December 13 Devotion

Validation
Please read Luke 7: 18—30

Historically, our forebears had a sense of awareness about their existence, pondering their ultimate destiny and seeking a relationship with a higher power. Their yearning for purpose and identity took many forms: idolatry, mythology and worship of celestial bodies, to name a few.

In His own time, God revealed Himself to a receptive and spiritually mature Abram. Thus began a covenant relationship and a pilgrimage leading to oneness with their (our) God. A “stiff-necked” people caused the journey to be stormy and treacherous!

In due course, God chose a further, more intimate revelation, offering a new covenant through his Son Jesus Christ. (Over the centuries, prophets had predicted a liberator that would protect God’s people and smooth the way).

At the time of today’s Gospel reading, rumors were astir throughout the Judean countryside that God was visiting His people through a great prophet! Was this the great expected One?

John the Baptist commissioned messengers to go visit this prophet and try to determine His validity. (Surely John already knew—after all, he had leapt in his mother’s womb when a pregnant Mary visited Elizabeth). His purpose was more likely to convince the messengers. The messengers spoke with Jesus and watched Him cure diseases, restore sight and destroy evil spirits. The messengers were convinced! Jesus told them to report to John “what they had seen and heard.”

In other Scripture (Matthew 3), the ultimate validation occurs when Jesus presents Himself to John the Baptist for baptism. They had never met but John knew Jesus instantly! What an exhilarating moment—and so it is for all of us—Life changes when Jesus is met face-to-face.

Our own validation may be a sudden awakening or a slow thought-out process. After becoming a true believer and Christian we should move on in love, trust, and service. However, the more things change the more they stay the same—we are often just as “stiff-necked” as those of old.
When we are assailed by the difficulties in life we may fall away or develop an “I can do this myself mentality.”

Jesus interceded for us through his death and resurrection and sent the Holy Spirit to support us. His instruction to John’s messengers should be our mantra—look around you—What do you see, what do you hear, that reassures you of God’s presence in your life?

A JM member’s Father