Advent Devotional 2022

CONSIDER THIS

Our Advent reflection on the roots of Jesus’ family tree takes us back to the moment in time when his forefather Jacob was first called “Israel”—and an entire people would bear his name for all recorded history.

When I was a young boy, at the prodding of a few friends, I tried the sport of wrestling. Two people get in a ring and attempt to force the other to physically submit. If there is one word that captures what happens in the ring, it is resistance; the entire sport is built on two people applying resistance, pressure, force to the other. When one person is pinned to the ground, the bell rings and the match is over. I was pinned often, but I did learn to apply my strength, like Jacob, in the process.

Jacob is mentioned, along with his grandfather, Abraham, and his father, Isaac, in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1:2. Jacob was, by all accounts, a wrestler, a resistor, a pressurer, a forcer—always to get his own way. He was a man in a struggle his entire life. He wrestled with his brother coming out of the womb, and he wrestled a birthright and a blessing from him as well. Jacob psychologically wrestled his father out of a gift that was not intended for him, and he wrestled with his father-in-law over issues of fairness. Jacob knew how to get his way.

Deception. Resistance. Impatience. Struggle. Do these sound like words you would expect to be associated with a man who would not only become the namesake of the myriad people of Abraham, but would also make it into the genealogy of the Messiah? We can all be thankful that the Son of God has broken people who are a part of his family. Sometimes what we overcome is the very sign and signal that God is with us, working all things for the good for those who love him and are called according to his purposes (Rom. 8:28). In overcoming, we become ensigns of grace.

But why did Jacob struggle, and why do we? Jacob’s greatest opponent, as we read at various points in his story (see Gen. 31:1; 32:7, 11) was fear. At the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob sends his family, herds, and flocks ahead of him. Alone with his fear of facing his brother Esau, he spends the night in a wrestling match with a figure he seems to understand to be God. Jacob will name the place Peniel, which means “face of God,” because he saw God face-to-face, and yet his life was spared (Gen. 32:30). When the close-quarters, life-transforming match is over, Jacob is given the new name, Israel—one who “struggles” with God.

The only remedy for fear, according to 1 John 4:18, is love. Jacob feared because, like us, he struggled with love. He must have found it hard to love himself knowing all he had done. He must have found it hard to love others because he felt so unloved and unfavored himself. That’s how takers are born. They are always looking to provide something for themselves that only God can give. That night, perhaps, just perhaps, Jacob was ultimately overcome by love—humbled by love. And having met with God in the midst of his deepest fear, overpowering love left him with a limp of humility as a memento of the experience.

Jesus wrestled in a garden called Gethsemane. He, however, knew he was beloved, and could freely love because of that inner solidity and contentment. Our Messiah, knowing in his own family line how fear can corrupt and disorient a soul, steps into our lives and says, as he did to the disciples, “Don’t be afraid” (Matt. 14:27). With those words we are welcomed to lay down our resistance, our impatience, our hiding in shame, our deception, our wrestling—to embrace the beloved, loving, brave life of Jesus.

THE PRAYER

Lord of the Humbled Heart, you know us, and you always have. May our fear be broken by your love, casting it out, day by day, from our hearts. Give us the humility that comes from having been overcome by love, and we’ll take any limp that comes with it to remind me of love’s strength for the journey. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• How has the love of Jesus met you in your fear and dissolved its power in your life?
• Are there areas of fear you are holding onto that you could surrender to Jesus without resistance?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” . . .

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”  Genesis 22:1–2, 13–14

CONSIDER THIS

Christmas celebrations surrounding the birth of Jesus are often fueled by pleasant reminiscences and nostalgia. We may hear the sounds of carols we heard from our youth ringing in malls and shops. We may smell the fragrance of a grandma’s candles, scented with the season. We may feel soft evergreen needles on our palms as we purchase this year’s Christmas tree. All of these moments can trigger memories that go back as far as we can remember.

But a deeper remembering, a holy anamnesis, could take us back to sights, sounds, and smells less appealing to our holiday sensibilities. We might return to Mount Moriah, to the sound of a father wailing as he prepared to sacrifice his only son, the smell of altar wood on a mountain smoking to life, the feeling of a blade sitting heavy in the hand, and the cool touch of a ram’s horn as it is drawn from a thicket.

The Lord Will Provide.

From the ancestral family of Jesus is a plot line that always moves forward through stories of great risk, great courage, and great acts of faith—acts that have changed the course of your life and mine. Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain is just one stop on that plot line—but it’s an important one. Whispers of a promised provision make little sense when your son is bound to an altar and you have been asked to take the greatest leap of faith/fear you’ve ever known. Pausing on Mount Moriah, we meet Jesus as the provision of God.

The Lord Will Provide.

When Christ picked up his cross to walk the long road to Golgotha, the overtones ringing across the millennia would have been unmissable by those who had begun to understand his teaching. Jesus did not resist the Father’s request any more than Abraham did. He opened himself to the possibility that there would be no redemption that followed his great act of sacrifice, of faith, but knew that he must take the step no matter what. His obedience would lead somewhere, we know—but how could Jesus truly be assured that all things would work together for the good in that moment of decision?

Jesus is the descendant of the obedient-soul, the hearing-and obeying saint, the Lord-I-am-your-servant bloodline of Abraham, David, Mary, and others. The family line of Jesus obeys the voice of the Lord and trusts in him to be the provision we need. You and I are now a part of that line.

It’s here we discover that Jesus would not only sacrifice himself for the sake of the world as our incarnate Messiah, he would also call us to pour out our lives on behalf of others in the same, complete, fully expended way.

The Lord Will Provide.

Jesus is the Provision of God for the sacrifice, the redemption, the healing of the human heart; you and I are the living sacrifices that carry the news of that provision to the ends of the earth.

THE PRAYER

Lord Who Provides, your acts of care and provision startle us. We may never be fully confident you will act when you say you will, but make us always willing to take the leap of faith that leads to your life and ways being highlighted in this world. Use us to glorify you in celebration or sacrifice; and let us be a living sacrifice to you—carrying the message of your provision of love into the world you have put in front of us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• How has living a sacrificial life helped you to understand the act of Jesus giving himself for the world?

• With what do you most identify about his suffering and self-offering to the world?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. . . .
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”  Genesis 21:1–3, 6–7

CONSIDER THIS

Sarah laughed, and I get it. What she heard the Lord say was pure,unadulterated, funny. I’ve heard the Lord speak things to me that I thought were funny at the time. God has a knack for the practical joke that’s not actually a joke, for stand-up comedy that is a call to stand up and has comedic yet powerful timing and results.

Jesus comes from a long line of people who laugh. He comes from a people who praise loudly, and who lament the same; from a people who laugh hard and who cry even harder. More than this, Jesus comes from a people who are honest to God, who pull no punches, and who wrestle with him until their hip is out of joint and they have received his blessing.

Before Sarah laughed in Genesis 18:9–15, Abraham fell down on his face and laughed first in 17:17. We can laugh in bewilderment and thanks, or we can laugh in derision and mockery. We’ll never know exactly how Sarah laughed or Abraham laughed, but it seems the Lord was not offended by it. They were not rebuked; they just had to be honest about how they really felt.

At the Advent of the Incarnate One, we can only imagine the shepherds laughing with joy after the angels make their announcement. We can almost hear Mary and Joseph laugh in the manger, that smiling laugh so common to a mother and father when they first hold a newborn in their arms. And as far as we know, Jesus may have laughed at his own jokes and even, perhaps, the jokes of others (sometimes laughing at another’s joke is an act of godly compassion, as we all know!).

Would it honor the Lord for you to laugh with joy, with thanks, with others this Advent season? The Lord of Laughter may lead you to it; his desire being that you throw off the heavy weights of the last year and delight in just how faithful he has shown himself to be.

Laughter is not only the best medicine; sometimes it is also the best prayer.

THE PRAYER

Lord of Laughter, we would like to experience delight again in all you are doing in us and around us. Where the spirit of heaviness has us bound, let the oil of joy (Isa. 61:3) lift it off of us as we bless you for the precious gifts you are giving us in this new season of delight. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• How long has it been since you laughed, really hard, with friends, family, or before God?

• What could you do to put your heart in such a posture as to be willing to express joy in a new and unbridled way as the Christian New Year begins?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  Genesis 12:1–3

CONSIDER THIS

The day you came into this world you had no name that came along with you. You and I were fresh from heaven, fresh from the hidden place of our nurture, brought into the wide-open world. We were an idea, a masterpiece, in the heart of God. We were born, we looked around, we took it all in (as far as we could see), and our little minds began to process all the information coming our way.

You were a person, with a set of genetics already in motion like billions of tiny gears within your system, processing the beautiful world before you. But you were, as far as human beings are concerned, nameless. The name given to you may have only been spoken before this moment in hushed tones by parents or family members, and perhaps you came into the world with just a few select individuals knowing your name. But the truth is, it’s still the name they chose for you. We can trust in the sovereignty of God that our given names have come to us by some direction of divine care.

But there is a name that God has for you and for me, known to him and to be known fully by us one day.2 The process of life is to discover God’s name for you, for me, and for that identity to emerge more and more beautifully until the day we see him face-to-face!

Abram had a name. Then, at a key point in his journey, God changed it. He went from “exalted father” to “father of a multitude.” Abram could embrace being an exalted father. He had some evidence that he was a highly honored father in his life. But “father of a multitude”? That took some faith to swallow. That name came from God. Eventually, Abraham must have gone from saying his new name with a question mark every time he looked in the mirror at his aging face, to saying his new name with a bold confidence that can only come from a wild faith in an untameable God.

Jesus, like Abraham, lived into the name the Father gave him. Y’shua, “The Lord Saves,” was what he would hear every time his mother called him for dinner. Hebrew is a verb-based language, and the action of the Lord “saving” would become the action that would mark every aspect of Jesus’ life. Emerging victorious from the grave, Jesus, like the Father, names us with names that feel beyond our scope of understanding. To Jesus, we are “Beloved,” and “Body,” and “Saints,” and so much more. To Jesus, you are “Loved,” “Friend,” “Blessed,” “Redeemed,” “Strong,” “Free,” and so much more.

The Lord who comes to us all in Advent is coming to you to affirm your name, known to him. Live into it by living into some of thenames listed. As you do, you’ll become more fully the one Jesus names his very own.

THE PRAYER

Naming God, who calls things that are not as though they are, and who calls us according to who you know us to be, show us who we are in your sight. Open our hearts to receive your love, and your affirmation, that we may be free to become a sign of your great presence in the world. Our names are in your hands, and we are ready for you to call us to your vision of greatness. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• Have you ever thought about the fact that God has a name for you that is written on his heart, and that he is calling you to fulfill? What characteristics about you do you think are expressed in God’s hidden name for you?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt