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WORTHY!

 ·   ·  ☕ 7 min read  ·  ✍️ Odunayo Rotimi

Snapshot

Key Text: Matthew 10:37-38.
Lamb: Jesus.
lambs: Jesus' disciples.

Worthy’s worth

The word worthy means to merit and has been used in the bible concerning many events. The word worthy traverses the old and new testament of the bible. It has the characteristic of attributing qualification to the qualified. In the Old Testament, Jacob used it to appreciate the mercy he got from Esau for sparing his life. Hannah described how the Lord merit Her praises for providing Samuel for her; David too in Psalms 18:3. Solomon used the word in making a demand on a man that should die.

In the new testament, however, John, the forerunner of Jesus, opened the new testament, using it to place a demand on people who have received baptism for repentance. And this sets the tone for its usage, even by Christ, in the whole of the new testament. John also used it following how it was used in the Old Testament when he depicted himself as unmeriting for Jesus’s stewardship. This article will focus on three instances where the word in question was used to place a demand.

Worthy Lamb

At some point in heaven, past, future or now, I may not be able to ascertain. God, whose glory is to deliberately conceal things, sought favourable princes who could unwrap what He had sealed with seven seals. Then a loud sound ringing an announcement to gather the qualified sounded round heaven. “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” proclaimed the angel. But, sadly, as pure as heaven was, as apt as the angels knew, as eloquent as could be, as wise as the elders could be, none in heaven and on the earth beneath was found worthy of this high calling. “No one, celestial, terrestrial, or subterranean,” said Thomas Nelson1, “was found qualified to unroll or read it.”

The scroll, if unopened, as the content revealed, meant iniquity lawlessness will reign for eternity. This meant hopelessness for suffering saints. It meant all hope of Christ’s second coming was vague. It also connotes that the glory of the gospel is soon to fade away. Therefore, considering all of this, John wept much because there was none worthy to open and read the scroll.

Thanks to the Lion (fierce justice executor), who is also the Lamb (unjust earth-slain), was not only worthy to open the scroll but also qualified to read it. And as all justices of the earth reserve the prerogative to read their verdicts concerning any case. So to say He was worthy meant saying He was qualified. “How did he qualify?” we may ask.

Artfully delivered, Bro. John did not leave us clueless, but in Revelation 5:6, a distinct description of the qualification was itemized. And the most salient of it all was that He was a Lamb that was slain. Having been killed, Jesus qualified to open the scroll. Having been unjustly murdered for just cause, He became the judge of heaven and earth. This fact is not in isolation as other verses also projects in the book of revelation, how Jesus' praises were sung. It sounded, “worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the honour.” The honour, in this case, was for His Prince to unearth what His Father and king had concealed, eternity-long.

Yes, as you might have sensed, His qualification came through suffering. Merit was through menace. Glory and grief with God, as with His Christ, go hand-in-hand. Enough for Jesus; let’s observe His disciples. I presume we find it easier to identify with these folks.

Worthy lambs

Acts 5:41 tells us of a reaction that followed the public lashing of full-grown family men for the sake of Jesus. They had been interrogated and unjustly tortured, but a joy succeeded the event on given premises. The apsóstles, Peter and John, precisely, went home, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name of Jesus.

It is striking to know that, unlike the scroll in heaven, it was for suffering for Christ sake that a demand was made on their qualification. Thus, while counting the favour of Jesus for material riches as with sun and moon costs nothing, well-qualified has to be the man to be counted worthy of Christ’s suffering.

During the disciples' first journey out in the region of Galilee, the expedition of the disciples yielded many fruits. Jesus, however, asserted that the joy for the “demons that departed in His name as well as other magnificent miracles was not theirs. Instead, it was His. Their only portion in the event was that their names were written I the book of life. But in this instance, this joy was theirs to share and to keep. Why? Great is the reward now written against their erstwhile registered name in the book of life.

Joy in the Holy Ghost is a treasure concealed by the Father, and it takes a suffering prince to unravel it. Until one penetrates through the fangs of suffering, not for selfish, greedy reasons, but for righteousness' sake, the joy Jesus commanded us to express by jumping is never accessible to one. Well, may we say these worthy lambs were worthy, but how did they become worthy?

Worthy walk

Pitifully, to all who view Jesus as a sham, Jesus surpasses all in beauty and in riches. Otherwise, the following statement would have been too much of an irritable man to make. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daiúghter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me,” reads Matthew 10:37-38.

To be worthy of Christ’s attribute – suffering – is first to be worthy of Him. By worthy of Him, He means worthy to follow Him in a triumphant march into His coming kingdom. The walk starts here and now. And He who denies Him such affiliation now will be rejected His acknowledgement before His Father and angels in His coming kingdom.

Following Jesus is not a cheap affair, nor Christ is a wretched man as the world purports. He is a king and so can set bounds to those who qualify for His company and service. No earthly king nor religious progenitor jas ever made such daunting demand. No religion has ever desired a love surpassing familial love. No one in His good senses who knows the gains far outweighs the pain will make such demands. But audaciously, and unrepentantly so, Jesus made such. He didn’t shy away from the cross but made light of its shame. He literarily put shame to shame to earn the highest weight of glory any man could earn anywhere.

There lies a secret here. As Vance Havner puts it, Jesus without the cross is lovable and believable to nominal believers. But when hung on the cross and in fact on His way to it, He was a subject of jeering and spitting. Is that far-fetched from the current-day prosperity gospel? The Jesus that gives houses, cars, a promotion at work, familial settlement, grants visas and gives good health is believable. An attempt to project beyond this elementary state or earthly grappling will show how elusive the current-day Christians can get and how disloyal their view of Christianity is. The Christ of the cross is glory concealed in suffering. Still, it will take princes who dare the enemy to penetrate and, through the out-living, unearth this mystery of glorious Christ-life.

Would you ever be worthy of lasting joy? Between you and that is the cross concealed.
To be worthy of glorification with Christ is preceded by worthiness for His suffering, which is in turn preceded by a meritorious walk with Him. Speak to Him in a sacred corner of your willingness and ignorance. He is ready to take you up from wherever. Yes, wherever!

References

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Odunayo Rotimi
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Odunayo Rotimi