Two short readings today. It is really amazing how they are related.
Matthew 23:37-39 (Jesus Laments over the Jews)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
An interesting study of the Gospel of Matthew shows that phrase by phrase Jesus speaks the words of the prophets; moment by moment He lives their predictions. It is wonderful how the Bible is interlaced and intricately layered in the telling of God's Love story for His people.
Psalm 118:26-29
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord;
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God, and He has given us light;
Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I give thanks to You;
You are my God, I extol You.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His loving kindness is everlasting.
"O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever!" is the cry of the Church each Easter Sunday morning. We celebrate God-the-Son's rising from the Grave; from the desolate place. We celebrate the return of the Light to the world. Jesus, the Sacrifice, in the Matthew reading predicts our celebration. How awesome is that! Each Easter as we sing the phrases of Psalm 118 we do exactly what Jesus predicted we would do. The people "sacrificed for" praise the One-Sacrificed who comes in the Name of the Lord! The people sacrificed for declare and give thanks for God's enduring Love and we use the words of the Psalm Jesus used as He faced the Cross.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
An interesting study of the Gospel of Matthew shows that phrase by phrase Jesus speaks the words of the prophets; moment by moment He lives their predictions. It is wonderful how the Bible is interlaced and intricately layered in the telling of God's Love story for His people.
Psalm 118:26-29
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord;
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God, and He has given us light;
Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I give thanks to You;
You are my God, I extol You.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His loving kindness is everlasting.
"O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever!" is the cry of the Church each Easter Sunday morning. We celebrate God-the-Son's rising from the Grave; from the desolate place. We celebrate the return of the Light to the world. Jesus, the Sacrifice, in the Matthew reading predicts our celebration. How awesome is that! Each Easter as we sing the phrases of Psalm 118 we do exactly what Jesus predicted we would do. The people "sacrificed for" praise the One-Sacrificed who comes in the Name of the Lord! The people sacrificed for declare and give thanks for God's enduring Love and we use the words of the Psalm Jesus used as He faced the Cross.
Jesus wants nothing more than to gather us (His people) to Himself, to protect us and love us. Through the Cross and the grave He has made the Way for us through sin and death into life with Him. In the prayer Jesus prayed for the people of Jerusalem, the people who are blinded by their material physical way, Jesus is mourning what they as a people have done, are about to do and will do; yet Jesus is promising that a new day is dawning - a dawn that will find a desolate house, a bloody Cross and an empty grave. By drawing upon the words of what we call Psalm 118 Jesus is declaring His dawning victory. It is pretty amazing.
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