Jesus came to earth... to be glorified over us

Finally. Jesus got through the suffering and the death, and reached the glory. The happy ending – or possibly the happy beginning. This is what it’s all been leading up to. Did he really have to go through all that hard stuff first?

As you can probably guess by now, the answer is a resounding yes. Across the pages of the New Testament, it rings like a clanging bell: “Cross… glory. Cross… glory. Cross… glory.” It was only through the humiliation that Jesus obtained his exaltation. Only through being born in a stable that he became king of the universe. Only through dying that he gave eternal life.

And the amazing thing is that once again, we can share in this. Jesus was glorified as a person; the whole point of his coming was to bring our humanity back into the presence of God. We are human whether we like it or not. He is human because he chose to be; and in that choosing he showed us the path to redemption. We share in his suffering, we are baptised into his death, we are raised with him in glory.

Sometimes that glory can be hard to find. The world around us, and indeed our own lives, don’t seem to reflect much of it. Jesus may indeed be sat at the right hand of God, we feel, but in that case he is way up there, and we’re still struggling down here. “As it is,” admits the writer to the Hebrews, “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him (that is, Jesus).” If everything is meant to be under his control, sometimes there is precious little sign of it.

“But,” the writer continues, “But we see Jesus.” We do not yet see everything in subjection to him; but we see Jesus. The world is not as we hope it will be; but we see Jesus. And the more we look for him, the more we look at him, the more we see his glory filtering into even the darkest of times.

When God seems far away, we see Jesus, who came to reflect his love to us.

When our burdens seem too much to bear, we see Jesus, who came to suffer with us.

When the fear of death casts a chill over our hearts, we see Jesus, who came to die for us.

When all we can feel is the humiliation of the cross, we see Jesus, who came to be glorified over us.

And as we see more clearly, we find ourselves sharing more deeply with the one who came to share with us.

And as we share in his love, his suffering, and his death, a transformation happens, and we find our way to glory.

And in a blaze of golden light, the sun rises on Christmas morning. And we see Jesus.

Photo attribution: Mhuntington1689 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Comments

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as

The Churnet Way: bells at Alton

Alton village and Alton Towers are perched on opposite banks of the Churnet, with the river cutting a deep valley between them. Most people drive straight through the village on the way to the theme park. But I have a great liking for walks and no fondness at all for rollercoasters, so I found a large layby to park in at Town End, in Alton, and pulled on my boots. The church bells were ringing as I set off. I vaguely wondered if there was an event. A wedding? Unlikely on a Tuesday morning. Maybe a funeral. I followed a footpath across a few fields to reach Saltersford Lane. This was the width of a single-track road, but mostly overgrown and muddy. I was grateful for the strip of stone flags (and some more modern concrete slabs) which provided a dry surface to walk on. Presently I came out into some fields and dropped down a slope to the old railway line, at the point where I left it on my previous walk . bit of old rail There followed several miles of walking along the railway path.

The Churnet Way: Rocester and Denstone

I looked at the stile and shook my head. Only a few metres beyond it was a busy B-road with a nice wide verge to walk on, but between the stile and the road was an impenetrable mass of brambles and bushes. I wasn't getting through that lot. Reluctantly, I turned left and trekked along yet another field boundary in search of a gate. You may recall that my previous walk had taken me to Thorpe, with Toby. If you're really paying attention you will know that I'm then supposed to be continuing on the Limestone Way as far as Matlock. Well, I've taken a detour. I realised that I had crossed every bridge over the Dove so far, apart from one small one just south of Rocester. I couldn't miss that out, could I? So today's walk was designed to take in that bridge, but it also happened to start me off on the Churnet Way , which I rather liked the look of. I think I will follow it for a while and come back to the Limestone Way later. JCB factory and lake The walk had start

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Search This Blog