Have you ever heard of someone meeting a famous person and not realizing that they are who they are until afterwards? Maybe you have actually done it yourself. These two guys were on a road to a city just 7 miles from Jerusalem, they encounter someone that they don’t recognize, but something is different when they are around Him. He seems not to know about the intense and astonishing things that have happened in Jerusalem in the previous few days. So they “enlighten” this Stranger, who just so happens to be the very One about whom they are talking. They were describing Jesus to Jesus Himself, and they called Him “a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people.”
It has been that intercession is a hard thing to do, this is partially because of the mental blockage that comes up when you stop to realize that what we are doing is telling God what He tells us to tell Him, or ask Him for things that He has told us to ask Him for. It just doesn’t make sense to us. But imagine you are telling the all-knowing God who He is. That is a whole other level. It almost seems pointless, like repeating His attributes to Him over and over, as if reminding Him what He is like. The issue is not His lack of understanding or revelation, obviously, but our own lack. We need to know.
Though uninformed about the Recipient of their tale, they were absolutely right about what they were saying about Him. He was mighty in deed, before God and all the people. He was mighty in word before God and all the people. Rather than drawing on the awesomeness of His deeds and words, it is important to see how we fit into this part of His identity. We were made in His image, we are being made into the reflection of the Son, just as He is the Perfect reflection of the nature and character of the Father. As we look at Him, we are becoming more and more like Him. So when we see that He was mighty in deed and word, wisdom says “you will be greater in deed and word”. John 14:12 says that we who believe will do greater works than He did. Our deeds and words will be greater than His. That seems impossible, but if the Bible then we must change.
As I write this, I am enrolled in a missions department at a ministry school. This is my second year in the program and there are first year students that are under us that are learning from our example. It has often come up in discussion that the first year students have a far greater potential than we do, and we have positioned our hearts and set our goals to advancing them far beyond us. A good leader does not bring those under them up to their level, but rather lay their lives down, running for all they are worth, to become a launching pad for the next generation that they are leading to accelerate past them. Jesus did the very same thing, He made it possible for those who follow Him to go further than He went. He gave all His authority to his followers. He left the world in our hands. In a way, though a pre-tribulation rapture theology has its flaws, the situation is similar. We really have been left behind, but not so that we can cower in fear and wait for Him to come rescue us out of the world. We have been equipped and left behind to fix the world, save it and redeem it in preparation for His home-coming.
We prepare the earth for that final touch down of the Son of God on the Mount of Olives that the prophet Zechariah spoke of by doing the works of the Kingdom. We live lives that speak as loudly as the Gospel we preach. Our deeds back up our message.
*Perfect your image in us, show us how to be just like you in deed and word. Amen. *
