Re:Verse passage – John 18:33-40 (day four)
I love that we are reading this portion of Scripture in the middle of Advent. This isn’t the kind of passage we typically read this time of year, but I think it makes the waiting, the yearning, the expectancy of Advent even more rich. In the very hours before Jesus’ death, he makes a statement about his birth. He brings us back to the nativity.
He says “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Charles Spurgeon says of this passage: “Truth never exerts as much power as when it is embodied. Christ both spoke the truth and was the truth. Truth embodied in flesh and blood has the power over flesh and blood. This is why he was born.”
If we’re going to truly celebrate his birth, we have to remember why he came – he came that we might know truth. He came so that this beautiful, powerful, flesh-and-blood truth might rule in the hearts of his people. When we yearn and wait for Christ in this season, we are yearning and waiting for truth itself. And by the grace of God, we have received it in full.