Monday, March 2, 2009

THE SADDEST VERSE IN THE BIBLE -- Devotional for March 2, from "Good Seeds"

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. (John 1:10-11)

Imagine this: your own child, the fruit of your loins, the love of your life, grows up, moves away, makes a life for himself, but leaves you far behind. Then chance or business brings him near, and you bump into each other. You cry out in joy and reach out to hug him, but he backs away, saying, “Who are you, old man? And who are you to touch me and speak to me this way, for I’m sure I don’t know you?” We often hear stories of an elderly father who, due to the ravages of dementia, no longer recognizes his son. But whoever heard of a son forgetting his dad? It’s inconceivable! It would be a tragedy of epic proportions. And yet, that is the story of the sadness of Jesus. It was foretold that He would be “a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.” And this was never more realized than in the scene painted by John, portraying Jesus as the God/Man, Creator of the universe, walking into that universe, acquainting Himself with the nature and ways of man, becoming a man Himself, not quite making Himself at home in the world, but making friends, nevertheless; saying and doing things that a common man with all his faculties, and sinful frailties, could never say or do – and yet, through it all, remaining totally unrecognized and unregarded. He was no “Good King Wenceslas” – it was not His intention to walk the streets of His kingdom incognito, for Jesus proclaimed His identity time and again, and then proved it by a perfect life, by life-changing teaching, by fantastic miracles, and especially by His amazing, compassionate love. He came to His own creation and introduced Himself, but not only was He disbelieved, He was disrespected and finally dispatched by means of a cruel cross. Think of Pinocchio not acknowledging Gepetto; think of an organ transplant survivor ignoring the donor, and surgeon; think of a man picked out of the angry sea not grateful to his rescuer. Think of these incongruities, these near impossibilities, and you have the story of mankind, the story of the gospel. It is the Good News of salvation, in contrast to the bad news, as our wretchedness, our lostness, our blindness, are all solved, and all soothed, when we are saved. But even farther back of the bad news is the sad news, portrayed in this, the saddest verse in the Bible. What can you and I do to take away the sadness – OF JESUS – who continually and longingly gazes upon the world of lost men, men who still don’t recognize Him, including those whose pseudo-spirituality causes them to disdain and reject the One who is their only hope.

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