21 February 2010
Psalm 63, 98; Dan 9:3-10; Heb. 2:10-18; John 12:44-50

Daniel’s prayer is instructive for us in how to pray, confession first then a plea for mercy. Often, we have to be in a difficult place before we truly are sorrowful over our sins. The words of the confession from the Book of Common Prayer in the old form reflect what should be our attitude towards sin: “We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine Majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable.” That should sound much like Daniel’s confession here and in our worship those words of contrition are followed by Have mercy on us, have mercy on us most merciful Father. We are able to make such an honest confession of our sinfulness because we make it to our merciful Father. There is no longer a need to hide in our sin or to attempt to justify sin or defensiveness over sin like Adam’s blaming Eve, we know Him to be merciful to sinners.

Jesus here explains that as He has done signs, so is His very life a sign pointing to the Father, the one who sent Him. He, in His mercy, calls us out of the darkness, out of hiding, and into the light that our sins might be dealt with, we might not be alone, and that we might be reconciled to the Father. His coming into the world was not to judge the world but that through Him the world might be saved. We have the assurance of forgiveness which leads to eternal life in Christ but only to the extent that we receive His word as truth and life. He also says the one who rejects ME and does not receive the word has a judge. It is not only the words but also the person of Jesus who we must accept.

Jesus was made perfect through sufferings and yet some preach a Gospel today that says that Christians should not suffer, be ill, have financial hardship, etc. What kind of spoiled children are we if that is the case? Why would He allow the only sinless one ever to live to suffer and us to have a life free of trouble? We are the ones who need to grow into Christ-likeness, Jesus didn’t need to grow and mature in His faith and life at all. He took on sufferings in order that we might know His sympathy with us in ours, He can say to us, I know how this feels when we hurt, when we are rejected, betrayed by friends, spoken ill of, etc, He took on all this in order that we might be able to have eternal life in a kingdom without any of the above.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.