Messiah Comes in the Name of the Lord

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.” (Psalm 118;26. NIV. [See also 2 Samuel 7:12-16] “For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’ “ (Matthew 23:39. NIV).

The verse quoted from Psalm 118:26 was used in Jewish worship as a greeting, and was especially used at the Feast of the Tabernacles which celebrated the ingathering of crops and remembered God’s protection and provision when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. Each of the gospel writers included this greeting as Christ went into Jerusalem on what we term His triumphal entry, riding on a donkey, with people shouting “Hallelujah!” and waving palm branches. No such fanfare came at or near the time of Jesus’ birth. I often imagine, however, that with each clop of the donkey’s feet on the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem as Joseph and Mary made their journey to enroll for the taxes, that they were thinking, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Did Mary wonder that she might go into labor in Bethlehem? As a mother of two and knowing the anticipation of birth, I can empathize with Mary as she went to Bethlehem. She harbored the promise of God in her heart and beneath her heart. And then when He was born, there came the quiet worship of lowly shepherds from the fields. Later, as the holy family was in a house, Magi from the East came, presented gifts and departed secretly so as not to allow Herod the knowledge of where the Christ child was. During His ministry, Jesus tried to prepare His disciples for a time when He will return “with glory in His wings.” Again, at that time, the greeting so long uttered by believers will be upon every tongue: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Messiah, in fulfillment of prophecy, but more importantly in response to God’s great love for humankind, came in the fullness of time as a Baby born in Bethlehem, “God’s only begotten Son” (John 3:16). As we celebrate Christmas in all facets of its meaning, let us not lose sight of this distinctive message: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Times could get much worse than now. God is seeking to prepare us for tribulation and sorrow. He calls us to faithfulness, regardless of the circumstances. And the blessed assurance we have was expressed confidently by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:26-27: “to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (NIV). My prayer is that we as faithful Christians might radiate “the hope of glory” daily in our lives, that we may be among those who proclaim, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, December 23, 2010

Parable of the Rich Man’s Meditation

“And He told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21, NIV).

Those who have studied carefully the teachings of Jesus and documented them state that he taught more about money and the use of and love for it than any other subject. Why is this? Because how we live, including how we make our living and how we use our resources, all express our Christian faith. Jesus knew this, and often gave cryptic insights into how we should consider that “unrighteous mammon,” or money, which we are often tempted to set up as an idol. Yesterday’s thoughts on the unjust steward parable showed this concept. That parable was all about the theme of prudence and ingenuity in using property. Today’s parable, which someone has called “The Rich Man’s Meditation” also gets at the heart of man’s attitude about possessions. There’s an old adage, “The more one has, the more one wants.” Paul the Apostle, knowing this, advised his son-in-the-gospel, young Timothy: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (I Timothy 6:10, NIV).

In the parable of the rich man and his desire to build better barns in which to store his abundance, he suddenly found that he had none to store. Death came upon him suddenly. Someone has said, “You don’t ever see a U-Haul behind a hearse. You can’t take it with you.” Life is tenuous at best. We have assurance of today, but tomorrow is nebulous. It is not that we are to completely disregard money and its ability to help and sustain life needs. Rather it is the love of money we are to guard against, that insatiable desire to put temporal things first in our lives to the exclusion of loyalty to God. We need to constantly check our attitude toward money, earning and accumulating it; and also our attitude to others in terms of generosity toward the needy, and extension of the Kingdom of God.

I believe God made a plan, even for our money. He said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:10). “But that is Old Testament and the law,” some argue. Jesus did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it, to make it more applicable to the Christian life. Listen to the New Testament admonition: Jesus, in addressing the scribes and Pharisees on their diligent attention to tithing, said, “these ye ought to have done, and not to leave the others undone” (Matthew 23:23). He was talking of their tithing, but also of “weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy and faith.” If Jesus is Lord of our money, how we earn it and manage it, we can gladly practice what Paul taught in II Corinthians 9:7: “Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” We don’t need bigger barns or more secure depository sources. We need to honor God, first of all. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). God loves us and wants the best for us. But our loyalty to Him is expected as we accept His provision for us. Not bigger barns, but bigger hearts for the things God wants us to partner with Him in doing in the world; that’s the idea behind Christian stewardship!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, September 4, 2010