The Underlying Reality
Good Morning Friends,
There were several messianic movements in Israel decades before and after Jesus’s life and death. The leaders were typically killed and after the leader’s death each of these movements collapsed save one. Not only did it not collapse it spread throughout the entire Roman Empire. Out of all those movements what do you think made the difference with the Christian Faith? I believe that it was that the story of Jesus’ death made evil into a shadow. Those who believed received light and beauty. They were raised up on eagle’s wings because the only thing that could destroy them had been destroyed in Jesus’ heart. His death means no death for us and then His resurrection means our resurrection. Here if we believe in Jesus we also believe we are accepted by God all through an act of supreme grace and the beauty of it…the power of something suddenly good becomes our experience. Tolkein calls it a eucatastrophe, the good catastrophe. Imagine the salvation of Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom. This is more than a literary tool having eagles come, it is the answer to prayer… it is for our Christian faith The Underlying Reality.
Bottom of Form
Scripture: 31but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (NRSV)
36And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people; for the thing had come about suddenly.
2 Chronicles 29:36 (NRSV)
17The seventy* returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ 18He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ 21At that same hour Jesus* rejoiced in the Holy Spirit* and said, ‘I thank* you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.*
22All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’23 Then turning to the disciples, Jesus* said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’
Luke 10:17-24 (NRSV)
71So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.’ 3Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have won your favour, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. 4For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.’*
5Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?’ 6Esther said, ‘A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. 7The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. 8When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, ‘Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?’ As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face. 9Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, ‘Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.’ And the king said, ‘Hang him on that.’ 10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Esther 7:1-17 (NRSV)
Message: There is a lot of scripture today but it all relates. You see, the Bible contains a number of eucatastrophes, including the story of Job, the Flood, the story of Joseph, the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, the story of Esther, the return of the exiles from Babylon, the conversion of the apostle Paul, and especially the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Each is a tragedy that turns into good. The greatest of all the stories is of Jesus. He was despised, afflicted, bruised, and grieved, but still willing to suffer death for all of mankind. His death enabled our atonement and reconciliation with God. Here the power that offers the complete healing of all the relationships in creation is available to us. God holds us in the palm of His hands like Frodo holds the ring in his ready to destroy our evil. And once it is done, the peace of the Kingdom becomes the underlying reality. Now we can choose the most satisfying of experiences. It is more than a passing inspiration it is the great joy of life. It is the story behind every great story…the reality of Jesus and the happy ending he makes for us. Salvation awaits.
Pray we experience sudden unexpected blessings. Pray we seek the right reward. Pray we request something that can bring us the joy that glorifies God. Pray we experience a reversal in our fortunes that brought us to our knees in prayer in the first place. Pray we experience rejoicing. Pray death is swallowed up in victory. Pray we see the patterns in scripture, in the life of Jesus and in the Kingdom. Pray we get a glimpse of Truth that is indeed how things work in heaven. Pray we experience joy.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 