Good morning,
Who is this Jesus?
It seems to me that our Easter this year has a lot of the same challenges that left Jesus’s followers in a state of confusion and fear. They thought that he was the promised Messiah, only to see him dying in agony on a cruel cross. When the women told them that the body wasn’t in the grave, they didn’t understand how that could be possible. Now that we are living on earth 2,000 years later, we as followers of this same Jesus know that the Bible tells us in detail why all that was happening on that first Easter morning. Now we know why Jesus had to die on that cruel cross. Now we know that Jesus suffered and died in order to pay the full price for the sins of all of mankind for all of time. We have come to know and believe this same Jesus as our Savior and Shepherd and Lover and Forgiver. We know and believe that Jesus has a plan for each day of our lives. Alas, modern day Christians have learned to expect that Jesus will take care of us, and that all will go according to the plan that we expect to happen our way.
Now we are upset that we can’t go to church and celebrate our favorite celebration of our Savior’s triumph over sin and death. I wonder if we have forgotten who is this Lover of our Souls? Paul reminds us that, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,(Col.1:15) We know that God’s ways are past finding out, (Rom.11:33) but are we willing to accept that everything that Jesus does or allows to happen is an important part of his finished plan for his world? Does Jesus have the right to allow confusion, terror, pain and even death as a part of our days here on earth? Again Paul reminds us, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see– such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.(v.16) It is so easy to forget that life for us is not just what we can see. There is war in the heavens as well as on the earth. There is a time line that God has planned that is more complex than what we can understand this side of eternity.
Paul then reminds us that, Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.(v.18) We are not sheep without a Shepherd. Remember that God, - made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.(v.20) God also said, "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”(Heb.13:5) We do well to remember that our Enemy will do his best to fill us with fear and confusion and all kinds of false ideas that drive us to try taking control or to run away in the face of God’s plan for our lives. The Bible tells us what to expect in the future. On earth God will be showing his wrath toward those who hate him. For God’s children however, we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”(v.6) Dear Lord, will you help us to trust you with all our hearts and not on our own understanding.
Hebrews 13:6 So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?"
Roy Wisner
