Christ the Lord of All | Holy Week DevotionalUzorak

Joppa is a significant city in biblical history. When God commanded Jonah to preach to the Ninevites and call them to repentance, Jonah attempted to flee by ship from Joppa. The Ninevites were enemies of God’s people. Jonah wanted the Ninevites to get what was coming to them and hoped to keep them in ignorance. He was scandalized that God would consider having mercy on such people as these. But God’s redemptive aims are far broader than our sinful desires.

Humanity was divided into distinct people groups by God at Babel. The people had disobeyed God’s command to fill the earth, deciding instead to huddle in one place around a great tower. They sought peace and security by their own power. They intended Babel to be the new, spiritual capital of the world—the gateway to heaven—a man-made Eden. Causing the people to speak different languages, God forced humanity to divide. As a result of this act of judgment, the people were made to obey God’s command, filling the earth and being fruitful, though now as distinct nations.

God is the Creator of all people and intends to be the God of all people. Dividing humanity was not his ultimate goal. Out of all the nations that God formed at Babel, he chose one as his special possession—Abraham and his children. God promised to be God to Abraham and his children unto a thousand generations. But God’s promise to Abraham was a promise of salvation for all nations. God’s people were not chosen for their own sake, but so that the “seed” of Abraham could bring God’s blessing to all the peoples of the earth. God’s people were to be the instrument through which God would redeem the world.

While we rightly focus on Jesus’ relationship to the Hebrew people, Jesus was born to be “a light of revelation to the gentiles” and the one who displays salvation “in the presence of all peoples” (Luke 2:29-32). Christ was born under the Law, to fulfill that Law and atone for sin, but Christ came to fulfill all of God’s promises. Paul tells us that Jesus is “Abraham’s seed,” who came so that “the blessing given to Abraham” and “the promise of the Spirit” would “come to the Gentiles” (Gal. 3:14). Christ came to be enthroned as Lord of all nations, to make disciples of all nations, and to knit divided humanity into one. Christ came proclaiming a Kingdom in which God would say, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance” (Isa. 19:25).

At Joppa, Peter the “son of Jonah” (Matt. 16:17), becomes a new and better Jonah. Peter sees a vision in which God tells him that unclean animals have been declared clean, but this vision is not simply about our permission to eat bacon. This vision prepared Peter to witness a much greater redeeming work—the cleansing of all people in Christ. Peter leaves Joppa, not to flee from God’s commands, but to preach the good news about the world’s true King.

Rome was a new Babel—a new project by men to establish what only God can bring. Rome promised that all who acknowledged Caesar as lord would receive the pax Romana—the peace of Rome; peace that the world gives. They enforced this peace through brutality—which Jesus and the early Christians faced. The early Church was not killed for their religious practices, but because they refused to call Caesar their lord. Peter is bold in the presence of Cornelius, a Roman soldier, saying that God has made Jesus the “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). Not Caesar, but Christ is “the judge of the living and the dead [and] everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:42-43). At Peter’s preaching, Cornelius’ home became a new “upper room,” as the Spirit rushed in to fill Cornelius and his household with power. In Christ, these presumed enemies became family.

Today, we live in the age of intersectionality. Everyone in the world is either an oppressor or one of the oppressed. Every relationship is defined by power—those who have it and those who don’t. The noble prophets of our day tell us that more discrimination is the only solution—group all people according to the shade of their skin, their sex, their sexual proclivities, their income level, and use government force to redistribute income, resources, rights, and privileges to those deemed worthy. This, they say, is the way of peace and justice. Living as those enslaved to the flesh, we judge others according to the flesh alone.

In such an age, the Church must reassert that Christ alone has the power to bring true flourishing to the world, bridging what the world would use to divide us. The world which hated Jesus hates him still. The world seeks to assault Christ’s victory, making the divisions between people wider and enduring. But only in Christ do we have the power to transcend worldly differences, able to approach even enemies as our neighbors. Only in Christ can we recognize our physical differences for what they are—reflections of the glory of God, whose infinite majesty is displayed in wild diversity. Only in Christ can we achieve true justice, recognizing each individual as just that—persons valued by God, defined by God, and responsible to God. In a world which clings to lies, only in Christ do we find the truth that sets us free. Only in obedience to the Lord of all nations will the peoples of the earth come together.

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