How does God manifest God’s care for you?
The prophet Zechariah writes at time when the people have returned from exile in Babylon and must rebuild the temple and their lives. His words are ones of hope: God promises the people a messiah who will bring justice and peace – a true cause for rejoicing. Moreover, the coming messiah will be an agent of God’s blessing, meek, and riding on an ass, a man of peaceful confidence, strength, and humility. Thus, after all their trials in Babylon, God promises compassion for God’s people, a compassion that takes the form of covenant language in Psalm 145: God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, good to all and compassionate toward all his works. The psalmist praises God and invites others to join in that praise via a joy-filled acknowledgement of God’s care for God’s people.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus similarly offers a prayer of praise to God as he preaches in the towns and villages, acknowledging yet again God’s care for his people: Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. Those who are open to God, the little ones who are willing to be moved by God’s action in their lives, will be transformed by God’s constant care. Jesus, the fulfillment of the messianic promise, is meek and humble of heart, gentle in his ways, with peaceful confidence and strength; we are to learn from him what it means to be in right relationship with God through our service of others, allowing, as Paul tells the Romans, the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us. Our existence must not be focused on the self-centeredness of flesh but on the other-centeredness of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit is a manifestation of the personal love shared between the Father and the Son, a love full of compassion and grace, the ultimate embodiment of God’s care for God’s people, and for us -- and it is ours to share with our troubled world.
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