Photo by Dan Kiefer on Unsplash
Read Luke 2:25-32.
A military superpower occupying your territory. Political dynasties. Corruption in the government system. Prevalent poverty. Religious superficiality.
Am I referring to the Philippines, 2018 A.D.? No, I am portraying Palestine, 6 to 4 B.C.
I invite you to imagine yourself in the sandals of the first century Jew. Since infancy, you have been taught that you belong to a race chosen and favored by no less than God Himself. You have been thrilled to the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures, pointing to a King whose rule will have no end, where justice and peace will kiss each other, when all the rich meaning of shalom will be tangible reality.
Then you lift up your eyes and see the Roman centurion. You see tax collectors, some of them your own countrymen, lining up their own pockets. You see the stodgy Pharisees and the politicized Saduccees. You see the blind, the lame, the poor, the distressed, the lonely, the hungry. You see the Zealots, fomenting unrest and even open rebellion against Rome.
I will not blame you if you would wonder: Is this all there is to it, this sorry state of existence?
By the time of the Gospels, the Jews were living the proverbial lives of quiet desperation. One may argue that messiah shopping was a recurring pastime. Sure, there were pretenders such as Theudas and Judas the Gallilean whom the Rabbi Gamaliel alluded to in Acts 5:36-37. When John the Baptist electrified the national mood, the Jewish leaders were checking him out: is he that promised messiah (John 1:19-20)? The Baptist, of course, responded with vehement denial.
Times have not really changed, have they? Today we are experiencing similar crises in our national arena and perhaps in our personal spheres. Are we as hounded by unmet dreams as the Jews were? Worried sick at what lies ahead? Millennials have an acronym for this: VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity).
And much like the Jews, we go messiah shopping. Some of us may not want to admit it, but we pin our hopes on whoever occupies Malacanang or the White House. N.T. Wright, in a recent lecture, made the wry observation that we vote for messiahs and wonder why they don’t work out. Much like the Jews, we clothe our saviors in political or military garb.
But there is good news. The Messiah foretold by the Hebrew Scriptures has already arrived. But He isn’t what you expect: Jesus was born to a couple of very humble means, far away from the nerve centers of Roman hegemony or Jewish religiosity. The Son of the Most High slipped into human history quietly, garbed not in armor or royal pomp, but in swaddling clothes. As far as we know, only shepherds – a distrusted lot in society – witnessed the angelic fanfare and were into the secret.
There is an instructive lesson in all this.
Many of us are in our own troubled world, longing for some favor from the Lord. What are you waiting for in these VUCA times? Is it peace, security, hope? Maybe meaning or significance? Love?
Perhaps what you are yearning for in your heart of hearts has already come in the person of Jesus, God’s Promised Messiah. A righteous and devout man named Simeon awaited the “consolation of Israel” and when he saw the Christ child, his heart was put to rest. Trust that, in much the same way, the Messiah named Jesus can satisfy your deepest needs — with Himself. May God grant you the blessing you earnestly seek.
Oh, indeed, let us come and adore Him!
Nelson T. Dy is an author and speaker on career, relationships and spirituality issues. He has written ten books to date, including How to Mend a Broken Heart, The Honeymoon Never Ends, and How Do I Know “The One”? For more of his insights, visit his website www.nelsontdy.com.
He and his wife, the wonderful Lucy Cheng Dy, have been married for 15 years.
