Father, thank You for giving me the ability to get through several things today. May our time together be productive as well. Amen.
Luke 22:66-71(<<click here to read the passage)
Some years ago, I was responsible for a few employees in my specific area. Most of them were very hard workers and I really didn’t have problems with any of them. One day I was told that a relative newcomer to our group had decided that they were going to have my job. Supposedly they were going to undermine me by telling higher-ups that I wasn’t doing my job in the best manner. I was hurt but I felt I was doing the job the way it needed to be done and that things would work themselves out without me addressing them myself.
The problem came to nothing in that the employee ended up finding another job…and truthfully a much better job for them in many ways. And best of all for me, what could have been a very messy confrontation never occurred and I feel that we, all these years later, are still on good terms.
For years Jesus and Israel’s religious leaders had been butting heads. And never once had they even come close to getting the best of Him. Time and again they had had to turn around embarrassed and livid at their defeat.
We’ve talked in our Bible studies about the numerous times that Jesus had declared that it just wasn’t the right time for Him…just yet.
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” John 2:4 ESV
Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. John 7:6 ESV
You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” John 7:8 ESV
So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. John 7:30 ESV
These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. John 8:20 ESV
For years Jesus had countered their every move but now it was time to do what He had come to do…all in God’s perfect timing.
They had a false security that they had Him cornered this time and that He would no longer escape their desperate grasp.
“Tell us, are you the Messiah?”
“If I tell you, you won’t believe me. And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer…But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand.”
“So, are you claiming to be the Son of God?”
“You say that I am.”
“Why do we need other witnesses? We ourselves heard him say it.”
Interestingly enough there is a cross-reference to Jesus’ sitting at God’s right hand and it’s found in Psalm 110:1,
The Lord (Father) says to my Lord (the Messiah, His Son),
….“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet [subjugating them into
….complete submission].”
Their time had come as well as His.
Lord Jesus, may we ever be mindful of who You are and Whose we are. You are our Lord and Savior and we, in every aspect of our lives, should be about being a genuine reflection of Your love and compassion. Enable us to avoid being footstools ourselves. Amen.
Dec 28th, 2020, Mon, 8:44 pm