What Is Jesus Up To?

 April 23 2023

Hebrews 1-2:4

         This past while it has become quite evident that we have indeed jumped right into spring. I, for one, was not quite prepared to have temperatures in the seventies and with those temperatures, to have all the flowers, with all the accompanying weeds, come popping out all over. The seasons we live in are like that, aren’t they, we know that the season is most certainly going to show up but somehow we are never quite ready for them when they actually get here. This is, I think, how it is for us with this season of the church calendar that we call Easter. You see, most people just think that Easter is just one Sunday and then that holiday is over and on to the next yet the truth is that Easter Sunday is the beginning of what the church calls the season of Easter. This is a season of fifty days, so for this year it begins on the ninth of April and it will end on the twenty-eighth of May. Now, for most people in church when they find out about this season of Easter, they are usually surprised or they probably don’t see what the big deal is about even having such a time set aside to focus on what just happened on Easter. Yet, I do think that there is a real importance to having this time to focus ourselves on the risen Jesus. I find this especially true as we have just come out of the season of Lent where we spent forty days walking with Jesus all the way to Calvary. This was a very intentional time for us to consider why Jesus had to carry the cross and why as his followers we also are called to carry our cross, day by day. So, then we go through Holy Week and experience the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and we spend time with Jesus at the table of his last supper on Thursday of that week and we watch in horror at his crucifixion on Good Friday. And then, Sunday comes and we hear at last the words,”He is Risen.” On Easter Sunday, we celebrate with great joy all that the resurrection of Jesus means for us. Then, it seems, that we are left wondering, just what comes next? I mean you just cannot worship a Savior who has defeated death on Easter Sunday and then go back to acting as if such a thing never happened. Of course, it figures that there must be more but for most of us, we don’t really know the rest of the story after Jesus was resurrected. Last we saw Jesus he was giving the Great Commission to his disciples, sending them out into all the world. What we don’t really have much of a handle on is just what has happened to Jesus, himself. What exactly is Jesus up to right now, since of course he is very much alive? And just as we spent time with Jesus before his death, in the season of Lent, I wonder if now, in this season of Easter, if we should not also in this special season, again spend time with Jesus, where he is at, spending time listening in on just what it is that Jesus is doing on our behalf as our living Lord and Savior. Fortunately for us, our scriptures have a wonderful book that pulls the curtain back a bit on what is going on in the realm of heaven where Jesus now lives and reigns, and that book is called Hebrews. It has this unusual name because it has traditionally been thought of as being a letter written to a group of Jewish converts, or we might say a group of Hebrews. These formerly Jewish people who had now embraced Jesus as the long awaited Messiah had found themselves wavering in their loyalty to Jesus because of the severe persecution they were under and they were wondering if maybe they would be better off going back to their Jewish faith. So, the writer of this book of Hebrews is writing a letter to convince these formerly Jewish people to remain faithful to Jesus and he does so not by stating how vastly superior Christianity is to Judaism, but rather how superior Jesus, our Messiah, is to everyone and everything else. You see, what the writer of Hebrews understood so well is the strength of our faith is directly impacted by how high and lifted up we understand Jesus now to be. You see, during Lent we focused upon the very real flesh and blood existence of Jesus but as Paul writes in the sixteenth verse of the fifth chapter of second Corinthians, we once regarded Christ according to the flesh but now we regard him like this no longer. Now is when we must consider Christ according to resurrection power and know him as being the one and only one, worthy of our loyalty.

         As the writer of Hebrews begins his letter, he begins by reminding his readers that our God is a God who speaks. All throughout the Old Testament, God spoke through the ones called the prophets, the ones that God promised in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, that he would raise up to be his mouthpiece to speak to his people. But now, in these last days, God, we are told has spoke to us by his Son. Since we know that what this letter concerns is the faith response of this people to whom this letter is written, then what we can also figure out is why this letter begins with this statement that God has spoken through his Son because it these words that the Son has spoken, these are what all people are to believe are true. So as the writer of Hebrews continues, he is going to make his case as to just why we should listen up and listen in on what this Son has to say to us. The first thing we learn is that this Son has been appointed to inherit everything. In other words, in the end, all that there is is going to be his. Yet, interestingly enough the writer also tells us that this Son was also there in the beginning and it was through this Son, we are told, that all of creation came to be. So, knowing all of this we can understand why we can know this Son as the very radiance of the glory of God. This is the very same thoughts that John had as he wrote his gospel account as found in the first chapter, the fourteenth verse, that “the Word became flesh and he dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father.” Here in the one called Jesus was seen the overwhelming otherness of God, the very majesty of our invisible God on display in human form. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that this Jesus was the exact imprint of the very nature of God. The word here translated as imprint, is the same word from which we get the word character, so we can say that the very character of God was on display in the life of Jesus. Can you understand the awe that is held within this statement? There can be no one else and no where else we can turn to know the majesty and the essence of who God is than in this one called Jesus. Even the words of the prophets who came before him are held in scrutiny to who Jesus proclaims God to be. Yet if our awe and wonder at who this Jesus, the very Son of God is, the writer of Hebrews goes on to add that he is also the very one who upholds the universe by the word he speaks, the word spoken in power. This Son who has revealed the very glory and nature of God to us is the very one who is intimately working in our world, continuing to bring it into being through his word, a word that we are told is spoken in power. So, think about it, this Son, was there when our world was created, and he will be the one to receive this world as his inheritance at the end of all things, and in between those two points of time, this Son continues to speak words of power which continue to create. It is within this creation then that the Son reveals the glory and majesty of God being the very one who bears the very imprint of the hand of God. Such an overwhelming description of this one we call Jesus begs us to ask, is this the Jesus that we know? Is this the Jesus that we are willing to be loyal to?

         You see, our loyalty to this Jesus is immediately called into question for as the writer of Hebrews tells us, this very same Son of God came and made purification for sins. Now this seems rather abrupt after just hearing such amazing attributes that the Son possesses yet the truth is that it was here, in the purification of our sins, this is where the Son most fully revealed the glory of God, this is where the nature of who God is was most profoundly revealed. There on the mercy seat of the cross, the blood offering of Jesus was poured out for us. What moved him to give his life in this way was the loyal, faithful love of God. This is what compelled the Son to lay down his life in the greatest act of mercy toward us. Here in this most gruesome scene was the glory and nature of God most fully realized. Through the Son’s obedience, those who disobey the word of God can at last join the rest of creation and have lives which are empowered by the spoken word of the Son. This is why Jesus, the very Son of God has now been seated at the right hand of of the Majesty on high, the place of the greatest honor. The writer of Hebrews goes on to tell us that this Jesus, then, has become as much superior to the angels as the name he has received is more excellent than theirs. What he is saying is that the name that we must now call Jesus is the very Son of God, this is the name he must have because he has done what only the Son of God could do, reveal the very glory and nature of God within the very creation that was made through him, the very creation sustained by him. So, this again makes us wonder is this how we know Jesus, as the very Son of God? Do we understand that where Jesus is right now is that he is seated in the place of the highest honor in the universe, in the throne room of God?

         You see, the way that we hear God speak about Jesus is crucial in our understanding of who Jesus is now as the exalted Son of God. When we hear God speak forth from the scriptures, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”, we know that it is Jesus who is this Son, and the “today”, spoke of here, is the day that the Son at last took his seat at God’s right hand, the day when all came under his authority. We also hear God speak forth from his sacred texts, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me as a son”. These are words that speak to us that God speaks about the one we know as Jesus. And yet again the writer of Hebrews continues saying that when God brings his firstborn into the world, he said, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” This idea of a firstborn son speaks loudly about this unique relationship that the Son has with his Father but it also speaks to us about the Son being the one who will bring into his family the faithful brothers and sisters with which he will share his inheritance. Through taking up his seat at the right hand of God, the Son has opened the way for all who accept his gentle authority to receive an inheritance in the age to come.

         You see, Jesus is the Son of God and what he is now doing is establishing his kingdom.This is what the writer of Hebrews is saying in the eighth and ninth verses of this first chapter of Hebrews, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God has anointed you, his Son with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Here we hear from heaven that God declares that this Jesus is most assuredly the Son, the very one who will sit on the throne above for all eternity, the one who will rule through justice and equity. It is Jesus who loved righteousness and was willing to take upon himself our wickedness so that we might come to love righteousness as he does. The importance of our loving righteousness is underscored in what we discover next about the Son. The writer of Hebrews speaks of the Son’s actions in the end of all things in the tenth through the thirteenth verses, where we read, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of your hands; they will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you roll them up, like a garment they will all be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” The Son, who is Lord, the one who was there at the beginning, he is the one who laid down the very foundations of our world. And while the earth and the heavens seem as if they might go on forever, the truth we find here is that they will wear out just like an old article of clothing which gets tattered and torn. Yet, we are told, it is the Son, he is the one who remains. The Son will not only remain but he is the one who will take a universe that has become worn out and he will roll up the old heaven and worn out earth, bundling them up like an old coat and he will give them a toss in the trash can. But all is not lost for what must be held on to is that here is a vision of the Son as the judge, the one who will determine the end of all things. Yet, none the less, the Son, remains and as he remains so does our hope that he will create a new heaven and a new earth where justice and righteousness will at last prevail.

         So, in this first chapter of the book of Hebrews, we have been given a breath taking look as to just who the risen Jesus is and where he reigns and rules from, right now. Yes, he walked this earth as the man we know as Jesus but who his true identity was remained hidden until the cross, until that moment when he shone forth with the glory of God, until at last the world could know with utmost certainty the very nature of God, that our God is indeed the God of loyal, faithful love. Now we know, Jesus is the very Son of God and this was verified in his resurrection from the dead. The salvation that he has won for us then is not just about what he has done for us, but further, it is about who Jesus was, and is and always will be, the very Son of God. The work Jesus does cannot be separated from who he is as the Son of God.

         If his actions on the cross and his resurrection were not enough for us to be convinced of the true nature of Jesus, that he is, in fact, the very Son of God then we are called by the writer of Hebrews to hear what God has spoken of his Son throughout the scriptures. Again and again, God has spoken about his Son, the one who would come to rule, and reign and be our judge at the last. Yet, when God spoke of his Son as being his firstborn, the hope found there is that the Son is the one who will make it possible for others just as ourselves to share in his inheritance.

         You see, the whole point of reminding us of the high and exalted position of Jesus, the very Son of God is so that we might in the proper awe and reverence listen and obey what he has spoken to us. If Jesus is indeed the one who was there when creation was spoken into being and he is the one who will be there in the end receiving all as an inheritance; if he indeed is the one who bears the radiance of the glory of God and is the very imprint of the nature of God; if he is the very purification for our sins and now he is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high; if all of this is who Jesus really is, don’t you think that we should stop everything and heed what he has to say? This is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is stating when he writes, “Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift from it.” You see, when Jesus is resurrected from the dead and he is exalted to the throne room of heaven the danger is that we may forget of his glory, and his power and his majesty since he is now removed from us. The writer of Hebrews knows that we are prone to drift, to slowly move away, to lapse in our faith and trust of this great salvation that Jesus has given to us. This salvation is the gospel message that Jesus spoke to us, the message that was accompanied by signs and wonders, the very witness of God himself to the truth spoken by Jesus. Yet what must not be forgotten in this great salvation that was revealed to us by Jesus is not just how we might be saved but also just who it is who has saved us. We cannot separate the message from the messenger, the word from the one who spoke it. The gospel message is at its core the Son of God. If we begin with our worship of the Son of God then it follows that we will receive his words with awe and reverence. Our faith only falters when we fail to look up to see the Son upon the throne, the Son who reigns because he has purified us from sin, because he is the very radiance of the glory of God and the very one who bears the very nature of God. When this is who we see, then our response to his word must always be, “He is worthy! I will obey! Amen!

         

The Blessing of All Nations

 April 16 2023

Matthew 28:16-20

         One of the greatest changes that I have seen in the last few years is the transformation that has occurred in peoples ease of going places. It just amazes me how if people have a desire to go anywhere in the world they just go hop on a plane and go, no hesitation. I was thinking about how little thought is given anymore to flying wherever people want to go because my daughter, Sarah, found out about an opportunity to see Taylor Swift’s inaugural concert in Arizona and next thing I knew she was headed to the airport. When I was growing up, it was a big deal if you knew of anyone who had even flown in an airplane but now flying around the world is rather commonplace. Sarah has gone as far as South Africa in her travels and my son, Matt has been to Prague. My younger brother Jeff, for a while, worked for a company in Great Britain and so he not only flew over there for meetings but also flew to places like Berlin as well. 

         So heading out to see the world is just not seen with the kind of apprehension that it used to have. Perhaps it is the ability that we now have to instantly communicate with each other that helps us to remain connected even when we are, in reality hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Yet this current way that we consider traveling around the world, I believe, can make us forget that for much of history, leaving home and going anywhere was met with a lot of sadness and fear. I was thinking about this when I was mulling over what is commonly referred in church circles as being the Great Commission. This scripture is often just read rather of matter-of-factly forgetting the context in which it was set. I mean, here were eleven men who had lived their whole lives in one small location of the world. In their culture, they would have been expected to remain close to home, taking over the family business when the time came, raising a family so that there would be another generation to follow in their footsteps. So, I wonder on that morning not long after the resurrection of Jesus, when they gathered back up there on that same mountainside in Galilee where they had first sat at the feet of their master, just what was going on in their minds and hearts, when first, they see their Lord, risen and alive and then when he told them that their new assignment was to, go. You see, there was a newness not just in the life of their Lord who had called them to once again assemble up on the mountainside but also there was a newness to the kind of life he was calling them to, a life of going not staying. Perhaps it was not just the newness of the life of Jesus but the newness of the life he was calling them to live, which caused some, as we are told, to waver in their faith. Yes, this one who was meeting with them there was indeed Jesus, the place where they gathered helped them at least understand this but the question to worship him, to see beyond his humanness and see more, the presence of God there in his face, this is what proved difficult. The faith that those who doubted needed so desperately, I believe, would come as Jesus spoke to them as to just what was going to happen next. They were to perk up and listen because Jesus first tells them that it is he, and he alone, who has all authority in heaven and on earth. This means that it is Jesus alone who holds all the power, anywhere in the universe. This power that Jesus has is not just a commanding power, to speak and to cause to happen but his is also the power of revelation so that what he reveals to us through his speaking must be considered ultimate truth whether he speaks of things of heaven or things on earth. So, if we want to know about our Heavenly Father, then it is to Jesus we turn because he alone can speak with authority because he has come from his Father’s side and he has ultimately returned there to reign forever. Jesus also speaks with authority about the Holy Spirit because he alone is the one who baptizes us with the Spirit, the Spirit who ultimately speaks the words of Jesus to us. You can begin to see just why it is so important that placing ourselves under the authority of Jesus is vital to knowing him as our Lord and our God, worthy of all our praise and worship. This is what some of those who gathered there with him on that day up on a mountain in Galilee had to realize because only as they accepted the authority of Jesus, which is his because of his victory upon the cross, could they be expected to be obedient to what Jesus had to say next. 

         Jesus tells his disciples that they were to go and as they were going, to make disciples just as he had taken them from their former lives and had formed and shaped them into his disciples. Now, it may not be exactly clear to us nor perhaps, was it clear to those disciples of Jesus as to why there was such a need for them to go, to get up and get out of town, I mean why not just stay where they are and make disciples right there with the people that they already knew. The reason for their going though is found in understanding just what is meant by being a disciple of Jesus. I have heard numerous studies on these few verses and what has surprised me is that so many people take what is said here and tear it from the gospel to which it is apart of. The gospel of Matthew is an important work because it speaks to the true calling for those who are God’s people and especially for those who call themselves children of Abraham. You see, what Matthew puts front and center in his gospel rendition is blessing. Jesus begins his ministry with the words, “Blessed are those…”, upon his lips. I believe that that this aspect of blessedness cannot be lost in our trying to figure out just what Jesus means by making disciples. We must, when hearing Jesus speak about what it means to be blessed by God, as found in the fifth chapter of Matthew, connect this to the promise which God first made to Abraham. We must recall that when God called out to a very old man and his wife, he began their journey together with a promise. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, God tells Abraham, that he would make of him a great nation, and he would bless Abraham and make his name great, so that he would be a blessing. God continued by telling Abraham that he would bless those who blessed him and he would curse those who dishonored Abraham and in Abraham, all of the families of the earth would be blessed. Here at the very beginning of the story of God’s actions to save his world we are given a promise by him, that he indeed would be a God who would bless all of the families on earth. We are thus left wondering just how did God fulfill this promise? You see, what is at stake when God speaks forth a promise is his very faithfulness of fulfilling that promise. The circumstances that we encounter will never be a good indicator of God’s faithfulness to us this is why it is imperative that we understand that where God’s faithfulness is always known is through the fulfillment of his promises.

         As we follow this thread of blessing through the story of the Bible we do indeed see how God was fulfilling this promise through the descendants of Abraham, the people of Israel. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus, we hear God promise the people of Israel, that in every place where he caused his name to be remembered, God would come to them and God would bless them. The understanding then was that as God blessed the people of Israel they in turn would be a blessing for the people of the nations. So, once again, we are left wondering just how will God fulfill his promise that he had made to Abraham, how would all the families on earth come to be blessed by God?

         When we read the story of God and his people with the anticipation of his fulfilling his promise to extend his blessing to every family throughout the globe, our ears would perk up when at last we hear of one who belongs to the people of Israel who begins his ministry with the words, “Blessed are those…”. Here at last the mystery of the blessing of God is finally explained for all to understand. Here is where it is important for us to come under the authority of Christ because the blessing of God comes not to those who have done anything at all but instead the blessing of God is for those who are aware that they do not have what it takes to do anything good at all. So there is no formula that must be followed in order for us to at last receive the blessing of God. All that is needed is an admittance of our weakness and our need. Nowhere was this more evident than there on that mountainside when the risen Jesus was speaking to these eleven who had abandoned him when he was crucified. The blessing that Jesus, our Lord and God, gives is that he does not shy away from employing those the world might see as failures.

         Now, it may seem as a strange place to begin, this idea of blessing, especially when Jesus speaks of making disciples and he instructs his followers to baptize those that they called their disciples, in “the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Yet if we go back to those early days when Jesus first spoke of the blessing of God, we hear Jesus speak of how blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. This mourning is the realization that under our own power we are unable to live the life of righteousness that God expects. This is the curse which all of us find ourselves under, the curse which Jesus went to the cross to destroy. So here we can understand that when we are baptized we are baptized into the death of Christ as Paul teaches us in the sixth chapter of Romans, the fourth verse. It is in our mourning, in the very certainty of death that God finds us and comforts us and he leads us out of this death into a newness of life. Jesus speaks often in the gospel of John of how the Father draws us to himself and here this is what indeed happens, the Father taking hold of us who are indeed as good as dead and through his love bringing us back into life. This is our blessed existence. When Jesus speaks of being baptized, he uses the word which means to enter into the very life of God, the life whose name is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is what is symbolized by the going down into the water and rising up from it anew. We enter into a new life, a life with God, a life held within the very life of God, a life called by Jesus to be blessed because it is meek, willing to follow and obey at last what God calls us to do.When we at last rely upon the faithfulness of God then we receive the same promise given to Abraham as he relied upon the faithfulness of God, a share in the inheritance to come. At last those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. This is what Jesus speaks about when he tells us in the eighth chapter of Matthew, that many will come and eat at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.

         You see, as we consider these last words of Jesus it becomes so apparent that we must do so remembering the first words that he gave to them, to hold on to this theme of blessing. Only as we hold on to this blessing of God will the faithfulness of God to uphold his promises be secured. Only as we hold on to this theme of blessings will the aspect of what Jesus calls, “teaching them all that I have commanded you”, be upheld as well. The central core teachings of Jesus as found in his first sermon there on the mountainside flow out of and are connected to the blessings that are promised to us by Jesus. So often when commentators go on to explain what Jesus meant for his disciples to teach their disciples, the core teachings of Jesus strangely get left behind. To leave these core teachings of Jesus behind though is to forget that what Jesus taught was given to help us understand and live as people blessed by God. If we can say that we have been blessed by the loyal, faithful love of God that he has shown to us then we must wonder just how should we respond to such a blessing? The answer that Jesus gives us is that we are to be united to one another with the same loyal, faithful love that God first has given to us. This then explains why the will of God always revolves around unity, that we are to strive for unity in our relationships with each other, and to have integrity within ourselves. This then goes on to explain why we seek reconciliation with those who have hurt us instead of revenge and why we refuse to let our lusts and desires destroy what God has joined together. 

         This unity that comes out of the loyal, faithful love of God is maintained through our forgiving of others in the same lavish fashion with which God forgives us and through giving with the supernatural abundance that God promises to supply. So, when Jesus tells us that blessed are the pure in heart, he is speaking of how when our heart is united in its love for God and for all humanity then the actions that flow out of such a heart will yield the promise that the invisible God will be made visible through our love. Such a pure heart that God blesses us with then will go on to be found to be the source which creates peacemakers out of us. This becoming peacemakers, Jesus tells us is a blessing because when peace is created through us then we are called the very sons of God. How, when we hear Jesus say these words, can we not think of what Paul wrote in the first chapter of Colossians, where he writes in the nineteenth and twentieth verses, that, “God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in Jesus and through him to reconcile all things to himself-peacemaking through the blood of the cross.” You see, if a disciple, a student is supposed to be like their teacher or Master then how can we not understand that we are blessed in being like Jesus, blessed in making peace because only then can we be assured of receiving the promise of our inheritance. It is here that it becomes so abundantly clear that these blessings of Jesus have to be taken into account when we speak of making disciples because if we fail to do so, then we may define what it means to be like Jesus in many other ways except being a peacemaker.

         Ultimately as we consider the teachings of Jesus, we remember that at the very center of the core teachings of Jesus lies a prayer, a prayer that is given to us by Jesus, a prayer which speaks to all that we as his followers are to be doing. So often when people speak about prayers they often believe that praying stands in opposition to action yet in the prayer of Jesus this is clearly not so. His prayer is a call to get up off our knees and get to work. It is those who pray his prayer that are to make the very name of our Heavenly Father, holy through our loving with the holy love which he first loved us. It is we who pray his prayer who are called to make his kingdom come through the bringing of peace into a violent world. It is we who pray this prayer who are called to do the will of our Heavenly Father through drawing the world together instead of tearing it apart. We bring the world together through welcoming and inviting others to share in the supernatural abundance of our Heavenly Father. We draw others close through forgiving in the same manner that our Heavenly Father has done to us. And we keep from becoming evil, violent, people through treasuring only our Heavenly Father, dismissing all worldly treasures as being unworthy of our devotion. You see, the people who pray such a prayer are people who can testify that they have been blessed by God and their life flows directly out of his blessing. Those who live by such a prayer then can be said to be a blessing from God, blessing others just as God has blessed them, and isn’t this exactly what God first promised to Abraham would happen? 

         You see, the Great Commission of Jesus cannot be separated from God’s promise that one day all the families on earth would be blessed. Paul understood this best because as he writes in the third chapter of Galatians, the fourteenth verse, “in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham has come to all the nations.”. This is why Jesus called his followers to, go. They had to go, to go when they had no idea even how to go, because in Jesus the time of blessing had come and such good news just could not be kept to themselves. This blessing in a word is peace. God has made peace with us through Jesus so that we might live in peace with one another. So, may we go forth in peace and uphold the faithfulness of God! Amen!

Resurrection Changes Everything

 April 9 2023

Matthew 28:1-18

         The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen, indeed! Yes, indeed our Lord, Jesus is risen and he lives and reigns forever more, praise be to God! What a wonderful day to worship and exult Jesus, the one that death could not hold, the one who lives for all eternity! This Jesus, who died a cruel death being nailed to a crossbeam and hoisted from the earth, this same Jesus who was laid in a tomb and who had been there for three days, this Jesus is alive! Yet as much as we might want to focus upon this risen Jesus, our scripture seems to point us to how the risen Jesus deeply affected our world, and the people who encountered him. We are to ask ourselves just what was it about the resurrection of Jesus that caused the whole earth to shake, that caused the guards at the tomb to shake and become as dead when it happened.We have to ask ourselves just what was it about the resurrection of Jesus that moved the elders and the leaders of Judaea to concoct a story about the eyewitness account of sleeping security guards all rather than to simply believe the truth which confronted them.

         The clues to perceiving just what happened there on that morning when resurrection power was released upon our world are strewn everywhere about Matthews account. He writes that it happened on the Sabbath, the day of rest, the day which pointed to a time when all shall, every day, rest in the certainty of the promises of God, that time of the new age which is to come. Yet it was not just the Sabbath but we are told that it was the dawn of the first day of the week, a description which echoes the creation story which also begins with the breaking of the dawn upon a new week. It was at this time that Mary Magdalene and Mary went to see the tomb, to put fresh spices upon the lifeless body of Jesus. Or so they thought, for when they were just about to enter the tomb, the world was shaken. As happens so often with Matthew, suddenly an angel, a messenger of God, descended from heaven. There is to be no doubt for us that his heavenly being has come from above where our Heavenly Father resides. This heavenly being opened up the tomb, rolling away the stone. Then we are told that the angel sat upon the stone as to appear to rest after his work. This one from heaven shone with the glory of God, the glory which shined from Jesus at his Transfiguration. This was the glorious shining that also filled the Temple and we are left wondering if this too points to a new temple bursting forth upon the scene. The ones of heaven terrified those of earth, the guards shaking as the earth had been shaken, and they fell and became as dead. And then this angel, spoke, saying to the women, “Do not be afraid.” After all that had just happened, yes, now, do not be afraid. The angel then told the women that he understood that they had come seeking Jesus who had been crucified. This Jesus, the angel continued, he is not here, for he is risen. Come into the tomb and see for yourself the place where he had laid. And once you see that Jesus is indeed not to be found here among the dead, go and tell those who followed him that Jesus has indeed risen from the dead. Tell them that Jesus is going before them to Galilee; it is there that you will see him.

         So, the women departed quickly from a tomb where they had an encounter with an angel and yes, they did so with fear. Yet, they also went from the tomb with great joy as the news of what the angel had told them began to sink in. They ran as fast as they could to find the disciples of Jesus because they had great news to tell them. Suddenly, as they were on the way, Jesus was there, and with great joy, he wished them a good morning. And when they had gotten their bearings, they came and knelt down at his feet, and grasping hold of this one that they loved, they kissed his feet and worshipped him. This act of reverence displayed to the risen Jesus was no scandal because they knew, in ways they could not yet explain, that this risen one was indeed their Lord and their God.

         Well, as the women continued on their way after their encounter with Jesus, we are told that some of the guards who were part of the tomb detail, went and spoke to the chief priests. Here we see, in a few brief paragraphs, two very different reactions to the resurrection of Jesus. For where the women who had encountered Jesus knelt down and worshipped him, the chief priests who had heard of the resurrection of Jesus conspired to tell a grand lie to explain it all away. Of course, they had to sell this lie, giving a rather sizable amount of money to the soldiers so that they might spread this false tale of how it was the disciples themselves who came by night and stole the body of Jesus while the guards were asleep. Apparently, sleeping people are the best people to get to corroborate a story. And if we had any wonder why the leaders would quickly concoct such a mess of fiction as they had, we are told that this would be a story that would satisfy the governor’s ears. You see, all they needed was some story that would keep the higher authorities of Rome from coming down to Judaea to investigate why people had suddenly began to speak of a man who had come back from the dead. They just wanted every thing to remain as the status quo, and a simple lie would ensure that it stayed that way.

         So, there are the basic facts of what Matthew records on that first Easter Sunday but we have to ask just what are we really supposed to take away from this account? Just what was so earth shaking about this resurrection of Jesus? To fully understand the power of the resurrection we must not separate what happened at the tomb from what happened at the cross. We are told in the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew that when Jesus had yielded up his spirit upon the cross that the curtain in the temple had been torn in two and the earth shook. How in awe we must be that the death of Jesus shakes the earth and the rising of Jesus shakes the earth, once again. The curtain in the Temple is what separated the most sacred of places, the holy of Holies, from the rest of the Temple. In to that place of terrifying holiness, the high priest would go once a year, to make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel. This was a time of sheer awe and terror as the high priest entered into the awesome holy presence of God with blood to cleanse the sins that stood in the way of God’s relationship with his people. Yet now, this barrier, which prevented such holiness to come in contact with what was impure, had been torn in two. The evidence speaks to the fact that with the death of Jesus the terror which was caused by entering into the holy presence of God was gone. The once-for-all offering of Jesus was the blood offering, the very mercy seat upon which his blood paid the price for the world’s redemption. The opening of the Holy of Holies spoke of a new era that had come upon the earth and this was confirmed by the open tomb. As Matthew tells us, that morning when the angel appeared was the dawn of the first day of the week, which speaks of the dawning of a new creation which began when our Lord was resurrected. The age which had now dawned through the death of Jesus and his rising again is one of profound forgiveness. This forgiveness springs forth from the holy love of God, the love which loves us in our failures, a love which loves us when we were his very enemies, is still, a love which refuses to let us go, to write us off, a love which is willing to take upon himself our judgment so that in exchange we might experience mercy. This is why the veil was torn, why the Holy of Holies was opened because God has done, in the dying and rising of Jesus, all that was necessary to deal with sin. As Jesus spoke it in his prayer, “Forgive us our debt…”. God’s reaction to our violence done against him was for him to offer forgiveness, to bring healing into a relationship which has been torn apart by our own refusal to do his will.

         This new age of forgiveness brought about by God is an age of freedom because the forgiveness was a payment of a debt that we could not pay, a debt which enslaved us until all was paid for us upon the cross. So, now with the rising of Jesus from the dead we have been set free. The life of Jesus cries out that no longer must sin and death be the last word because they have been conquered, and those who were enslaved in fear because of sin, because of death, they are now free. No longer does the Law need to restrain us or restrict us to keep those who were bound by sin from utterly destroying ourselves; no, now we are free to do all that we were created to do, to bear the image of the God who created us.

         So, as God has forgiven our debts, so now, we are called to follow in his way, and forgive the debts of those who harm us and we are to do so in the extravagant and lavish ways that God has first forgiven us. The cross with all of its excess of love, this is what now defines the new life that has been set free from the power of death and sin. Can you feel the ground shake as we realize just what has happened in the death of Jesus, and in the resurrection of Jesus from the grave?All is forgiven! We have been set free! Now is the new age when the holy love of God reigns, a holy love which offers forgiveness so that a new relationship can be had and a new life, together, can be ours!

         You see, what the blood of Jesus also did was to ratify the new covenant that God makes with us. The forgiveness of God opens the way for us to have a life bound to God so that his eternal life might be ours as well. This new covenant is written upon our hearts, so that we can experience it as a prayer, a prayer which begins with a cry to our Father. The life of eternal love which Jesus has always experienced has now been given to us. To be the children of our Heavenly Father we are called to make the world know that our Heavenly Father loves with a holy love. To be children of our Heavenly Father means that we will live as if his kingdom is here as well as coming more and more in its fullness. This means that we will rest in the security of our Father’s arms. As his children we will be always seeking to pull things together not tear things apart. This means that we will treat people as those whom our Heavenly Father treasures.We will not let our lusts and desires tear apart what our Heavenly Father is putting together. It means that we will at last be people of integrity, safe to be who we are in union with our Father. And this life with our Heavenly Father means that we will give as he has given to us not worrying about giving too much but knowing that our Father will supply all we need. What will keep us living this life of the new covenant is that we will treasure our Heavenly Father above all else.

         Now, it seems as if we have gotten far off from the cross and the resurrection but not really. No, all of what has been said about the cross and the resurrection really began when Jesus died and three days later he arose from the grave. We have to consider what all of the ramifications are if we are to understand just why these two events are so earth shaking. You see, if this new age has come, an age of forgiveness and if we are indeed set free, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and if now we are to live by the new covenant ratified by the very blood of Jesus, then just what must be the result when we find ourselves empowered by resurrection power? The answer is that we become peacemakers. We become people who can light up a world. We can bring into a world dominated by violence and hatred a peace that is beyond our world’s understanding. Can you understand how this really is an earth shaking event?

         As I meditated on the resurrection once again, I did so as news came that a gunman had entered a school in Nashville, Tennessee killing three children and three adults. After this tragic news came the statistics that as of the first of April there have already been over one hundred and twenty shootings and that the number one cause of death of children is gun related deaths. I wondered to myself just what does this most wondrous event that we call the resurrection of Jesus have to say to this most horrible and tragic happening in Tennessee. You see, all the world sees is that the way people know how to deal with each other is with violence. The people of this world have to be wondering, is there no other way for us as humanity to get along? The answer we can give to a world that is suffering from all of the hurt, pain and violence is that with the resurrection of Jesus we have entered into a new age of forgiveness. With the resurrection of Jesus we have been redeemed, we have been set free from the powers of sin and death. With the resurrection of Jesus we have been given the chance at a new life lived by a new covenant that was ratified by the blood of Jesus. But we cannot just speak to the world about this wondrous, glorious, earth shaking event we call the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, our job is not to defend the truthfulness of the resurrection. Did you see the reaction of the women to this fabrication of lies that the chief priests conjured up? They could have cared less. They knew that the question that is most important is not, “Is the resurrection true?”, but rather, “Is the resurrection the truth that I live by?”.What those women that first day did upon encountering the risen Jesus is to drop to their knees and worship him as their Lord and God. Suddenly in that moment they knew, in some mysterious way, that the Jesus with whom they had spent the last three years following around the dusty roads of Judaea was the one true, living God. This God had bound his life with theirs in such a way that not even death could separate them. Can you begin to understand why Jesus was found to be worthy of their praise, their love and their life?

         The world needs people who have encountered the living Jesus and right there where he has found them, they will kneel and declare that Jesus is worthy. Here is the God who has forever united himself with us, who has taken on our flesh, who has taken upon himself the very violence of this world and who has experienced our death. This is the one our Heavenly Father has lifted up out of the grave and declared that this Jesus is worthy. This is the way that this new age of forgiveness has come to life right here in the midst of the old age. And the way that this new age of forgiveness is made a reality in our age is when upon encountering the living Jesus, we cry, “Worthy”. When we kneel before Jesus, when he is worthy of all of our praise because of what he has endured for us, this is when we will be willing to endure all for him. When we find Jesus worthy then we will be people who choose forgiveness over vengeance and violence. When we find Jesus worthy we will be people who live in the freedom of holy love instead of people who are bound to sin and death. If we find Jesus worthy then we will do all the new covenant asks us to be about, people making the name of our Father holy by living by holy love. We will declare the kingdom is here by being people who are at rest in the Father’s arms. We will make the will of our Father our will. We will give without measure for we know that our Father will supply without measure. We will forgive just as our Heavenly Father has forgiven us. And we will treasure our Heavenly Father and put our trust in him alone. And when we find Jesus worthy, and we live like Jesus is worthy, and the resurrection becomes the truth we live by, then a light will shine in the darkness because our life will shine forth with the peace that God first made with us upon the cross. And doesn’t our dark world need more light? So while the resurrection does give us a bright hope for tomorrow, it gives our world a means of much needed light for today. I hope and pray that you might encounter the risen Jesus and find him worthy of living your life in the pursuit of peace. Amen!

 

The Fruitful Temple

 April 2 2023

Matthew 21

         At last we have completed our Lenten journey with Jesus and we finally have reached the holy city of Jerusalem. Today is what is called traditionally, Palm Sunday, because today is when we remember that Jesus entered into Jerusalem to the shouts of, “Hosanna, Hosanna!”, and the waving of palms. This is the Sunday that must be one of the most difficult for those outside of the Christian faith to figure out. I mean, today there are probably a lot of churches which may be waving the branches of a Middle eastern palm plant all the while singing songs which have an Aramaic word in them, ‘Hosanna”, which most likely makes no sense to anyone who has not grown up in the church. And even if outsiders can get over these cultural hurdles there is also the strange dynamics of the week itself, that Jesus comes into the city hailed and praised as a king and in less than a week he is being nailed to a cross, on a day called Good Friday which again, anyone who is outside the church is going to be scratching their heads as to how such an ugly death can be at all, good. I often wonder if very many of us can, in a few words, actually help those on the outside make sense of such a week as most of us are usually trying to figure it out ourselves.

         So as we jump into the scriptures for today, I hope we really will strive to listen and understand just what is happening and why. The first very confusing aspect of what is going on in our scripture story is that Jesus sends two of his followers into an unnamed village and they are to find a donkey that is tied up, one that has a colt, supposedly a young donkey, that is with her. They are to untie the donkey and the colt and bring them to Jesus. Now many scholars have puzzled over the reason why Jesus would want a donkey and her colt but the most obvious reason is that Matthew has written his story in this way so that there can be no doubt that what is being played out is the prophecy recorded in the ninth chapter of Zechariah. As it is recorded here in Matthew, the prophet Zechariah prophesied and he said, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey and on a colt , the foal of a beast of burden.”. So, Matthew wants us to see that what is happening with the disciples who have gone for the donkey on which Jesus is riding on is done exactly like what is written in the prophecies of Zechariah hundreds of years before. I guess it doesn’t matter that there was an error in the translating of the text into Greek, and that the term, “colt,’ was there to tell us that the donkey was young, not that there was another young donkey with the donkey in question. But, nonetheless, there is a donkey and the real question is what is so important about Jesus riding into Jerusalem upon such a lowly steed. The answer is that Jesus knew that the people of Judaea and Jerusalem wanted him to be their king, but more importantly, they wanted Jesus to be their kind of king, the king that would at last be the conquering king that would lead the Jewish army to victory over the Roman occupying forces. Jesus knew that no matter how much he had spoken of his mission as being one of peace all his audience desired was war. Choosing a donkey to be his ride to enter Jerusalem upon, then, was to not only be a fulfillment of prophecy but it was to also send a signal that Jesus had come in peace to do the work of peacemaking.

         The strange action of the people who gathered that day, to throw down their coats upon the ground was an affirmation that the hunch of Jesus that these people desired him to be their king was right. This was an old custom as is recorded in the ninth chapter of Second Kings, where when Jehu was announced as king, the people threw down their garments so that the kings feet would not touch the ground. And so the people did this for Jesus as well, subtly stating by doing so that they firmly believed that this Jesus was indeed their king. What is not recorded in Matthew is the waving of the palm branches, something that is only found in the gospel of John. The reason as to why they waved these branches is also tied to their desire for Jesus to be king. The waving of the palm branches went back to an earlier time when the people of Judaea had thrown off the rule of the Greeks. So, now when they found themselves under the rule of the Romans the people had longed that Jesus would be the sort of king who would violently throw off this pagan oppression of God’s holy people. 

         So as Jesus came riding into the gates of Jerusalem riding upon a donkey whose feet trampled upon the coats that had been thrown down, these fervent believers of God began to sing a song, or at least part of a song, the one-hundredth and eighteen Psalm where we find the cry of Hosanna! This, Hosanna, is an Aramaic word which comes from two Hebrew words, Hosiah and na. Hosiah is a word that means, “Save us, deliver us, help us or liberate us”. The word na adds a sense of urgency to this plea so that what is meant by the cries of Hosanna is, “Save us now! Deliver us now!” Here in this cry is found the seeds of the conflict which would cause a similar crowd at the end of this week to cry to this same Jesus, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”. I mean, they were crying to this one who they held to be their king to save them, deliver them, yet just what was it exactly was it that they needed to be saved from? Just what sort of deliverance did they expect? How would a king bent on making peace be the one who could save or deliver these people as they had expected?

         And so the stage was set, right there as Jesus entered Jerusalem. Yes, the crowds stirred up the whole city and everyone wondered just who is this guy, this one riding on a donkey. The crowds answered these questions saying that Jesus was a prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. Now, I think that Matthew intentionally writes his story this way, stating that Jesus was a prophet as an introduction to what Jesus does immediately upon his arrival into Jerusalem. Matthew tells us that the first thing that Jesus does upon entering Jerusalem is to head to the Temple  to drive out all who bought and sold in the Temple, overturning tables of the money changers and the seats of the pigeon sellers. Now, for a king who wanted to portray himself as a peace loving guy this does seem like a violent sort of thing to do and we have to wonder, what gives? The answer is that as you study this action of Jesus in all four of the gospel accounts what you find is that all Jesus desired is to cause a disruption that would effectively shut down the Temple at least for a short period of time. Jesus did this by primarily chasing the animals from the Temple courts out into the street. We can only imagine the clamor and confusion that filled the streets of Jerusalem as cattle and sheep ran in terror out of the Temple courts into the streets already filled to overflowing with those who had come to celebrate Passover. Even so, Jesus had to make the workings of the Temple grind to a halt because as Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of violent thugs.” Here Jesus quotes from two different prophecies the first is found in the fifty-sixth chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet foretells of how one day even foreigners who join themselves to God will minister to him, so that they might love the name of the Lord and be his servants. And everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, holding fast to the covenant of the Lord, these God will bring to his holy mountain, and God will make these joyful in his house of prayer for all peoples.” Here then is the hope of God, what his desire has always been, to bring all peoples in to his house and make his house a house of prayer for those united to God, to those who love the name of the Lord. But this glorious image of what God desired is not what greeted Jesus as he entered the Temple that day because as Jeremiah had also known, as he wrote in the seventh chapter, “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers?”. It was here at the Temple that the violent intentions of God’s people were stoked like coals of a fire. Instead of being a house of prayer for all people it had become a hideout for those who sought violence against all peoples except themselves. So at last, with the arrival of Jesus, the word of God had spoken, the time had come for this evil place to be shut down for it no longer served the purposes of God.            The violent desires in those who called themselves God’s people only helped to reveal that they treasured something other than doing the will of God. They had taken their longing of sovereignty and had treasured it more than they had treasured their Heavenly Father. Then they began to worship this dream of statehood to the point where such an ideal had become for them a false god which stood opposed to the one, true, living God. Since what their hearts treasured was something other than what God promised to bring about, their treasure became an idol and as such the people who worshipped it gave it power through their own actions of violence. So from the moment Jesus entered into Jerusalem the cross proved more and more inevitable.

         What is fascinating is that Jesus, upon creating such an uproar within the Temple courts does not just leave and find some place to lay low for a while. No, Jesus instead, remains within the Temple and we are told, that as the blind and the lame came to him, Jesus healed them. We read this as if there is nothing really astonishing here, we know of the healings that had always been a part of the ministry of Jesus, but what should have amazed us is that here in the Temple courts were those that could not walk and those who could not see because people with infirmities were not allowed in the Temple according to Jewish law. In the twenty first chapter of the book of Leviticus we are told that such infirmities such as blindness and being lame were considered to be impure conditions which a priest could not have. It was, perhaps these restrictions, which led King David to state in Second Samuel, the fifth chapter, that those who were blind and lame were never to enter the house of the Lord. Yet here is Jesus, going against time honored tradition, and we have to wonder just why is he here, once again, pushing the buttons of the Temple authorities? We are told that when the chief priests and the scribes saw what Jesus was up to they were indignant, that was the only emotion they could call forth upon witnessing God making the broken to be made whole. How wonderful it was then that a little gaggle of children who were watching Jesus began singing and praising God with loud cries of, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”. These children just knew that this Jesus, this one who transformed the lives of these hurting people, here was the one who could surely save all of us. All the leaders of the Temple wanted is for these little nuisances to be quiet. “Don’t you hear what they are doing?, they asked Jesus. Jesus, of course, knew what these children were doing, they were the ones David had spoke of when he penned the eighth Psalm, that, “Out of the mouth of children and nursing babes, God has prepared his praise.” Here, right before their eyes, this ancient song was being played out but these officials, so bent on the rules, missed out on what David had known so well.

         What Jesus was doing when he spent his time in the Temple healing the hurting and soliciting the praise of children, was to, again, provide a prophetic image of the Temple to come. Jesus, in chasing out the animals from the Temple court was indeed sending a prophetic message that this Temple was on its way out, its purpose having been fulfilled. Since it had become a haven for violence there was nothing else to be done but for God to step aside and allow the course of these violent actions to sweep away all that opposed the plans of God. Yet, Jesus in his healing of the broken was also doing a prophetic act, pointing us to a new temple that was still to come, a place where healing not hurting occurs, a place where the praises of children are heard and welcomed. This new temple would be a place for those who would bear forth the name of the Lord and produce the fruit of peace. The people of Judaea and Jerusalem were like the fig tree Jesus encountered the next day which had no fruit, so Jesus cursed the tree and the tree withered and died. His disciples upon seeing that the once vibrant, green, tree now very much brown and lifeless were amazed and they asked Jesus how this had happened. The answer, Jesus told them is faith. If only they would have faith, they too could be part of what God is doing. You see, the reason that the fig tree was cursed and therefore good as dead was that this tree had the unlikely fate of representing the people of God. Like this tree, they too they had not borne any fruit, the fruit which Jesus spoke about to his disciples in the early days of his ministry. The fruit that they were to bear is the fruit of peace. When they were people who brought peace into a violent world then they would be like salt for a pot of stew or like a light that lights a room. But most of the people of Judaea had no intentions of wanting to be part of this coming kingdom of peace founded on the holy love of God. So, in choosing to worship a false god and give it life through their violent actions, they were unable to respond to the holy love of God and live. To have faith is to trust that without a response of fruit, without being what God has created them to be, rest assured all that was left was death. It was by this same certainty, Jesus went on to tell his disciples, that they could say to this mountain, “Be taken up and be thrown into the sea.”, and it will happen. This is a commonly quoted phrase to appeal to the power of faith and as great as that may be, I believe that here Jesus is speaking about something very different. We can not forget just what mountain that Jesus is referring to because the mountain to which he had to be pointing to was none other than the mountain upon which the Temple was built. The power which will render the Temple obsolete, effectively throwing it into the sea, is none other than being persuaded of the certainty of his creating a new Temple which will be a place of prayer for all people.This Temple will be a place which will at last bear the fruit of peace. You see, if we are convinced in the power of God to do the impossible then we can rest in the promises that God makes. This means that violence is not necessary to bring about the plans and the will of God. All that is necessary is faith. You see, the chief priests and elders in the Temple refused again and again to believe in the way of righteousness. They refused to trust in the ways of God which are the ways of holy love, a love which loves us not in our successes but instead finds us in our failures and forgives us and gives us life. It is no wonder that those considered the worst of humanity, the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed in this love because they knew that only through the forgiveness of God could they find a new life praising him. So it was these, the least of these, they were the ones who will enter the gates of the new Temple Jesus prophesies is surely on its way.

         Now, just so these leaders of the old Temple understand how their violent ways have put them on the outs with God, Jesus tells them the story of a vineyard. The owner of the vineyard lease it to some tenants. When the grapes were ripe the owner sent his servants to get his fruit. The tenants however beat and killed every servant the owner sent. So, at last the owner of the vineyard decided that he would send his son, surely those tenants would respect him. The tenants instead decided to kill the son falsely believing that if they did they at last would receive the son’s inheritance. Jesus then asks the leaders of the Temple, just what will the owner do with these tenants? The leaders told Jesus that of course the owner should put these tenants to a miserable death and lease the vineyard out to those who will give the owner fruit in due season. Tragically these leaders could not see that they, in fact, were those tenants who refused to give the owner the fruit he deserved . They rejected Jesus, the very stone the builders refused to set at the corner so the Temple could be built to glorify God. They rejected Jesus, the very Son of God, because they refused to bear the fruit of peace. But this one who was rejected, whose blood was spilt, the one who forgave with his last breath, this is the rock upon which the new Temple is built, the Temple all of us are called to be a part of. As you look at the cross this Good Friday, ask yourself, will you like Jesus, be one who bears the fruit of peace? Amen