Not long ago I visited Elmbrook Church with a friend in Waukesha who attends there. In his message, Pastor Philip Griffin compared King Herod and King Jesus. Did you know Herod was a possession and power freak? His building projects were lavish, and he killed anyone that he thought threatened his position of power, including wives and sons. Jesus, on the other hand, came in humility, poverty and vulnerability. He had abandoned omnipotence, riches, and position to come and rescue us. No one threatened him; he came because he chose to love us.
Herod followed his own will; Jesus fulfilled Scripture by following his Father's will, so that we might have the power to do his Father's will. "Behold, I have come to do your will," he says. "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:9, 10)
Herod, as we have seen, bought his kingdom with the blood of others. There was no other way for him to become great than to kill any and all opponents. Jesus, the only king worth following, bought his kingdom with his own blood. "Both believed there was nothing that couldn't be accomplished by the shedding of blood", Pastor Griffin said. Think on that statement a minute, and you will see the vast divide between our King Jesus and any other earthly king.
We look to possessions, power and position for security and fulfillment. Or, we look to comfort and stability. Or just happy lives. Jesus gave all of it away so he might not lose one of those his Father had given him. Let's follow him in settling in to what God has for us, no more and no less. And rejoicing in it.
This also brought to mind another king, David, who shed innocent blood, in this case in order to try to cover up his sin. When he allowed his desire for Bethsheba to become more important to him than obedience to God, his thinking became so warped that he actually saw to it that Bathsheba's husband was killed. This serves as a warning to, by God's grace, abandon those desires that are outside of obedience to Him. That will involve dying to self repeatedly during my day-to-day living.
ReplyDeleteI love the word "abandon" as it relates to our sinful desires. Can we throw them off, cast them aside, abandon them? Only by God's grace. But possible. Oh, may we "wholly lean on Jesus' name", to quote the hymn "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand." And, to quote you, die to self REPEATEDLY (another good word). And that may mean brownies. Ouch.
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