As we make our new year resolutions, consider how we can best invest our time and resources; consider what is the main task God has assigned to us and how we can be faithful to this task.
Advent reminds us how God used a star to lead wise men from the east over hundreds of miles to seek Christ. Yet, King Herod and all of Jerusalem were troubled by this news (Matt 2:1-3). Through Christ’s birth, perhaps they sensed that the days of their institutional religion were numbered. How could they who studied the Scripture all their lives missed the One all Scripture anticipated?
Our core problem is seen in Herod and the Jewish leaders. They cared about their power, influence, and leadership position so much that they would remove any competition or challenge to their positions, including Jesus, the long-awaited Saviour. Does this not remind us of similar stories in countries ruled by dictators who ban churches and oppress their people? Sadly, this is the same underlying ambition and need for self-preservation that drive the office politics plaguing many workplaces today.
When we place success, power, status, influence, approval, control, security, comfort, and the good life above God, we have replaced God with something far less than Him, even if they are noble things. We have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory as Rom 3:23 says. We have fallen short of what God has created us for, to enjoy Him and to reflect His image and glory.
The Jewish leaders’ awareness and yet indifference to the Saviour born among them shows we need more than Scriptural knowledge, and more than the coming of Christ to be saved. We need a heart change. We need to be born again. We need the Holy Spirit to remake our hearts and to draw us to Christ. Otherwise, the preaching of the Gospel will fall on deaf ears. We will remain blind to our sins and our need for the Saviour. This is Scripture’s diagnosis of our human condition.
If the sin that so blinds us is our greatest problem, the answer to it must lie in the urgent God-given task of the church to preach the Gospel. However, the faithful preaching of the Gospel alone is not enough. We need to pray, for the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of the hearers. So, as we plan for the year ahead, how we may give ourselves over to ever more faithfully praying and proclaiming the Gospel?