Today’s Reading: Romans 1:1-7
Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 40:18-41:10; Revelation 8:1-13
Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3b).
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God became a man, meaning that all that was common to fallen men was what Jesus understood, knew, lived, and bore with. Jesus cried, felt pain, knew ridicule and being made fun of. He knew sorrow and sadness, watched people He loved go through pain, scarcity, and worry. Jesus Christ, fully God (that’s 100%); fully man (that’s 100%) bore all the sin, weight, guilt, sorrow, and so on, and all this without sin.
To say this doesn’t make sense is perhaps the understatement of the year. 100% plus 100%; that’s 200%. Isn’t it wonderful then that to our world, to our feeble and simple minds Jesus simply came, not to make everything in this world of law make sense? He came because in the fallen world very little, if anything, has made sense; people get sick and die, tragedies and misunderstandings plague each and every day. Since the Fall, although we like to think that we’re logical, reasonable and that most things make sense. in reality very little actually makes sense at all. He came to a people, to us, in the depths of the ocean who’ve only known darkness, depths, and weight and has come to believe that that’s the only normal way.
To a world of darkness came The Light, and the world hated the light. He came bringing peace and the world hated it because they’d grown used to strife, darkness, pain, misery, and the like. He came into a world that we said made sense, a world in which we said He’d have to assimilate. Jesus takes sin, darkness, death, destruction, and depravity and hangs them with Him and dies; God-Man. THE God-Man dies and with Him our guilt, shame and heaviness. Jesus was long spoken about by God in the Garden “I will put enmity between thee (the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15.) That seed is Jesus. Hear St. John: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a seed fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24).
The seed of David? Jesus is THE MAN, the seed that Crushes the serpent’s head? That’s Jesus too! The seed that dies and bears much fruit? You guessed it–Jesus; The God-Man come for you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen
The everlasting Son, Incarnate deigns to be, Himself a servants form puts on to set His servants free. (LSB 331 “The Advent of our King” St. 2)
-Pastor Adam DeGroot is Pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Duane Bamsch
Study Christ’s words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.
