For the first of my blogs on the life of Jesus I want to start in a very simple place: Mark 1:1:
"This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, the Son of God."
(The Voice)
Jesus is always good news. His story is always good news. This is because of who Jesus is and what He does. So, I want to focus on one of the three titles given above to Him, and that is Liberating King. Many translations of this verse simply say "Jesus the Messiah." The thing is, "messiah" is a rich term with a lot to unpack. One of the things I love about The Voice translation (the translation I'm going to be using for this blog series) is that it often draws out and makes more clear the meaning of a word or phrase. So it adds the title "Liberating King," and rightly so. Part of Jesus's purpose as the messiah was to be a king, not a king who oppresses, but rather a king who liberates. Part of what makes the good news "good" is the liberation that Jesus brings.
Liberation from death.
Liberation from sickness.
Liberation from trauma.
Liberation from hurt.
Liberation from fear.
Liberation from sin, shame and guilt.
Liberation from a meaningless life without purpose or hope.
Liberation from dead religion.
Liberation from a life without knowing the Living God.
Jesus brings liberation from all this and more. Oftentimes He'll bring liberation from things we didn't even know we needed to be liberated from. He can bring all this because He is the Son. He is God entering into the human drama in a very intimate way in order to bring newness and restoration. That's part of who God is. God is perfectly good and He is perfectly free and it is His desire to share those qualities with His creation. In fact, God is not necessarily happy with people simply knowing Him and staying the same. No, He wants to give us better. He wants to give us more healing, more freedom, more wholeness, more hope, more peace, more purpose (dare I say, more fun) and more joy as we walk through life with Him. If we really want it, He'll give it.
As I continue to blog through the life of Jesus I'm going to unpack this more, sharing how I have found all of this to be true. In the meantime, I would encourage anyone reading this to risk a little insanity and ask Jesus to actually show up in their lives in a very real way. I can attest to this.
So keep it simple.
Just ask Him to show up. Do it everyday, and sooner or later He will come. And when Jesus actually shows up He'll always bring liberation and freedom where you need it the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment