December 11th, 2023

December 11
It’s a scandal that Jesus came to sinners. And really, it does nothing to lessen the scandal when you consider that there was no one else to come to. 
Jesus did not just have the purity of infancy. His was the purity of the sinless and divine Son of God. He was the pure white field of new snow on which no muddy boot had yet trampled a path. And he showed up where everything was muddy boots and heedless tramplers.
And for all that, not only did he come to sinners in their sin, but he came happily. There was no reluctance, no hedging, no prissy pinching of the nose. He did not show up as God at arm’s length, but Emmanuel - God With Us.

Luke 19:10

Prayer: Lord, help me to take to heart the fact that you have come to me to take your place in my heart and in my life though I have been a sinner. Make me aware of the scandal of it in a way that does more to heighten my gratitude than it does to stir up my shame. And help me to be just as “scandalous” in the loving way that I approach other sinners.

Song: This version of “I Heard the Bells” by Sleeping at Last does a good job of catching all the pathos of this carol which absorbs with serious reflection the persistent reality of a world that is contrary to the promise of the incarnation and then proceeds to a resolute conviction about the ultimate victory of the promise.

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