24TH MAY 2012
CHRIST JESUS
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
My Beloved, if there is one thing I know to be true it is this that God is humble and that we His creatures dare not be prideful about anything. Pride is the deadliest of all the deadly sins. You won our redemption and salvation through Your humility in bowing in perfect surrender and obedience to the will of Your Father. The way that He planned to save mankind was to have You become as all men are in all things save sin. You were tempted as we all are but You did not succumb to temptation. You experienced poverty, rejection, misunderstandings. You felt the sizzling heat of summer and the blistering cold of winter. You felt the dusty, hot, hard road under Your sandals as You walked up and down the roads, hills, valleys and plains to preach, teach, pray and heal. You suffered everything that men suffer so that You could understand when we came to You miserable, heartbroken, discouraged, afraid and weak.
The Father loved us so much that He wanted You to identify with us completely the reason being that when You pleaded for us You would do so understanding totally our anguished moans and groans which are often too deep for words. You reign from the Cross and You draw all men through the ages to Yourself. You offer perfect atonement for sin. We know that if we are to enjoy eternity with You in heaven then we must imitate Your humility and obedience. You plead for us night and day at the Father's right hand. All creation bows down and bends the knee before You in worship and awe as we acclaim that You are Lord to the glory of God our Father.
JOHN 20:19-23
Beloved it is Easter Sunday, the frightened apostles have locked themselves in fear and shame ever since You were arrested. They can barely look at each other since they all know how terribly they failed You. It is now evening and as the Apostles are huddled in the room totally demoralised by all the events that led up to Your crucifixion, death and burial, they are filled with a hopeless dejection and sorrow. It is finished or so they believe despite being told by You often enough during the three years that You were with them, of all that awaited You - the rejection, the suffering, the death as well as the glorious rising again after three days. All that You predicted so often is just too much for their comprehension.
Fear clamps and locks the door to freedom and so the disciples had locked themselves in both physically and metaphorically due to their fear of the Jews. But neither locked doors nor locked hearts can keep You out. There You stood before them, there are no barriers for You have bridged the distance between heaven and earth. Your greeting is one of peace, Your gift is peace, for peace is the desire of every human heart and then You show them the marks on Your hands and side. The marks of Your triumph over the world, the flesh and the devil. You confirm the gift of peace that You bring by greeting them once more, "Peace be with you." Once we are at peace with God then we cannot lock ourselves up but we have to accept the mission that You give us. As the Father sent You, so You send us to take the good news to all. We are not sent defenceless but armed with Your Holy Spirit who is our Guide, Healer, Consoler, Comforter, Counselor, Helper and Paraclete. He will give us all we will ever need but first we have to forgive from our heart. No work will ever succeed if we are unforgiving but once we are set free from unforgiveness either for ourselves or others only then can we truly labor fruitfully in Your vineyard.
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