Christmas 1
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
-- Hebrews 2:18
On this first Sunday after Christmas, we reflect on the amazing truth of the incarnation. The author was so sure that in Jesus, God was present to us, that he quoted Isaiah 8:17-18 from the Greek translation as if it were Jesus speaking: "I will put my trust in him ... Here am I and the children whom God has given me." Hebrews also saw the latter part of Psalm 22 as applying to Jesus: "I will proclaim your name...." While this might appear anachronistic to us because we see Jesus as having lived hundreds of years after these scriptures had been written, they reveal a very fluid sense of time that speaks of the church's understanding of the connection between eternity and time. The Word of God has been present in creation since the beginning and has been made fully manifest in the person of Jesus. The reality that seems to limit our existence is death. Hebrews declared that through Jesus' death and resurrection, he had broken the grip that death had over us and "set free those who all their lives were held in slavery through the fear of death." By Jesus' birth, eternity entered time, and by his death, he destroyed the tyranny of time over us. While this mixture of time and eternity has always been part of creation, it is through his suffering and death that it is made clear to us. Jesus' death was the final confirmation of what was made clear by his birth -- God is for us.
-- Hebrews 2:18
On this first Sunday after Christmas, we reflect on the amazing truth of the incarnation. The author was so sure that in Jesus, God was present to us, that he quoted Isaiah 8:17-18 from the Greek translation as if it were Jesus speaking: "I will put my trust in him ... Here am I and the children whom God has given me." Hebrews also saw the latter part of Psalm 22 as applying to Jesus: "I will proclaim your name...." While this might appear anachronistic to us because we see Jesus as having lived hundreds of years after these scriptures had been written, they reveal a very fluid sense of time that speaks of the church's understanding of the connection between eternity and time. The Word of God has been present in creation since the beginning and has been made fully manifest in the person of Jesus. The reality that seems to limit our existence is death. Hebrews declared that through Jesus' death and resurrection, he had broken the grip that death had over us and "set free those who all their lives were held in slavery through the fear of death." By Jesus' birth, eternity entered time, and by his death, he destroyed the tyranny of time over us. While this mixture of time and eternity has always been part of creation, it is through his suffering and death that it is made clear to us. Jesus' death was the final confirmation of what was made clear by his birth -- God is for us.
