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Advent Devotional for Wednesday, December 17
Mark 9:9-13
In this Advent text, Jesus is coming down the mountain following the Transfiguration accompanied by Peter, James, and John. Jesus orders these disciples to tell no one what they have seen. They obey, but they also question what Jesus means about rising from the dead. Throughout Mark’s gospel, but also in Matthew and Luke, Jesus repeatedly tells his followers not to tell others that He is the Messiah.
In first-century Palestine, the people expected the Messiah in the form of a victorious political leader who would rebuild the temple and would reign in an era of peace and freedom. They would not have understood that the Messiah could “go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt.” Nor would they have understood his death on a Roman cross. Jesus knew that it was only after his death, burial, and resurrection that his followers and the rest of us who would come after them would understand the true meaning of Messiah, the true meaning that we have come to know in our hearts means Savior. It is the cross and the resurrection that define this victorious Jesus the Messiah.
We live on the other side of the resurrection. We are a resurrection people. We know of the suffering and contempt Jesus experienced. We may never fully appreciate the depth of his suffering and the high cost of the cross. But, we can renew our appreciation of the resurrection. We must never forget what came before the resurrection. But, as resurrection people, we should live in the confidence we have that morning came after the long dark night.
During this Advent season when our focus is on the coming birth of the Messiah, we should also focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus as a defining moment of his Messiahship. Unlike Peter, James, and John, we need not ask “what this rising from the dead could mean.” Rather, we should ask what the reality of the resurrection means and what difference it makes in our lives today.
Gracious God, as we await the birth of the Messiah, we do so with the reality of his coming death but in the certainty of accomplished resurrection. Renew in us the spirit of a resurrection people, walking in the light of the Messiah’s triumph over sin and death. Amen
Kevin Henderson
Middler MDiv Student
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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