December 19, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in our Advent readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Day 19 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Popularity
Read Sections 3.37 through 3.40 (pages 52-55)
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.
Advent Day 18
28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
It is interesting that John sends his followers to confirm who Christ is. I mean, he saw a dove descending on Jesus and heard the voice of God at Jesus’ baptism. Since John is in prison, perhaps he started to wonder? Jesus’s miracles confirm His identity.
Isaiah 35: Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
I was also struck by the section about Jesus offering rest. Being a follower of Christ isn’t hard. Meaning, it isn’t based on our work or intellectual understanding or obedience to the law, but rather on hearing and accepting. Soul rest.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Imagine John the Baptist doubting. Hard to believe. We all probably doubt at times. Look back in your life and remember all the ways God has shown himself. Or just remember what Jesus told John. All the miracles that are written in the Bible
Day 19 3.38 -3.40
The Life of Jesus 3.29-3.40
“Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.”
From the very beginning of scripture with the seventh day of rest after creation, the theme of rest is shown to be important to God. How often do I, especially during the hustle and bustle of the holidays, neglect rest in my own personal life. And even when I do give myself time to rest I often spend so much of that time still worrying about the things I still have to do that I don’t even rest properly!
Yet here is a further reminder that Christ offers rest to those who are weary and heavy laden. May God help us all to get ever better at taking breaks, and welcoming Him into that rest.
Rest is a lesson God is always trying to teach me. I read this with conviction because I tend to keep myself very busy sometimes out of necessity but often because I have trouble truly giving everything over to God not realizing until it’s too late that this thought process just makes life harder. Like I am doing God a favor by helping Him with my life! Ha!
Quiet rest is important to hear God and I have been working hard to make a conscious effort to add rest and retreat with God into my days!
We are all subject to doubting, but how discouraged John must have been to question whether Jesus was the one. But Jesus does not criticize him for that but speaks encouraging words about his life and purpose. It is important for us to address doubts quickly and remind ourselves of all the ways God has worked to show Himself to be true and trustworthy. Satan just loves to sow seeds of doubt and we need to take those thoughts captive and reenforce the truth of Christ! And how blessed we are that God calls us to rest because of all the work that He has done. We do not carry the burden of the law, but faith is a yoke that is easy that connects us to the power of God and all the righteousness He provides in our position as well as the righteousness He empowers through His Spirit. And what better way to reenforce that principle than the account of this sinful woman and Simon. Simon looks on her self-righteously and yet Jesus sees the faith and love and that is what brings forgiveness. What a powerful word for Jesus to speak to her, your sins are forgiven! How radical Jesus was to say that and disrupt the legalistic emphasize of the Jewish leadership. He was also a radical to allow women to be involved in His ministry and learn from Him. And quite a few prominent women did just that and supported Him financially as well. You go girls!
It is interesting that John had his own doubts about Jesus being the Christ. Just like Amy commented. After all he did baptize Jesus and saw a dove come down to Jesus heard the voice of God. Probably because he was suffering in prison and his time for preaching had passed. When a person is tired and weary sometimes the person`s thinking is off. We all need to find rest in Jesus and let Him work in us and through us. Jesus is invited to eat at a Pharisee`s home called Simon. A sinful woman brought an alabaster jar and went to this house. She washed Jesus feet with her tears and the perfume. She loved Jesus that much for He had probably healed her and shown compassion to her. She was so grateful. For He had also saved her. We are not given her name or what sin in this passage. Some suggest that she was Mary called Magdalene. For in the next passage there is mention of not only the 12 disciples but also some women with them. Three of the women are mentioned by name and also a description of who they are. Mary called Magdalene, which had been healed from seven demons; Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod`s steward; and Susanna, and many others. Two of these women are mention by name after Christ`s death and Resurrection. They are Mary Magdalene and Joanna. So many women were at this passage with Jesus not mentioned and then at the Resurrection other women not mentioned by name. Some of these women followed Jesus for a long time. We won`t ever know who they are or even some of the unnamed men but Jesus knows who they all were. But it really doesn`t matter in the long run for as John stated earlier [ He must increase but I must decrease.] May the Lord bless each of us.
Advent 2023 – Day 19
Come to me, and you will find rest for your souls. Thank you Jesus for this promise. I will come to you and be at peace from all the fruitless, analytical thinking that whirls around in my head.