<< BACK TO DAILY HOLY WEEK POSTS
As we begin, I want to invite you to consider for a moment your favorite mystery novel or movie; some story whose key plot, when revealed, changes the way you see everything. Maybe it is when Harry finds out he’s a wizard, or when Luke discovers Darth Vader is really his father, but when a mystery is revealed, it changes the way we view the entire story. In those stories, which have a particularly compelling reveal, the story is changed not only from that point forward, but also in how the reader interprets everything that has happened up until that point. The reader understands all of those little snippets or themes from the story that just didn’t yet make sense until they finally came together in the great reveal.
While compelling fiction can certainly engage, entertain, and inspire us, the great reveal of God’s plan for us in Christ that is revealed in the scriptures, can actually transform us. Throughout the Old Testament, as God’s people vacillate between obedience and disobedience, between the Promised Land and exile, and between worshiping God and worshiping idols, the reader of these true stories is caught up in a kind of tension between the holiness and the love of God. How can a Holy God fully embrace a broken people? How could God restore a wandering people into their forever Promised Land with Him? How could a never-ending love in the presence of God once again be the hope of all mankind?
It was not until the arrival of Jesus that all of the things God had planned for us started to make sense. Jesus was the embodiment of God on earth, and the great hinge point of all of history. Jesus not only made sense of all of the true stories from the Old Testament, but He was their fulfillment as well. Jesus was who Adam was intended to be: a faithful son in perfect relationship. Like David and Sampson, Jesus was a champion whose victories were transferred to His people, even though He was the one doing the fighting. Jesus was the ladder in Joseph’s dream connecting Heaven and earth. Jesus was the son who unlike Isaac wasn’t spared, but whose sacrifice saved us instead. Jesus made sense of everything in the scriptures up until the moment of His arrival, and everything yet to come.
As we prepare our hearts for this year’s Holy Week, we want to invite you to ponder these things with the people you love. As we eagerly yet patiently await the rest of God’s story, we remember what He has already done. May God bless you as you study His word, and as you reflect upon His plan. May the Grace and Peace of the Father be yours in abundance!
Read
John 5:36-40 36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Pray
Father, thank you for the gift of your word and the gift to which it points, your son Jesus. Please bless me with the vision to see Him as the object of all scripture and the source of all hope and love. May you be glorified this and every week in the lives of your people.
<< BACK TO DAILY HOLY WEEK POSTS
