THE WORD FOR YOUR DAY 12.2.14 - Gods anointed one (Messiah, Christ), Gods son Daily Scripture: Psalm 72:1-6; Matthew 16:13-20 72 God, give your judgments to the king. Give your righteousness to the kings son. 2 Let him judge your people with righteousness and your poor ones with justice. 3 Let the mountains bring peace to the people; let the hills bring righteousness. 4 Let the king bring justice to people who are poor; let him save the children of those who are needy, but let him crush oppressors! 5 Let the king live as long as the sun, as long as the moon, generation to generation. 6 Let him fall like rain upon fresh-cut grass, like showers that water the earth. Matthew 16:13-20 13 Now when Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Human One is? 14 They replied, Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. 15 He said, And what about you? Who do you say that I am? 16 Simon Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 Then Jesus replied, Happy are you, Simon son of Jonah, because no human has shown this to you. Rather my Father who is in heaven has shown you. 18 I tell you that you are Peter. And Ill build my church on this rock. The gates of the underworld wont be able to stand against it. 19 Ill give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Anything you fasten on earth will be fastened in heaven. Anything you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven. 20 Then he ordered the disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Christ. Scholars call Psalm 72 a royal psalm, one that almost certainly originally prayed for Israels earthly anointed king. But as the decades and then the centuries rolled by, it became painfully clear that no merely human king could possible fulfill the hopes that the psalm expressed. The hope rose anew as Peter and the disciples followed Jesus. They saw him as the Christ, the true king who could bring justice, peace and righteousness forever. Note carefully all the qualities Psalm 72 asked God to give to the king. How thankful would you be if any of the leaders we recently elected, or the president we will elect in 2016, fully lived out all those qualities? What kept Israels kings (and our leaders) from being able to fully live them out? What made Jesus uniquely qualified to be that ultimate, eternal king? In answer to Jesus question, the disciples said people identified him as John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. That was no insult—those were great, respected names. Yet they fell short of what the disciples saw in Jesus. To what extent can you join Peter in declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? What factors shape what you believe about Jesus? Todays Prayer: Lord, the carol says The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Thank you for rekindling hope in me, and for giving me strength to live beyond my fears. Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:46:36 +0000