ADVENT BLOG Named by God - PROPHET

“The crowd were saying, “this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.””

(Matthew 21:11)

In the introduction of these reflections I said something about how important it is for people to get our names right - spelling, pronunciation and so on.  Getting the name of Jesus right, i.e. who he is and what he can offer, is just as important to us.

At first sight everything seems to be just right about what we read here.  Surely Jesus was, as they stated, a “prophet”?  Yes, to a certain extent, he was that in speaking both about God in the present and in the future.  But, if that is all that they saw in one who had grown up in their midst then, they had missed the point and were far off the mark because when we look at the wider story in Scripture, we see so much more in the promises made and fulfilled in him.  He is not just a prophet as they stated, he is so much more, as these reflections I hope are reminding us.  He is the one predicted by the prophets .

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he was greeted, not as a prophet or merely a man like any other, he was greeted as the Messiah - the promised one who would come in the name of the Lord which meant that he would both speak for God and come with the whole power and authority of God.  Yet, three years on people saw in him a man and a prophet despite his powerful teaching and life-changing miracles.

Understanding who he is, is key to the kind of relationship with him as it is in any of our relationships.  Seeing him as a clever teacher with some good things to say about life and how we might live it falls far short from the reality of the change that Christ can bring into our lives as we come to know the man walking with us through the reality of life and the one who has the power to lift us and carry us through with the full power and love of God.

What do you understand about Jesus?  What does he mean to you?  What difference does your knowledge of him and about him mean to you?

What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought

Since Jesus came into my heart!

I have light in my soul for which long I have sought,

Since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart,

Since Jesus came into my heart,

Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll,

Since Jesus came into my heart.

AMEN