Let them be turned back because of their shame who say, "Aha! Aha!" May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You! May all who love Your salvation say evermore, "God is great!"
(Verses 3-4)
It feels good to be right. There are few of us who can be correct in silence. Usually want acknowledgment of some sort that we are the brilliant one. Today, so close to Christmas, I'm thinking how hard it must've been for Jesus to be completely right about everything, having made all of it, and to have been accused over and over again of blasphemy and worse. Messiah was supposed to be born a king in the line of David. Cradled in royalty instead of straw. Should have been raised to rule instead of being reared by a carpenter in lackluster Nazareth. Aha! He's says He is the Christ, but no good comes out of Nazareth. Aha! This man can't be Messiah. He is the bastard child of Mary. One broken person at a time, Jesus changed lives. He heard the dying, the crying and the sighing of His creation and reached out to touch those formerly untouchable. Aha! He is a glutton and wine sipper! No matter the blind man can now look upon the high priest in all his velvet splendor spitting venom as he demands to know how this poor man now sees. Aha! The blind see by the hand of Beelzebub! This Jesus is possessed of a demon! Messiah met merchants defiling His Father's House, selling pigeons and hawking sacrificial paraphernalia. In this place where the Spirit of God dwelt in glory, bird poop mixed with money changing and stank to high heaven. "You shall not make this house a den of thieves!" And over went the kiosks as people and animals fled the scene. Aha! This man must be destroyed! He gets away with anything because of the people. The man's been dead for four whole days. Lazarus stinks by then. Body already in decay. Jesus came too late, it seemed. "Lazarus, Come forth!" made the body obey its Lord. Aha! We now must kill this Jesus or the whole world will believe a lie! Arrested, beaten and bloody, stretched out upon the death machine that nailed Him to our sin, soldiers laughed about the sign proclaiming truth, He is the King. "Come on down from there, kind sir!" they mocked. "Surely You can save Yourself." Aha! This man is bleeding still Who said that He is God. "Father, please forgive them. They are dumb as sheep." Aha! He was not Messiah, for, look, He's dead already. Blackened skies, dark as midnight, showed the world its Light extinguished. Shaking earth and opened tombs. Aha! It is finished.
There was a woman at the Sychar well, despised and shamed by choices other better women hadn't made. He knew her inside out. Could He be Messiah? A thirsty Jesus chooses her to be the first to know, I AM He with Whom you speak. Aha! He is the Christ, friends, come and see! She had no money left, the woman in the crowd. Unclean and bleeding for many years, her lonely life in ruins. Jesus was her last hope. In faith, this woman touched the robe of the One Who gave her life. Her destiny met Him eye to eye. For such a time as this. "Your faith, dear woman, has made you whole." Untouchable now white as snow. Aha! Only God could heal her wound. A funeral procession passed by with an only son carried aloft. Grieving widow lost it all and wailed it to the crowd. "Rise up, young boy!" the Word demanded. With fresh breath in his lungs, the son beheld His Savior as the mother stood in awe. Aha! This man must be God. Who else could do these things?
Though demons fled and blind eyes saw, the scoffers raised their fists. Scripture says Messiah won't look at all like this. Don't follow Him, you simpletons! This Jesus is a charlatan. Confusion mixed the minds so much the hearts could not be softened. Those who touched the Master's hand knew differently, it seems. But as they watched on Calvary, some said they were misled. Aha! The high priests gloated as they put Him in a tomb. Stay by to make sure His body is not somehow exhumed. Not boulder, Roman soldier or royal edict could keep our God bound in funeral clothes. Aha! He walked out on His own leaving angels to proclaim: "He is risen. He's not here!" Aha! He's Who He said!
Centuries haven't changed some things. Skeptics still laugh at the us for believing in the cross. For thinking that our Jesus arose and lives today. Just like the Mayan calendar, the cynics chide, the coming back of Jesus is a ruse and we are duped. It's been two thousand years! Come on, get a grip! Aha! We're smarter than to believe this Jesus myth.
But what I know, this Christmas season on the day the world should've ended, is I have life because of Him. History bears out His story. I didn't bypass my brains to believe the good news. But just as with the scribes and Pharisees, I will not argue into the kingdom those who say Aha! And rather than their shame I pray that when He passes by, they will know the time of their visitation and that their well is dry. I have something the skeptic can never fully realize. Joy. Great is my God Who became flesh and lived among us, and I have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1). One day He will return and all the earth will bow, and things under the earth and in the sea. Everything will say: "Aha!"
Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. The One sitting on it is called Faithful and True...His eyes are like a flame of fire and on His head are many diadems , and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is THE WORD OF GOD...On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS! Revelation 19
(Verses 3-4)
It feels good to be right. There are few of us who can be correct in silence. Usually want acknowledgment of some sort that we are the brilliant one. Today, so close to Christmas, I'm thinking how hard it must've been for Jesus to be completely right about everything, having made all of it, and to have been accused over and over again of blasphemy and worse. Messiah was supposed to be born a king in the line of David. Cradled in royalty instead of straw. Should have been raised to rule instead of being reared by a carpenter in lackluster Nazareth. Aha! He's says He is the Christ, but no good comes out of Nazareth. Aha! This man can't be Messiah. He is the bastard child of Mary. One broken person at a time, Jesus changed lives. He heard the dying, the crying and the sighing of His creation and reached out to touch those formerly untouchable. Aha! He is a glutton and wine sipper! No matter the blind man can now look upon the high priest in all his velvet splendor spitting venom as he demands to know how this poor man now sees. Aha! The blind see by the hand of Beelzebub! This Jesus is possessed of a demon! Messiah met merchants defiling His Father's House, selling pigeons and hawking sacrificial paraphernalia. In this place where the Spirit of God dwelt in glory, bird poop mixed with money changing and stank to high heaven. "You shall not make this house a den of thieves!" And over went the kiosks as people and animals fled the scene. Aha! This man must be destroyed! He gets away with anything because of the people. The man's been dead for four whole days. Lazarus stinks by then. Body already in decay. Jesus came too late, it seemed. "Lazarus, Come forth!" made the body obey its Lord. Aha! We now must kill this Jesus or the whole world will believe a lie! Arrested, beaten and bloody, stretched out upon the death machine that nailed Him to our sin, soldiers laughed about the sign proclaiming truth, He is the King. "Come on down from there, kind sir!" they mocked. "Surely You can save Yourself." Aha! This man is bleeding still Who said that He is God. "Father, please forgive them. They are dumb as sheep." Aha! He was not Messiah, for, look, He's dead already. Blackened skies, dark as midnight, showed the world its Light extinguished. Shaking earth and opened tombs. Aha! It is finished.
There was a woman at the Sychar well, despised and shamed by choices other better women hadn't made. He knew her inside out. Could He be Messiah? A thirsty Jesus chooses her to be the first to know, I AM He with Whom you speak. Aha! He is the Christ, friends, come and see! She had no money left, the woman in the crowd. Unclean and bleeding for many years, her lonely life in ruins. Jesus was her last hope. In faith, this woman touched the robe of the One Who gave her life. Her destiny met Him eye to eye. For such a time as this. "Your faith, dear woman, has made you whole." Untouchable now white as snow. Aha! Only God could heal her wound. A funeral procession passed by with an only son carried aloft. Grieving widow lost it all and wailed it to the crowd. "Rise up, young boy!" the Word demanded. With fresh breath in his lungs, the son beheld His Savior as the mother stood in awe. Aha! This man must be God. Who else could do these things?
Though demons fled and blind eyes saw, the scoffers raised their fists. Scripture says Messiah won't look at all like this. Don't follow Him, you simpletons! This Jesus is a charlatan. Confusion mixed the minds so much the hearts could not be softened. Those who touched the Master's hand knew differently, it seems. But as they watched on Calvary, some said they were misled. Aha! The high priests gloated as they put Him in a tomb. Stay by to make sure His body is not somehow exhumed. Not boulder, Roman soldier or royal edict could keep our God bound in funeral clothes. Aha! He walked out on His own leaving angels to proclaim: "He is risen. He's not here!" Aha! He's Who He said!
Centuries haven't changed some things. Skeptics still laugh at the us for believing in the cross. For thinking that our Jesus arose and lives today. Just like the Mayan calendar, the cynics chide, the coming back of Jesus is a ruse and we are duped. It's been two thousand years! Come on, get a grip! Aha! We're smarter than to believe this Jesus myth.
But what I know, this Christmas season on the day the world should've ended, is I have life because of Him. History bears out His story. I didn't bypass my brains to believe the good news. But just as with the scribes and Pharisees, I will not argue into the kingdom those who say Aha! And rather than their shame I pray that when He passes by, they will know the time of their visitation and that their well is dry. I have something the skeptic can never fully realize. Joy. Great is my God Who became flesh and lived among us, and I have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1). One day He will return and all the earth will bow, and things under the earth and in the sea. Everything will say: "Aha!"
Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. The One sitting on it is called Faithful and True...His eyes are like a flame of fire and on His head are many diadems , and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is THE WORD OF GOD...On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS! Revelation 19
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