Good Saturday morning! A few clouds are helping to keep the heat away this morning, but we should still see the low 90's today. I saw a mere 99 on the temperature display yesterday in Scottsbluff. Of course the official reading is not taken while parked on a hot concrete parking lot. They should though; why not take the reading where people have to be? What was I doing in Scottsbluff in the first place? A funeral for another friend killed in yet another car accident. My friend and I parted ways about 20 years ago which made the grief easier to bear for me. The family endured the same burden that all families do when a daughter or sister is lost unexpectedly. This kind of sudden death and grief is among those things we yearn to have abolished forever when Jesus returns. That time is coming, but in order to have a return, we had to have a first time. John the Baptist discovered the Christ right among those he was preaching to one day.
"I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God." John 1: 34
John knew Jesus and his name from before, but we have already seen that he didn't expect Jesus to be the one right away. God gave John the sign, and John pointed out Jesus in his testimony. What God started with the Holy Spirit descending, we get to read about in all of the Gospels, Acts, and even through the end of Revelation. The end of Revelation is the start of eternity. This Jesus whom John pointed out that day is the master of all the days of eternity.
Do we wonder what the purpose of another death is? Jesus knows and someday we can ask him. Do we wonder why we are still here when another person is called home in their old age? John showed us the man to ask. The Chosen One of God had arrived to begin the greatest ministry the world has ever seen. You and I would have been utterly embarrassed to be pointed out with a title like that: we are not the Son of God, Jesus is. Jesus, humbly accepted the Holy Spirit onto himself.
We often fail to notice that Jesus, after receiving a title like that from John's testimony, did not step up on a rock to receive worship and adoration from the people gathered there; he didn't immediately march up to Jerusalem and demand an ornate throne be built in the temple. Jesus didn't do any of the things we might expect the Chosen One of God to do. Jesus didn't say anything to that royal announcement. We rightly wonder how any man could be so humble. We have the advantage of the entire Bible to read; we know that Jesus came with a different purpose than to claim the kingship on his first coming to this world. We can read that Jesus also did not deny the truth of John's testimony. Whether the King ascends his throne immediately or much later, he is still the King.
Have a great weekend as we celebrate our independence as a Christian nation!
Bucky
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