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The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

18 December 2012




We have just seen that the judgment of God has us walking in darkness.  Isaiah says that there is a solution to the darkness, those who have walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who have dwelt in darkness, on them has shone a great light.  What a wonderful thing it would be to suddenly experience a great light in a dark place.  Our problem is that we don’t recognize how great is the darkness in which we walked previously, and because we don't appreciate the greatness of the darkness, we don't appreciate the greatness of the light needed to dispel it.  Isaiah sees a messiah, one who will come and who will govern the people in righteousness, a mighty king who will be set in place by and for the zeal of the Lord.  We have just come through an election season in which candidates for public office have promised to be exactly that for us and some have believed with messianic zeal in these things, but we are not to be those who are looking for an earthly king or messiah, we are to be those who are looking for the Messiah to return and establish a kingdom of righteousness that is eternal.

If He is the Christ, how can they make themselves out to be His judge and jury.  It is ludicrous to demand, "If you are the Christ, tell us."  Their attitude towards Him, beating and mocking Him, proves they will not receive or believe Him if He says, "I am."  In fact, if he says those two words, in Greek, "Ego eimi", this will get much worse, for those words are the divine Name, I AM.  Moses needed to know who was sending him to be the deliverer of the people and those two words were given to Him, along with signs, and the people believed.  Here, they have seen the signs and it is for using those two words, I AM, that Jesus is on trial, He claimed equality with God.  Peter, who wrote so eloquently about things like faith and steadfastness, here shows that such things come only through the power of the Holy Spirit, the natural man cares too much about his life to live by faith.

Jesus can promise to send the Spirit to call all things to the mind of the disciples, Peter must write to remind the church, he does so that when he is gone, which Jesus has assured him will be soon, that they know the truth about things.  Peter says he is an eyewitness to the revelation of Jesus, reflecting on the experience he and James and John had on the mount of Transfiguration when they both saw and heard the revelation of who is Jesus. This, however, wasn't enough for Peter, his faith wasn't complete until after the resurrection and after he received the Holy Spirit. It is necessary for us to have the Holy Spirit if we are to have faith and knowledge of truth.  Otherwise we continue in disbelief and we continue to reject Jesus as the great I AM.  We will continue to walk in darkness.

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