|
Didn’t the Jews have a vision from God of the coming of the Messiah? The Jews were in great expectation of Christ’s coming. There were scriptures about the coming of Christ. They took the vision and extrapolated what they thought would happen. But it didn’t quite play out the way that they thought it would.
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke 1:26-35
Truly a vision straight from heaven sent down by an angel. It wasn’t the whole picture but some pretty key things. It agreed a lot with some things that she had been taught. The angel gave some specific points: He shall be called the Son of the Highest, he shall have the throne of his father David, he shall reign over the house of Jacob, his kingdom shall have no end, the Holy thing shall be called the Son of God. It was a lot of things to help her put together a picture but not the whole picture. They were certainly things that impacted her thinking of what would be the future for her and her son. She thought a lot about them. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Luke 2:21-35
Mary got a few more parts of the vision given to her. Most of these parts and pieces were very encouraging. But, there was one part that was a little troubling and she was not be sure what it meant. It was something that said; a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.
This was the vision that had come to her. Mary had put the different points of the dots together - and it seemed like they had talked about a king and a throne. How else would you think about it; the scriptures you’ve been taught, everything the whole nation was waiting for and now she was being told this. It all was in agreement.
But there were a couple of pieces that did not seem to fit. There were all of the dots, but her mind kind of filled in some of the places and even added some additional dots based on her own understanding. Her son was going to be a king. It said so as clear as could be - she had the witness from the angels, the shepherds, Simeon and the three kings. All kinds of things were coming out that way.
The problem is that it didn’t all play out that way. The problem is that the dots were actually connected differently. When Mary was a bit older and Jesus was older he started his public life of the gospel. At one point they were at a wedding and his mother asked Jesus to help them and told the servants to do whatever Jesus said. Jesus said "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." He was letting her know that it really was not the place to determine how the work of God would be started. No doubt this caused her to ponder "her place" as a mother to such a king.
Later on when she wanted to go and see him while he was doing his work he said; who is my mother and my brethren but those who do the will of my father? This was not working out the way that she envisioned that it would happen. Usually the mom of the king gets a lot more honorable position than she was getting in his life, but it wasn’t playing out that way. Then as time played out further and further, the same dots took on a different look. It was a funny looking throne: suffering shame on a cross.
How painful would it have been for Mary to dismantle the picture of the throne to accept the cross? Think about Mary’s perspective. Truly she had a vision but it didn’t turn out the way that she thought. The record shows us that she stayed true to the Lord. She was a faithful servant. That tells us that she had to suffer the loss of her expectations and vision for Jesus here on earth. It had to be that way in order for the real implementation to happen the way that God had it planned.
This was a big problem because that is why the Jews largely lost out. Their vision was the same as Mary’s. They wanted to be all around the throne with him; they never envisioned the Messiah being crucified on a cross as a criminal.
Does this affect us? Yes it does because the throne represents a place of rule, a place of authority, a place of power. Jesus truly was King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He did rule over all sin. They had no power to bring sin upon him or to put him down because he was not a sinner. He was the Son of God. He loved them to the end. He showed the power of God: love, but the cross is how he did it, not an earthly throne. The cross was the implementation; the earthly throne was just the human vision
We have to be careful in life because we get a vision for things. We have a vision for our families, our lives, our careers, our jobs, how things will work for our children and it usually does not include the cross. It usually includes more control on our part, a little bit more smoothness, a little bit more happiness, a little bit more ease. None of us could envision some of the difficulties that we have already been through especially if it relates to our children. Nevertheless God is still having his way. We need to accept that God’s implementation of His plan for our lives is different than our vision.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
Trackback(0)
|
Mature Adult 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
