For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor; that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8: 9, NKJV
Precious Lord, how happy we are to be in Your presence once more. Please stay with us as we study. For Christ’s sake. Amen
Because of grace, the Savior left the beauty, peace, purity, joy, and the adoration, of numberless angels, to come to our benighted planet. He did this in order that we might leave the darkness, gloom, sadness, and death, of a planet held captive by the prince of this world, the prince of darkness; and enter the heavenly realms! Oh, what love! Oh, what grace!
Some of us, perhaps more than others, might be able to relate to the limitations of poverty. Even after we become grown men and women, some can still remember the gnawing hunger pangs. For others it may be just having the bare essentials. For still others, this poverty might have brought as a result, homelessness. There could be as many by-products of poverty, as poor people that exist. Let us look at some of the occasions when poverty became evident in the life of Christ.
At His birth. “So it was, that while they were there the days were completed for her (Mary) to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2: 6, 7). Just imagine, the Creator, the Sovereign King of the universe, the Lord of heaven and earth; His parents had to borrow someone’s barn, in order for Mary to have a place to give birth! The manger, or trough, from which animals eat or drink, became His crib. His was a borrowed crib. You, who created the animals became their Guest, and spent Your first night on earth, in their habitat! Yours is a love, that we mortals cannot fathom. It is so foreign to us! But we thank You!
As He ministered (a). One day, during His ministry, a scribe came to Jesus, promising to follow Him wherever He went. To this Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8: 19, 20). No home of His own! Whenever He desired the warmth of a home, the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, became His home; for He had no home of His own (The Desire of Ages, p. 459). His home was a borrowed home. What selflessness! What a complete stripping of Himself, that we might have everything we need. Don’t you love My Savior?
As He ministered (b). During His last week, just before He laid down His life on Calvary’s cross, He made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The donkey upon which He rode, was borrowed. My Savior, who created all things, and to whom all things belong, had to borrow a donkey, to ride into Jerusalem. It was all because of His undying love, that He offered us undeserving favor, His matchless grace!
At His death. “After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that He might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first, came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid” (John 19: 38-41). He was buried in a borrowed tomb!
A borrowed crib; a borrowed home; a borrowed donkey; a borrowed tomb; and all because of love!