Rescued from Darkness

 Luke 1:68-79; Colossians 1: 11-20

 

This Sunday was Christ the King Sunday, and our passages reflect upon it. Our Luke passage is the prophecy of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. He tells about a mighty Savior being raised by God. The promise given to their ancestor Abraham is coming through. This prophecy comes at the birth of John the Baptist and his father tells how his child will be called prophet of the most high and will go before the Savior Lord to prepare his way by giving knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. The dawn from on high will break upon them to give light to those who sit in darkness.

This idea of rescuing people from the dark comes out in Colossians 1 where it tells of God rescuing us from the power of darkness, enabling us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light. How? It is by transferring us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption – the forgiveness of sins. Christ has a kingdom therefore he is a King.

This Colossians passage is well chosen for Christ the King Sunday since it highlights the divinity of Christ – the attributes that Christ shares with God in the Trinity. Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn. We all know that firstborns are heirs to the throne. All things were created in him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. This being first is brought out again by saying he is the head of the church, the beginning, and the firstborn of the dead. Due to this he has first place in everything. In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and most important for us, through him God was pleased and able to reconcile all things by Christ making peace – reconciliation through the blood of his cross.

Due to Christ’s work on the cross we are rescued from darkness – Colossians calls it the power of darkness. But as Zechariah prophesied, “the dawn has come.” God’s light has been brought to us from a mighty Savior King with the divinity of God but a peacemaker who through his death on the cross we have been enabled to share in the inheritance of the saints – which is the light.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Join Me on a Lenten Journey

For those of you not familiar with Lent, it is a season of forty days, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "spring." The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin his ministry. Lent is a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter. It is a time of self-examination and reflection. Today, Christians focus on their relationship with God, often choosing to give up something or to volunteer and give of themselves for others. Easter comes early this year. Many of us not brought up in this tradition can still embrace its emphasis of focusing on the gifts Christ has brought into your lives and finding ways to share the love of Christ to others. This emphasis of love goes along well with the beginning of Lent this year, Ash Wednesday, falling on all days – Valentine’s Day. So whether or not you plan
Read more

Setting Your Hope in God

 Disclaimer: Paul talks about the Rapture in this passage a concept I still struggle with. I believe that once you die you go direct to the Lord, so bodies awaiting till the rapture to rise is hard for me to grasp. I can see how Paul was comforting the Thessalonians here but was his concept correct? Add any comments you wish to this bafflement of mine. That said, I wrote this per the text. What do you all think? Psalms 78:1-7; I Thessalonians 4:13-18   The psalmist in Psalms 78 is not only telling his current audience to listen to his teaching but to pass it on from one generation to the next. Just like he has heard it from his ancestors, he asks the Israelites to teach them to the coming generations. They are to teach them to the children yet unborn so that these children will teach their children. Why? So, they should set their hope in God, not forgetting God’s works. Fast forward to the New Testament where Paul is passing on this hope to the Thessalonians. The question these bel
Read more

Do What they Teach, Not What they Do

  Matthew 23: 1-12; I Thessalonians 2:9-13   Jesus when he talks about the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23 basically says: “Do what they teach but not what they do.” What he questions most is their motivation. They do what they do to be seen by others. They wear fancy robes and love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted with respect. All this Jesus sums up in the word pride or not being humble. He states then that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Years later Paul writes to the Thessalonians telling how he did what Christ had instructed. That he was humble leading a life worthy of God, his motivation being for God’s glory not his own. He tells that not only are the Thessalonians his witnesses of this but God also. They have seen how pure, upright, and blameless his conduct has been. He encourages the Thessalonians to do the same. To live a life worthy of
Read more