Advent
Meditation
December
13th
21.
If that's what God says....
Luke
2:21,22 On the eighth day,
when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the
angel had given him before he had been conceived. When the time of their
purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph
and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
“Well,
what I think…” How many times have you heard those words? Somehow we
try to assert our individuality or create our uniqueness by opinions,
as if what we think is THE all-important thing in life. Anyone who has
any public role in life – whether it be a politician, TV pundit, newspaper
writer, or even simple manager – constantly faces the great temptation
to believe that their view is the right one. Politicians probably hold
the most extreme position in this respect, when they have to follow
a ‘party line', but we all do it in a lesser measure; we all hold a
particular line. I once heard a group of about fifteen men discussing
a particular contentious subject with an amazing degree of unity. It
was only after about ten minutes that I realized that they had all watched
the same documentary on TV the night before and were now all holding
the same view. The only problem with all this is when a contradictory
view appears in another ‘documentary' some months later.
With
this in mind it is refreshing to observe the simplicity of Mary and
Joseph. They don't go on their own ideas; they, quite clearly, follow
God's views. God has said, through the two angels, that the child is
to be named Jesus – so they name him Jesus. Next, being part of the
Jewish race, having the Law of Moses, the Law given by God to Israel
through Moses, they go to do what the Law
required. The Law required the couple to go to the temple after a prescribed
period after the birth and present an offering to the Lord. Now this
is not the place (with insufficient space) to explain the sacrificial
system for the Jews, simply to reiterate that it had been given to Israel
to follow. Mary and Joseph therefore followed
the dictum, if that's what God says then we'll do it.
As
we look back over the story so far, we can see that this couple received
their guidance from God through direct heavenly communication (the angels),
through circumstances (the emperor), through other people (the shepherds),
and now through the written word of God (the Law). Similarly today we
receive our guidance through heavenly communication (the Holy Spirit
– see Gal 5:25 ),
through circumstances, through other people (see esp. Eph 4:11
for ministries and 2 Pet 5:1,2 – shepherds!)
and through the Scriptures (see 2 Tim 3:16
,17). What a wealth of guidance available
to us! I wonder if we avail ourselves of it, or do we only go by what
we think, our opinion, our ideas? Such people frequently go astray.
So
here is this beautiful couple being led of God. The truth is that it
is probably Joseph taking the lead and his capability for following
dreams, as we'll yet see before the story finishes, suggests that he
is particularly good at following God's guidance. Mary, we suggest,
simply follows – she's probably a bit younger than him as well, and
following your man was the teaching of the day – and because he's won
the right to call her to follow his headship by first having laid down
his life for her. See Paul's teaching on this (Eph 5:22
-25) which is beautifully epitomized in
this couple. So for Mary, she has the additional form of guidance, so
alien a concept in the modern Western world, of a life-giving husband,
winning her love and submission by his attentiveness to God's voice
and God's will. Amazing! Is that not beautiful?
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tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
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