I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
Isaiah 42: 6-7
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
This is why He came. This is why Jesus was born a human, why He became one of us, and why He ultimately died for us. To fulfill these words from Isaiah.
The world, back then and as is today, is filled with broken people. People broken physically, mentally and most definitely spiritually. People blind to God’s love. People imprisoned by sin. People enslaved by darkness. We all face our own demons.
This is why He came. Jesus’ baptism set this in motion, where everything came together to fulfill that prophesy and God’s promise. But not only through His sacrifice, but in rising from the dead and ascending to Heaven, Jesus has provided the blueprint and the means for us to do the same. This is why He came – to baptize uswith His Spirit and His purifying fire.
But what does this mean? Well, to me it’s this – He provides the graces and Sacraments for us to open our eyes and see the truth, to free us from our prisons of sin, and to flood our darkness with light. If we seek a relationship with Christ, if we have faith in Him, if we pray, and if we look to Him first and foremost in our lives – He will lead us out of whatever trial or affliction we find ourselves in.
He may use that trial to strengthen us, to be that purifying fire, and eventually He will lead us out. He will bring good from it. There will be blessings. And through it all, He will help us to find joy. Joy in the fact that He is there with us, through it all – the good and the bad – and that bit by bit, He is leading us closer to Him.
Through His baptism and thereafter, Jesus wore the sins and pain of humanity all the way to the cross. And so, I find joy in knowing that if I offer up my struggles and my pain, that He will apply that grace somewhere else, for someone else. He offered Himself up for us, and we can do the same.
I find joy in knowing that there is another way, a better way, than the way of the world. I find joy in knowing that life is a journey, and that with all the ups and downs and twists and turns, He’s there, right alongside me, and that I can always lean on Him for strength and guidance.
And I find joy in the fact that even when I cannot see the path ahead, or how things will play out, or if there is even a solution – that I can trust in the Providence of God and trust that He will provide a way.
I trust in His Word and in His Promise. This is why He came.
