To Die For

For the Passion of the Lord is here in truth, shaking the earth, rending the rocks and opening the tombs; and His Resurrection also is at hand. — Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), De Passione Domini 

“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” Matthew 21:5 

You thought I was worth saving 
So you came and changed my life 
You thought I was worth keeping 
So you cleaned me up inside 

You thought I was to die for 
So you sacrificed your life 
So I could be free 
So I could be whole 
So I can tell everyone I know 

— Worth by Anthony Brown 

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD … Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. Psalm 118:26, 27 (NKJV) 

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes … Psalm 96:12-13 

 

Shaped Like a Man

(this is my response to Emma’s writing prompt for today)

He came

shaped like a man

shaped like an outsider

like all us outsiders

outside the Garden

outside the curtain

outside the vineyard

outside the camp

outside the gate

He walked outside

with all us outsiders

hugging and blessing

and healing

and calling

He came

shaped like a man

shaped like an outsider

to bring all us outsiders

in

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:24 (ESV)

… outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning … Exodus 27:21 (I am the light of the world – John 9:5)

Moses placed the table in the Tent of Meeting on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil. He arranged the bread on it … Exodus 40:22-23 (I am the bread of life – John 6:48)

“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Matthew 21:38-39

Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore. Hebrews 13:11-13

They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out. When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, He found the man … John 9:34-35 (Berean Study Bible)

Photo, Outside Looking In #1, by Stephen Kelly https://flic.kr/p/jjbawr

He Comes

“The Lord cometh, even though we have to wait for him, he cometh even though we grow as old as Anne, as gray as Simon … but we must wait for him in his house.” — Kierkegaard, Journals, Dec. 31, 1838 

This quote by Søren Kierkegaard really captured my heart. We must wait for him in his house. The Anne and Simon to whom he refers is Simeon and Anna, the daughter of Penuel, written about in the second chapter of Luke. 

Simeon was the righteous man who met Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the Temple when they came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses. Luke writes of Simeon: 

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts … Luke 2:25-27 

The second person Kierkegaard refers to is the prophetess Anna, who was also in the Temple that day and every day: 

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:36-38 

Simeon and Anna were waiting for the Messiah to come. They believed the scriptures about Him and they were looking for Him. They had been waiting all their lives. Perhaps they were thinking of this prophecy of Haggai: 

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations [the Messiah] will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Haggai 2:6-7 

They knew He was coming and they were waiting in the Temple to welcome him. Today we are the temple, both individually and joined together with other believers to become the true church. 

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. 1 Corinthians 6:19 

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:21-22 

The physical Temple in Jesus’ day, and before, was the place where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. We are that Temple now, but only if we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, only if God lives in us by his Spirit. Think of that! Dwelling there in the temple with God, never leaving, always in the Presence. I believe that if we are always in His house, waiting, we will hear the shout and the trumpet call. We will see him when he comes, and we will be there to meet him. 

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes … Psalm 96:12-13 

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” Hebrews 10:36-37 

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20 

” … but we must wait for him in his house.” 

Image, Bright Sunrise, free download from Stockvault 

Even When

In their hunger You gave  

bread from heaven  

and in their thirst You brought  

water from the rock 

But they 

but they 

Forgiving God  

gracious and compassionate  

slow to anger and abounding in love 

You did not desert them  

Even when 

even when  

You did not abandon them in the wilderness  

the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them   

the pillar of fire to shine on the way  

You gave  

Your good Spirit to instruct them  

You did not withhold  

manna from their mouths  

You gave  

water for their thirst 

Your compassion delivered them

Even when 

even when 

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 

From Nehemiah 9:15-20 

Image by Derek Bair

On Behalf of Humility

In your majesty ride forth victoriously in the cause of truth, humility and justice; let your right hand achieve awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Psalm 45:4-5 

This verse jars me. It seems to me that riding forth in victory for the cause of humility (the Hebrew word means gentleness, meekness, humility) is a curious oxymoron. But there is a clue to its meaning and significance in the only other place in the Old Testament where this form of the noun is used. 

You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness (meekness, humility) made me great. Psalm 18:35 (ESV) 

His gentleness or meekness made me great or exalted me. The NIV 1984 edition translates this “you stoop down to make me great.” Still, victory over enemies and being great or exalted are not things I usually associate with humility or meekness. In this world, and in these days – all days – the humble and meek get trampled over. 

This made me wonder, what is the opposite of humility or meekness? Wouldn’t that be what rides forth victoriously? Here are some near antonyms and antonyms from Merriam-Webster: 

Near Antonyms for humility: aggressiveness, assertiveness, attitude, audaciousness, boldness, brashness, brassiness, cheek, cheekiness, cockiness, cocksureness, forwardness, overconfidence, swagger, swash, temerity, impertinence, impudence, insolence, nerve, sauciness, boastfulness, chest-thumping, self-applause, self-assumption, self-centeredness, self-complacency, self-conceit, self-glorification, self-importance, self-opinion, self-partiality, self-satisfaction, vaingloriousness, vanity, disdain, scorn, flamboyance, ostentation, ostentatiousness, showiness  

(Wow, did you see all those self-words?) 

Antonyms for humility: arrogance, assumption, bumptiousness, conceit, egoism, egotism, haughtiness, hauteur, huffiness, imperiousness, loftiness, lordliness, peremptoriness, pomposity, pompousness, presumptuousness, pretense, pretension, pretentiousness, pride, pridefulness, superciliousness, superiority, toploftiness 

You know what the opposite of humility sounds like to me? It sounds a lot like this: 

How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 
You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:12-14 ESV) 

According to the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, the “Day Star” is a reference to Lucifer, “a fallen Once-bright Star.” It is “a title truly belonging to Christ (Re 22:16), ‘the bright and morning star,’ and therefore hereafter to be assumed by Antichrist.” 

The one who comes, riding forth arrogantly, assuming victory, with all his self-stuff and antonyms of humility – himself an antonym for our Lord – comes only for his own sake, comes as our enemy with nothing good for anyone outside his Self. 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 

Jesus came that we may have life, and in doing so He came in just the opposite way as did the enemy of our souls. 

Who, being in very nature God, 

    did not consider equality with God  

something to be used to his own advantage; 

rather, he made himself nothing 

    by taking the very nature of a servant, 

    being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, 

    he humbled himself 

    by becoming obedient to death— 

        even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8) 

In Psalm 45 above, right after the psalmist declares that Messiah will ride forth victoriously, there is this plea: 

Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Psalm 45:4-5 

 Yes! Jesus’ sharp arrows of Truth and Love have and will pierce the hearts of all of us – His enemies and hostile combatants – and the nations have and will fall beneath His feet. Jesus made a way for the gentile nations to come to God. Their – our – hostile, enemy-hearts have been pierced and we who love and follow Him are being changed and made into new creatures, falling at His feet. And, but, yet (!) every knee shall bow, changed or not, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  

Yes, our Lord Jesus did ride to bring victory in the cause of truth, humility, and justice, but it wasn’t on a snorting, pawing, white battle-horse (at least, not yet!), but on a lowly donkey’s foal.  

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 

In your majesty ride forth victoriously … 

Image, Donkey by x70tjw https://flic.kr/p/re7XLj  

Immanuel

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 (ESV) 

This is one of the most beautiful prophecies of the birth of Jesus Messiah in the Bible. I have heard it every Christmas my whole life and sung about it in carols. But I never really looked at the context of this prophecy until recently. God gave this prophecy to Ahaz, one of the most wicked kings in the history of Israel.  

[Ahaz] followed the ways of the kings of Israel and also made idols for worshiping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. 2 Chronicles 28:2-3 

The setting of Isaiah’s words to Ahaz is the coming against Jerusalem of two kings and their armies. Isaiah records that when this happened “the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.” So, God sent the prophet to Ahaz to encourage him and assure him that these two kings would not be successful. God then commands Ahaz to ask for a sign that he indeed would save Israel from her enemies. But in rebellion, masquerading as false-humility, Ahaz refuses, “I will not ask; I will not test the LORD.” Exasperated, Isaiah replies, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?” But then God himself gives the sign, the glorious promise, not just for Israel, but for all the world, for all time. 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 (ESV) 

Think about this: Ahaz would be Jesus’ 16^th great-grandfather. And, just as God did not have to bring his Son into the world with such an evil person in his family tree (see Rahab), God did not have to introduce this most wonderful of prophecies about his Son to such an evil person in such a depraved place.  It must have seemed like such a waste to Isaiah, like the pouring out on the ground of a drink offering – as Jesus’ blood dripping down from the cross must have seemed a waste to the grieving disciples. But God pours out his healing saving miraculous redeeming amazing Word over and over into the muddied swill of the human pigpen. He doesn’t give up on us. 

And look! Even more amazing, God didn’t just prophecy, through Isaiah, that Jesus the Savior would be born; he didn’t just prophecy that Jesus would come to us. He prophesied that Jesus would stay with us. Immanuel. God with us.  

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20 (ESV) 

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10 

If you feel like you are too terrible, too far gone to come to God, remember this. God is with you even now. And remember that it was in a pigpen that the prodigal son decided to go back home. Salvation

Image created from a Pixabay free download 

All Along

“Who are you?” they asked. 

“Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied. John 8:25 

I truly believe that everything that Jesus did and said here on earth was proclaiming himself to be Lord, Messiah, the great I AM. 

And in the verse above Jesus said that he had been proclaiming it all along. That word translated “all along” is the Greek word arche (ἀρχή) which means the origin, commencement, beginning. It is the same word as is used in this verse about the creation of the world: 

In the beginning (arche) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning (arche). Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3 

The Word has been going out from the beginning, the origin, the commencement, all along. And the Word was going out as Jesus walked here on earth. And the Word continues to go out, creating and declaring, life springing up wherever the Breath of God is received – the Word proclaimed through the prophets, the Word written down, the Word-created creation itself a proclamation. 

The heavens declare the glory of God … Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1, 4 

The Word demonstrated by Jesus. 

The Jews gathered round him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. John 10:24-26 

When John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if he was “the one,” i.e., was he the Messiah, Jesus answered, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” Luke 7:22 

According to the NetBible study notes for Luke 7:22, Jesus was paraphrasing Messianic prophecy, “various OT descriptions of the time of promised salvation: Isa 35:5-6; 26:19; 29:18-19; 61:1. Jesus is answering not by acknowledging a title, but by pointing to the nature of his works.” 

This would have been especially apparent to the scribes, Pharisees and experts of the law who had been studying the scriptures since their youth. Maybe not at first, but it began to dawn on them what Jesus was saying/doing/being and this realization was reflected in their increasing hostility. 

Because Jesus had been very clear right from his first recorded public reading of the great Messianic passage by Isaiah in the synagogue. 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 
    because he has anointed me 
    to proclaim good news to the poor. 
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 
    and recovery of sight for the blind, 
to set the oppressed free, 
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18-21 

There were many other scriptures and Messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during his ministry, but let’s just look at one section of Psalm 118:19-27. 

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.	I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. John 10:9 (NIV)
21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22-23 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.	Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Matthew 21:42
24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.	Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. John 8:56
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!	So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna (oh save us)! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” John 12:13
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.	Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Luke 13:35
27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us.  Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!	When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Jesus proclaimed himself the Gate, the Savior, the Cornerstone, the coming One, the Light. And that last verse – “Bind (tie, bind, imprison, take prisoner) the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!” – Jesus demonstrated for all eternity by allowing himself to be taken prisoner, bound, and nailed to the cross. He is our festal sacrifice, our Passover Lamb. 

He is what he said he is. Enter through the Gate and be saved  Salvation 

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? Isaiah 40:21

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come– it is written about me in the scroll. Psalm 40:7 

This post is also available as a free-to-use Bible Study here https://hiddentreasurebiblestudies.home.blog/2021/07/29/all-along-bible-study/

Shards on the Ground

Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’? Isaiah 45:9 

“A potsherd among the potsherds” NetBible translates this “a mere shard among the other shards on the ground.” That really hit me when I read this verse. We are mere broken shards laying on the ground. Wow, that is a very humbling picture. But the wonderful thing is that Jesus, Messiah, was described the same way. 

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Psalms 22:15 

Psalm 22 is the great Psalm describing the Crucifixion. It includes “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” 

Jesus became a broken shard of pottery for us. Jesus, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7). Human likeness, like the other shards on the ground.  

The Hebrew word translated potsherd is cheres or heres (חֶרֶשׂ). It means both an earthenware or clay vessel, and a broken shard or potsherd. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) includes this definition: 

“This word, which occurs seventeen times, represents the potter’s product (Isa 45:9) which is dried and fired (Psa 22:15 [H 161), or even glazed (Pro 26:23). Bottles (baqbuq), bowls (ke li), and pots/pitchers (nebel) are made of it. It is in vessels made of heres, that documents were stored (Jer 32:14). heres can apply generally to a vessel (Pro 26:23), or it can mean pieces of potsherd at least large enough to use to carry a coal from a hearth or dip water for a drink (Isa 30:14).” 

As I read this definition, I realized that Jesus was all of these for us. He was a clay pot (a human being) in which the Word was stored. 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 

He was the broken potsherd large enough to carry the coals from the altar of sacrifice. The coals that cleanse like the angel did for Isaiah. 

With it [the live coal] he [the angel] touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah 6:6-7 

He was the broken potsherd large enough to give us his living water. 

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 

Cheres is a variation of a word whose root is “to scrape,” and means itch and an eruptive disease. Job took a shard of broken pottery – a cheres – to scrape his boils of the “serous or lymph-like fluid” [which] is occasionally “acrid and offensive.”ⁱ 

Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. Job 2:8 

In like way, Jesus touched the lepers. He puts his healing hands on us at our most needy and disgusting. 

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Matthew 8: 3 

But the most wonderful, the most amazing thing about the heres is this: 

“Being porous, it [heres] absorbed the fat of holy things and the uncleanness of unclean things. Thus it was to be broken when contacted by either holiness or uncleanness (Lev 6:28 [H 211; Num 15:12).” — L.J.C., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 

Jesus was both. He was a pottery jar carrying God’s holiness, but he was also a pottery jar which absorbed and carried the uncleanness of our sin. He was broken after coming in contact with our uncleanness. We are broken when coming in contact with his holiness. 

Oh Lord Jesus, let us be broken with your holiness! Let us be like you, Jesus, storing the Word in our hearts, touching the lepers, offering the life-giving water, carrying the live coals of your righteousness and sin-cleansing power of the blood. Let us be broken with you as shards on the ground.  

Image from WikimediaCommons, Broken vases on Holy Saturday in Corfu 

ⁱ Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 

Jesus in the Middle

Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. John 19:18 

Jesus in the middle. It seems like Jesus was always in the middle. The Greek word translated “in the middle” is mesos – the middle, the midst, in the midst of, amongst, between. It comes from meta, which means “with,” “denoting accompaniment,” “amid.” 

That’s why he came – to be with us, among us, in our midst. That was his mission and his passion. From the beginning to the end of his life on earth when he died still in the middle of sinful man. 

[When he was 12 years old:] After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among (or, in the midst of) the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Luke 2:46 

[His last night on earth:] For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. Luke 22:27 (ESV) 

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, God revealed to John the Baptist that Messiah was coming and that he was in our midst, not like John himself, who had kept himself separated. 

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know.” John 1:26 

So many times, the Bible tells of Jesus in the middle of the crowd, being grasped at and jostled, so that in the crush his disciples would be astonished that he could ask, “Who touched me?” (Luke 8:45) 

And Jesus touched them, and held them, and he mingled with them, and he ate with them, and he welcomed them – much to the consternation and distain of many. 

Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the crowds were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. Luke 19:6-7 (NLT) 

Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2 (NASB) 

 But you know what is the most amazing and wondrous example of Jesus in the middle? It’s in Colossians: 

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away (out of our mesos = midst, out from amongst us), nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 

Do you see it? He took out from our midst all our sins, all that stood against us, all that opposed us, all the kept us separated from the love of God. And he replaced it with Himself. One of the meanings of mesos is “between.” Jesus stood between us and the just wrath of God. Like Aaron the High Priest, a type of Jesus, who ran into the midst of the assembly with the censer, stopping the deadly plague (Numbers 16:44-50). Jesus in the middle. 

And he is still in the middle, still in our midst, still interceding for us. His blood shed on the cross for all time has stopped the deadly plague of sin and death if we will but look to him in faith. 

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” Luke 24:36  

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Matthew 18:20 (ESV) 

… and in the middle of the lampstands [which represent the churches] I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. Revelation 1:13 (NASB) 

For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” Hebrew 2:11-12 (ESV) 

This post is also available as a Bible study at https://hiddentreasurebiblestudies.home.blog/2021/06/03/jesus-in-the-middle/

Image: Ford Maddox Brown, Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet [1852-6], Tate Archive, image  released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported) 

The Blind Man

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Luke 18:37-38 

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Did you catch it? When the blind man asked what was going on, the people in the crowd answered, “Oh, that guy – that celebrity, that new teacher and healer – Jesus from Nazareth is passing by.” But what did the blind man cry out? “Jesus, Son of David!” 

To the Jews, “The Son of David” identified the Messiah. 

“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. Matthew 22:42 

“It was part of Jewish Messianic expectation that the Messiah should be a descendant of King David, Israel’s ideal king.“ⁱ The Son of David would fulfill the prophecy given to Solomon in 2 Samuel 7:12-13: 

When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 

Many of the people in the crowd were following a popular new megastar who performed miracles, who healed people and gave away free food, and (best of all) put down those holier-than-thou, stuck up priests. But the one who was blind was the one who saw Him for who he was. And it got Jesus’ attention. In all the clamorous crowd, one cried out to the “Son of David” for mercy. And it stopped Jesus in his tracks.  

“What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Luke 18:41 

Just before the incident with the beggar, Jesus had been approached by another kind of “blind” man.  

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 18:18 

Jesus picked up on the word “good” and challenged the man, saying “you call me ‘good.’ But only God is good.” In effect, Jesus was asking, “Are you saying I am God?” But I don’t think the man caught the implication. To the rich young ruler, Jesus was an excellent and distinguished teacher. A didaskalos in the Greek – an instructor and teacher with a small “t.” 

He was fine with Jesus being an excellent teacher, but when challenged to make Jesus his Lord – “Sell everything you have and … come, follow me” – he balked. Yet, here is this blind beggar sitting in the dust, one whom many considered cursed, identifying Jesus as Messiah and Lord. And while the rich man walked away, the beggar followed. The one who was blind was the one who saw. 

The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. John 12:45-46 

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Luke 9:20 

Lord, I want to see. 

ⁱ Oxford Biblical Studies Online http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/opr/t94/e490

Read more about Jesus as the Son of David here at GotQuestions.org What does it mean that Jesus is the son of David?  https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-son-of-David.html  

Image, Blind Beggar 1949 Kenya, by Sydney Oats https://flic.kr/p/68ZJYY