luke 23:34)

Yet our loving Lord, forsaken by the very source of His glory who darkened the heavens because He could not look on the worldly sins gathering like vultures at the cross, asked forgiveness, his holy blood already spilling to cover the most heinous sinners in the crowd.

This world, which thrives on quid pro quo and being one-up on each other, can’t conceive of that kind of love.

The sons of Abraham and Moses would have doomed themselves for generations to defy the Son of G-d with such an oath. It is because of this that when we return to our sin, backsliding in moments of temptation, doubt, and anger that our Father says if we return to Him, He will return to us. (Zechariah 1:3)

It’s only through this intercession that our names remain in the Book of Life, and the only means through which He’ll not remember our sins. (Hebrews 10:16-17)

His blood is on us, and hopefully on our children, not as a curse, but a blessing, and through our faith, the only path through which our souls are redeemed. We have these words from our Savior to sustain us:

Matthew 26:27-28

27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Our sins are not covered over now, they are removed, as if they’d never happened, and forgotten, as if we never did them. If that isn’t cause to give thanks and praise, nothing else comes close. If that doesn’t merit worship in spirit and truth, nothing does.

John 1:29

The Lamb of God

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Judas, when filled with remorse and confronting the men who paid him, did not say he betrayed an innocent man, but innocent blood. (Matthew 27:3-4)

Pilate would not pass the death sentence on Christ, heeding the warning of his wife (Matthew 27:19) and washed his own hands to symbolically claim his unwillingness to be part of the bloodthirsty mob, echoing the words of the religious leaders to Judas, “You see to it.”  (Matthew 27:24) Make no mistake, Pilate was a worldly man, fully a part of a hedonistic empire, but the words of Jesus disturbed him. (John 19:10-11)

10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”

11 Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

Today, let us be thankful His blood is upon us, over us, around us, and hopefully, over our progeny not as a curse, but a blessing, shed for the remission of sin, so that we might be together, now and forever.

Therefore I pray:

Lord Jesus,

The cleansing is daily, as brief as the days are, and as fleeting as life is.

We fail over and over, and like the good shepherd You are, You wait, and help, and heal us, and bless us again with fresh anointing from the Spirit, with renewed hearts, and yet our most iron resolve to repent crumbles almost as soon as we’re granted forgiveness. 

We are weak and lost without You, condemned to eternal punishment, and yet You interceded even for those who lurked and plotted in the night to see You die. Barrabas was the first to benefit from Your sacrifice, the thief on the cross was the second, and down through the ages, here we are from every nation praying for another day that we not be cut off, our names blotted from the Book of Life, our works worthy to withstand the judgment fires.

Today, on this Father’s Day, let us return once more to our Father in Heaven, who we can only give the scraps of our worship, the uncertainty of our thanks, the ravages of our righteousness, the lukewarm love of our hardened hearts, and our wavering faith.

Thank You for letting us know that You will never cast out those who seek You in earnest longing to be reconciled to the One who sent You.

Thank You for letting us know that You and the Father are One, though He is greater than You. (John 14:8)

Let us, today, turn to our Father and speak these words directly to Him, as no man other than the Son of God is worthy to intercede for us:

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned.”

May it be done to us as You have said.

Amen.

Israel’s Consolation

smithaw501 Comment

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, 

that mourns in lonely exile here,

until the Son of G-d appears.

Luke 2:25-26
Simeon Sees God’s Salvation
25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

Simeon was no prophet, or seer. He worked no miracles, saw no angels. He was not in the fields when the angel appeared to the shepherds.

He was simply this: just, and devout.

We meet him here, at the end of his life, holding Jesus in his arms and blessing G-d.

G-d honored the devout heart of his servant, and likely beyond his expectations, for in the Spirit he was told he would see the Messiah, not hold Him. G-d keeps His promises to His people.

Israel was in need of consolation, but clearly the Lord shared with His servant that the net of grace would be expanded to those though beyond hope of redemption, despised as pagans, and shunned and barred from society as sinners.

Simeon was also in need of consolation, having seen the persecution of his people under Roman rule. The Holy Spirit revealed to he would not die until he saw G-d’s promise fulfilled not just to him, but to all the people, including the reprehensible Gentiles.

As Simeon was facing his own end, the Father gave him a vision of the divine plan for salvation, and he knew that the body he held would later save the lost and shake the empire with His ministry, a body one day broken and bloody, a body that took our place.

Is your heart in need of consolation? Mine is. My elders are all gone, with the exception of one aunt, and family gatherings with future generations has proven unreliable in planning and levels of commitment, so they’re largely a thing of the past. I’ve had to make my peace with that, and I thank G-d for the memories I do possess.

Life these days is fragmented, compartmentalized, fast-paced, uncertain, and scary.

Our representatives, as well as those who hold them to account, seem devoid of integrity and morality.

As believers, we are buffeted on every side by dismissive mockery and the unsubtle gutting of what used to be a sacred time.

The giving of gifts with thought and love behind them has become a feeding frenzy in an effort to save what amounts to pennies, and civility and common sense fade with the fall leaves.

We trot out the poor and homeless like a forgotten box of decorations and put them back on January 2nd.

The stores have trained us to value things so much,  we are willing to scratch and claw our fellow humans to get to them because they keep convincing us we never have enough, and tell us that we don’t have the power to disconnect.

Neither is true, and the power of the decision lays with you; we can be frugal, and good stewards of our finances, but we need not be mindless and heedless of our humanity about it.

This Christmas, be at peace with yourselves, and with one another.

Therefore I pray:

Let us be consoled that we’re on the narrow path, consoled in His word, consoled in His mercy and grace, consoled that the light to the Gentiles is bright and high and clear. Let us be consoled, by faith the Lord of All lifts us up to be with Him.

Let us be consoled we are no longer under the Father’s wrath, consoled that the carpenter who lay in the wood of the manger was willing to lift the wood of His cross, for our sake, and in our place.

Let’s be consoled in our devout and fallen hearts that He honors His promises to His servants, and elevates them to sons and daughters.

Let it be to us as You have said.

Merry Christmas