Riches to rags (Zephaniah 1-3; Psalm 74; 2 Cor 8)

I remember visiting a rubbish dump that people lived on. It was in Brazil, and perhaps what struck me most was the contrast between riches and poverty. Within 10 minutes there was an air conditioned shopping centre full of luxury and comfort and yet here were people with nothing but rubbish to live off. Can you imagine someone choosing to leave the comfort of the shopping centre to go and live on the rubbish dump!

That would be hard to believe, but our reading from 2 Corinthians 8 tells us of an even bigger step down that our Lord Jesus did for us so that we can enjoy the Lord exulting over us with singing as we read about in Zephaniah 3. What did He do for us? “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9)

Think of the incredible steps he took for you. He left a place of honour, for dishonour, He left a place of love for rejection, he left a place where He owned everything to go to a place where he had nowhere to call home. He did that for you. Oh the love of Christ. He who was honoured and worshipped by angelic beings, took on flesh so that He could live as a refugee, have his beard pulled, face slapped, back flogged, hands and feet pierced and His head crowned with thorns. He did that for you.

He left the place of perfect communal love – the Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Spirit, the Spirit loving the Father – to face rejection, even to the point in His humanity where He would be forsaken by His Father. He did that for you.

He did that for you, so that you could share the riches He had before time began. So that you could be welcomed into heaven, so that God could rejoice over you with singing. Our reading from Zephaniah speaks of the judgment that we deserve but promises “the Lord had taken away the judgments against you” (3:15). He did that through Jesus exchanging the riches of heaven for the rags of this earth, so that He could die in your place and give you His loving presence forever. How should we respond?

Overwhelming thankfulness naturally, but in the passage to the Corinthians, He encourages them to generous giving. Giving to support fellow Christians who are struggling. As we consider how much Jesus has given for us, we are surely motivated to help our Christian brothers and sisters in need. Surely this is part of how we show the world we are Christ’s disciples, by the way we love one another.