Tagged: Mary

Introducing Jesus

Please read Matthew 3:1-12. Link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%203:1-12&version=NIV

Just prior to Jesus’ birth, an angel appeared to Mary and introduced Jesus as one who would

  1. be given the throne of David.
  2. reign forever over a kingdom that would never end.
  3. be called the Son of God.

I’m intrigued by this introduction because

  1. I’m struck by God’s determination to keep His promises to David and to Israel – even though Israel looks like a 1500-year-old failed experiment.
  2. I don’t understand how this is possible.
  3. it reminds me of the way God claimed Israel as His firstborn son when He was about to bring Israel out of Egypt. What does it mean that God is claiming Jesus as His Son now?

An angel also appeared to Joseph and introduced Jesus as one who

  1. “is from the Holy Spirit.”
  2. “will save his people from their sins.”

I’m intrigued by this introduction because

  1. I believe the big problem in The Big Story occurred when human beings lost the breath of God, the Holy Spirit.
  2. sin has dominated human beings since that time.

Thirty years after Jesus’ birth, a man named John became prominent in Israel. People went to him to confess their sins and to be baptized by him in the Jordan River. But, John made it clear that the main reason he had come was to introduce Jesus.

            “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

What might this mean for dead humanity?

Neonatal Grit

Please read Luke 2:1-40. Link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202:1-40&version=NIV

Commotion at the birth of Jesus. . . . Like most babies, his mother worked hard to bring him into the world.

Then, a measure of peace. Relief. Mary held her son. And, after a while, she wrapped him in cloths and settled him into a manger.

Baby-size sighs in deep sleep.

What did the young mother do then? Did she need to get clean and warm? Did she cry, grateful that she and her baby had been delivered? Did she also sink deeply into sleep?

More commotion.

Shepherds interrupted the night; excited and probably a little too loud. They told a story about angels, and they repeated the angels’ announcement that the baby in the manger was a Savior.

            “. . .Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

A wonder-full night.

A few weeks later, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple for purification rites required by The Law of Moses. While they were there, an elderly gentleman named Simeon held Jesus in his arms. He praised God, but he also had pointed words for Jesus’ mother:

            “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

The Intensity of God’s Intentions

Please read Luke 1. Link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201&version=NIV

             girl and sun

I remember, when I was a boy, using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight into a dot of light on a dry leaf. In just a matter of seconds, smoke began to curl up from the leaf and the charred edges of a hole spread away from the dot of sunlight.

One day, God’s intention to keep His promises concentrated on a young woman in Israel.

No wonder Mary was greatly troubled.

God’s intentions ignited quickly into a plan:

            “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

The intensity of God’s intention to accomplish His Death-to-Life Project remains undiminished. In fact, it has concentrated on the little boy developing in the womb of young Mary.