Instagram Jesus Week 4: Devotional Day 2

Instagram Jesus Week 4: Devotional Day 2

DAY 2 – Tuesday

Daily devotional

Read

Mark 1:10a; Isaiah 64:1-2

Ask

How can you relate to the emotional ups and downs of Jesus’ early ministry days?

Reflect

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to tear a clothes item, but if it’s not already prepped for ripping, it’s really hard. I had an old t-shirt that was ready to retire once, and in the spirit of Macho Man Randy Savage I thought it would be fun to rip it off my chest. Well, cotton is tougher than it looks, and surprisingly I’m weaker than Macho Man Randy Savage, so what I hoped was a dramatic bust-out instead looked like frustrated tugging and grunting. 

If a t-shirt is that tough to tear, just imagine rending the heavens. I use my silliness to highlight that tearing is a difficult, even violent thing. The substance of reality itself was rent in two, no small deal… but why? Why didn’t the Spirit simply serenely appear as a dove? Why did He have to come through a tear in the heavens?

The answer lies in Isaiah 64. The context of that passage is a cry for justice, that God would “rend the heavens and come down” so that he could become “known to [his] adversaries.” Isaiah hoped and cried for the day when God would reveal himself to those who did wrong. In other words, he hoped for the day that God would right what is wrong, and do so visibly and powerfully.

If you’ve ever felt the injustice of being wronged, you can identify with Isaiah’s cry. That yearning for justice can feel violent, and it should be a comfort to us that it is met with matching urgency in Jesus’ baptism. The heavens are rent, for the sake of all that is wrong being made right in Jesus.

Are you wrestling with an injustice today? Do you share Isaiah’s cry that God would show up? In Jesus, he did. Take a few moments to share with him in prayer your own cry for justice.