Saturday, February 8, 2014
A Baptism Of Love
John the Baptist told Herod it was not right that he married his brother's wife and Herod put John in prison for it. I suppose John may have felt Jesus would've come to his rescue. After all, he was the very present prophet who, in the Spirit of Elijah, had prepared the way for Jesus' ministry. And Jesus did claim to be the Messiah, the Savior of Israel.
So while in prison, and probably perplexed about his situation, John sent two disciples to ask Jesus if He was the One, or was there another to come. "Are you not the Son of God? Haven't you taught us the second greatest command is to love your neighbor as yourself? I mean, why am I still incarcerated? "
"And Jesus answered them, 'Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.'” (Matthew 11:4-6) In other words, what the Father had sent Jesus to conquer in the Spirit was already being exemplified in the flesh.
Jesus knew John was confused, but then so was everyone else in Israel. Jesus also knew that until He was glorified by His death and His Spirit sent to dwell within them, it would remain that way.
Yet even today, until believers begin to surrender their own understanding, they will always bring God's love into question.
PJR
"Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'" (Matthew 11:2-3)
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You got me thinking about this one :)
ReplyDeleteIt is partly a 'thinking out loud' post. :-)
DeletePaul, I enjoyed this post. All that Jesus was doing in the flesh, the healing signs of the Life-giving Spirit to come, are as parables to what He was about to accomplish in Spirit. They were of the flesh and could only see the flesh as to what He was doing to flesh, the body's outer parts. For this reason, Jesus spoke to their doubt as He voiced to them that if they do not believe in Him then believe the works of His Father through Him. Not one person, except maybe Mary, could see the coming sacrifice of His insurmountable love. We cannot know Love, see Love, experience and live Love except through Him in us. Yes, we are definitely baptized in the Spirit of Love.
ReplyDeleteKat, thanks for complimenting this post! I love when the thoughts of others open up greater areas of consideration.
DeleteI'm familiar with one teaching that says that the crowds Jesus taught should have at least picked up on the fact that no one but God can heal the sick and that was being done through Jesus at the time. If they would have accepted that then they should have accepted the other things He was trying to reveal to them.
The greater love was His entire message.