Advent Day 20: Read: Luke 20

Already it is Day 20 of Advent. Congratulations to those who persevered through the reading of Luke. It has been rewarding for me to take time daily preparing for the coming of Jesus.

Today the word that comes to me after reading the chapter is OPPOSITION. The religious leaders continue to badger Jesus, even sending in spies to try and trap him in what he says (verses 20-26). But Jesus prevails. He continues to turn their questions around while warning his followers of the religious leaders’ hypocrisy.

You see, the religious people had a very narrow view of what the Messiah would do when he came. Jesus did not fit in their paradigm, even though scripture clearly pointed to him. (I can say that because I live on this side of the events in scripture.)

I ask myself – who am I expecting to come as I wait for the Messiah to return? Is the one I expect still a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger? Is he the man who traveled around Israel announcing the kingdom of God is here, is coming, is already among you, is not yet? Or is the one I expect something else entirely?

Jesus won’t come as a baby the second time. He won’t be the historical Jesus we read about in the gospels. So, who will he be?

He will be the victorious Christ, coming on the clouds, with victory and honor in his hands. He will be more, much more than I can imagine. He will be the one that every knee will bow to acknowledge, every tongue will speak to confess he is Lord!

I want to celebrate the coming of Jesus as a baby. But I don’t want to leave him there. I want to see him as he is – the conqueror of sin and death; the victorious, risen Lord, my intercessor, my friend.

How do you see Jesus? Are you celebrating the baby or the risen Christ? What gets in the way of seeing him as he is now?