A Special Person - July 16, 2010

Good Friday morning! Out of milk and out of bread this morning, but there is plenty of ice cream in the freezer! What's a growing boy to do for breakfast in that case? Right, get cleaned up and go out to get the proper breakfast stuff. Doing the right thing doesn't always come to us as a matter of habit; we have to learn to do the right thing. Jesus had only just begun his ministry when his followers began spreading the good news.

Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, "We have found the very person Moses and the Prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." (John 1:45)

The good news had arrived in person and Philip couldn't wait to find Nathanael! What good news he had to spread in a dark time of the Roman Empire. "We have found the very person...!" Not only does this mean that someone was looking for Jesus, but that they understood that the prophecies pointed to a particular person. Not just any person, but the very person they were looking for in the prophecies and the Law. This is quite different from what happened to me this morning.

The mosquitoes weren't looking for a particular person, just any person. Once they found me, breakfast was served. No prophecy was involved, no seeking for a very special and specific person, anyone would do. Philip, Andrew, and the others on the other hand were looking for just one person, one very special and specific person. God send John the Baptist to point out the very person of Jesus Christ, and the men knew who he was in an earthly sense too: Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. We know from the accounts of Jesus' birth that he was not actually Joseph's son. Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit and his mother, Mary. For the first part of his life on earth though, Jesus was known as the son of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth. This is another of those connections the Bible gives us. One of us could be descended from Mary and Joseph, probably not, but it is certainly possible as they had several children after Jesus was born. Is that something to worry about on a hot day in July? No, we have more important news: Jesus lives! Like Philip, we have some wonderful news that our friends very much need in a dark time of this world.

What great and wonderful things await us in Christ!

Bucky