365 Reflections

Isaiah puts the cross of Christ in plain sight. Isaiah 53 reads like a passage straight out of the New Testament. The details of what happens to Christ are hard to miss even for a first-time reader of this incredible chapter. If we take time and back up to Isaiah 52 we find a few things leading up to the detail in Isaiah 53.  Isaiah 52:14 (ESV) As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— Jesus was beaten beyond recognition. Think of that. He was so disfigured that people could not recognize Him.  Isaiah 52:15 (ESV) so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Immediately Isaiah shows the impact of the Cross. Just as the cross is startling to many, it is also salvation to many. The nations are sprinkled in the blood and kings from nations throughout...

John 12:15  (ESV)   “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” It is referred to as "The Triumphal Entry" in most Bibles, though not actual scripture, but in subheadings. And most Christians call it by the same name. Yet it was truly anything BUT triumphant. Jesus was not the conquering General of thousands returning from war to the city that would praise Him as hero. There was no ticker-tape parade. There was no glorious stirring of the influential and notable. It was a Jewish 'Rabbi'-carpenter from Galilee riding a donkey followed by masses of messy people, the sinners, the cast aways, the drop outs, and the have-nots. From Luke's account of this moment, the Lord is weeping over the city knowing the soon destruction that will come upon her for putting to death the Lord of Glory. Where's the triumph in that? If it seems now like nothing you may have imagined you're on the right track. Perhaps thi...