By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,
“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”
And Isaiah boldly says,
“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”
But concerning Israel he says,
“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Romans 10:16–21 (NIV)
Consider This
As you might imagine, I get a lot of reader mail. I’ve shared my cell number before so I also get my share of text messages. This week a reader I affectionately call “Aunt Bette” sent me this text:
“WHAT IF the Israelites had not rejected the cornerstone but by faith received all given to them? Where would we be?”
I texted her back with this reply, “Aunt Bette, we would be (as they say back home) in tall cotton!”
This is the wrestling match Paul is having in today’s text. Why didn’t Israel get it? He need only look in the mirror and ask himself. These guys were all at once expert Bible readers and yet they didn’t have a clue. How did they miss Jesus?
And maybe I have just answered my own question. Sometimes, maybe more than I want to admit, expert Bible readers don’t have a clue.
Think about it. Jesus, the very Word of God in human flesh, comes face to face with expert Bible readers, and they don’t know him from Adam. It becomes clear from the start he is reading the Bible very differently than they are. In fact, it’s almost like they were reading a different Bible altogether. It’s why Jesus prayed prayers like this:
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. (Matt. 11:25–26)
This should frighten us. We, too, can read the Bible and miss Jesus. These first-century Jewish readers of Scripture were certain they had it right and yet had it exactly wrong. They were highly controlling, very certain, and as a result highly prideful and very obstinate people. We can be the same, can’t we? If the “people of God” can completely miss God, it stands to reason the “followers of Jesus” can completely miss Jesus.
So how do we not miss Jesus?
The answer is tucked right into his prayer. Become like children. He does not mean whimsically childlike as some have said and certainly not childish. It means to become humble. No matter how far along you think you are in your studies or advanced in your faith, here is the secret to not missing Jesus:
Be small.
Live humble.
Stay hungry.
All of this comes together in what is all at once the saddest happiest text in all of Scripture:
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:11–12)
Be small. Live humble. Stay hungry.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you for this invitation to be small, to live humble, and to stay hungry. Jesus, this is who you were and are, and evermore shall be. You, the most towering figure of history and eternity, allowed yourself to become small. You humbled yourself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And you showed us what it looks like to live hungry—to show us that we do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Come Holy Spirit and emblazon these words on our hearts and our minds. I want to be small. I want to live humble. I want to stay hungry. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.