Christ the Lord of All | Holy Week DevotionalSample

Life in our fallen world is one of warfare. Demonic powers seek to deceive, to twist the truth, to promote fantasies as reality in opposition to God. God glorifies himself particularly when he displays his power in contrast to our weakness, redeeming us and defeating his enemies in such a way that all people acknowledge, “Only Yahweh could have done this.” God glorifies himself as the Lord of Hosts—the Lord of Armies—by waging war for his people when they have no power on their own to succeed. In our passage today, we see the beginning of Christ’s ministry, which parallels Israel’s history. Israel was freed from their slavery before wandering in the wilderness for forty years until they arrived at the land of promise. The promised land was to become a new Eden; a land of abundant food, where God would dwell with his people. Instead, Israel had become a place just like Egypt. The rulers of Israel, Jesus said, had become children of the devil, heeding his words instead of God’s word (John 8:44). Jesus’ mission runs in the opposite direction. Christ left glory, crossed the Jordan in baptism, and is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to face Satan directly in a desolate place. This was a turning point in the cosmic war for the world. Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world saying, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:6-7). It was not an empty offer. God intends humanity to rule and to have dominion; however, because of the fall, our natures have become captive to evil. Now our natural state is one of subservience to our sinful passions. Conscious or not, apart from Christ, Satan is our lord. There aren’t other options. But Christ came to see that Satan would be “cast out” and that all the nations would acknowledge him as the true Lord (John 12:31). As Moses testified, “The LORD is a man of war; Yahweh is his name (Ex. 15:3). Christ is that warrior—the champion of the Lord’s people, the commander of the armies of the Lord, come to defeat the deceiver of the world in single combat. Christ faced Satan like David faced Goliath and sent the Philistines fleeing in terror. Christ faced Satan like Adam, using God’s word that Adam rejected as a sword, defeating the devil among thorns while Adam failed in the garden. Christ emerged from battle clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit to remove all demonic powers from his land. Jesus proclaimed that the “Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Luke 4:18-19). For those who were waiting for God’s salvation and longing for the Messiah, Jesus was “glorified by all” (Luke 4:15). But for others, this could not be. He was a hometown boy—Joseph and Mary’s son, with sisters and brothers that they knew. “He came to his own [but they] did not receive him” (John 1:11). Surely God would be sending a messiah, but this man couldn’t be him. God glorifies himself in unexpected ways, using those that appear to be weak, ordinary, or unremarkable to accomplish his tasks. So too with Jesus. Nothing about his appearance was impressive. He had “no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2). He had no wealth, nor even a place to lay his head. He was a poor man, a raggedy man. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. Wisdom is justified by her deeds. Those who rejected him failed to see what was before their eyes. Demons infested their synagogues and their leaders were powerless before them, yet the demons cried out in Capernaum and all throughout Israel, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). But rather than acknowledge him and believe the truth before their eyes, they sought to kill him. Jesus came to make the world new, to break our chains, and to lead us “in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psa. 23:3). This inevitably will lead to conflict with our friends, neighbors, and families who refuse to acknowledge him. We have become, like incense, “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” To those who are perishing, Christ is a “fragrance from death to death.” To those who are being saved, Christ is a “ fragrance from life to life” (2 Cor. 2:15-16). Like Jesus, we will face hostility and rejection. Those who knew us before Christ will, like the devil, seek to remind us of who we were—who they say we really are—testifying that our salvation is a dream. But Jesus , who casts out demons with a word, has power to make all things new. The Lord who seized our hearts, freeing us from the clutches of sin when we had no power to save ourselves, intends to use us to make his name great in the world. Because Jesus was victorious, now we too have been robed in the Spirit’s power. Because Jesus was victorious, now the devil is forced to learn our names (Acts 19:15). Because Jesus was victorious, we can trust that “the Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (Psa. 46:7). Because Christ was victorious, we have learned to say with the psalmist, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psa. 115:1). 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