Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. Zachariah 9:9
So prophesied Zachariah hundreds of years prior to the Messiah’s arrival so I think HE would have recognized Christ because…
They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it.
Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God for the Son of David!
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Praise God in highest heaven!”
The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked. Matthew 21:7-10
Hm “Who is this?”?
We all in this present day want to respond – “IT IS THE MESSIAH OF COURSE!! What do you mean, ‘Who is this?’?”
But how good are we at always recognizing Christ in the various seasons of our lives?
Have you been willing to accept TRIALS in your life in the midst of healthy Divine communion to the point you no longer whimper pathetically but instead look forward to who you will be when you emerge victoriously refined and renewed on the other side? Confession being good for the soul I am whimpering…less…and learning to take the heat a bit better while burning off the dross more and more but have a ways to go to always recognize my REAL source of strength in the midst of the fire.
There is a beautiful story in the Old Testament (2 Kings 4) about a wealthy woman from Shunem who welcomes Elisha the prophet into her home as he passes by from time to time. Eventually Elisha tells her she will be rewarded with a son for her hospitality and it happens despite her amazed disbelief at the prophet’s promise.
She and her husband love the God-gifted child – but one day he accompanies his father into the field during the work day, cries out that his head hurts, and shortly thereafter dies in his mother’s arms. TRULY heartbreaking! The woman hurries off the find Elisha and we can feel her anguish in this outpouring…Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?” I won’t pretend to embellish this but can’t you feel her begging why this unsolicited blessing of a loved child should be so swiftly taken from her?
Can you blame her?
Have you ever been gifted a blessing so rich it was more than you could have ever hoped for even in the knowledge of our miraculously abundant God? In real awe you might utter, “Whoa, I didn’t see THAT coming! THANK YOU LORD!” Have you ever been blessed like that for a season – and then have that season end? We go from the height of God’s warm embrace to feeling a cold chill of perceived abandonment.
Such experiences can certainly cloud our view of the Divine or worse yet, let us drift away on the tumultuous sea of these trials! The woman of Shunem could not have been blamed if she covered herself in sackcloth and ashes and mournfully separated herself from God in her grief. But we already know this didn’t happen. She found Elisha, God’s inspired prophet, poured out her heart and…
Elisha returns with her and revives the dead child!!
As we approach the cross this Lenten Season I wonder, did Mary recognize her Son hanging dead on the cross? Tortured, bleeding and disfigured? Did she remember her Magnificat – her joyous response to the Holy Spirit’s miraculous provision of the SON OF GOD through her? She hid many things away in her heart to prepare her for the challenges of Jesus’ life among sinful men and she had to glow with pride for the stories of his wit and wisdom, healing, teaching, compassion, and mercy!! But now she is at Golgotha – the place of the skull… And her loved Son has been beaten, flogged, humiliated, and mocked …
“OH LORD WHY DID YOU GET MY HOPES UP? I DID NOT ASK YOU FOR THIS SON, ONLY ACCEPTED THIS GRAVE WEIGHT ASSUMING YOU WOULD… …” Keep Mary from at least witnessing this horrific abomination? I don’t see that as too much to ask!!! No parent should have to bury a child and if you have used that as a reason to separate from God Almighty – come back to Him – because he knows how unimaginable that pain is and longs to heal with you through right mourning and continued communion.
I think we too often lose sight of God because we never saw him – RIGHTLY – in the first place. We assume God is all conquering/protecting and faith will place us in a constant communion of blessing. We hope to always be seated at His right hand and think we have been forsaken when that seat gets hot. For far less than the witnessed crucifixion of a miracle God-child, we abandon all hope for the trials we face in this hard world. We give up too easily the battle God has already won by welcoming us as his children through His grace!
We run from the fire and never benefit from the purifying flame.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS – I know people soldiering on through dire anguish which frankly would have crushed me and am by no means simply encouraging a “stiff upper lip” when we honestly feel like our insides have been surgically removed – with a stone axe. NOT AT ALL!!! What I am asking us to do today is to make certain we recognize CHRIST in it all. Not as the author of calamity when a blessed season passes in our life but as…the one who comes in the name of Lord – ALWAYS! The Three-in-One who perfects us by grace, calls us son or daughter and GAVE HIS LIFE FOR US THROUGH THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE SO WE CAN ENJOY LIFE ETERNAL IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and draw on HIM IN OUR HOUR OF NEED!!
We ALL need to ALWAYS recognize Christ!!
Closing Thought
The woman of Shunem is kind of an obscure Biblical passage and if you wonder what her life looked like after those dramatically changing seasons we can catch this little “update” – being aware some time has passed…
Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “Take your family and move to some other place, for the Lord has called for a famine on Israel that will last for seven years.” So the woman did as the man of God instructed. She took her family and settled in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
After the famine ended she returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to see the king about getting back her house and land. As she came in, the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king had just said, “Tell me some stories about the great things Elisha has done.” And Gehazi was telling the king about the time Elisha had brought a boy back to life. At that very moment, the mother of the boy walked in to make her appeal to the king about her house and land.
“Look, my lord the king!” Gehazi exclaimed. “Here is the woman now, and this is her son—the very one Elisha brought back to life!”
“Is this true?” the king asked her. And she told him the story. So he directed one of his officials to see that everything she had lost was restored to her, including the value of any crops that had been harvested during her absence. 2 Kings 8:1-6
This week recognize Christ, whichever season you may be in. Famine doesn’t last forever when we are faithful and it can be pretty amazing what God helps us recover when the snows of winter finally melt.
Come back next week and CELEBRATE what Mary gets back after her Son dies…
It can be a WHOLE NEW SEASON FOR YOU!!!
Grill the Pastor 