Observation: Just after Jesus is transfigured in front of his disciples on a mountain top, giving them just a glimpse of who he really is, the disciples understandably have some questions. Since the just saw him with Elijah and Moses on the mountain, they want to know why the prophecies say Elijah has to return before the Messiah arrives. Jesus responds that Elijah did return--in the ministry of John the Baptist--and he was abused and killed, just as the Messiah will be...
Application: Can I be really, brutally honest? As much as I love preparing to celebrate Christmas with the church, I always feel a little weird about it, because I feel like for just twelve days a year, we have a whole different God.
Maybe that's an extreme way to state it, but it's true. At Christmas, we don't picture our Savior as the adult man whose ministry so upset the powers that be that they tortured him to death. We see him as a baby. A baby who never judges us, who never talks back to us, who never challenges us, but who just lies there being adorable, sleeping in heavenly peace.
This is a problem. Not only would it be foolish to place the hopes of humankind on an infant, but maybe somewhere in the back of our minds, it might place the idea that, once in a while, we should be protecting, providing, or caring for God...?
So today, five days before Christmas, it's refreshing, though a little jarring, to remember: that baby grew up. He did not stay silent. He didn't stay in the manger. He faced down injustice, sin and death without flinching. He died and rose, destroying the power of death. Which is why, even on Christmas Eve, we will hear the whole story, including the words, "In the night in which he was betrayed..." Thanks be to God for that.
Prayer: Dear Lord, Heaven cannot hold you, nor the earth sustain. As we ponder your birth in Bethlehem, help us also ponder the road that began there: the road to your life-giving cross. Amen.
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