This week we continue our season of Advent, which is the Christian season of preparation for Christmas. Our theme this year is “Jesus Is the Answer.” This week we focus on peace and take our Scripture from Luke 1:67-79:
67 And [John the Baptist’s] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Reflection
The story of John the Baptist is inseparable from the story of Jesus. John was the one prophesied who would come in the spirit of Elijah preparing the way for the coming Messiah. And that’s exactly what John the Baptist did.
John’s father, Zechariah, not only prophesied about his son but also about Jesus. He said that Jesus would guide our feet into the way of peace. Jesus is the way of peace. To know Jesus is to know complete peace with God because Jesus has extinguished God’s wrath toward every sinner who’ll believe on Him. And to know Jesus is also to begin to know peace with mankind. God to man peace is automatic in Jesus, but man to man peace often takes time. Nevertheless, Jesus makes is possible.
And so we can have peace today because Jesus Christ is the answer to the war and rebellion and peacelessness of mankind all over the world. We pray that every person will know the peace of Jesus, both in their hearts and in their communities, and we look forward to the day when the Prince of Peace ushers in eternal peace. Therefore, we say to the Lord, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”
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