Winter snows can be beautiful, but what about when all the glory melts away? What do we have left? The world appears brown and nondescript, and it can suck the joy out of our days.
The Jews of Jesus’ time felt the same. The glories of David and Solomon were long past. Solomon’s temple was no more. The Jews had become trampled beneath the feet of the Romans.
They were no longer a great and glorious people, evidence of the grandeur of Almighty God. Instead, they had become a quarrelsome family bickering over spiritual truths and whether God’s Word was real. The ruling class of Israel was convinced that there was no spiritual world and no afterlife.
Israel was deep in winter, and the snows of her former glory had long since melted away. Her people were ready for spring.
Zechariah 9:9 gave an early proclamation of what was to come. The prophet encouraged Zion to shout with praise, because her king was coming. He would be righteous and filled with salvation, yet he would be humble in spirit, riding upon the foal of a donkey.
The Jews were well aware of this prophecy. They needed a greening of their world. Winter had weighed them down for far too long. We see the picture in John 12:12-19. When the crowd saw Jesus coming on the back of a young donkey, they ran to him, crying those words we know so well. “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Almighty God, for he is the King of Israel.”
The Jews had sensed the first greening that comes with the spring. However, their need for renewed life caused them to misread Jesus’ purpose in coming to this world. The Jews hoped for a physical greening, a return to the glories of David and Solomon.
Jesus had come for a different reason altogether.
When Nicodemus the Pharisee came to Jesus in John 3, he expressed belief in Jesus’ divinity, for surely no earthly man could perform such signs and wonders otherwise.
Nicodemus had seen the true spring. John 3:3 tells us Jesus’ reply. “You see the truth, for no man can find God unless he is born again.”
Israel’s new spring, her rebirth, her greening, was to be a spiritual one. Jesus had not come to restore the glories of the former kingdoms of Israel, but rather to raise God’s chosen people to a spiritual mountaintop.
We know the story. The Jews rejected the capstone, and the spiritual greening intended for the Jews was given to the gentiles instead.
Our spiritual spring is still ahead of us, if we believe on the one who came to bring us life and more abundantly. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:2-4 that by Christ’s gospel we are saved, for the Christ died for our sins, and he was raised into glory on the third day.
How can we find the greening of Jesus? The process is a simple one.
In Acts 2:38, Peter shares Jesus’ plan in one sentence. “Repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Christ Jesus, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus is a greening Jesus. If we invite him into our lives, he will wipe the barren winter fields away, and he will bring us into a spiritual spring.
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