Conversion of St. Paul

Jan 25 - 31

Zechariah, Romans, 2 Timothy

The high priest of Israel, in filthy clothing, stands before an angel of the LORD while Satan stands at his side, ready to accuse - and there is much to accuse him of. Isreal’s unfaithfulness to the LORD is well-documented and impossible to refute. In their fight against the powers of the earth, their own flesh, and Satan himself, they appear to have lost.

So have we. We have come away from the same struggle covered in sin. And that defeat divides the church. Beleaguered, weak, and straying souls turn to themselves for hope, away from Christ, and, in turn, they find no reason to serve anyone but themselves.

But in this vision to Zechariah, it is Satan who receives the rebuke. We have been plucked from the fire – the fire of temptation, persecution, and our impending judgment. The accuser looks on in astonishment as our filthy clothes are removed and replaced with clean ones. Jesus, the true high priest, has made himself the sacrifice. We now belong to him, and against the Son of God, there is no accusation to be made.

This changes everything. We are no longer sheep without a shepherd. Our worship and service are no longer performative with a vague hope of staving off God’s anger. Instead, his Holy Spirit fills our hearts and moves us to imitate our high priest by giving of ourselves for the sake of our brothers and sisters. Such works only affirm what our God has done for us at the cross and grave.

One day, we will stand before our Lord, not as accused sinners in filthy clothes, but in the purity Jesus has earned for us. The fight will be over, the battle won, the sour tone of accusation forever destroyed. There will be instead the swell of praise from the saints, echoing into eternity.

Fourth Week of Epiphany

Feb 1 - 7

Zechariah, Job, 2 Timothy, Titus, John

This week’s readings deal with falsehoods. In the Old Testament, Satan builds an entire project of affliction against Job with a false accusation about his faith. In his letter to Titus, Paul notes a surge of false teachers in the church who are upsetting the saints in Crete. The opening lines of John’s Gospel account address a false teaching about Jesus’ divinity.

False teachings are often attractive, but they are always a letdown. They may promise material blessings, but those are perishable. In the end, they never offer any greater hope of salvation, only confusion and division. Those who preach falsely “profess to know God, but deny him with their works.” (Titus 1:16) We see a picture of this failure in Job, sitting amongst the ruins of his once grand estate, longing for the relief of death as if it were a friend, not an enemy the Savior would come to conquer.

But the darkness of deception is short lived before the light of God’s Word. The Word not only created the world, but became flesh within it in order to carry out his redemptive work for us so that we can have fellowship with him. The death and resurrection of Jesus is our sure hope - not a vain promise or secret knowledge, but a historical fact that guarantees us a place in heaven.

The accuser may labor to make us question our relationship to God and lure us away from the promise. But it has already been pierced by the light of Jesus, and the darkness has not overcome it.