"...a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices..."
When those words were penned for the song O Holy Night, it was talking about the historical birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That birth remains thrilling and worth rejoicing over.
But, does it feel like the world is still rejoicing over this news? Does the world feel, to you, more weary or more rejoicing? We’re going to take a stab that your inclination is to say that the world feels pretty weary these days.
So, let's fight off the weariness by returning to the story of Jesus, especially as the world was getting to know who this Jesus was. We are going to read from Mathew 8 and 9, the chapters immediately after Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has announced himself as a preacher, a prophet. But now, he leaves the mountain and walks among the weary of Israel.
What Jesus finds on his first journeys into the weary world is the sick, the scared, the outside, and the hopeless. The people with burdens that heavy are the ones who find help, who meet Jesus weary, but then are transformed into joy.
Perhaps Jesus can still do this work of changing our weariness into rejoicing. Let's find out together as we journey with Jesus into his world, with the hope that he will also journey with us into our world.
