A picture is worth... a thousand songs.

Wow, it's February and I haven't posted since December. Oh did I miss it! Finally a free moment in which to take in all that I've learned the past couple of months and share with you in a understandable way.. It sounds nice and all, but I really couldn't do that. However, I would like to share something really special with you... It's about a picture..

Jesus Christ has painted a picture of Himself that we are all pretty familiar with. The non-glorified Jesus that we are used to seeing in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In Matthew, Jesus is represented as coming King. Yes, that does sound pretty glorious, but not the portrait of Jesus I'm talking about. Mark presents Jesus as the obedient servant who followed the Master's orders. Luke presents Christ as the complete man, lacking in nothing. John presents Jesus Christ as the Divine Son.

I want to focus on the picture found in John chapter 13:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
(John 13:1-7 ESV)

"...He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist..." This was a picture that Jesus was painting for his disciples. A picture of what happened in Heaven before the creation of the world.  When Jesus came to this planet to redeem us from our sinfulness, he did exactly this (in my opinion). He laid aside his glory, his honor, his omnipotence, his power, to be my Savior, to die for me. He laid aside his glory to be the obedient servant in Mark, the Prophesied King in Matthew, and the Complete Man in Luke.

In Revelation 1:12-18, John pens the next portrait that Christ paints of himself.

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
(Revelation 1:12-18 ESV)

This is the very next portrait that is mentioned in the scriptures. This my Savior, in his array. This is the garments that He laid aside for me, to communicate with me, to identify with me. For some reason, this gets me so excited! Just think of what was running through John's mind. Probably something along the lines of.. "This is what you meant when you said I will understand this later?!" "I know you were God's son, and I knew you were the Messiah, but I didn't know that this is who you are.." "I thought the mountain thing was just a one time deal, this is you? My best friend? My teacher?"

My best friend, my Savior, so gracious, so patient. Wow, I love Him!

Bethany J