|
“Lord, this is Matthan… my days on this earth are at an end. I can feel my life ebbing out with each breath. So into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
“But… O Lord … as I still have breath, hear now, the cry of my soul:
“How long, how long, O Lord, must Your people wait for Your Savior, promised of old? It has been over 400 years since You have spoken to Your People … since they have seen Your glory. Since they have been reassured of Your love.
“In Him, in Your promised Messiah, I have put my trust. But how long, how long, O Lord? I am devastated, for my eyes will not see Him in my days.
“And so, O Lord. What was my life? But as a breath? A mist that appeared for a while and then evaporated at the rising of the sun? What was it?
“True, O Lord, you gave me a loving wife. True, O Lord, you gave me a family. Loving children. But Lord, for why? Dust we all are, and to dust we must return.
“We eek out our existence in the midst of the thorns and thistles of this world. The ones the come from nature … like the insects and the wind storms and the drought. As well as those ones that come from human nature … thievery, slander, backbiting, and rejection … hatred and war.
“What is life, Lord, without Hope? And where is this Hope that You have promised since the days of Old? Days foretold by Isaiah … as we listened with Hope to His words as we heard them read in the Synagogue. Where, O Lord, is that Hope?
“You brought us back from Babylon … back to our land, back to the land You gave us. You sent messengers in those days to rekindle the Hope we thought was lost. But now … You have been silent for all these years.
“What do we have from You … but the Romans? And what are we to them … but slaves? Instead of building the Pyramids of Pharaoh, we now build pyramids of coins upon their tax-collectors’ tables.
“Lord, they oppress us without mercy. And there is no one to resist. They place their own people in the seats of honor and authority over us. We are helpless.
“Oh, Lord. What is our sin? What have we done to incur Your wrath? Why do we languish with our hands hanging limp at our sides?
“Oh, Lord. (coughing) My time draws short. But Lord, would it have been too much to have granted ME life… in another time? … Would that, Lord, not have been better for Your servant?
“For your servant to live in the days of the Savior … to see Jerusalem restored to the glory it had in the days of David and Solomon… To know Hope … No, not just know it … but, to see it… to touch it!… Oh, Lord … would that not have been so much better?? Would that have been too much?
“My days, Lord. What can I say? I have eked them out to the best of my ability. I have tried to keep myself from the stains of this world… I have done my best to lead my sons and my daughter in ways that would give glory to You.
“And yet, Lord, there is no crown. How much more, Lord, could I have done, could I have given You, had I lived in better days? But now… I am about to leave this earth … Is it better for the fact that my days knew nothing but drudgery without hope? That I spent my life … for nothing??”
Suddenly there was a bright flash in the sky … and the people heard a long roll of thunder … but Matthan… heard something else …
“Matthan, my child … close your eyes, and be still. You have spoken, and now I will speak. And when I have answered … You will be with Me.
“You accuse … where you have no grounds. You complain … when you have no right. You pity yourself … and cast Me as Your adversary. For these sins … you are forgiven, for You have faith in the One who is to come, the One who will be my Lamb of Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
“Matthan, my child, you look about you and you see you are surrounded by trees, with a canopy of leaves and branches overhead. But, from above, I see a forest … extending in all directions over the rolling hills to the extent to which I have established.
“So it is also with the lives of men and women. Years from now, there will be a man and a woman who will rejoice to have seen my salvation in their day. For in yours … the fullness of time for the birth of the Promised One had not yet come.
“As Your Father in heaven, it grieves my heart that you should feel that your life was of no significance. That the things you accomplished you did all on your own … that the world you leave is no different than the world you entered as an infant.
“Matthan, do you remember the time … Yes, you do, don’t you? And you claim I had not appeared in Israel since the days of the prophets of Old. It was I who saved you. Of that, even then you were sure.
“And your family, Matthan. Your Family. You know how much your second son and your daughter look like you? That’s a sign, Matthan. Those two look like you on the outside … so that you might have an inkling of how much they ALL look like you … on the inside … in their hearts.
“Matthan, many who have been great in the world’s eyes have been forgotten not 3 generations hence. Some, through Historians, have had the memories of their DEEDs preserved for future generations. Their deeds, but not their hearts.
“And yet, some, like my servant David, who has a heart after mine, has been blessed that their lineage might preserve not only their deeds but also … their hearts.
“It is no small thing, Matthan, that you are of the house of David. For your heart is also after mine. And that heart is now in your children.
“And your eldest … has a son … one whom you know … his name is Joseph. The faith that is in your grandson Joseph will be long told, for he shall shepherd my Holy One. And because of Joseph … your name will never be forgotten, but written in the book from which no jot or tittle will ever pass away.
“And so now Matthan, you shall receive your crown, your inheritance that has been prepared for you since before the world was spoken into being.
“For despite the thorns of the world, the injustices which flow from the sinfulness of human nature, you have fought the good fight and held fast to Me through Your faith which is of greater worth than Gold.
“So now hear these words, Matthan, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter now into Your Masters Rest.’”
And Matthan, the grandfather of Joseph, Mary’s husband … breathed his Last.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
|