Thursday, January 05, 2006

God Said He Was Coming

God said he was coming.  I mean he said he was coming.  “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Is 7:14).  Matthew explains the fulfillment of this prophecy in the context of Jesus of Nazareth (Matt 1:18-23).

He lived among us for a while - that is, in our world, among people; so we say that he was here.  But, we also say that when we’ve lost a dog or our little brother whom we were supposed to be watching.  “He was here,” we say when people or animals are missing.  The idea is that we know where he was a little while ago.  We’re not sure where he is now.

Not so when we say about Jesus, “He was here.”  When he came he was “God with us.”  When he left, he promised, “I will be with you always.” We can talk about Jesus as if he is here, because he is.  Though we don’t see him, he is here.  He is with us when we eat the Lord’s Supper, he is with us as we make disciples of the nations, and he is with us as we live out his teaching concerning life in the kingdom.  That’s Life at Work!

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