Hi everyone,
Happy New Year! We’ve made it to Advent and thus begins a new church calendar year, with different themes and foci, but still all about Jesus. As with all the gospels, Jesus is very Jesus, but just portrayed a little different. He’s not a one-track dude, you know. While Jesus is the epitome of love, grace, and compassion, there are different facets to that and how it might apply to us.
However, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, there are still some 50 odd lessons for us to see how this year describes Jesus for us. But I think it’s safe to say that Jesus comes to us with power and might, but not in the way we think. The power of Jesus is in those things we talked about in the preceding paragraph: love, grace, and compassion. This is what Jesus embodies, is what Jesus bestows, is what Jesus exudes with all that he says and does.
This is what Mark will focus on, and so also so will we. I’m excited for this year as Mark is one of my favourite gospels (one of my top four, at least)!
Here are the readings for next week:
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
These are mostly familiar texts, but the thing that struck me is John’s declaration of how “one who is more powerful than I is coming after me”. And I was thinking, um, isn’t this guy who wanders around in the wilderness with camel hair on his back and locusts on his breath? The image in my head is some very wild and unkempt hair, not exactly clean shaven, and overall very dishevelled and just messy. So I don’t think “power” is something that this guy should be talking about.
But one thing that John is, with all his eccentric eccentricness, is that he is humble. I mean, he’d have to be to be living the way he does. It’s in this humility that John has power.
And one that is more powerful is coming.
Suddenly the image we have of what is to come is different. Suddenly we see that we aren’t going to be led into battle in the traditional sense. Suddenly we see that we aren’t an army out to take our enemies out.
Instead, we are called to love. We’re called to compassion. We’re called to peace.
This is Jesus. This is Emmanuel. This is God with us, in the flesh, among us, abiding with us, welcoming us into community and salvation.
Thanks be to God! Have a great week, everyone!
Photo by Lauren Kan on Unsplash