Confidence In God

 March 26 2023

Matthew 18

         Well, today is the beginning of the fifth week of our season of Lent. Each week we draw closer to Jerusalem and next week being Palm Sunday we will celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus there. As we have said earlier in our Lenten journey, the season of Lent is a season of fasting, a season of giving up something that we enjoy. Lent is also a time of sorrow and humility which seems obvious as we begin this season with Ash Wednesday where we declare that we are but dust and ashes in the great scheme of things. It is really important that this attitude of humility is held fast to when we fast other wise we might be like Jeffrey Pugh, who on social media was quoted as saying, “I’m giving up self-righteousness for Lent because I want to do it better than anyone else.”. You see, our motivation for doing things, even fasting, does matter! We can all agree that it is pretty easy for us, in our suffering for Christ, to want to point out to everyone just how miserable we have made ourselves and everyone around us, all for the sake of Christ. Yet, I think to do so just really misses the whole point of this season of Lent which is to take the focus off of us and place that focus where it rightfully belongs which is squarely upon Jesus.

         Now to be honest, we are not the first followers who have struggled to keep Jesus where he rightfully belonged, I mean did you hear the question of the disciples in today’s scripture from Matthew, “Hey Jesus, who is the greatest in the kingdom?”. I wonder if that was one of those questions that they wanted to forget the moment that they had said it. I mean, isn’t it kind of obvious guys just who the greatest is in the kingdom, and I am pretty sure, it is not one of you. When you hear the disciples ask Jesus this question, doesn’t the ideas of pride and arrogance just seem to jump off of the page? This seems rather obvious, doesn’t it, yet as I studied various commentaries, none of them seemed to be focused on the apparent prideful attitude of the disciples. The reason I am surprised that this attitude was not picked up on is that, traditionally, pride is sin number one. I mean, pride is said to be the one sin from where all of the other sins are said to originate. If you know what haughtiness and arrogance are, what pride looks like, then how can somebody who desires to be the greatest not be considered to be a person that pride has got a hold of?

         I think Jesus also smelled the stench of pride lingering in the air after this question of just who is the greatest in the kingdom because Jesus flips the script and tells them that the person who humbles themselves like a child, this is who is the greatest in the kingdom. In fact, Jesus also tells them that unless they turn from their prideful desires and become like a child they wouldn’t even be able to enter the kingdom of God. When Jesus, here, tells his disciples to turn from this attitude, he is speaking quite clearly that they were to do an immediate U-Turn, and head the opposite way from where they came. Now, Jesus could have just told his disciples that they were out of line asking such arrogant questions and that they needed to stop immediately from doing so, but this is not what Jesus does. No, what Jesus does is to call out to a child, and with a smile on his face, he asks that child to come to him. This little kid, his face smeared with bits of lunch and his hair all a mess, this is the goal, Jesus says, this is where his disciples and we as well, are to be headed. In this the presence of this child, the disciples might have   remembered the story Jesus told up there on the mountainside, the one about a little child who came to their father and asked him for some bread. Jesus, paused and asked his disciples, would this father give this child a stone instead of his bread? Or, Jesus continued, say that this child had come to his father, and asked him for some fish sticks, would he instead give his child a snake? The answer to such silly questions is that of course not, fathers would not give their children a stone if they asked for bread and they absolutely would not have given their kid a snake instead of their fish sticks. The point of these questions, as Jesus told his disciples, is that if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, think of how much more does your good Father in heaven give good things to his children. Our Heavenly Father can be trusted in all circumstances because he gives out of his abundant goodness. This is very important for us to hold on to because, as Jesus knew so well, the source of pride and arrogance is a deep, insecurity that people have about life. What people want, more than anything, is to eliminate, as best as possible, all of what makes them so insecure and to do so requires that they have some power and control over their circumstances. We all want to be the greatest because then we will have the greatest chance of feeling secure in a very insecure world.  We all know that it is when we are on top of things that this is when we can at last feel less vulnerable to all the world is throwing at us. When we think that this is the way to feel secure then it is all the other people in our life that threaten our little scheme at an anxiety free world. The only answer is that we find a way to control them so they are no longer a threat to our worry free life. Do you begin to see why we all are right there with the disciples in our desire to be the greatest? Yet what is also so very true is that there is no position of power that will eliminate the fear like people hope it will. 

         You see, when Jesus told his disciples that they had to become like this little child that he held upon his lap, he was telling them that they needed to find their security in the goodness of their Heavenly Father. It is in our heavenly Father’s arms this is when we are at last secure just as a child knows that they are secure in their father’s arms, in their mother’s care. You see, the answer to pride and arrogance is not simply condemnation, not just to point out that most assuredly will prideful and arrogant people miss entering into the kingdom, but Jesus also goes on to tell them why. The reason why these disciples were in danger of missing out on living in the kingdom is that the kingdom is only for those who can declare that their security is only found in the arms of their Heavenly Father. If you have your security in the goodness of your Heavenly Father, then you won’t think for a second about how you can be the greatest because you will know that the greatest one has ahold of you. What Jesus knew so well is that when you have a life secured in the highest of heavens then you will be set free to live and serve in the lowest places here on earth.

         Now why it is so important that we find our security in the most secure place of all is so that we might become a secure place for those who are the least secure of all. We hear this in the wonderful statement that Jesus makes when he states that those who warmly welcome the little children are in fact warmly welcoming Jesus himself. What Jesus is implying is that the least significant person is still one who is worthy enough to be received just as if they were a king. Yet as remarkable as these words are, Jesus goes on to also say that anyone who causes these little ones to be tripped up in their trust of Jesus it would be better for that person to have a hundred pound weight hung around their neck and thrown overboard in the deepest part of the ocean. There are perhaps no more sobering words in all of the Bible. Who Jesus is speaking about here, are those who would speak against the very faithfulness and love of God especially in the presence of those who most desperately are in need of God’s faithful presence and love to anchor their life. To speak against the true character of God and in doing so destroy one’s security is to be so opposed to what God has created us to be that the one who does such a thing might as well return to the chaos out of which they were originally created. This is why Jesus sternly warns us with a cry of, “Woe!”. People will get tripped up in regards to their faith but for those who cause others to be tripped up, for those who cause others to lose their faith in the God, to these Jesus warns, “Woe”. Just as Jesus taught about how people can enter God’s promised kingdom, here Jesus also warns that life in the kingdom can and will be most assuredly taken away from those who cause others to lose their faith. So, we should take life in this kingdom very seriously. This means that we cannot become dissatisfied with what our Heavenly Father has provided for us no longer finding what our good Father gives to us is all that good. Instead of receiving what our Father gives us with thanksgiving we instead are tempted to long for that which our eyes see and that which our hand can grasp ahold of. This is why Jesus tells us is that we should stop looking and stop grasping and instead focus once again on the goodness of our Heavenly Father for only he is our security now and for all time.

         Those of us who have found our security in God are called by Jesus to be the place of security for those Jesus calls the little ones. The worst possible attitude we could have according to Jesus is to hold these little ones in contempt, considering them not worth our time or effort. Such an attitude would be expected with a person puffed up in his pride but if we have now found our security in the secure hands of our Heavenly Father then we are set free from our navel-gazing, where the world is all about us, to a life where we can focus on those who we need to care for. It is here in this teaching of Jesus, that we are suddenly given a marvelous glimpse into the joys of heaven where he describes how the angels of these little ones bask in the glow of the favor of our heavenly Father’s face. This seems like a strange little picture stuck awkwardly here in the middle of his discourse but it begins to make sense when we also hear Jesus speak of the will of the Father who is in heaven. The disciples, upon hearing this, might have immediately whispered the prayer that Jesus had prayed, the one which spoke of the will of our Heavenly Father that is to be done here on earth just as it is in heaven. Jesus wants us to  understand that just as the angels of these little ones are gathered around our Heavenly Father in heaven so too here on earth these little ones are to be gathered into the Father’s presence, to live before the face that shines upon them, the face which is joyfully smiling at their very being with him. This is why we are to go out and search for those who are on that wide road, those who are in danger of not becoming what they could have been or should have been. We are to leave the ninety-nine and go and tell that one lost soul that they too have been invited to experience life before the face of their Father here on earth just as the angels do so in heaven. So of course, there is great joy when one who is lost is at last found because they too get to be in the presence of our Heavenly Father, the very place where true joy is to be found. 

         As Jesus speaks here of the one lost sheep, how it is imperative that we leave the ninety-nine to go out and find that one and bring them home, I hope we can understand how vastly different Jesus is from the wolves who terrorized the lost sheep which was the house of Israel. These wolves were the very leaders of Israel at that time who, through their imposing fear, were sending all of Israel out on the wide road of destruction, not even caring that these lost and perishing sheep were going to miss out on what might have been, the very security they had all longed for, the security that was theirs which was found in the very arms of their Heavenly Father. What Jesus was training his followers to be were those who were willing to go out to the lost and wandering sheep and be for them good shepherds who would bring the wayward home to live in the presence of their Heavenly Father who loved them.

         This chasing after the lost, Jesus continues, does not just apply to these little ones but it is the very way that he expects that we are to be with all who are members of God’s family. When one we love does something that tears apart the unity that our Heavenly Father wills that there should be between us, then it is on us, those who have been hurt by another, to go to them and tell them of how their actions have torn apart our relationship. Here we must pause and really consider what Jesus is saying to us. Instead of brooding over the hurt that someone has done to us, or just writing such a hurtful person off all together, or to draw a line in the sand and stubbornly wait until that so-and-so comes and apologizes for their behavior, Jesus tells us to do something else instead. If we are the ones who are hurt, then it is we who must go and speak to the person who has hurt us. We have to admit that what Jesus calls us to do is quite counter-intuitive. Even so, Jesus is not finished because he goes on to say that after we go and tell this other person of how they have done us wrong and they refuse to listen to us, then we have to take those who witnessed the wrong doing and go back, once again, to this person who has messed up and see if these witnesses can convince them of their need to repent. And no, this is not the end of it, because if all of these efforts do not get results then Jesus says to tell it to the rest of the family so they too might try and persuade this one who is lost to come back into the fold. Only if the offender will not then be persuaded that they, through their wrongdoing, have torn themselves apart from those who follow Jesus, only then is this stubborn offender to be considered to be nothing more than a Gentile or a tax collector. Now, when we hear that this offender is to be considered to be nothing more than a Gentile or tax collector, I believe we are once again, called to go back to the teachings of Jesus heard up there on the mountainside. Do you recall when Jesus spoke of the perfect love of our Heavenly Father, how we are to love and pray for our enemies because this is the very way that our Heavenly Father loves his people, loving them not because they have reached the moral perfection that he expected of them but rather that he loved them even when they opposed what was expected of them. And then Jesus goes on to say, if you love those who love you what reward do you have, do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing then the others? Do not the Gentiles do the same? So, when a person refuses to acknowledge their wrong doing even though the followers of Jesus have patiently and lovingly attempted to win them back, then they are to be considered to be outside of the perfect love of the Father, and once again living in a world where love must be earned by one’s behavior. They must come to realize that through their own efforts that they cannot possibly fulfill the moral demands of God and so at last come back to the realization that they can only find life through the forgiveness of God. You see, if a person spurns the forgiveness of God extended to them through those who offer this forgiveness in his name, then they must be set back into a world where everything must be earned at great effort which ultimately will not succeed and then, and only then, will they understand themselves as dead before God, ready to receive his pardon once again.

         All of this emphasis on forgiveness at the end of this teaching has to make us wonder just why, why is it so important that we forgive not just seven times but seventy-times seven? Why is it so important that we remember the high cost of the forgiveness that our Heavenly Father offers to us when we consider whether to forgive another, or not? The answer is that we need to be constantly reminded that the security that we find in the arms of our Heavenly Father only happens because of his forgiveness of us. This means that our eternal security is not dependent upon how hard we attempt to hold on to our Father but rather it depends solely upon his firm grasp of us. So we remember this security which is ours through our Father’s willingness to forgive us every time we are willing to go and forgive those who have harmed us. Even so, as Jesus teaches us, this forgiveness is an act which has cost our Heavenly Father greatly because as we learn in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. In other words, the cost is a cross. This is the necessity of Calvary. The blood must be shed, the price must be paid, all so forgiveness might be obtained, this is the way that we at last can know the security found in the arms of our Heavenly Father. Amen!

The Mysteries of the Kingdom

 March 19 2023

Matthew 13:1-23

         Most people understand that when you go to hear a speaker or a singer, like in a concert setting, you always go with expectations. For my birthday last year, my three kids chipped in and got tickets so that they could take me to a Bruce Springsteen concert which is coming up in April. I have listened to Springsteen since I was a teenager and the year I met Jennifer we went to see him in the old Cleveland Browns stadium which was an unbelievable experience. So, I know that when I go to this upcoming concert, there is more than likely a whole bunch of songs that I can sing by heart. When I had kids, I shared my love of Springsteen music with them and I have great memories of them putting vinyl records on something called a record player so that we could listen to the songs that I had long enjoyed . So I expect that I will not be disappointed when we all show up at this concert knowing that yes, it will most likely be hours of singing along to songs that seem like old friends.

         So it goes without saying that when we go to hear someone that we go with expectations. I would be really confused if I went to a Springsteen concert and found that he has now decided to rap all of his music; I’d also be more than a little upset. So, I wonder what expectations the people in this crowd must have had as they heard that this latest Messiah wannabe was going to be speaking at the Galilean amphitheater. They must have wondered if this was at last the guy, you know, the guy who would be the answer to all those prophecies about a king in the line of David, you know, the one who would restore the country of Judaea, throwing out the foreign occupation forces, and reestablishing the holy kingdom of God. Maybe then it at last would feel like the exile was at over and done with. These people who gathered on the hills beside the Sea of Galilee must have expected fiery revolution speak, you know, a talk to set ablaze the hopes of the people crushed under the load of Roman rule. Maybe this is when he would lay out his plan to take back the holy city of Jerusalem, throwing out those unclean pagans from this sacred site. Maybe today this one who just couldn’t wait to be king would speak to how this would be the time of revenge for all of the fathers, and brothers and friends who had died brutal deaths at the hands of the infidels. We know that this must have been some of their expectations because it wouldn’t be very many years until longings such as these boiled over and these very same people who came out that day to hear Jesus would stir up a rebellion against Rome only to be crushed, their Temple torn down and their hopes scattered to the wind.

         So, here these people came from miles around wanting to hear of how they would be part of a great rebellion against imperial forces which had ravaged their land too long and then Jesus stood up, cleared his throat and said, “ A farmer went out to do his spring planting. Some of the seed fell on that little path alongside the field and the birds made a quick lunch of them. Some seed fell on those outcroppings of rock and the seed quickly sprouted yet it also quickly died as its roots never got going, so they withered away.Then there was some other seed which fell there in the thistles and the thorns and these seeds, they quickly got choked out by those vigorous weeds. But all was not lost because there was other seed that fell on good soil and those seeds, well those seeds, did they ever produce a harvest, some produced a hundred fold, and some sixty fold and yet others, thirty fold. If you’re listening, you’ll get what I’m saying. Thank you all for coming. Good night. And with that Jesus walks off the stage. Can you imagine the look of dismay and confusion on the faces of those poor people who had dropped everything to hurry over to the hills of Galilee to hear news of an upcoming revolution and all they got was nothing more than the farm report? All Jesus had spoken of was just a typical day sowing seed. Everybody who had heard Jesus that day already knew how the winter wheat and the barley was planted, they surely didn’t have to get all cleaned up and come and sit on a hillside to come and listen to some guy with delusions of grandeur speak to them about planting crops instead of speaking to them about the coming kingdom which is the real reason why they came.

         Yet, the truth was that Jesus really had been talking to them about the coming kingdom. You see, there was nothing wrong with what he had said rather their was something seriously wrong with the hearing of those who gathered to hear him that day. Jesus knew perfectly well the expectations of the people he spoke to. The hopes they had had so captured their imagination that there was no other way for them to expect a kingdom to come than for them to choose violence. This is why Jesus reaches back into the book of Isaiah, in the sixth chapter, the ninth and tenth verses, where God told the people who were Isaiah’s audience, “You indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they would see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” What should make us pause right here as we read these words of Isaiah is that they are found in all four gospel accounts. You have to admit that there are not many sayings that have made it into all of the accounts of the good news of Jesus Christ, but these are one of them. To grasp what God said to Isaiah and ultimately to us, we must begin at the end of this saying where God speaks about healing. Healing is only found in the truth because to be made whole is to become what we were truly meant to be. This is the healing that God wished his people to know, the healing that comes from the hearing and understanding of the truth. What kept them from experiencing this healing is that they were no longer able to hear, their ears had become heavy, and their eyes had become covered over and were no longer able to see. Yet as tragic as these symptoms were it was the horrible condition of the hearts of God’s people which was most shocking. God tells them that their hearts had become dull, the original Hebrew, said that their hearts had become fat, a term that implied being sluggish or stubborn. The condition of the people of God is that even if their eyes could see their hearts would be unable to perceive just what it was they were seeing. The heart then was the vessel where what is seen and what is heard is made sense of, where the raw data of our experiences is at last understood. What those people who had come to see and hear Jesus did not understand is that this is who they were, people who really did not understand what was going on.

         You see, when Jesus spoke of what seemed to be nothing more than a day in the life of a farmer, what he was actually doing is speaking about them. It was their ears which could not hear the words of God’s kingdom; it was their hearts which could not understand these words of God’s hope for the world. If the words of the kingdom could be thought of as being seeds suddenly the story Jesus told makes much more sense. If the words Jesus spoke about the kingdom were heard but these words were not understood, then this was an opportune time for evil to come into their hearts so that the words of Jesus were, in effect, destroyed.. Or if these words were heard, and received with joy, yet the person who does so does not have any root in himself, then when persecution or trouble comes, the enthusiasm of these people dries up and blows away like the seeds of a dandelion. And if a person hears the words of the kingdom and they are so caught up with worrying about all of the cares of this world then, yes, that word of the kingdom doesn’t stand a chance. Fortunately, the words of the kingdom, do get heard by a few people and these words are not only heard but these words are understood on a heart level and then this happens, voila, a harvest happens and the person speaks forth words of the kingdom which get heard by others, and not only heard by others but also understood deep within their hearts.

         It begins to become clear just why Jesus began to stop just stating that the kingdom of God was near and that people had to turn from what they had thought it was all about and begin to take a fresh look at what this kingdom of God  actually was. Jesus was speaking the truth, people had supposedly heard what Jesus was saying yet his words could make no head way against their preconceived ideas of what this kingdom of God was all about. They were street savvy enough to know that if you want a revolution then heads gotta roll and blood has to flow, there just was no other way that real change was going to happen unless through violent action. All of their thoughts about the kingdom and how it was going to happen filled their heads, clogging up their ears and their ability to actually hear what Jesus had to say. And what Jesus had to say was a radically different way that a revolution could happen than anyone had ever thought of. What if God’s kingdom was something that was alive, and growing that a person could get caught up in, losing their life in this new life which flowed out from the heart of God into and about our world. When Jesus spoke about a farmer who went out to do his spring planting, he was, in fact, speaking quite clearly about the kingdom of God. The reason that those who came that day most likely went home disappointed was that they knew all about how kingdoms come about, thank you, and what they wanted to hear is if this one who spoke about this coming kingdom knew what they knew. You see, a person’s expectations can clog up a person’s hearing and make their hearts quite stubborn to understanding that there just might be another way to make kingdom’s happen.

         This inability to hear and understand this message of Jesus not only affected how people received his message of the coming kingdom of God but their misunderstanding also affected how they loved God. We must not forget that the heartbeat of the kingdom of God was his holy love for us. This holy love of God was a love which was discovered in the failure of people, not in their success. There in exile when it was so painfully evident that the very people of God suffered from a grave poverty of spirit, there is where God came to them, there when they were far from home with no hope that they would ever return, there God in his holy love came to revive their lowly and contrite spirit. This holy love given to his people is what God expected to be demonstrated back to him. Yet this is not what happened at all. They instead came to God with their hands and their hearts full of hopes and dreams which spouted out of their mouths as nothing more than demands that they expected God to put his stamp of approval on as if he was to have no say in the matter. They desired a bloody, vengeful, overthrow and the reason they demanded that God go along with their scheme is that they had kept the Temple running like a well oiled machine. But God was and is a God who cares nothing for machines nor does he care for carefully plotted schemes of vengeful justice because, of course, he is a God of holy love. God only desired that his people lay down all of their schemes, and demands and life plans and kingdom hopes, take a deep breath and just love him with no expectations. How very novel to just love God for who he is, a God whose love is defined by an unwavering loyalty and faithfulness.

         God, right from the beginning of his relationship with his people, only asked that they love him, to love him with all of their heart, with all of their life, with all of they had been given. Here in this story of a farmer setting out to do his spring planting, Jesus connects this desire of God to be loved with all of who we are with our hearing and understanding the message of his coming kingdom, a kingdom where the holy love of God rules over all. Jesus speaks about the word of God’s kingdom being sown within a person’s heart. Yet, because there is no understanding , the holy love of God which God hoped would find a home in the hearts of his people, is ruthlessly snatched away by evil. This word used here,”snatched”, is similar to what Jesus explained in his Sermon on the Mount as being what the wolves in sheep’s clothing do to those who are truly sheep. This gives some understanding as how evil brings forth a violent action that destroys any thoughts of being people who love with the holy love of God. What these evil actions do, Jesus tells us, is to destroy what is sown in a person’s heart because there is no understanding. This word translated here as being, “understanding”, is a very different word than what we normally think as being the figuring out of a problem so that we at last can say that we understand it. No, in this word there is thoughts of a coming or a putting together. In other words, what is being spoken of here is the creation of a unity. This unity is what our hearing of the coming of God’s kingdom is supposed to create. Upon hearing of the holy love of God, how God has loved us in spite of our failure to meet his expectations, we in turn are to love God in the same manner with which he first has loved us, with a love that has no strings attached. In doing so, we become at last united with the God who has first loved us with his holy love. This is what is meant by this word translated as, “understand”. 

         The words Jesus speaks of the coming kingdom then must not only be heard, but this word of the kingdom must result in a union of holy love between us and God. If this union of holy love does not come about because our heart has grown cold, then evil will come along and remove all hope of holy love from our hearts. This same dynamic is also found in our loving God with our life and with what God has given to us. If we hear of the coming kingdom where God’s holy love reigns and rules, we may indeed jump for joy. But unless we go further and become united with God in a bond of holy love, we will fear for our lives when trouble comes on account of this message of God’s impending kingdom. Only as our lives our bound together with our eternal God with cords made of the unbreakable, loyal, love of God will we be able to lay down our life as a demonstration of the holy love which compels us.

         The same truth is found in our dealing with the cares of the world and the lies that whisper to us that great riches are the real source of contentment. If all we do is hear about the coming kingdom ruled by the holy love of God, then, yes, the anxieties created by watching over our earthly treasures will most assuredly choke out the love we desire to give to God. But if we are united in a bond of holy love with the God who first touched our lives with his holy loves, then we will realize that we have found a greater and more secure treasure, a treasure which will allow us to share what has been given to us and in this way demonstrate our love to God with all that he has so graciously given to us.

         So, yes, a story of a farmer sowing his field with seed is not what those people who gathered there by the shore of the Sea of Galilee expected to hear. Perhaps such a story is not what we expect to hear either yet if we can come during this Lenten season with fasting, giving up those things we love, and giving up most of all our expectations of what we demand that the kingdom of God must be and instead with clear ears and cleansed hearts, listen anew to a story about a farmer who went out to sow, we may just come away transformed by the holy love of God. May you not just hear the message of God’s kingdom of holy love but may the reality of a union of holy love with the God who wholly loves you be yours today and always. Amen.      `  

To Be Worthy of Jesus

 March 12 2023

Matthew 10:16-39

         Today we begin the third week of this season in the church that is known as Lent. This is the season when the days grow longer and we join Jesus on the road to Calvary. During this season, as most of us know, people fast from something, usually something that they love, for the forty days of Lent. This could be like giving up chocolate ice cream or maybe coffee and the reason to make such a drastic gesture is that people want to imply that even though they may love chocolate ice cream or coffee, or whatever a person’s love might be, their love for Jesus is greater.The subtle message behind this fasting exercise is that even good things like chocolate ice cream or coffee in which there is nothing wrong with in and of themselves, even these can become something that we can love too much. The question that is behind all of this notion of fasting is, do I love Jesus most of all?

         These very same ideas is what we find in a difficult passage of scripture found in the tenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Here, Matthew, has recorded the second of five different talks that Jesus gives to his disciples, the first of these being the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the very fundamental teachings of Jesus and what we find is that the rest of the talks in some way rest upon what Jesus first taught to his disciples. We can never believe that once we are done hearing what Jesus said up there on the mountain side that we are done with all of that and we can now move on to something else, hopefully something a little easier to put into practice. No, truth be told, as we continue in our story of Jesus and his disciples, things just get more difficult once we move on from the peace and quiet of the mountain top and head down into the valley. You see, once the disciples learn that the kingdom of God has come with the arrival of Jesus they are authorized by Jesus, to not only go and announce that God’s kingdom has come but they are also empowered with heavenly power so that they can back up their claim with signs and wonders that demonstrate that heaven has indeed invaded earth.

         As we heard last week, the dilemma facing Jesus is that he saw the crowds that surrounded him and he saw that they were being attacked from all sides and what was painfully obvious was that they were sheep in need of a shepherd to protect them. So, Jesus asked his disciples to pray to the Lord of the Harvest and ask him to send out laborers into the harvest. It becomes clear, then, that they do pray and the ones sent out are the answer to their own prayer. The ones who the Lord of the Harvest is going to send into the harvest fields is none other than themselves. What is very interesting about the sending of these disciples into the fields in need of harvest is that Jesus charges them to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost in Samaria and the rest of the nations were off limits, at least for now. What is intriguing about this message of Jesus is that he calls the sheep of Israel, lost. Now, this is a word which the disciples most likely would have remembered. This word was used in a teaching of Jesus up there upon the mountain, one where Jesus spoke about two very different roads upon which to travel. There was one road that was very narrow and the going on that path was difficult but it was, nonetheless, the very path which led to life. Then there was another road, one which was wide, and the going on that road was easy but where this road led was not to life but instead to destruction. The Greek word translated here as, “destruction,” is derived from the word Jesus uses to describe the sheep found in Israel, those that he described as being, “lost”. So, these sheep were not just not where they should have been, which was true, but worse, they were sheep traveling on the wide way that leads to destruction. The Greek word in both cases concerns being cut off from what could be or should be. When we understand the full extent of what is meant by this word sublimely translated as being, “lost”, we begin to understand the heart wrenching concern of Jesus. 

         What is also very interesting is that these sheep, this house of Israel, this was the very people of God. They had the sacred writings, thousands of years of hearing from God and interacting with him. They had the holy Temple and the priests, the very means of the continual restoration of the relationship that these people alone, out of all the people on earth, had with Almighty God. It was these very people that Jesus states are heading for destruction, in danger of being cut off from what they should have been or could have been. When we consider that it is the very people of God who were the ones headed for destruction, this should make us wonder just how such a tragedy could ever have happened. Such a dilemma should make us wonder if we, the ones who share those same sacred writings of these people of God, the ones who because of Jesus and his forgiveness have been grafted into these same people, could we end up lost as well? I think that what has been recorded is not to just point fingers at this sad condition of the people of God before the arrival of Jesus but rather what is written here is given to us to help us stay on the narrow way because this is the very task of the disciples. By announcing that the kingdom of God has at last come here on earth, it is hoped that some might make a U-turn on that wide road they are traveling on and choose instead the way that is narrow that leads to life. 

         What is surprising is that before Jesus sends his messengers out into the fields white for harvest, he warns them of the grave danger that awaits them. This is surprising because as we learned last week, the kingdom of God is governed by the holy love of God, a love that is found beyond the Law, beyond our abilities, a love which finds us in death and brings us back to life. This holy love is a love without expectations, a love with no thought of what we might receive in return for our loyalty and compassion to others. So considering that what is being proclaimed is that now is the time when love will reign, one has to wonder just why is their such a fierce opposition to being governed by love? Part of the answer to such a riddle is that Jesus tells his disciples that he is sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Here again the ears of the disciples would have perked up because Jesus had spoken about this wolf and sheep dynamic. Jesus had warned them then that there in their midst would be wolves all dressed up to look like sheep. These sheep in disguise would be false prophets, people who believed that they were speaking for God when in fact, God wanted nothing to do with them. Jesus told his disciples that the way that they could figure out who the wolves were is to see what kind of fruit that they produce, see what kind of life that they lived. The kind of life that a wolf is known for is a violent one so if they encountered a blood-thirsty sheep there was a safe assumption that this really was not a sheep at all. So Jesus is sending his disciples out into a world where there are those who believe that they speak for God but in all reality they are far from God because they live evil, violent lives. 

As they travel about in such a wicked world, Jesus instructs his disciples that they are to be wise as serpents and pure as doves. This is a rather odd statement but what Jesus is telling his messengers, is that they need to take what they had learned up there on the mountain and transform those teachings into practical living. To be about peacemaking in a violent world requires an active imagination, to hold fast to the truth of Jesus and allow this truth to shape their response to the evil that they were to encounter. This is what is meant when Jesus speaks of being wise stewards of his message. Jesus also tells his disciples that they had to remain pure. Here again, we hear an echo of the teaching on the mountain where Jesus told his followers that blessed are those who were pure in heart for they would see God. This purity of heart meant that they would love both God and every person, even those who opposed them, because this is the way that God loves. So when they would love with the love of God in the same manner that God loves then the world will see God for when they encounter his love they, in fact, encounter God. This is what Jesus has to remind his disciples because upon encountering the hatred and the hurtful crowds they would be tempted to react by throwing back at the crowds the very same poison that they had been thrown at them. To this, Jesus implores his messengers to remain pure, remain loving even when loving is difficult or even impossible. If they declared that the kingdom of God had come then the only response they could give to support their claim was love.

         As Jesus describes the violent response that will happen to his messengers as they go forth and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has come and is coming, it becomes apparent that he begins with the response of the nation. Jesus tells them that they will be delivered over to the courts and flogged in the synagogues. So, here we have the response of the pillars of the country, the law represented by the courts and religion represented by the synagogue. Then they will be dragged before governors and kings, those who claim the ultimate authority of the country. To all those who invested with the guarding and preserving the country, these messengers who speak of the coming kingdom of God pose a threat that requires an absolute and violent response. Even so, Jesus tells his crew that they must bear witness to the truth, a truth that causes those who live a false way of life to react with violence. We must wonder why such a terrifying response had to be expected especially among the very people claiming to be the very ones who know and love God. The only answer that makes sense is that they have made their nation something that they treasure more than they treasured God. The hope of these people of God was that they might throw off Roman control and at last create a sovereign country of their own. This was a good, and honorable hope however it was not the hope that God desired to give to his people and ultimately the world. The people of God were looking for a way to achieve the good life in the here and now and what God desires to give his people is a future hope of a rock solid unshakeable kingdom anchored in the security of heaven. Without securing our life in heaven all that is left is to try and create security for oneself here on earth which ultimately involves violence. The message of the kingdom of heaven rattles the foundation upon which the security of the good life rests because it reveals that the one true God will ultimately not be apart of anyone’s scheme of creating their own paradise in the here and now.

         Jesus tells us that not only would countries be shaken by the message of the kingdom of heaven invading earth but families too will be tore apart. You see, the message of the kingdom of heaven creates a response of violence from those who know of no other way to be in this world. The root of this violence is the honor of the family which is bound to their loyalty to their country and when the cause of the country is questioned then the honor of the family is shaken. The father of the household demands that honor for his family be upheld yet here in this message of the kingdom there is the voice of the Heavenly Father demanding obedience to his will. And so, families become torn apart. To those who accept the truth of the kingdom, the honor of ones earthly father must take a back seat to doing the will of the Heavenly Father, whose name alone must be made holy. Do you see how the dynamics that bind families together have suddenly begun to unravel upon hearing that God and his kingdom have drawn near?

So once again, just like when Jesus spoke of one’s country, here when speaking of families, we can honestly say that these are good things. Yet what Jesus wants his messengers and us to understand, is that these good things are not ultimate things, they are those things built upon sand which one day will wash away. If we take any good thing, it doesn’t matter if it is our country, or our family, and we treasure any of these good things more than we treasure God, then there will be trouble. The trouble happens when those things that we treasure more than God become those things we worship instead of God, when we find them worthy of our affection, our life and our power. When this happens we have taken things which may be good in themselves and made them something evil, idols which have taken the place of the one true God. We must not forget that the wolves that are so inherently violent are those who are false prophets, false because they are speaking for false gods. So, it makes sense that anything that would expose ones worship of a false god would be met by a violent response because people have invested their affections, their power, in fact their very life, all in something that was really no god at all. This is why Jesus tells us to have no fear of those who are worshipping these false gods because there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or anything hidden that will not be known. When the truth is spoken then that which is false will be eventually found out.

         Yes, the reaction of those who trust in false gods is violent especially against those who expose that what they are trusting in for the good life is not secure at all.  While Jesus bluntly warns of the danger that will be for those who speak about the kingdom of heaven all is not lost because Jesus also gives us some wondrous promises. Jesus tells us that when we are delivered over to the governors or kings, there is no need to be anxious about what will be said in that moment because the Spirit of the Father will speak through us. There, in the most frightening of experiences, comes an experience of even greater awe, the Spirit of our Heavenly Father speaking through us. This is how our Heavenly Father is with us, his Spirit blowing like a wind through us, forming words on our lips that have the imprint of heaven. Yet this is not all, for Jesus also says that despite all the troubles and persecution we who bear the message of the kingdom are to have no fear. The only fear we should have is the one who created us for only he can un-create us yet even so, we are certain that the one who has created us loves us. The one who is so close to his creation that he watches the birds with rapt attention this one we call Father is so close to us that he can see our individual hairs and count them as well. So, we have a Father who speaks for us, a Father who is intimately close to us all because he treasures us, our value being infinitely greater than any other part of his creation, even the sparrows.

         So, it is when the false gods of this world are encountered this is where we begin to see clearly the vast difference between the worship of false gods and the worship of our heavenly Father. Those who worship false gods, hearing that the object which secures their life is nothing of any substance, react with a violent reaction and hateful threats to force those who expose their charade to get back in line. Yet the truth will prevail. It is a truth that will threaten the false gods held fast within kingdoms or families. This truth is that the will of our Heavenly Father will be done on earth as in heaven. We should find doing the will of our Heavenly Father worthy of our affections, our power, and even our life, because he is a Father who speaks for us, who stands near to us, who lets us know that he treasures us. And this is why, we remember, we treasure him. We treasure him because he is the God who gives us a greater hope in which to believe in. We may not have the peace we desire just yet. The cleansing of people of their false illusions is difficult work. Even those we love may rather cling to what is nothing but a dream then to allow us to speak of the God who is true. These trying times, then, have a purpose in that they are times that force us to ask, is Jesus worth this? Is Jesus worth, the hurt, the pain, the loss of loved ones, the loss of honor and respect? Is Jesus really worth more than these? It is here at the end of this talk that Jesus first mentions carrying our cross. Is Jesus worth even this?All we can say is that Jesus carried his cross for us. He knew we were worth everything to him. The question remains, is Jesus worth everything to us? Is Jesus worthy of all our affection, our power, even our life? I pray that in this Lenten season that you will most assuredly find Jesus worthy of all that we are, our whole lives. Amen!  

 

An Uncomfortable Truth

 March 5 2023

Matthew 10:1-15

         Today we are beginning the second week of the season that the church traditionally calls Lent. The name comes from the fact that during this time the length of the days is getting continually longer. Lent then is just a shortened version of length. The season of Lent is a forty day period beginning with Ash Wednesday, which was February 22, and ending the Saturday before Easter. During this time in the ancient church those who desired to be baptized in the faith would go through a time of fasting and instruction about this faith that they were going to enter into. It was a very serious decision because for most of the church’s history declaring one’s faith in Jesus Christ meant almost certain hardship, persecution and even death. Thus is the necessity for taking forty days to consider deeply about the gravity of what a decision for Christ meant.

         For me personally, I have always enjoyed this season. As I thought about just why Lent would hold such a special place in my heart, I concluded that it was during this season that the church and its members seemed to wake up and come to life, much like what was happening in the season of spring which occurred at the same time. I mean, after Christmas it seemed like the church didn’t seem to be doing much but then came Ash Wednesday and here we were at church in the middle of the week getting our foreheads smeared with what might as well have been dirt. Such began the season of Lent and all of a sudden there were more out of the ordinary happenings like a Bible study before school. The pastor I only saw on Sunday was suddenly there on Wednesday morning with a box of doughnuts and study books. During this season there was always a sense of urgency, an expectation that we had to get ready for Holy Week. People would consider just what they were going to give up because fasting was and is an important part of the Lenten season. So, do you see, how it is easy to see that just like the world comes back to life during the spring season so also the church begins to show signs of life, a taking on of new things to learn and a giving up of what needs to be let go of.

         As we enter this season of Lent, we are going to continue to journey with Jesus as he travels ever closer to Jerusalem. As he travels, he stops occasionally to speak intently to his disciples. There are five such discourses found throughout the gospel of Matthew. The first of these is the Sermon on the Mount which we have previously covered. So now we are going to see just what happened after Jesus gave his disciples the core teachings of what life in his kingdom is all about. It is important for us to know that once the disciples had been given these teachings they did not stay there upon the mountainside but instead they travelled down into the valleys where these teachings would become for them a way of life.

         Nowhere do we see how these teachings became a way of life than in this second discourse that Jesus gives to his disciples. As this tenth chapter of Matthew begins, Jesus calls to him his twelve disciples. What will soon become evident is that this calling of these disciples is a response to what has been previously recorded at the end of the ninth chapter where, in the thirty-fifth through the thirty-eighth verses, we learn that, “Jesus went throughout all of the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them for they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”. There are few things about what Jesus has said here that we must dig a little deeper into. The first is that when Jesus speaks about the people of Israel being like sheep without a shepherd, this is almost a direct quote from the twenty-seventh chapter of the book of Numbers where Moses selects Joshua to be his successor. In the fifteenth verse of this chapter, Moses speaks to God and asks him. To, “appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”. So, Jesus is here connecting himself with the Joshua who came before him. Like the Joshua before him, Jesus would be the one who would lead his people into the life that God had promised to them. Secondly, the reason that such a shepherd was needed was that the sheep were harassed and helpless, at least this is how it is translated. A better description is that the sheep were being attacked as well as being scattered. This is how, I believe we must understand what Jesus is saying here if we are to understand his reference to his disciples that they be on guard from the wolves which such actions suggest. A third point of what Jesus says here in the ninth chapter which bears directly on what happens in the tenth chapter is that he laments that there is such a huge harvest and there are so few workers to bring the harvest home. Jesus asks his disciples to pray for the Lord of the harvests to send out laborers onto his harvest, so we might suppose that these twelve that Jesus selects are not only the result of this prayer but that most likely these very same men might well have been those who had prayed this prayer. It only makes sense that Jesus would select only those whose heart shared his sorrow and concern over the lack of laborers.

         With all of that in mind, then, we take a look at the beginning verses of the tenth chapter. Here we find Jesus calling to himself his twelve disciples, those who were the very answer to the prayer of Jesus. Jesus gives these twelve the authority to do everything that he had previously been doing himself. Through his giving them his authority now these twelve would be able to cast out unclean spirits, and heal every disease and affliction exactly just like Jesus had been doing. So, when we hear that they are called apostles, or sent ones, we must understand that they are not merely being sent out but this term, “apostle”, also means that they go out as ones invested with the same power and authority as Jesus himself. 

         So before Jesus sends his laborers out, he speaks to them about the what and the why of all that they would be doing. The very first thing that Jesus tells them is that they are to go out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to the Samaritans or the people of the nations, and we might just wonder why this is so. The reason, I believe, is found in what they were to proclaim as they went, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does this mean exactly that the kingdom of heaven is at hand? I believe that the apostles knew that the kingdom of heaven was ready to enter upon the scene because this kingdom is what they had learned about during their time with Jesus up there on the mountain side. Jesus had taught them his core teachings, the very teachings that flowed out of the prayer that cryed out for our Father’s kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yet even so, we have to wonder why Jesus insisted that his apostles go only to the house of Israel? The answer, I believe, is that it was the people of Israel who had a long history with God unlike any other nation on earth. They alone had experienced the faithfulness of God, how he made promises which could be counted on to be fulfilled. They had benefited from this loyal love of their God who had continued with them no matter what. It was this long history that Israel had with God that had even shown up in the teaching of Jesus up their on the mountain. You see, when Jesus told his disciples that their Heavenly Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and that he makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust, Jesus is here referring to the very truth found within the life of the people of Israel. No other nation could even define what is meant by evil or good because good describes only God and evil is that which stands opposed to God and his goodness. So, apart from a relationship with God one could not even know what is good or what is evil. Only the people of Israel could know what is meant by the word, “just’, that it means to live righteously, a way of living that had come down to God’s people from heaven through their being in a relationship with him. This then, is what the people of Israel had experienced and recorded for thousands of years. Through the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the people of Israel had a God given means which instructed them in the righteous way of living, a way of life that could lead a person to be called a just person. Through living in a God given way the people of Israel could also be considered by God to be good.

         The history of the people of Israel though was about more than being people who diligently did the Law given to them by God, it was also a history of these same people who failed miserably to abide by the righteous lifestyle prescribed by God. Instead of being the good and righteous people they were also known as being unjust and evil. Now, the people of Israel were a people who thought of love as being a transaction whereby if a person did something nice for someone else, that other person could be expected to turn and do something nice right back at them. So the way that they viewed the Law was that if they could perfectly do all the God commanded them they would experience his blessing and if they failed to do all that God commanded them they could expect to be cursed. This mindset is what was carried over from their years of idol worship because this is how idols were worshipped, in a very transactional way. What God did was to use this very way of thinking to reveal to his people what it was that made him holy, wholly different from anyone they had ever known. Israel did fail to do all that God commanded, in fact, they ended up doing just the opposite of what God desired. According to the contract they had made with God, the people of Israel knew that they were cursed. What they deserved is to be sent into exile at the hand of the Babylonians. They were to be taken far from the home God had given to them. They also expected that the God who called them his own had also left them, after all, this is what they deserved. Or so they thought, because there, far away from home, in the pits of Babylon, they found that God had not left them at all, no, he was, in fact, still with them. What the people of Israel were to discover there, far from home, is that their God was different than any idol they had ever known. In spite of failing to hold up their end of the bargain, their God remained loyal and faithful. So, whether they could say that they were evil or good, God still made the sun shine on them. No matter if they were found to be people who were just or whether they were found to be unjust people, God still made it rain upon them. What the people of Israel were to learn is that there was a love beyond the Law, a love which loved beyond the expectations that God had for them. Such a love that God had for them meant that what was most important was not the fulfillment of what was expected but the forgiveness when there was a failure to remain true to what God had asked of them.

         So, this is Israel’s story. No other people, neither the Samaritans nor any people of the nations, had such an experience with God. Only Israel could say that they had a first-hand experience with this holy love of God. And this knowledge of the holy love was also Israel’s biggest problem because if God had loved them with such holy love, a love that loved them for who they were and not for their abilities to fulfill God’s expectations, then this could only mean that the people of Israel must return this love back to God and give such love to those around them. You see, this is, at its most basic form, what the kingdom of God is referring to, a world where people are constrained and compelled by the holy love that God had first shown to us. This holy love of God is a truth that the people of Israel had come to through their dealings with God yet such a revelation was a very uncomfortable truth. Such a truth meant the people of God could no longer treat God as they would any run-of-the-mill idol, believing that if they held up their end of the bargain then God would bless them with whatever they desired. Such an uncomfortable truth also meant that the people of Israel had to love the people around them with this same holy love with which God loved them which meant that if God had loved them when they were his enemies then they too had to do the same to their enemies. Are you beginning to see how very uncomfortable this truth can be? This is the truth that the people of Israel would have rather have just ignored, going about their business as if they were a people like every other people. But they were not a people like any other people because they were a people who had a history with the one, true living, God. 

         So, when Jesus instructed his disciples to go out and declare that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he was in effect telling them that now was the time for the holy love of God be what ruled the relationships in a person’s life. This is a kingdom of heaven because it is a kingdom which is anchored in the holiness, the wholly otherness of the God who resides in heaven. Just so people might know that heaven has come near, Jesus instructs his disciples that they were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers of their skin disease and cast out demons. Such acts would declare that the power and life of heaven had invaded into our world so that no more could such a life, lived with such a power, be ignored. Now was the time when the truth of the holy love of our heavenly God had to be acted upon.

         Jesus then gave his disciples some unusual instructions, telling them that as they had as they had freely received they were to freely give. This again spoke to what they were to treasure, not earthly treasures, but instead the treasure they had in heaven, their Heavenly Father. They were then told that they were to acquire no gold, no silver or copper for their belts, no bag for their journey, neither were they to take two coats with them. They were also to take no sandals nor any staff trusting that if they worked for their Heavenly Father they could count on him to take care of them. What is also interesting is that it was commonly understood that when the people of Israel entered the Temple they were to not take with them their wallet and they were to enter without their sandals. In these instructions from Jesus it seems as if he is saying that wherever they go, the ground they are walking on is holy ground. The Temple was thought of as the place where heaven and earth connect, but as the disciples went forth and brought down the very life and power of heaven, wherever they were, this could be said to be the Temple of God, a place where earth and heaven had obviously connected. It is this understanding that heaven was connecting with earth, just as it was thought of to do in the Temple, this is what is behind another strange teaching of Jesus to his disciples. The disciples were told that upon entering a town or village they were to find a person who was worthy in it and they were to stay there until they moved on. This is a rather strange requirement, isn’t it, to search for a person who is worthy to receive the message that the disciples carried with them. This same thoughts of worthiness are found again as the disciples enter the house, and greet those in it, and if the house is found to be worthy, then they were to let their peace come upon that house. What is this worthiness that Jesus speaks about? I believe that this worthiness is a person who is humble, for God gives the gift of his kingdom only to those who come with empty hands to receive it. And when they do receive this gift of his kingdom there again heaven and earth connect as people draw near to God. This is why people are willing to live with the uncomfortable truth of God’s holy love because only this love carries with it the wonderful promise of communion with God. So, in this time of Lent, what will you do with the uncomfortable truth of God’s holy love? Are you willing to receive the message of his kingdom once again and allow the holy love of God to be what is found in all of your relationships? Amen!

Knowing the Satisfaction of Jesus

 February 26 2023

Matthew 5:11, 7:21-27

         There are times when you can look at something and you just know that there is a story behind what you are seeing. I mean, if you look at the grill of my pickup truck and see that a nice round hole has been carved out of it, you kind of want to know what has caused that. There is a story which explains this weird two foot hole that is missing from my truck’s grill, and that story has to do with the fact that, yes, turkeys can fly and they will do so at the worst possible time. Jennifer and I were driving down 212 in northern Tuscarawas County and as we drove along we saw a turkey standing along side the road. Now if the turkey would have just tried to run across the road I would have merely hit him with the bumper of my truck but no, as God is my witness, I did not think that turkeys would fly, at least not in this situation. So, yes, the turkey tried to take off and fly and he was suddenly met with the oncoming grill of my truck, where he left not only a gaping hole but also many feathers. And thank goodness for the kindness of strangers because when we at last found a place where we could assess the damage the van behind stopped and the passenger rolled down their window and exclaimed, “Hey, I think you hit a turkey back there.”, as if we had no idea.

         So, yes, when you see something out of the ordinary, there is usually a good story behind it. Much like there is a good story behind a gaping hole in a truck’s grill, there is also a good story behind this strange phenomenon that we find throughout the New Testament where people have been set free from the urge to hang onto all of the stuff that people so easily cling to. Paul, in the third chapter of the book of Philippians, states that he was one of God’s people, the people of Israel. He could trace his roots back to the tribe of Benjamin, a great family full of tradition. He took pride in the fact that he had studied intently the scriptures and that he had allowed them to shape his life so that if you looked at him you could see what a true Hebrew was supposed to be, but he also went further than what was normally expected and he had become a Pharisee, living in the most holy of lifestyle, one that brought the holiness of the Temple into his every day life. He was on fire for God willing to go and hunt down any who would seek to lead people away from the true teaching of the Law, a Law which he knew had made him blameless before God. It sounds as if Paul really is living a pretty, good, life. Now imagine if you would hear a rumor that this same Paul had walked away from all of this, discarding everything that he had built his life upon, wouldn’t you think that there has to be a story behind just why Paul just up and walked away from what most people want out of life? Well, the story is pretty simple, actually, it just boils down to that Paul has met the Messiah-King whose name is Jesus. That’s it, end of story. Paul goes on to add to this story saying that not only has he met Jesus but he also knows this Jesus, this is what has made all of the difference, this is what has led him to let go of everything else.

         Now when we hear this story that Paul tells us, that he now treasures knowing this Jesus above everything else we have to wonder, just what do we make of those who say that they are followers of Jesus, but when you look at their life they still seem to be clinging to all of the earthly treasures, treasures Paul left go of so that he could take hold of a treasure of exceeding worth, this treasure that he called Jesus. So, here is yet again another story that we are looking at and the only possible explanation is that even though these people say that they are followers of Jesus, or are those who have faith in Jesus, they must yet have most likely never met Jesus or have not really made it their life pursuit to know Jesus as Paul had done. You see, there is something that happens when people encounter Jesus, when they come to know him and through knowing him they come to treasure him and find him to be a greater treasurer than any other treasure then they have ever known. The only story that we have to yet figure out is why, why does Jesus have such an effect on those who have truly met him?

         Knowing why Jesus transforms what people treasure is a question that we must wrestle with as we, at last, come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. I for one had no idea that I would have been spending so much time going over these core teachings of Jesus yet what is apparent is that there is much more in these three small chapters than meets the eye. Using the prayer that our Lord has taught to us as a lens with which to understand what he has given to us has proved to be an invaluable gift. Yet even so, what Jesus calls us to do is very different from the way all of us believe life is to be about. In these teachings of Jesus, we are called to live a life which goes beyond what is socially and culturally acceptable. As we consider living such a life such as Jesus demands that we live we must also know just what is it that causes those who hear these teachings of Jesus to go to such extremes. What is it about these core teachings that drives those who hear them to live a life which causes others to wonder what they are up to?

         I believe that the answer as to what is it about Jesus that drives people to treasure him above all earthly treasures is hinted at in the very last teaching of Jesus in this Sermon on the Mount. It is a well known passage, one that we know a lot about from the song, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”. Unfortunately, if all you had to go on was this song you would really miss out on the real point of what Jesus is teaching about. We have to listen closely to what Jesus says, and not rush ahead believing that we have it all figured out. So listen to how Jesus ends his time of teaching there on the mountain side, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them…”. Here we pause to consider just what Jesus is saying. It is those who not only listen to Jesus but also those who actually live as Jesus instructs them to, these are who the first part of this parable is addressed to. We do not just have to stand passively upon the solid rock of Jesus and his righteousness as the song suggests. Matthew, who recorded these words of Jesus, would have been appalled at such a thought because his whole gospel is about being actively engaged with what Jesus teaches. No, we have to hear and do what Jesus says. Once we have a firm grasp of this important part of this story Jesus is teaching us, then we continue and we find out that it is those who are living out these teachings, these are the ones Jesus tells us are, “…like a wise man who built his house upon a rock. The rains fell, the floods came, the winds roared against that house, but that house did not fall because it was founded upon the rock.” So, this is the first scenario. The second part of the teaching, not surprisingly, is about a foolish man who built his house upon sand. The ones who build foolishly are, as Jesus tells us, “everyone who hears these words of Jesus and they do not do them…”. These are the ones who must watch as the, “rains fall, and the floods come and the wind roars against their house, and beats against that house, and the house collapses with a loud crash.” This is how Jesus ends this final teaching stating that, “…great was the fall of that house.”. Now there are many interpretations concerning this last teaching and about just what do these houses reference but I believe that it has to be understood in its context of the Sermon on the Mount. You see, it is this teaching that helps us make sense of what Jesus teaches us at the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew, the eleventh and twelfth verses where Jesus tells us, “Blessed are you when others revile you, and hunt you down, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice, leap with exceeding joy, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This is a hard, almost unthinkable task that Jesus sets before us. This makes us wonder just what kind of joy is this that it is not suppressed when people mock us and spit on us? What joy is able to endure persecution and the loss of everything? What kind of joy overflows our life when we hear the evil speech coming from our enemies? This is a joy that is unable to be defeated, a joy that Peter, writing in his first letter, the first chapter, the eighth verse describes as being, “inexpressible, filled with glory”.This is the same joy that is spoken of in the twelfth chapter of the book of Hebrews, the second verse, where we read, that we are to look to Jesus, “…the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame…”. This is the joy that we are called to believe can and will be ours, yet still we wonder, just how this can be so? The answer is found there at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in the mention of something rock-solid that is available to anchor our life upon. You see, I believe that what Jesus teaches us in this tale of the two builders is not just a one and done situation. No, I believe that Jesus is here describing life apart from Jesus and what he teaches and a life with Jesus, a life lived by what Jesus teaches us. Life in this world is all about the building of sand castles. There is a lot of toil, and worry, and anxiety all over much that will not last and people, deep down in their souls, know all too well this reality. What is also deep down in the souls of people is a longing for something that will last, a place of rest from the constant work of building and rebuilding houses in a sand box. C.S. Lewis, the author best known for the Narnia Chronicles, writes that all of us have, “…a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience.” We all long for something of permanence yet we do so living in a world where nothing lasts, all is constantly being washed away becoming nothing more than memory. The writer of Hebrews, recalling the faith of the ancestors of the people of Israel with in the fourteenth through the sixteenth verses of the eleventh chapter, states that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. It is clear that they were, “… seeking a homeland. If they were thinking of that land from which they had gone out of, they would have had an opportunity to return. But as it is, they were longing for a better country…” And of course when we read this we want to know, just what country were they longing for because this is the same country we are all longing for, and the answer that the writer of Hebrews gives is that what we are all longing for is a heavenly country. You see, what those who encounter Jesus discover is that here is one who speaks from a position of permanence. Here is one who has come from the very place that all of us long for and he shares how we can have a life anchored there in the very permanence of heaven instead of continually laboring and toiling to build lives upon sand that is being constantly washed away.What is very interesting about the language that Matthew uses to describe what is evil is that the word that he chooses for evil is a word which has its roots in toilsome, pain-ridden, laborious, trouble. This sounds much like a life that is building sandcastles over and over again. On the other hand, good is associated with rest and peace, life continually lived in the Sabbath, a life which can only be so because it has a rock solid foundation. This is the life Jesus wishes to give to each one of us.

         So, yes, there can be joy in all circumstances, a joy which cannot be fully described because it is a joy which springs from an experience that we have always longed for yet have only now experienced all because we have encountered Jesus. It is Jesus who has come from our Father’s side to tell us about the very country which we have always longed for, to give us something better to hope for not to give us a better life that we can live in the here and now. This is something that is constantly emphasized in the writings of Larry Crabb who has been a great teacher for me. You see, it would make no sense for Jesus to merely teach us how to be nice people in this world where nothing is permanent all so that we might say that once upon a time we were good people. Jesus has come to give us a hope upon which we can anchor our lives so that we can praise God for our eternal home, built upon an unshakeable rock. When we have this knowledge then we can say with Paul, as found in the second letter to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter, the seventeenth verse, that what we experience now is, “a light momentary affliction which is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”. Paul goes on to say in the very next verse that, “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things which are unseen. For the things that are seen are fleeting, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Are you beginning to see why Paul could say that all of his earthly accomplishments were mere crap compared to knowing Jesus?

         So when we realize just how important Jesus is to the satisfaction of our deepest longing then we can understand the sheer terror in what Jesus teaches us before he tells us the story of the two builders, There Jesus warns us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…” I have a brother in Christ who says that this is his least favorite verse in the Bible for obvious reasons. We certainly do not want to miss out on entering and living in that which we long for the most. So, listen to just who it is that will enter the kingdom of heaven only, “…the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Here again the emphasis is on doing what Jesus teaches and not just declaring that Jesus is Lord. Jesus goes on to say, “…on that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name? And then Jesus will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me , you workers of lawlessness.” So, what Jesus is describing here is people who are doing things in the name of Jesus because to them this is what Jesus was all about. To this Jesus replies that if you think that all I was about was prophesying, casting out demons and doing mighty works, then it is quite apparent that you do not really know me or what I am really all about. What Jesus is and was all about is doing the will of God. This, as we might recall, is at the very center of the prayer that Jesus has taught us to pray, that the will of our Heavenly Father be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see, Jesus most certainly did prophesy, he did cast out demons and he very much did mighty works but what these were supposed to do is to witness to the fact that he was indeed, the Son of God, the one sent from heaven, and he came to give a life united with his Heavenly Father to all of us who live on earth. United with our Heavenly Father we then we all find ourselves bound together in the love of Jesus because this is the very will of our Heavenly Father. So working at maintaining this unity Christ has given to us is the work that we are to be about if we call Jesus our Lord. If we are about anything else we are, as Jesus tells us, “ doers of lawlessness”. This is a strange way for Jesus to put this because it makes us ask just what law is it that he is referring to. I believe, that he is speaking about the law of the new covenant which is found right there in the Lord’s Prayer. If you meditate on the Lord’s Prayer you can see echos of the Ten Commandments within its petitions but instead of being negative statements they are now positive instructions. What we are to now do is to make holy the name of our Heavenly Father instead of not taking the name of God in vain. When we live out the kingdom life, every day is the Lord’s day, a life lived in everlasting Sabbath rest. Instead of being called to not murder, commit adultery or commit false witness we should instead work on building up and restoring our relationships and our own integrity. Instead of being told to not steal we are told to get busy giving to all and as much as we give we will find that God will supply all that we need. This law then is based on the foundation of God’s forgiveness of our debts which causes us to lavishly forgive others. And instead of coveting what others have we are instead to only treasure our Heavenly Father. All of this is what we are to be about if we call Jesus our Lord. All this we must be about if we want to be certain in our hope of receiving that what we long for and ground our hope in, our eternal home built upon the rock who is our Heavenly Father. To his praise and glory! Amen.