Advent 2016 Day 18
COUNSELOR
Jesus is a wonderful counselor. So begins one of four names assigned to Him by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 9. He is a friend who listens to us sympathetically, but who doesn’t simply listen as is the path so many contemporary counselors follow today. We need more than a compassionate ear, though we do need someone to listen to our sorrow and confusion.
Jesus is a wonderful counselor, a “wonder of a counselor” the literal text reads, because He spoke wisdom to our confusion, brought clarity to our confusion and peace in our chaos. He is a wonderful counselor because His words bring life, not death. Forgiveness, not judgment.
Jesus is a wonderful counselor because “He knows what is in man.” He brought spiritual insight to every circumstance, and could brush past prejudice, His own feelings and cultural boundaries to speak life.
Jesus is a wonderful counselor because He took on our humanity and frailty in the incarnation. He understands us. He “gets” us at the deepest level. He walked in our flesh, and wore our sorrow. Tim Keller says of this “wonderful counselor:”
God truly understands you from the inside of your experience. There’s no other religion that says God has suffered, that God had to be courageous, that He knows what it’s like to be abandoned by friends, to be crushed by injustice, to be tortured and die. Christmas shows that God knows what you’re going through. When you take to Him, He understands.
Jesus is a wonderful counselor. You need no other to stand with you, to listen to you, to guide you because none can do it like Jesus can. And if you know Him, you know why this name fits Him so well!
FOR MEDITATION: His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…. Isaiah 9:6
FOR REFLECTION: Take your deepest, most confusing, most frustrating, most painful issues to this One who alone can bring you peace, clarity, wisdom and healing. He is a Wonderful Counselor… and you need no appointment to reach Him!