On Killing Christ

There seems to be a strand in our reading today, and it is on "killing Christ".
Esau wants to kill Jacob through whom the line of Christ was to come.
Hamann wants to kill all the Jews through whom the Christ will come.
The Jews obviously want to do away with Jesus and crucify Him.
The religious rulers of Paul's day want to put to death the messenger of Christ.
There is such resistance to Christ in our world in all time. Why?
I think because an encounter with Christ causes us to be confronted with our own heart, our own sin. An encounter with Christ will bring us to see that our hearts are full of deceit (Jacob, Rebekah, Isaac, Abraham), pride (Hamann), hatred (The Jews of Jesus' and Paul's day), and selfishness (Judas - betraying the Lord for silver...). And we don't like that revelation, though it be true.
But if we would accept the truth about our hearts. If we would not run away from that important, albeit painful insight, we would be at the doorstep of transformation, for when we acknowledge the true condition of our heart we may be ready then to look to Christ who alone can bring us healing.
That's what Paul's testimony declares in Acts 26:18. He said that the message of Christ was designed to "open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me (Christ)."
And when we have come to Christ, having acknowledged our sin and our inability to do anything about it, and when Christ has poured out His love and forgiveness into the deepest recesses of our soul, we will want to worship Christ, perhaps like the woman who poured out her very costly perfume. We will want to show our love for Christ's amazing grace in the most lavish ways we know how.
Have you had an encounter with Christ? Has He shone His light upon your needy heart, and have you experienced the transforming grace of His abundant forgiveness? Don't run away from this revelation. Run toward Christ. You will find in Him the greatest treasure that you will never lose.