December 7, 2022
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Reading along with us in our Advent readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Day 7 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Beginning of Jesus’ Public Life
Read Sections 2.9 through 2.12 (pages 23-28)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
Day 7 reading completed.
Day 7
“My strong devotion to your Temple will destroy me.”
Both Steve and I stopped and asked, “is that what it says?”
“Zeal for Your house will consume me.”
It is interesting that this seems more in keeping with the previous verses of Jesus clearing the temple and the disciples recalling the words of this Psalm, but right afterwards Jesus talks about “destroying this temple, and in 3 days I will build is again”, so the translation of “will destroy me” fits with what happens next as well.
Can certainly understand Jesus getting angry at the temple. Some had forgotten it was a place of worship. Not a market. Many people coming for Passover prices were much higher. Imagine someone coming to church to conduct business every week. Not caring about worshiping our Lord. Go stand in front of Walmart! The whole gospel
Summed up in one verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his Son. There it is. The whole world!! Everyone is accepted. But you must respond!! Accept or reject. John gives the reason why people don’t accept. They love the darkness. Love the story of the Samaritan woman. And all the others that Jesus had empathy. Mostly people that no one else cared about. He broke thru all the barriers that Jews had built, to show us how to respond no matter how uncomfortable. Everyone deserves to hear the good news. Once again just like Nathaniel. Jesus knew the woman’s past. And he knows ours also. Thank God that’s under the blood. The unconditional agape love of God and his pathway to forgiveness is so overwhelming. I shared with a 91 year old man today. And I teared up talking to him of Gods love
So many parts of this reading where Jesus shows how He both understands the way we think and yet still has the mind of God. He recognizes the things that seem important to us in our earthly mentality and tries to get us to grasp how much more there really is.
The amazing uniqueness of God’s plan sending His Son is exactly that…He truly does understand what it’s like to live as a human and shows us through His example how it should be done!
So many significant passages of scripture are found in this section. A couple of things to remember about Jesus cleansing the temple is that it happened twice….here at the beginning of His ministry and again at the end. In other words, they didn’t get the point. The other thing is the outer section of the temple was the court of the gentiles. And it is believed that the sellers and money changers were in this section, disregarding the gentiles right to approach God in the way God allowed. Jesus was passionate about right worship and proper access. And as we move on from that section, we see Jesus use the best description possible to help us understand the radical transformation that He seeks to bring to a person’s life. We must be born again. It is a whole new life that Jesus brings and we need that life, His life…Spiritual life…to be able to be part of God’s family. And boy does John the baptist shine in the next section. He is not in competition with Jesus and if he was, he would lose. He is glad that Jesus is having success because that’s the way it is supposed to be and the very thing John understood his purpose to be. And it is in this context that John says something that should define all of us as believers…He needs to become greater and I have to become less. What an incredibly humble statement from an incredibly devout man.
And this account of the Samaritan woman just shows Jesus was one to break down barriers: between peoples, between God and man, and even the fleshly barriers within us that keep us from the living water. We are made of flesh, but we don’t have to be fleshly. We can be fulfilled spiritually which is far more complete and without harmful side effects. What could be better than never thirsting again? Well Jesus makes the water available. The question is will we drink.
Day 7
I don’t understand how people can say that Jesus was just a great prophet, not the Messiah, when he makes several statements in the gospels that he is the Son of God. I like what John the Baptist says about Jesus: He must increase, I must decrease. I feel the same way about myself these days, his will must increase, my will must decrease. My favorite verses from the gospels are found in John 3:16-18. God loves us so much that he gave us his Son so that believers can stand before him without condemnation and receive the gift of salvation.