Still, I simply have to share.
There are a TON of words in the Bible. It’s incredibly thick and the pages are ridiculously thin and impossibly hard to turn. Aren’t you just dying to read it now? I should probably work on my sales pitch for God’s word, huh?
Where were we? Oh yes, a TON of words. Now the Old Testament doesn’t tell you about Jesus’ life. Notice I didn’t say it doesn’t tell you about Jesus, because I assure you, the Old Testament is entirely about Jesus – every page foreshadows his very name. It just doesn’t use his actual name.
The
name ‘Jesus’ isn’t mentioned in the Bible until the New Testament begins with
the book of Matthew, and we hear the Christmas story. You know the one . . . Mary, a virgin engaged
to be married to Joseph, receives a visit from an angel. This angel (Gabriel) tells the young girl she
is pregnant with God’s own son and she is to call him Jesus. Sure enough, about nine months later Mary gives
birth to a king, in a barn, and names him Jesus, as instructed.
The
book of Matthew is the first of four books, also known as the gospels, which
recount the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. All four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, tell the Christmas story in some fashion.
Matthew is the only gospel that also tells us about the three kings visiting
their messiah and showering him with gifts, which most Biblical scholars believe
occurred not at the time of Jesus’ birth, but more than a year later. Luke is the only gospel that mentions
anything about Jesus during his adolescence.
This happens in the second chapter of Luke when we read the story of
Jesus traveling eighty miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem to visit the temple for
Passover – an excursion that might not sound like much, until you remember that
such journeys were made on foot during Jesus’ time. So basically, a four day walk to church.
Although
there are four gospels, we don’t learn anything else about Jesus’ life as an
infant, child, teenager, or young man from any of them, except that he grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God
and men (Luke 1:80, 2:40). Instead,
the gospels pick up when Jesus is about thirty years old, and all four tell of
the final three years of his life on earth.
There
is much to tell.
There
are encounters with a prostitute by a well, a tax collector in a tree, a leper,
a bleeding woman, a blind man, and a lady with some very expensive perfume. There are little children on the lap of a
king. There is a boy with a basket of food that feeds thousands. There is a walk across water, the
calming of a storm, overturned tables in a temple, and a once empty net overflowing
with fish. There are healings and
miracles and palm branches and many references to yeast. There are disciples, friends, family,
strangers, traitors, and a donkey. There are men
and women, Jews and Gentiles, and a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate who has
not even the hint of a backbone. There
is the last supper, the washing of feet, the prayer in the garden, and the kiss
of death. There is an arrest, a trial, a
mob, and utter brutality. There is a
crown of thorns, a cross to bear, a final breath, a veil torn. There is sorrow and suspense, beauty and
betrayal, happiness and heartbreak, torment and truth. There is loss and life and the single
most incredible love of all time.
In
three years.Three years.
Thirty-six months. One hundred fifty-six weeks. One thousand ninety-five days.
Jesus
changed the entire world and all of its inhabitants forever and ever and ever
for all of eternity . . . in three years.
That
just blows the bumper cars right out of my mind. And I can’t help but wonder . . .
What
could I do in three years?
What
could you do in three years?
What
could we do in three years, in the
name of the One who did it all for us? How many people could we tell?
How many lives could we change?
How
many souls could we save?
How
many hands could we hold and mouths could we feed and hearts could we
heal? How many of the hurting could we
serve and touch and help because we choose to follow the One who showed us
exactly how to do it?Jesus’ life on earth ended before he reached his thirty-fifth birthday. I don’t know how much time I have left to live on earth – it might be days or decades – but either way, I want to live it well. I want to live it in a way that honors the sacrifice He made for me. I want to embrace the peace and grace and comfort and freedom His life and death offered to all of humanity. I want to live each day with my focus on truth and my confidence in the fact that with God, all things are possible.
Because with God . . .
A baby born in a barn
To a carpenter and a virgin
Grew up to be a man
And in only three years
Became a Savior.
