Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: ‘One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your throne.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, January 3, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Matthew makes it clear in his genealogy that Jesus is a direct descendant of King David and therefore the fulfillment of this promise. At the time, people would have been looking for a literal king, and this is what it was believed Jesus would be when he arrived on the scene. Many wanted to make him a king so that he would overthrow the oppressive rule of Rome and re-establish Israeli autonomy. This was not his path.
After all, the sons of David’s body did not keep God’s covenant and decrees, and their sons devolved into infighting, split the kingdom, and were overrun and exiled by foreign empires. You would think God had plenty of reason to discard this promise since David’s heirs so egregiously violated their part of the bargain.
But God is merciful and just, and works in God’s own time. Instead of raising up another military leader-type monarch from among the elite of the Jewish people, God took on human flesh and was born into the Davidic line to be the king that all humanity really needed—a humble but powerful king of peace. By doing so, God forgave us our total inability to actually follow God’s covenant and decrees and kept the promise in spite of us.
Of course this confused a lot of the people at the time, and probably disappointed them when Jesus didn’t overthrow Rome but instead was executed like a common criminal—like so many so-called messiahs before him. And we, too, are sometimes frustrated and confused when we see so much injustice and pain in the world and wonder where God is. But we can be confident that Jesus is here, now, working in and through us and the world, and stirring up in us the passion for justice he himself exhibited. As children of God—in King David’s line through holy adoption—we are called into Jesus’ work today and always.
What does a “King of Peace” look like to me? How does Jesus reign in the here and now?
