Day 63 - Issue 23
Luke 2:21 NLT
'Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.'
The challenge for us when we view Jesus is that we approach his life as some form of retrospective. We know the end from the beginning. Yet, here Mary and Joseph have some angelic proclamations with no understanding of his call or evidence to support the angels’ claims. They are fuelled entirely by faith. So they take their new-born 8-day-old to fulfil the requirements of the Law according to their Jewish tradition. Jesus is circumcised and named. His name is significant for it is the name given to Joshua who also led the Jews into the land God promised to their father Abraham. Jesus was himself to open the doors to the promised kingdom of God through his life, death and resurrection. However, standing on the border of their own understanding, Mary and Joseph were simply doing what countless Jewish parents had done before, and all that they knew to do as parents.
Not one of us knows what tomorrow will bring. We can never be certain as to how we shall be remembered. So we act in accordance with our beliefs and the cultural norms within which we grew up. This is also the best way to pursue God. God’s will is most often the next obvious and appropriate step that lies before us. Yet, the significant difference is that as we take it, we pray in ways that ensure our identity as a child of God. Wherever we go and whatever decision we take, we pray that elements of the kingdom will be made visible in a world that still contests it.
From a day-to-day perspective, our lives can appear unremarkable. The remarkable thing is that we remain faithful in whatever circumstance, and to the best of our understanding and ability we express God’s kingdom life. Of course, each day feels much like the one before. Only with the benefit of hindsight and the long lens of history might we gaze back and see the purpose of God worked out, much as we do when we read the gospel and story of Jesus.
QUESTION: What’s your identity in Christ?
PRAYER: Thank you, God, for making me a new creation with a new identity as part of your family in Christ.
