The Blessing of Seeing Jesus

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad. (John 8:56)

John 8:32-59; Heb. 11:8-16

What Is God Saying?

Jesus often spoke of His deity, and it aroused the anger, yes, the righteous anger of Jewish leaders. They considered His claims blasphemous. It was urgent to stop this voice and get on with the vital business of religion. The claims of Jesus were sweeping and, to them, brazenly presumptuous, yet they kept coming. Consider the many times He said, I am, followed by expressions predicated on His deity. Jesus touched a tender nerve when He said, "Before Abraham was I am." (8:58) Thus, our passage today drops us right into a heated debate. The great calm of Jesus vis-à-vis the offended prejudice and the self-righteous anger of the Pharisees. They lost the argument. What was left? "So they took up stones to throw at him." Through it all, there shines the calm and radiant truth, Christ is God—not just a good person, not just a penetrating intellect, not just a courageous prophet, but Emmanuel, God with us. It brought rejoicing to Abraham and some of his descendants. It brought rejoicing to history's saints and martyrs and to every heart that invites Him in today.

How Does This Apply To Us?

It is a blessing to see Jesus. Abraham saw His day. He trusted that God would save His people. It would be a day of salvation and redemption. It was a reason to rejoice. How much more satisfying it is for us who can look back on Jesus' day—a day when the light truly dawned; a day when the love began to spread across a world dark with hate and anger. In life, we experience the curse of hatred, anger, and selfish strife, but we know the love of Christ will rule. If He is on the throne of our hearts, we can live.

"And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us."

-Martin Luther King

Pray With Me

O Lord, You came to the world. You came by invitation to my heart. Abraham was the friend of God. What a title to earn! What a reputation to enjoy! What a treasure to possess! Being a friend of God is both a privilege and a responsibility. Friendship means doing what friends ought to do and being what friends ought to be. If the blessing of human friendship can mean so much, how much more satisfying it is to be a friend of God. And the greatest blessing You gave Abraham, as Your friend, was seeing the day of Jesus Christ. So, dear Lord, remove all the gloom of doubt from my heart. Take from my face all shadows of worry. Keep my lips from any complaint. Have I not seen the day of Jesus Christ?

Abraham saw your coming through the veil of history's future. I can see the evidence of Your coming, O Christ, in the past and present. There is no haze along the distant hills of time to obscure or distort your perfect reality. There is no mystery to shroud your beauty. There is no bend in the road, no brow of the hill, no worry, no wishing, no waiting. You have come! As Abraham rejoiced to see ahead to Your day, let me rejoice, O Christ, that I have seen Your day. The very feet of God have walked on this earth. The voice of the eternal has sounded in our ears.

Turn me, Lord, until I face the dawn. Turn me until all shadows are at my back. Turn me from all false and failing hopes. Turn me from looking toward and sometimes even choosing the darkness. Turn me toward Your love in Christ, as quiet as the dawn. Turn me until Christ fills all my vision; with Abraham, I can see His day and be glad.

In the name of Him who came to make every day perpetual dawn and every life perpetual spring. Amen.

Moving On In The Life of Prayer

Every day, we pray to see His day. We pray to make this day His day. Seeing that this day can be His day brings the gladness Abraham knew, courage to our convictions, strength to our steps, peace to our minds, joy everywhere we go, and healing love to everyone we meet.