Month: December 2019

The Gospel reading from Matthew about the redemptive historical purposes of the nation reveals the assurance and plan of the redemptive present and eternal purposes for you and I (Matt 2:15). Matthew’s message resonates with Hosea’s prophecy, ‘which talks about the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt, is fulfilled in Jesus, because Jesus is the embodiment of Israel’ (Hosea 11). Beyond their connected prophetic fulfilment, Matthew and Hosea suggests a robust piece of New Testament theology with ‘an analogical correspondence between the history of the nation Israel and the history of the Messiah.’ The reflection is that, the historical...

Our familiarity with the Christmas story sometimes makes us forget about the difficult circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth.  John’s Christmas story is abstract and philosophical. Luke invites we who wrap ourselves blankets of comfortable familiarity that seldom looks beyond our own families or welfare to enlarge our vision of God’s purposes, and to join God in the movement to a renewed world (Luke 2). Luke and Mary lived in the shadow of the “Romans, they knew the thrones of the powerful and “the humiliation of the slave,”  Let us recall that Jesus was born in a stable. The animals might...