Lenten Devotional
I am challenging the congregation I serve to read through all four gospels in preparation for Easter this year. The challenge is based on the fact that I am the interim at this time. We are going through a process of discernment for the future mission of the church centered around a process that calls for people to move from being members to disciples. I prefer to think in terms of attenders or audience to followers and participants. Who better to learn about following Jesus than Jesus and the disciples themselves?
I am challenging my self to write a devotional for each reading in the form of a blog for everyday of reading. So, this is for Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.
Chapter 1 of the gospel is one of the more tedious parts of gospel reading and the next couple of chapters (at least 2 and part of 3) are familiar to even the most casual of Bible readers. The birth of Jesus, visit of the Magi, and Baptism of Jesus. I hope you did not just skip over these four chapters without looking at a few of the very strange realities in these passages. If you did, take a moment to read them with intensity and I will point out a few details that I find interesting.
The part of this reading most people will look past is the genealogy of Jesus. But there is some very important facts in Jesus' history. There are four women mentioned in the genealogy with three by direct name. The three named were not Jewish. All three were part of other clans. This was not expected in the days of Jesus. As a matter of fact, one had a terrible reputation in her city, Rahab. She was a prostitute in Jericho just prior to the invasion by the Israel. The one unnamed women is Bathsheba. She is the women David had an affair with and then had her husband killed in battle. We would not celebrate these moments in our history, but yet Matthew is making a large deal over these truths. Not a good picture for the Son of God to be born into.
Nothing is these early pages of Jesus' history seem to be normal till the preaching in Nazareth. His family is visited by wise men from the east, they all travel in strange directions and Jesus winds up being baptized by some crazy prophet in the desert. All a little strange.
I take away some good news from all of this for my life and others. It does not matter where you come from or where you have been, God can and will use you for His glory if you will let Him. The people in Jesus' life were not upright. John the Baptist was strange. All of these events demonstrate the reality of Paul's statement to the the Galatians, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:28)
I hope you will see through the pages of Matthew's opening of the gospel, that God will and wants to use your for His glory and mission in the world.
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