Good Roots
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Good Roots
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Today is our second day of advent in the year 2022. We continue to await our messiah is it was prophesied to us. Isaiah describes for us who he is and to whom he will be related to and how he will be and the things that he will do. Everything about this awaited messiah is explained by how he is rooted. The results of how he shall be I believe are based on how he is rooted. Likewise, I believe the results of who we will be will also be based upon how we too are rooted.
We are told that “a shoot will come up form the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” This gives us a picture of a family tree. Jesse is at the top of this tree. We know that Jesse had many sons and when Samuel went to find and anoint the new king Jesse showed Samuel his sons. All of Jesse’s Sons looked to be strong and brave and to Samuel several of them looked like good king material based upon how the world would view a king. However, God is not interested in looks or in what the world looks for. God was looking for what was inside a man’s heart. He is still looking inside our hearts today. There was one more son working in the field attending sheep. He was a handsome looking boy but nothing about him spoke out king at the time. However, his heart was rooted in seeking the Lord and it is because of these roots that he was chosen as king.
We can look from the lineage of David and see from all of the off shoots of his line and ancestry that these generations lead up to Joseph the carpenter and then to Jesus our Messiah. From the least likely king we have another king from the least likely line. We are told that the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. Because of this Spirit, just as God judged David differently, our Messiah will also judge differently. He won’t base everything off of what he hears or sees with his eyes. Instead, he will judge with righteousness and therefore delivering justice to the world and to the needy and poor. We are told that through his mouth he will strike the earth as if it were a Rod. It is because of this that the religious leaders of the time wanted him gone because his voice was like a sword. His voice offended them because it shined a light on their hypocrisy and they did not like that at all.
In our passage from Romans today Paul speaks about how we are to treat other Christians. At that time there were not so much of different denominations but there were Jews and Gentiles. Because they were different, they also had different perspectives of the world. Paul explains that we should not get all caught up in the trivial differences such as eating meat sacrificed to idols or not eating anything unclean. We should also not hinder or disrespect each other just because we see things differently. However, we should keep ourselves rooted in Christ and judge based on our faith in Jesus. If Jesus is the center, then all of these trivial things do not matter. Yet it seems that we often do not follow Paul’s words. As a result, we have many different denominations which is fine other than there is friction between many of them. Though we might not agree on some things we must understand that the one thing we do agree on is that salvation is from Jesus Christ. He is our roots that will spring forth righteousness and goodness.
While John was in the wilderness baptizing people there were Pharisees that came to see what he was doing. They were upset with his words because they were rooted in the laws but were not rooted in righteousness. John warns them of the coming wrath of God and how the righteous and unrighteous will be separated out from each other. They all have a choice though to repent and do what is right.
Goodness and righteousness come from our roots. Evilness also comes from our roots as well depending on how we are rooted. Before Christ we were subject to all kinds of evil. However, the wonderful thing about our beloved savior is that he can up root us and transplant us into good soil which is found in his word and within the Holy Spirit. There was a time in my life in which I was rooted in all things of the world. My actions and words were all based upon these roots. The things of the world were my focus and desire and I acted as such with evil and sinful intentions towards others. But Jesus uprooted me from this and planted me in his word and I began to understand differently. It was at that time that I also changed what I listened to on the radio. I found that I was so miserable with how my friends acted and how I acted based upon my knowledge of Jesus. I realized how all of these things were influencing me and that I was not strong enough at the time to not be influenced by them. There comes a time when we must decide for ourselves in what we should be rooted in. Are we going to be rooted in Jesus or are we going to be rooted in the world. According to Paul for some the things of the world do not affect them because they are strongly rooted in Christ. These are described as the strong Christians. For others they must completely shut themselves out from the world a they are weaker in their roots. However, I believe that as long as we root ourselves in Christ, those roots will go down deep and build us up stronger.
This is the season in which we anticipate Christ’s return. It is a time to remind ourselves in where we are rooted as we await his return. Do we have good roots or bad roots? Jesus is rooted in the Lord and in righteousness and therefore judges the world in righteousness. Do we do the same? Do we look at the world in righteousness and look at the heart or do we look at everything with what we see, hear, and feeling with our emotions? We should remind ourselves of that when we make decisions in life as well. Is our decision rooted in Christ or is it rooted in how we feel or in what our other senses tell us? This Christmas season is a great time to reflect on these things. Christmas for the world seems to have very little focus on Christ but more about one what we can get or take. My prayer is that you will be rooted in Christ for this Christmas and that you will see the world through his eyes and that you will love and care as he did and does. That you will not judge by your feelings but you will judge by righteousness found in His word. Are you rooted in Christ this season?