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Long Awaited
written by Fabienne Harford
“O Come O Come Emmanuel, and Ransom Captive Israel, who lives in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear”
I have a friend who is Jewish. Well, he’s actually a Christian, but he’s Jewish by descent. If he had been around before Jesus, he would have been a part of the crowd we sing about in “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”; that ransomed and captive Israel that desperately longed for a savior. My friend would have likely lived a life under the law – continuously trying to live up to God’s standard, a standard he could never meet; crying out for more than just the taste of peace, but without the righteousness to negotiate a lasting reconciliation with God.
I think sometimes I forget that while that time was painful for Israel, they had hope: the promise of a redeemer – a messiah – who would come and make the peace with God that they could not make on their own.
I'm not a genetic descendant of Abraham. From this side of the cross I can see clearly that I am a part of true Israel; a spiritual descendant of Abraham. I can sing with arms raised praising Emmanuel for ransoming me: ransomed and captive child of true israel. However before that stable in david's city, i might have been born without the hope of a messiah revealed to me; without the promise of peace preached. I might have known no hope of peace with God.
I likely wouldn’t have grown up around promises of a savior, or even a good understanding of why the world around me was at war with itself.
But amazingly, Jesus came with an even greater peace than Israel had ever imagined. He came with a peace not just for them, but for the rest of the nations in the world as well. He came with a peace that could bring together Jew and Gentile under the unified banner of people in need of saving, people in need of peace with God.
I live in a world that has trivialized the word ‘peace.’ We have made it into a passive lack of conflict. We have reduced it to ‘letting things roll off your back a little more easily.’
To know the peace of Christ, I have to remember that without Him there is no hope of peace with God; no hope of relationship, reconciliation.
There’s something terrifying to me about even writing that: “no hope of peace with God.” It’s been a long year, and there have been moments where I have had glimpses of the darkness of the hiddenness of God. As horrible as those moments have been, they’ve been mere moments; mere glimpses. They’ve been a gift; moments to teach me a new level of longing and a new desperation for Jesus: my promise of peace with a Father I need so very badly. The moments of shadow are traces of what the world was like before my Jesus came.
This year, peace is my hope. Not a sweet and soft hope, but a desperate and critical hope.
“I cling with feeble fingers to the ledge of His great grace.” I cling to my only hope: that Jesus’ blood has negotiated for me a peace beyond comprehension.
Until the peace of Jesus came, we were useless creatures. We were incapable of fulfilling what we were created to do; we were literally without the capacity to be used for our purpose – worship of God. We were at war with God Himself.
If I’m honest, this year I’ve watched my redeemed heart still find ways to try to make war with a Holy and Perfect and beloved God. But the hope I have is a peace greater than my flesh: the blood of Christ is bigger and better and stronger and firmer and it binds me in a peace agreement with God that no act of war on my part can change.
I was far off, and I have been brought near by His peace.
In Christ, you and I wake up in a world where the darkness of despair has no strength. We wake up on this Christmas Thursday to breathe in air with the promise of a peace, peace that was born in a dirty and cold stable in Bethlehem. This is a tangible, full-fledged peace brought with a baby born to die so that we might live.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace” Ephesians 2: 13-14
REFLECTION:
* Read Ephesians 2:11-22. The peace described results in a citizenship in God’s kingdom. How does your life reflect that new citizenship?
* Christ reconciled us to the Father so that we might have relationship with God. In what ways has your relationship with God grown this year? In what ways have you neglected that relationship in 2008?
* Spend some time thinking about the bleakness of a world without peace with God. Spend some time praising Jesus for coming to bring you that peace. |
| | Posted 12/23/2008 1:25 PM - 72 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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