We are looking at the broad context of scripture today in our lesson. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; but human beings are certainly not. As we look over the arc of scripture, we see how God has engaged numerous people groups and cultures across the millennia in a way that was meaningful to them, and THEN influenced them in their thinking and practice in order to bring them to a new place. Call it planetary sanctification.
These processes can be seen as Yahveh waits until humanity is ready before He reveals that He is the only God. He lets Israel believe He’s a “local deity” spending time on Mt. Sinai, then camping out in His tabernacle and eventually His temple in Jerusalem. Not until John 4 when Jesus reveals to the woman at the well that worship is no longer centered on place because the sacred presence is going to be unleashed at Jesus dies on the cross.
And so, since Jesus Christ is the same today as He was then, we can expect that He is meeting us where we are in a way that is meaningful - as the church in the first century AND as the church in the twenty-first century AND as individuals, and moving us further into His will so that we look more like Him and shine His light to the specific world and time in which we live. Just like He’s done for four. Thousand. Years.
To investigate this most important of stories further, go here.
