For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government shall be on His Shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 6:9
Before Jesus was born, His Coming was foretold with these majestic words from Isaiah 6. By the time He actually arrived, generations of Jewish people had already painted a portrait of what He would look like, act like and do. When He did not fit this ever-narrowing vision, some rejected Him, even calling Him a devil. If they had simply read Isaiah 6, they would have seen Who He really was. They were educated. They had the access to the Scriptures that other people did not. If they had simply spent 15 minutes reading, they would have realized that Jesus did NOT blaspheme in calling Himself God's Son. In fact, in contrast to the incredible illustration of these verses, He was extremely humble. And He knew exactly Who He was. I often wonder what my reaction would have been if I had been born in Israel in His Time. Would I have accepted Him? Would I have expected Him to be some high-level official instead of a simple Carpenter? It is exactly that humility, that humble birth that is so compelling. Kings, princes, Queens and the myriads of royalty have long been forgotten; perhaps we know their names, or a little about them. But that is all. Their fame, their honor, their lives lie back in history; another place and time that is simply a memory or an archeological dig. Jesus, however, lives. He lives. A piece of me wonders what it would look like if He had waited until my generation to come. I wonder.
Posts: 307 | Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA | Registered: July 06, 2001
Thank you Blyth. I wonder too. My first thought is to look at our generation as things are RIGHT now. I don't trust many people or many things right off the bat. With all the fraud etc. Do you think Jesus would have been doubted by more because we have become so suspicious of things and people. I am not saying people are bad but with Identity Theft and all the scams, do you think people would be less accepting or believing? I don't know the answers. But it gives me something to think about.
I think doubt and skepticism is why Jesus said that we will "know them by their fruits". Words are cheap, the consistent actions of ones life are not. When the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus asking who he was Jesus told them to go back to John and tell them what they had seen. I'm not sure what I would have believed had I seen Jesus. It wouldn't have been the miracles that won me over - I'm pretty sure what would have spoken more to me was the love I could see in his eyes and the humility of his life. This would have spoken the most to me.
Your article Blyth reminds me of an article I just republished yesterday. "Which Way Home? It talks about several things but one of them was the 'package' in which the Son of God Himself came to us. It was not expected, nor appreciated by the religious authorities of Jesus' day. I doubt things have changed all that much.
p.s. Thanks Blyth for sharing your thoughts and life with us!
1 Cor 13:13 (NLT) "and the greatest of these is love."
Posts: 843 | Location: Sierra Foothills | Registered: July 03, 2002
