Daily Devotional for February 27

 

February 27                                                      John 7:14-36

               "Yet we know where this man comes from;
      and when the Christ appears, no one will know where
                            the Christ comes from."

This passage is part of a continuing debate about the authority
of Christ. Here the listeners in the Temple are sure that Jesus
could not be the Christ of God. They knew him. He came from
Nazareth. He was the son of Joseph the carpenter.

People then and now seem to expect God's messenger to come
from some other place. There is a tendency to want revelation
to be something far removed from our daily lives. God's
wisdom is just the opposite of this way of thinking. It is our
ordinary lives which need saving. A savior must be acquainted
with our needs and ways.

Every time we seek to separate God's revelation from the
physical reality of the moment, we deny the centerpiece of
the Christian faith: "And the Word become flesh and dwelt
among us... ." (John 1:14) It may seem strange at first that
salvation should come in a form which is so common and
familiar. Because we so often wish to escape our own reality,
we look beyond the temporal. God saves us by taking on the
temporal. We can transcend this flesh by taking it seriously,
finding it redeemed by God. Hope and healing for the human
condition is not far off, but close at hand.

The messages we find the hardest to hear are the ones that
come through friends, loved ones, the familiar teacher, our
pastor, even the still small voice in our own hearts.

        Christ, don't let me miss your arrival in my life.
  Prepare my heart to receive you, especially when you
  speak to me through the people I least want to talk to.
           I don't want to miss a word you are saying.

from The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.C