July 29th, 20

GET READY FOR SOME STAIRS

Today’s readings are Isaiah 60 – 62 and John 1.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

Get ready to do some stairs.  Jesus calls himself the Stairway.  Prophets like Isaiah and John the Baptist were calling Jesus the Light, the Anointed One, the Messiah.  But here, at the end of this chapter, Jesus calls himself the Stairway.    

Then he said, I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth. (Jn1:51 NLT)

He is the stairway and the angels, his servants, are going up and down.  They are serving him by bringing God’s message down the stairs, and by bringing our prayers and hopes up the stairs to lay before him.  They conduct their work for God on the stairs.  And now, because what Christ has done, this stairway is a picture of our life in Christ, now.  No longer are we earth bound.  Heaven is no longer shut up to us.  No.  The Stair Master, as it were, has come to illuminate our way and help us see greater things than what we can see sitting here, earth bound under our trees, like Nathaniel was.  He’s come to call us to follow him.  He’s calling all who are willing to see that they are earth-bound and unworthy, and acknowledge their absolute need to have God shine his light into their darkness. We receive our call to the stairway.  That’s where we are called to live.  Christ’s life now, in us – on the stairway.  And like the angels of God, we learn to speak for him, and live in him, serving Him while we make our way up the stairs.  In his strength, empowered by his spirit, moving upward and forward in Him, we discover strength, grace, joy, and all the greater things that are found in Him.  

Jesus is the stairway.  And this is where we are going to live this life – moving upward and forward, receiving grace, strength, light and hope.  We are no longer sitting under our tree – no longer hopeless and in the dark.  Instead, we are being renewed, step by step, as we follow Him.

Rejoice while you are on the stairs, moving upward and forward in Him.

You are loved!