Hi! and welcome to our web site
Here’s a Bible passage I find really compelling …
“Since God’s children have flesh and blood, Jesus Christ shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:14-15
I never cease to marvel at the whole idea of God becoming a man. It seems to be at one level incongruous and at another quite incredible. It’s like the painter becoming a brush stroke in his painting, the watchmaker becoming a cog or the programmer becoming just a byte of data.
It’s the ultimate in downsizing.
Then in a few short sentences Hebrews unpacks a vital aspect of the significance of the nativity that reveals its marvel. He tells us not just the reason for it but also the motive which lay behind it. Jesus came to destroy our arch-enemy so that we are released from the fear of death. The word we have as ‘destroy’ in our English versions of the Bible carried with a fascinating nuance when it was used in the first century. We think of the word ‘destroy’ as a dramatic blasting act – Jesus came to nuke him! Actually it meant to destroy by rendering him powerless. The same word is used in Acts when a ship in which Paul was travelling ran aground. The ship was broken into pieces by the pounding sea and rendered totally useless. The ship was still there, but it was a wreck.
That’s what Jesus accomplished by coming to earth and sharing our humanity. Our spiritual enemy will still be around but he will be powerless, a wreck, no longer a force to be reckoned with in our lives. His power has been dissipated, diluted, disembowelled.
Now live it!
Ian
… and finally
A little boy goes home and says to his Father, “I have got a part in the nativity play”
“Which role?”
“I have to play a man who has been married for twenty six years”
“Never mind son” says his Dad. “I am sure next year you will get a speaking part”
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