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03-24 - Washed by Jesus

          We are continuing our journey towards Easter morning by taking one day at a time in the final week of Jesus’ public ministry.  As we have moved our way through the week, we might have noticed that the level of detail and the depth of information that we are receiving for each measure of time is increasing.  I mentioned before that in my Bible there are about 180 pages of material used to describe the three years of Jesus’ ministry.  But of those 180 pages, 11 pages are devoted to the events and discussions at a single meal, Jesus’ final meal with all his disciples. One hundred 180 pages to describe three years.  Eleven of those pages used to describe just four hours.  That fact alone suggests that the events of that meal had a profound effect on the disciples, the gospel writers in particular, and upon the early Christian Church.

          What happened in those four hours?  There were six actions of significance.  First, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. Second, Jesus predicted his betrayal by Judas.  Third, Jesus shared bread with his disciples and said it was his body and he shared the cup and said it was his blood.  Fourth, the disciples argued among themselves about which one of them was the greatest. Fifth, Jesus predicted Peter’s denial. And sixth, Jesus gave one final teaching to the disciples.  Each one of these six actions could be the subject of a sermon or two on its own, so I won’t attempt to cover all these actions today.  I will cover some of those actions today, some on this Thursday evening during the Maundy Thursday service and I will leave the balance for another day. So, let’s begin. 

          The meal celebrated by Jesus and his disciples was the Passover meal.  The Passover meal was then and remains today the occasion used by the Jews to remember that God had redeemed the Hebrew people from the Egyptians.  In Jesus’ time, Jews desired to celebrate the meal within the city of Jerusalem.  And Jesus arranged for the Passover meal within the city and made those arrangements through a man whose identity has been lost to history.  In Mark 14, we read that Jesus sent two of his disciples into Jerusalem and look for a man carrying a jar of water.  Jesus told his disciples, “Follow him. 14Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”  16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So, they prepared the Passover” (Mark 14:13b-16).  There is a bit of secrecy and a little clandestine feel to these arrangements.  The disciples do not know the name of the man that they would follow, only that the man would find them, and the disciples would know he was the right man because the man would be carrying a jar of water.  The disciples did not know where they were going.  They only knew that they were to follow the man with the jug of water and go to the house he entered.  Once at the home, the disciples only knew to ask the owner of that home, another man unknown to them, “Where is the upstairs room?”  There was only one person who knew the whole plan and that was Jesus.  Why the secrecy?  Perhaps secrecy was necessary so that this meal happened without interruption by Judas’ betrayal of Jesus.  Whatever the reason, the secrecy would have caught the attention of John’s original readers and highlighted to them the importance Jesus placed on this meal.

          Today, we will work with John’s account of this meal.  John wrote, “2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God” (John 13:2-4).  John was making it clear that while the meal appeared to those attending to be another Passover meal, it was so much more than that.  For at this meal sat Jesus, the Son of God and Judas, who had given himself over to Satan.  The presence of Jesus and Satan tells us that a spiritual battle was being fought while the participants ate.  For in and through this meal, the perfect plan of God the Father would be worked out. It was time for Jesus to complete his mission and return to his glory in heaven.  This meal signal the essential points of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

          John said that while the meal was in progress, “4 He [Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:4-5).  The custom of that day was that just prior to the Passover meal people immersed themselves in water to bathe and become ritually clean before the meal.  Likely then everyone had bathed.  Once at the house for the meal, a servant of the host of the meal would clean the feet of each guest upon their arrival, meaning the foot washing occurred before meal.  To the original readers of John’s gospel, Jesus rising in the middle of the meal to wash the disciples’ feet would have been a completely unexpected and thought unnecessary. This fact alone would have alerted John’s readers to something important was about to happen in and through the foot washing and that it would reflect insight into the spiritual battle that was underway.

We know something significant was happening because Jesus said as much with his interaction with Peter.  John wrote, “6 He [Jesus] came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand” (John 13:6-7).  Jesus’ reply confirmed that what Jesus is doing is no ordinary foot washing to remove the dusk of the day because Jesus told Peter, “You do not realize now what I am doing.”  Well, there were two things the disciples realized were happening.  First, their feet were being washed.  Second, the person washing their feet was not a servant but their Lord, Master, and Rabbi, Jesus.  So, Jesus’ words, “You do not realize now what I am doing,” means that physical foot washing by Jesus was not the true significance of the moment. There was something much deeper going on.

We see that after Jesus washed Peter’s feet, Jesus said again, ““Do you understand what I have done for you?”  This is very much the same statement Jesus made before he washed Peter’s feet.  In Scripture, when we read the same or similar statement such as these statements, it is a signal to look hard at the words between those two statements.  This writing technique is called an inclusio.  It is an ancient writing technique used to emphasis the words between the similar statements.  So, let’s look harder at those in between words. 

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”  Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”  10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.  12 When he [Jesus] had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” (John 13:6-12).

Jesus’ words, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me” gives us insight that the physical washing was representative, symbolic of an action Jesus must take on behalf of his disciples and that to refuse Jesus’ offer meant the disciple could not have a relationship with Jesus at all.  Peter and the other disciples did not realize at that moment, but Jesus was pointing them to events that were about to unfold in the spiritual battle that was underway. The events were the fulfilment of the gospel.  The events included Jesus giving his life upon the cross so that the sins of his disciples would be washed away.  The events included Jesus being raised from the dead.  The significance of Jesus foot washing was that Jesus washes away the sins of his disciples.  The disciples would not understand this significance until later, that is after the resurrection appearance of Jesus.

Being washed by the Son of God is to be cleansed of sin.  To be washed by Jesus is to be redeemed from death into life.  Redemption, coming to be right before God the Father, can only happen if Jesus’ washes away sin.  There is no other way.  John would later write about Christians that, “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us (wash us clean) from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Jesus will continually wipe away our sins as we confess our faith in Him. 

John wrote, “12 When he [Jesus] had finished washing their [the disciples’] feet, he [Jesus] put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:12-15). Certainly, Jesus set the example of humble service to others.  This was the common life physical experience.  But we know now that what Jesus did was more than that.  There was the uncommon spiritual experience of Jesus having washed the disciples clean of their sins.  The disciples had been forgiven by Jesus.  The example Jesus then set was that the disciples then was humble service but more than that it was that we must forgive those who sin against us. We must be willing to follow Jesus’ example.

Jesus taught, “If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will forgive you.   15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15). Peter asked Jesus how often it was necessary to forgive, and Jesus replied, ““I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22), a number to be taken symbolically, not literally, for the never-ending way that we ought to forgive. 

Jesus liked to use parables to illustrate various aspects of forgiveness. During his conversation with Peter, Jesus told the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew18:23-35). Luke’s gospel has a series of five forgiveness parables:  the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9); the bent over woman (Luke 13:10-13); the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7); the lost coin (Luke15:8-10); and the greatest forgiveness parable of all, the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  Jesus was extremely kind and merciful in the way that he forgave those who sinned against others. Jesus told the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5); when a sinful woman bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48); when a woman caught in adultery was brought before him, Jesus said to her “Your sins are forgiven” (John 8:11). 

When Jesus had been resurrected and he met with his disciples, John recorded, “21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (John 20:21-22).  The first command of Jesus upon his resurrection was to forgive the sins of others.

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is about forgiveness of sins so as to restore the perfect relationship with God and transform our minds to restore relationships with one another.  Jesus told his disciples “14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet [I have forgiven you], you also should wash one another’s feet [forgive one another]. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:14-15).

The message for us today is the same as it was for Jesus’ disciples.  To be part of Jesus, we must accept and allow Him to wash our feet, that is to cleanse us of sin.  There is no alternative.  To be cleansed by Jesus of unrighteousness is to believe that Jesus died for you, that Jesus was buried, and that Jesus rose from the dead.  To have Jesus is to believe in the gospel. 

But it does not end there.  To believe in Jesus and be cleansed of sin, also means that we must wash the feet of one another, that is to forgive one another the sins committed against us.  If we refuse to forgive the sins of another, then we are saying we do not want Jesus to cleanse us.  Let me say that again.  If we refuse to forgive the sins of another, then we are saying we do not want Jesus to cleanse us.  These are not my thoughts; these are Jesus’ thoughts.  Jesus said, “15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15).

We need to ask ourselves, “Do I understand what Jesus did for me at that meal?  Have I allowed Jesus to wash my feet, that is to cleanse me of my sin? Is there some unconfessed sin I need to have washed away?” Jesus stands ready with a basin and a towel ready to cleanse each of us and make us right before God.  Let’s not wait.  Let’s not hesitate.  Let’s be cleansed.  And if we have been cleansed by Jesus, then have we done as Jesus commanded and followed his example?  Is there someone who we have not forgiven in the same manner Jesus forgave us?  If so, then grab your basin and towel and forgive as Jesus has forgiven you.  Let us pray. 

03-17 Anointed for the Gospel

          We are continuing our journey towards Easter morning by taking one day at a time in the final week of Jesus’ public ministry.  We have seen in the preceding Sundays that Jesus focused his public words towards worship of God.  Jesus entered Jerusalem making the pages of the Old Testament come alive as he rode into the city on a donkey.  While the people who traveled with him cheered and the religious leaders jeered, Jesus teared.  Jesus cried as he came to see the sight of Jerusalem because he understood the people did not see, welcome, and worship God’s arrival. 

The next day, Jesus returned to Jerusalem and cleared the Temple of the buyers and sellers of animals and moneychangers.  Jesus with great force of authority stopped the sacrificial offerings in the Temple and again made the voices of the Old Testament prophets heard again, “The house of the Lord is a place of prayer for all nations!” “Yet, you have made it into a den of robbers.”  Worship of God as it had become was fruitless and destined to wither and die. 

On the subsequent day, Jesus taught the people and fought the religious leaders in the Temple.  In a pinnacle moment, Jesus taught the religious leaders plainly through a story of the wicked tenants that he knew they would soon kill him.  But God would judge them for their refusal to accept Jesus as his Son.  Jesus said all the religious leaders would be swept away and the reigns of worship would be handed over to the most unlikely of people, an odd collection of men that Jesus called his apostles.

Now, today, what we would call the Wednesday of Passion Week, the time for public entrances and public teaching was closing.  The time now was for private matters among friends and family members.  And amid the intimate gatherings the coming Jesus’ death was never far away.  For on this day, two pinnacle events occurred. First, Jesus was anointed as an act of love.  Jesus said the anointing was for his burial by a woman that loved him and understood Jesus was the resurrection and the life.  The second event, Jesus was betrayed by one he loved because Jesus’ betrayer no longer saw Jesus as the earthly king he so wanted.  Love is such an intense and intimate human experience, and it seems to intensify and become more pronounced the nearer the person we love is to death.  The nearness of death strips away our inhibitions and the masks we wear that normally give us the appearance of calmness.  Instead, whatever we want from or for the person we love becomes raw and unashamed.

That intensity of love was shown to Jesus in the anointing of his body.  Each gospel writer spoke of an anointing of Jesus body.  In the four gospel accounts, it seems to me clear that there were two different anointings of Jesus.  One anointing, reported by Luke, occurred in the vicinity of the town of Nain, in Galilee, early in Jesus’ ministry.  The second anointing of Jesus, reported by Mark, Matthew, and John, occurred in Bethany, near Jerusalem, during the last week of Jesus’ mortal life.  I also believe the first anointing of Jesus served as a model for the second anointing.

In the first anointing of Jesus, Luke tells us that Jesus was invited to a dinner by a Pharisee.  During dinner, a woman with a reputation as a sinner, likely meaning a prostitute, arrived at the house where the dinner was being held because she knew Jesus was going to be present.  When the woman was finally in Jesus’ presence, she began to cry.  So hard was this woman crying that she began to cover Jesus’ feet with her tears.

Crying is unique to humans.  Other beings on this earth may express emotions but they do not express such emotions with tears.  We humans are the only beings to cry to express our emotions.  What was emotion was this woman experienced in Jesus’ presence? I think this woman experienced a series of emotions as she felt her life being transformed.  At first, the woman entered the room, no doubt receiving a stare of disgust from the dinner’s host, Simon, and she received a look of acceptance by Jesus.  That began the tears.  This woman while scorned by sinful men was accepted by the one holy man.  In the presence of holiness, the woman realized how sin is an affront to God and yet God welcomes the sinner to come to him. In that realization the woman repented of her past and cried because she now knew she could stay in the presence of holiness.  With a repentant heart, the woman wiped Jesus’ tear wetted feet with her hair, kiss them, and then anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume.  As she did these things for Jesus she cried because she came to realize that her sins had been forgiven, not in part but in the whole. Forgiveness frees us from the pain of the past and the hopelessness of the future.

Simon, a sinful man himself and host of the dinner, saw all that happened, but Simon did so without seeing.  Simon could not see the forgiveness of sins.  Simon could only see a disgusting impure sinner touching a man, and believed that in touching Jesus, this woman made Jesus impure. Simon did not understand that a sinner touching holiness does not change or stain holiness.  A sinner touching holiness changes the sinner.  Jesus understood what had happened and said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven…Your faith has saved you, go in peace” (Luke 7:48, 50).  The woman’s act of love toward Jesus through her anointing of Jesus’ feet with tears and perfume and her transformation life from sin.  This was an important story for those following Jesus and was no doubt told and retold many times.

Then just days before Jesus’ death, another woman, had the opportunity to anoint Jesus, and that anointing was described for us in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John.  Today, I would like us to look at the account in Mark, since Mark’s was the first gospel produced.  Mark said the Jesus was in Bethany, just two days away from Passover, which we know would be the day for Jesus’ death.  Mark wrote, “While he [Jesus] was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, [a man different than Simon the Pharisee], a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his [Jesus’] head” (Mark 14:3).  John added some details in his account saying that the woman who anointed Jesus with perfume did so on his feet and then wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair filling the whole house with the fragrance of the perfume. John said the woman was Mary, the sister of Lazarus, a very dear friend of Jesus, a friend Jesus had days earlier raised from the dead.

The woman, we will say, Mary, anointed Jesus and in many ways reenacting the behaviors of the woman from Jesus’ first anointing except that Mary here did not express any tears.  Why not? Because unlike the first anointer, Mary, had been a believer in Jesus.  Mary had sat at the feet of Jesus and came to know him.  Mary witnessed the power of Jesus over life and death and that Jesus chose life for others.  Mary had a desire to show her love for Jesus not with an outpouring of tears but with an outpouring of extravagance.  Mary poured out a perfume worth a year’s wages.  To Mary she imitated the first anointer by expressing her love with extravagance, a treasure.

Mark said, “Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her [Mary] harshly (Mark 14:4-5).  John’s gospel was more specific.  John seems to indicate the loudest voice among the critics was that of Judas Iscariot.  John added Judas complained not on behalf of the poor but because Judas wanted to steal some of the money from the sale of the perfume for himself.  Either way, Mary saw her action as an expression of love through an extravagant gift.  The disciples saw Mary’s actions as a waste of money.

We have once again a single act involving Jesus viewed sharply two different ways. Here, we had one person doing something they believed was loving Jesus, someone they saw as of God, as the resurrection and the life.  The others saw the same act as senseless, emotional, and wasteful of money.  This is a common pattern all throughout the journey of Jesus and particularly in this final week.  The people praised Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem and the Pharisees called on Jesus to rebuke them.

Earlier in his ministry, Jesus shared with his followers the key to understanding actions, particularly those that involve treasure.  Luke wrote, “16 And he [Jesus] told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’  18 “Then he [Jesus] said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’  20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).

From the parable, Jesus wanted his followers to choose to be rich in their relationship with God placing their love of God above anything else.  Be rich toward God.  This was the message of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem – be rich toward God and worship him. This was the message of the temple clearing – be rich toward God, stop using the Temple to enrich yourselves. This was the message of the teachings in the Temple the day before – be rich toward God.  Stop producing fruit just for yourselves.

Mary was trying in her own way to be rich toward God by anointing Jesus in a way that showed her great love for him.  The disciples cared more about human treasure and saw the extravagance towards God as a waste.

Jesus’ response to this scene gives clarity to what had transpired.  Jesus said told his disciples “She has done a beautiful thing to me…She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Mark 14:6-9 selections).  Jesus’ response was unexpected.  Jesus said Mary’s love was not only generous but was necessary - necessary to prepare Jesus’ body for burial.  But wait. Bodies are prepared for burial only after someone has died.  Jesus was very much physically alive. 

What then do we make of Jesus’ statement that his body has been made ready for burial?  I believe the key is in what Jesus said next, “Whenever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her" (Mark 14:9).  Jesus was signaling the anointing marked the end of his public ministry and the beginning of the core of the gospel message.  From this point forward, Jesus would speak and act gospel message.  What is the gospel, the good news?  Namely, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.  The heart of the gospel had started with the anointing of Jesus’ body for burial.

Surprisingly, none of the gospel accounts describe any questions of Jesus about his body being readied for burial.  No one seems to have asked, “Jesus, what do you mean Mary anointed you body for burial?  What burial? When?  Why?”

Instead of asking Jesus to clarify what he meant, Mark wrote, “10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They [The chief priests] were delighted to hear this and promised to give him [Judas] money. So he [Judas] watched for an opportunity to hand him [Jesus] over [to the chief priests]” (Mark 14:10-11). Matthew says Judas received 30 pieces of silver.

Judas having witnessed an extravagance of love toward Jesus chose that moment to betray Jesus into the hands of the chief priests.  The chief priests were the very people Jesus had told the disciples on three prior occasions (e.g., Mark 8:11-12; 9:30-32; 10:33-34) would kill him.  If Judas had been paying attention to Jesus’ words, then Judas must have known his betrayal of Jesus would end in Jesus’ death.  What would cause Judas to betray Jesus?  Luke says Satan had entered Judas and Judas decided to betray Jesus.  This does not mean Judas was possessed by Satan and therefore, no long accountable for his actions.  Satan entered Judas meant that Judas who it seems had been drifting away from Christ, as evidenced by his stealing from the moneybag, saw in Jesus’ anointing the last straw.  Judas must have thought whatever pleasures or power he thought he was going to get for himself from Jesus was not going to happen.  Rather than just walk away, Judas opted instead to get some money for his troubles.  The chief priests would be willing to pay for Judas’ help.  Judas’ conduct is as shocking to the reader as Mary’s anointing. Mary showed great love toward Jesus by anointing Jesus extravagantly with perfume costing a year’s wages. Judas showed great bitterness toward Jesus by betraying Jesus for a month’s wages.  Time and again, the gospel writers show us the contrasts in behavior of those who seek to worship God and those who seek to reject God.

What then do we take from these stories of contrast?  I do not think it is hard to see that the closer you come to knowing the person of Jesus, you will either love him or hate him.  Now there are many people who would say, “I know of Jesus, but I do not hate him, I just do not believe in him.”  But they would be missing the point.  To not love Jesus is to hate him.

There simply is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus.  This is not my thought.  This is Jesus’ thought.  Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15). Jesus then said, “21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).  To not love Jesus is to hate him.

After the resurrection, Jesus spoke with Peter.  15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”  16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”  17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17).  To not love Jesus is to hate him. 

Mary loved the Lord extravagantly.  Do we love Jesus extravagantly or do we just love him every so often when we think of him?  Do we love Jesus like the sinful woman because we are forgiven and transformed, or do we love Jesus only on Sunday when we want others to think we have been transformed?  Love the Lord your God.  Do not do as Judas did and allow some bitterness to keep you from love.  Remove whatever is in your way and anoint Jesus extravagantly with your love.  Let us pray. 

03-10 Kingdom Authority

          We are continuing our journey through each day of what many in the Christian community now call Holy Week or Passion Week.  Two Sundays ago, we spoke about Jesus’ decision to make an unmistakable entrance to Jerusalem and weeping that people missed their opportunity to worship God. Last Sunday, we spoke about Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree and Jesus clearing the Temple.  In clearing the Temple, Jesus indicted the religious leaders with changing God’s house into a den of robbers instead of a house of prayer as God desired where people could be in worship of God.  Jesus’ actions and words were most unwelcomed by the religious leaders, and they furthered their plot to kill him.  But the religious leaders feared the people who were growing more and more attached and attracted to Jesus.

          Today, we find Jesus coming from rest at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in Bethany and returning to the Temple.  Jerusalem and the Temple were the heart of Judaism this Passover week and what should be the heart of worship of God.

          We spoke about worship in the prior weeks, but it bears mentioning again.  Worship of God is at the heart, the very core, of the relationship between God and humanity.  When God through Moses went to Pharoah to release the Hebrew people, Moses stood before Pharoah and said, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me!” (Exodus 7:16)  Worship is at the heart of our relationship with God.  While God wants, and yes commands us to care for the poor, God does not judge humanity based upon how many social justice initiatives it has or has not pursued.  Instead, God’s judgement comes exists because our worship is absent or corrupt.  And God knows that if we are not acting with generosity and grace towards those in need, it is because there is something wrong with our worship of God.  Jesus, therefore, returns to Jerusalem again and goes directly to the place where worship is publicly expressed, the Temple, there to teach, to warn, and to encourage worship of God.

          In the Gospel of Mark, we would read that the religious leaders were ready for Jesus’ return.  “27 They [Jesus and his disciples] arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you [Jesus] doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you [Jesus] authority to do this?”  29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”  31 They [The religious leaders] discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”  Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” (Mark 11:28-33) Jesus gave the religious leaders a simple question that had only two possible answers.  Either John the Baptist was sent as a prophet by God or John created his message and baptismal practices on his own.  It seems clear the religious leaders believed that John’s baptism was of human origin, not of God.  We know this for two reasons.  First, the religious leaders did not believe John’s message of repentance because they did not repent.  But, secondly, they did not want to say John was of human origin because they feared the people who believed John was from God.  So, when caught in a difficult circumstance in which no matter what answer they gave to that question, the religious leaders felt trapped, they did what most people would do.  They lied. They said, “We don’t know.”  Jesus having exposed them as either liars or fools had no reason to engage them in discussion of the source of his authority. And so he said he would not answer their question about his authority to clear the Temple or teach, warn, and encourage.

          Instead of answering their question directly, Jesus sought to explain to the religious leaders his authority and their behavior toward his authority through a parable.  This was unusual because when Jesus spoke in parables he did so to his followers so that the meaning of his teaching to be hidden from the religious leaders because they believed Jesus was not of God but of the devil.  This time, however, Jesus told a parable and did so in a manner that the religious leaders would understand.  I will be using the account in the Gospel of Mark as our starting point.

          Mark wrote, “1Jesus then began to speak to them [the religious leaders] in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower.’” This briefest of introductions would have been well known to the religious leaders for two reasons. First, there were plenty of vineyards in Israel that looked like the one Jesus described.  They could easily visualize what Jesus has described.  Second, the imagery of the vineyard, wall, winepress, and watchtower was used in the Hebrew scriptures, known well to the religious leaders, as a way to describe Israel itself in relationship to God. For example, from Isaiah Chapter 5 we would read, “My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.  He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well” (Isaiah 5:1b-2). It is understood here that God is the one who did the work to create the vineyard and Israel is the vineyard.  The religious leaders would have understood the imagery to the opening of Jesus’ parable and now so do we.

          Jesus continued, “Then he [the owner] rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.  (Luke said the owner went away for a long time.) 2 At harvest time he [owner] sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they [the tenants] seized him [the owner’s servant], beat him and sent him away empty-handed.”  The tenant farmers treated the owner’s representative shamefully, literally punching him repeatedly with their fists, and sending him away without anything that was due to the owner.  The religious leaders would have understood this was criminal behavior and the tenants were in violation of their agreement with the owner.  There would have been a sense of outrage growing among the listeners to the behavior of the tenants.

          Jesus continued, “4Then he [the owner] sent another servant to them [tenants]; they [tenants] struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully” (Mark 12:4). Again, a second servant had been sent and this time they did not just punch the man but tried to smash his skull. The tenants sent the man away without any fruit.  The religious leaders listening to this story must have been rightly infuriated at the behavior of the tenants and thought swift justice and punishment is in order.

Jesus continued, “5 He [the owner] sent still another [servant], and that one they [the tenants] killed. He [the owner] sent many others; some of them [servants] they [the tenants] beat, others [servants] they [the tenants] killed” (Mark 12:5).  By now the religious leaders must have thought these farmers deserve capital punishment for killing these servants.  They must have also thought, “What sort of man is this owner that he keeps sending more and more servants back to these farmers in the hopes that they would change their behavior?  Why doesn’t this owner simply seek the authorities to wipe out these farmers for their murderous behavior?”

Jesus continued, “6 He [The owner] had one [servant] left to send, a son, whom he loved. He [The owner] sent him [the son] last of all, saying, ‘They [The tenants] will respect my son’” (Mark 12:6).  The son arrived at the vineyard and made his presence as the son unmistakably known. The tenants understood this man was no ordinary servant.  This man had the power and authority of the father.  This man, the son, could render judgement upon the farmers for their behaviors. This man, the son, had the power and the authority to remove them from the vineyard.  This man, the son, was the only son.  This man was the only one who could inherit the vineyard from the father.

And so, Jesus said, “7 The tenants said to one another, [The tenants conspired among themselves], ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’” (Mark 12:7). These murderous tenant farmers conspired among themselves that if they were to kill this son, then the vineyard would be theirs to do as they pleased forever.  They believed they would be safe within the walls of the vineyard.

“8 So they [the tenants] took him [the son] and killed him, and threw him [body] out of the vineyard” (Mark 12:8).  The tenants had not only failed to uphold their end of the contract, but they beat and killed servants of the owner, and then had the arrogance and hatred toward the owner to the degree that they would kill the vineyard owner’s own son.  And then to add insult to the owner, the tenants threw the son’s body out of the vineyard to be exposed to the elements as though he was trash.

Jesus then asked the religious leaders, “9 ‘What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others’” (Mark 12:9).  The religious leaders would have understood that such outrageous and murderous behavior would end in the death of the tenants.  Jesus’ question and answer was not a surprise to them. They agreed with Jesus.  So, what then was the purpose of Jesus’ parable if there was nothing to be learned from it?

The purpose of the parable was to get the religious leaders’ minds aligned with Jesus’ mind on a story, so that Jesus could next show the religious leaders through Scripture how they missed the opportunity God had presented to them.

Jesus said, “10 Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: ‘‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mark 12:10-11).  The Scripture Jesus quoted here is not just some random piece of Scripture.  Jesus’ words, ‘‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes,” comes from the latter part of Psalm 118.  These words are particularly well known to the religious leaders because Psalms 113 through 118 form a hymn called the Hallel.  The Hallel was a hymn sung at religious festivals, like Passover, three times per day.  Jesus was saying to these religious leaders, “You sing these words of Scripture repeatedly every day but you don’t understand that these words of prophesy are coming true before your very eyes.  You have rejected me, God’s cornerstone as thoroughly and completely as the tenants had rejected the owner’s son and the servants before him. You know and agree with the fate of those murderous tenants and now you know your fate as well.”

Mark wrote that upon hearing the Scripture, “12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away” (Mark 12:12). 

And so we too come to understand what the religious leaders came to realize that in the parable is that the vineyard owner was God, the vineyard was Israel, God’s people, the tenants were the religious leaders themselves, the servants were the prophets sent by God, and the owner’s son was Jesus.  The religious leaders of Israel had a history of abusing and killing God’s prophets and now Jesus told them they would do the same with Jesus.  But the fate of the religious leaders was death and the responsibility for the vineyard, God’s people, would be given to others.

What are we to do with this parable and this Scripture?  I think there are two things.  First, we might ask, “What became of these Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes?”  The historical truth is that they all perished, and their entire sacrificial system and way of life was destroyed completely.  Why did that happen?  Because they chose to remain under the condemnation of the Law, they rejected God’s Son, and did not accept the grace of God Jesus offered.  Nothing has changed.  The story, the fate, for those who chose to reject God, who refuse to worship God, who mock the grace offered by God through His Son, Jesus, remains timeless and unchanged.  They remain condemned under the Law.  That sounds hard and harsh, but it is not of God’s choosing, it is the choice many people willingly make to remain in unresolved, unforgiven sin.  Jesus’ parable from 2,000 years ago remains a warning to today’s unbeliever.

The second point is this. A new set of tenants became responsible for God’s people and vineyard.  The first of those new tenants were this odd collection of fishermen, tax collectors, and other commoners known as Jesus’ apostles.  The chief cornerstone of the vineyard and kingdom was and remains Jesus Christ, who is the one who offers grace to any, to all, who want to become part of the vineyard, the kingdom of God.  The vineyard, the kingdom, is place in which the fruit is developed and matured.  What is that fruit of God’s vineyard?  It is certainly worship and prayer.  It is certainly confession and supplication to God.  It is certainly the sweet fruit of humility, meekness, hospitality, and encouragement.  It is as Paul would later say, “Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).  The vineyard, the kingdom, is a place of transformed lives because each member of the vineyard has available to them the mind of Christ, through the Spirit of the Lord, who gives an inner peace unlike the world.

Where do you see yourself in Jesus’ parable? Have you rejected the chief cornerstone of the vineyard, Jesus Christ, by not yet accepting the grace He has offered you?  Why? What is keeping you from choosing Christ?  Lay it aside and come into the vineyard of God’s people.  If you have accepted Christ and claim to be within the vineyard, what fruit are you producing?  How are you cultivating that fruit to make it more abundant and sweeter every day?  Let the grace of Jesus envelop and encourage you, giving you zeal and stamina to yield to God the very best of the vineyard. Amen and Amen.

03-03 - My House Is for All

          We are continuing our journey through each day of what many in the Christian community now call Holy Week or Passion Week.  Last Sunday, we spoke about Jesus’ decision to make an unmistakable entrance to Jerusalem. Crowds saw Jesus as the king come to establish a restored earthly kingdom of Israel.  The Pharisees and Sadducees saw Jesus as a threat to their status, the Temple itself, and to the nation of Israel.  Jesus saw His entry into Jerusalem as a cause for grieving because everyone missed seeing God was among them.  It was a very emotional day for everyone.

After resting for the evening in Bethany, a town about 2 miles from Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples retraced their steps back to Jerusalem on the next morning, what we would now call Monday.  On this day, there would be no riding on a donkey, no palm waving crowds, and no encounters with the Pharisees along the route to the city. But it would be a tremendously passionate week and one that would have much meaning for the people then and for us now.

What exactly happened on Monday?  While the gospels differ somewhat in the sequence of events, it seems clear that two things of significance happened.  One event was private to Jesus and his disciples, and it involved a fig tree.  The other event was very public and involved a temporary stop to sacrificial activities with the Temple of Jerusalem.  These very different events had a common message.  We will look at the fig tree event first, then the Temple activities, and then conclude with the fig tree.

I want to use the oldest of the gospels, the gospel of Mark, as our primary source of events for this day.  In looking at Mark, we will find that Mark presented his readers with what some theologians call, “A Goldened Oreo Cookie.”  Mark uses Jesus’ first encounter with the fig tree as the outer layer of the cookie, the events in the Temple as the sweet filling of the cookie, and then uses Jesus’ second encounter with the fig tree as the remaining layer of the cookie.  What even kids understand is that the center of the Oreo cookie is the main attraction. Our conversation will follow similar lines with the Temple clearing as the center of Jesus’ activities.

The gospel of Mark tells us that after Jesus left Bethany, Jesus became hungry.  Seeing a fig tree in the distance, Jesus went to find out if the tree had any fruit.  This is Jesus’ first encounter with the fig tree. When Jesus reached the tree, he found the tree had nothing but leaves, because Mark says it was not the season for figs.  According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ disciples heard Jesus say to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mark 11:14).  In reading the account of Jesus and the fig tree in the Gospel of Matthew, we would find no commentary about Jesus’ state of hunger, or on whether it was fig season.  But we do have Jesus saying to the tree, “May you never bear fruit again” (Matthew 21:19). Neither Luke nor John recount an event with a fig tree in their gospels.  What is going on here that the original readers of Mark and Matthew would have understood? 

First, fig trees, in and around Jerusalem, sprout leaves in March and yield two types of figs.  The early figs appear as knobs on the older branches.  Those early figs appear before the tree sprouts new leaves.  The early figs are not ripe until late spring.  The second figs appear on new branches in late spring and are harvested from August to October.  The fig tree described in the gospels was full with leaves so the tree could have or should have been early figs as knobs on the old branches of the tree.  But the tree did not have any early figs, and did not have summer figs because it was not yet the season for summer figs.  The tree only looked inviting with its leaves, but it bore no fruit. 

Second, the first readers of this story, the Jewish ones in particular, would know that fig trees and figs relate to Old Testament prophecies about God’s judgement upon Israel.  The prophet Jeremiah is most relatable here.  Jeremiah said that God would judge Israel for being unfaithful.  In that judgement, Jeremiah said, “13 I [God] will take away their harvest”, declares the Lord.  “There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them” (Jeremiah 8:13). Jesus’ encounter with a barren fig tree sets the stage and helps the disciples recall that God will judge Israel for unfaithfulness. Jesus’ words in this encounter with the fig tree reinforce that sense that a divine pronouncement of judgement has been made against Israel. 

Jesus’ first encounter with the fig tree may seem like a small episode of prophesy but as the outer layer of cookie, this encounter was preparing the reader for something much more important to follow.  There was coming a greater encounter and reminder of God’s judgement as the group moved forward to the Temple.

After the encounter with the fig tree, Mark reported Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem and made his way to the Temple and its outer courts.  The Temple was the prized centerpiece of the Jewish religion and its sacrificial practices.  The Temple at this time had just completed a 46 year long rebuilding program to make its splendor pronounced and awe inspiring.  This week of celebrating the Passover, the Temple was busy with visits with Jews from across the known world.  Mark said that as Jesus entered the outer court of the Temple, Jesus acted decisively and without warning.  As soon as Jesus enter the Temple courts, Jesus “began driving out those who were buying and selling there” (Mark 11:15a).  What were they selling?  Namely, there were people selling and buying sheep and cattle for sacrifices in the Temple. Jesus drove them all out the Temple court, the buyers, the sellers, the cattle, and the sheep.  Jesus here ended the buying and selling of sacrifices in the Temple.

Mark then said, “Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers” (Mark 11:15b). Moneychangers were there to exchange pagan coins, for a fee, for the silver coins made by the Temple authorities and acceptable for offerings to the Temple.  Jesus sent the coins of the world and the coins of the Temple scattering and mixing across the courts of the Temple, effective ending the exchange of money.

Mark then said Jesus overturned the tables of “those selling doves” (Mark 11:15b). Doves were reserved for sale to the poor to offer as sacrifice in the Temple.  Here too, the tables with the coins from dove sales were overturned effectively ending the sales of doves.

Then Mark said, “And [Jesus] would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the Temple courts” (Mark 11:16).  Everything associated with the sacrifices within the Temple ended abruptly on that Monday. With everyone’s attention focused on Jesus, Jesus said this, ““Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11:17).  “Is it not written,” is another way of saying, “You know that it is written,” it is written in the Old Testament, the prophesies of Isaiah of God’s desire for the Temple and Jeremiah of God’s judgement upon violators of God’s desire.

First, let’s look at Isaiah, Chapter 56. God revealed through the voice of Isaiah God’s desire for the Temple.  God said the house bearing His name would be open to all, Jews and foreigners, who would bind themselves to the Lord, who would love the Name of the Lord, who would serve the Lord, who would keep the Sabbath, who would hold fast to God’s promises. Each person would be accepted and honored within this Temple, for God’s temple was to be “a house of prayer for all nations.”  But Jesus observed that it was not a house of prayer for all nations, because not all were welcomed.  First, non-Jews were excluded.  In the context of that period, how could the non-Jewish world encounter God and revere him without being able to access God’s house?  There was no alternative to them.  Second, even Jews could not access the Temple without spending money on sacrificial animals and without providing a separate Temple tax.  God’s house was no longer as God desired, God’s house was a money making machine.

Through Jeremiah we would hear the prophetic words of judgment for failing to do as God desired.  “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.  9 “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord (Jeremiah 7:2b-11)

          Jesus words, “den of robbers,” invokes all what God had said through Jeremiah with a recognition that the leaders of the Temple were engaged in worthless and useless activities designed primarily to line their pockets with money.  The leaders of the Temple, Sadducees and Pharisees, were acting as though the Temple was a safe haven that shielded them from accountability.

          The combined effect of Jesus’ actions and statements in the Temple were to first stop all sacrifices and offering of gifts to the Pharisees and Sadducees. Why?  Because worship of God was to be and must be for everyone without regard to giving favor to any man.  Second, the leaders of the people were charged and indicted as mere robbers who conspired with each other to impoverish the people they were supposed to lead.  The call upon them to “Repent” had gone unanswered and now God’s judgement would be upon them. 

Did the leaders repent?  Not at all.  Instead, the religious leaders were furious at Jesus’ actions and words vowing among themselves with murderous breaths to kill Jesus just as soon as they could do so secretly for the leaders feared the people. 

This is the sweet part of the Golden Oreo cookie – the very heart of the day.  Jesus clearing of the Temple and proclamation that God was to be worshipped by all was the central message on Palm Sunday and was the central message of this day.  Worship of God cannot and must not be restricted and turned into a money-making machine.

          After this encounter and the indictment of the religious leaders the Jesus and his disciples returned to rest in Bethany.  The ending of the story occurs with a return to the fig tree which in the gospel of Mark occurs the following morning.  In the gospel of Matthew, the conclusion of the fig tree occurs on the same day as the first encounter with the fig tree.  The conclusion with the fig tree is very much the second cookie of the Oreo as it draws emphasis to the filing in the middle, namely, the cleansing of the Temple.

          Mark wrote that when Jesus and the disciples encountered the fig tree again, “20b They saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”  The judgement upon the fig tree was symbolic of the judgement coming upon the unrepentant religious leaders and their fruitless worship practices.  Like the fig tree with its lush leaves was very much like the adorned Temple and practices of the Sadducees and Pharisees.  Both were fruitless.  The return to the fig tree finding the tree withered was symbolic of what would happen to the Temple and the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  The day was coming in which that whole system would wither and die.  As we mentioned last week, that happened in 70 AD with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.  Since that time, nearly 2,000 years there has been no buying and selling of cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices.  There have been no moneychangers.  No merchandise that needed to be moved.  The system of the Temple simply withered and died.

          The heart of the story of the fig tree and the Temple is again the worship of God. God desires earnest prayer.  The Lord’s Prayer that we recite calls us towards ACTS.  In prayer, we offer Adoration of God.  “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.”  Holy be your name over all the earth.  It is an act of worship to adore God.  In prayer, we offer Confession to God.  “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” We are acknowledging to God the need for our forgiveness and restoration.  It is an act of worship to confess to God.  In prayer, we offer Thanksgiving to God.  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  We are giving thanks to all that God has provided to us, is providing, and will provide to us.  It is an act of worship to give thanks to God.  In prayer we give to God our Supplication, our requests.  “Give this day our daily bread…Lead us not into temptation.” We are asking God to sustain our bodies and protect our souls.  It is an act of worship to ask God for mortal and eternal protection.

          God’s house shall be a house of prayer, a place of worship, where we are free to adore God, confess to God, give thanks to God, and seek God’s help.  Jesus’ clearing of the Temple was to show what God desired from people of all nations, simple, unencumbered worship.

          Let us then be glad that we are here today in God’s house cleared by Jesus so that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can worship our wonderful Father and our Savior his Son.  Amen and Amen. 

01-21 - God or Traditions

          I suspect that most here today have seen in whole or in part a presentation of Fiddler on the Roof. There is a part of the play and movie in which the central character, Tevye, (Tev-e-ya) spoke of traditions. He said, “Because of our traditions, we've kept our balance for many, many years.  Here in Anatevka (Anna-tef-ka) we have traditions for everything...how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes.  For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl...This shows our constant devotion to God.  You may ask, how did this tradition start?  I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition...Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."

          Traditions.  What are they?  The dictionary says that traditions are “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.”  Everyone has a set of traditions.  Growing up we had traditions for major holidays.  For Christmas, I remember a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve and opening our stockings in bed on Christmas morning.  In theology, a tradition is a little different. A tradition is “a doctrine, a set of beliefs taught by the church, believed to have divine authority, coming from God, but [There is always a but.] which is not found in the Scriptures.”  What might be some of these traditions of the broader Christian Church not found in Scripture?  Those traditions include the observance of Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Advent, and Christmas just to name a few.  Strictly speaking, none of these cherished traditional observances have a specific foundation in Scripture.  This is why some Christian groups do not observe any of these practices.  Today, Baptists tend to pick and choose which traditions they want to follow, of course, in their own way.

          Traditions in church may or may not be helpful in our faith journey.  How can traditions be harmful?  Our friend Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof shared with us the danger of traditions when he said, “Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."  Traditions become very harmful when they replace the authority of God and God’s Word. Traditions become harmful to our faith walk when we follow our traditions and not Scripture as the guide for our behavior and conduct.  Traditions become harmful when the tradition themselves and not Scripture serve as the basis for our ethics, our Christian Ethics.

          Traditions was one of the things that Jesus fought against all throughout his public ministry.  In Jesus’ day, there were two major camps of tradition among Judaism.  There were the traditions of the Pharisees and the traditions of the Sadducees. These groups had divergent beliefs. The Sadducees, primarily the keepers of the Temple practices, believed only in the words of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.  The Torah, the written word, was binding on their beliefs and practices.  All other religious writings by the prophets and others while perhaps of interest to the Sadducees were not binding.  The Pharisees believed that the Torah, Psalms, and words of the prophets were part of the God’s Word as well as how those words had been practiced as conveyed through oral tradition.  There in lay a significant difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees.  What Scripture to follow?  What oral tradition to follow as though it was Scripture? And, most importantly, who gets to decide what oral tradition is and how it is to be followed?

          The Roman historian, Josephus, reported that the Pharisees had great influence over the common people who respected their piety and gave great credibility to their words.  The Sadducees did not enjoy such popularity with the masses and only had influence over the rich.  This gave each sect a unique adherent constituency, the Pharisees with the multitudes and the Sadducees with the wealthy.

          Over time, the Pharisees and Sadducees each courted the favor of the king seeking a power advantage over the other group.  At one point in their history, the Pharisees fell from favor with the king of Israel who then crucified 800 Pharisees in front of their families.  In Jesus’ day, the Sadducees and Pharisees had come to a balance of power, each holding to their own traditions, and having a combined ruling council of Pharisees and Sadducees called the Sanhedrin to resolve any differences peaceably.  We will have a little more to say about the Sanhedrin later.

          So, into the tension of power over traditions, Jesus entered the scene with the gospel message, with miraculous healings, and a growing following of people.  Earlier today we witnessed the clash, seemingly a simple clash, with Jesus and traditions when we read from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 7.  Mark wrote, “The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law [Sadducees?] who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his [Jesus’] disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)  So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

He [Jesus] replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions” (Mark 7:1-8).

          A seemingly simple and minor infraction of a common tradition held by both the Pharisees and Sadducees, the ceremonial cleansing of one’s hands before eating, led to an indictment by Jesus that, “You [Pharisees and Sadducees] have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” In Jesus’ view, the Pharisees and Sadducees, leaders of the people, had done as Isaiah had prophesied and Tevye sang about, “Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”  Jesus had pointed out that the heart of the conflict between Him and the Pharisees and the Sadducees was and would be, “Who should be worshipped God or man? Whose word should be followed, God or man?  Would our ethics or public and private behaviors be derived from Scripture or human tradition?” 

I think in many ways Jesus would point out to us that the very same conflict today.  Is our life going to be informed and be based on the holy ground of the voice of God or will our life be based on the shifting sands of the voice of human tradition?

          Jesus was blunt about what He thought of the Pharisees and Sadducees for following their traditions over words of Scripture. Jesus called them [the Pharisees and Sadducees] hypocrites.  To be clear, hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.  The Pharisees and Sadducees claimed the moral standard of being upright and holding to God’s word but they practiced their beliefs without regard to what Scripture said.  In fact, Jesus was accusing the Pharisees and Sadducees of following their own traditions in public to gain the praise of other men.  To this Jesus said, when people seek the praise of other people, then they will receive no reward from God.  Jesus, in calling the Pharisees and Sadducees hypocrites, took these two groups who coexisted with uneasy tension, and managed to unite them with a common and intense hatred of Jesus.

          I have no doubt that Jesus understood his words would infuriated the Pharisees and Sadducees.  But Jesus needed to tell the truth because Jesus could do nothing but tell the truth.  Yet, Jesus was still willing to teach the Pharisees and Sadducees the error of their ways so that they might repent.  Jesus taught the Pharisees and Sadducees not by parable but with plain language. Jesus said, “You [Pharisees and Sadducees] have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you [Pharisees and Sadducees] say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you [Pharisees and Sadducees] have handed down. And you [Pharisees and Sadducees] do many things like that” (Mark 7:9-13).

          What is Jesus talking about here?  First, we need to know that there was a Jewish tradition of taking something and declaring your intent to make that thing, be it an animal, a vegetable, or precious metal as a religious gift, a Corban, reserved for God.  Once reserved to God under this tradition, then the giver could not be released from that commitment even if that asset was needed to care for one’s aging or sick parents.  Jesus pointed out that this tradition, however good it seemed on the surface to devote something to God, conflicted with God’s command that children honor their mothers and their fathers.  Jesus said, “You [Pharisees and Sadducees] do many things like that” (Mark 7:13). Simply, the Pharisees and Sadducees were turning the Word of God upside down and substituting their own traditions for what God desired of them.

          What then are we to do with Jesus’ teaching as we seek to follow proper Christian Ethics?  I think there are three things we must be willing to do.

          First, we must subject our behaviors to examination to ensure we know why we are doing them and that they are consistent with Scripture.  Allow me to illustrate with an example outside of church.  Shortly after I was promoted to a supervisory position in the federal government, a member of my staff brought a letter to me to sign.  The letter granted government approval of a plan presented by a contractor.  I said to the staff member, “Why are we doing this? Why are we approving this request?” She replied to me, “This is the way we have always done it.”  I said to the staff member again, “Why are we doing this?”  She replied to me, “This is what your predecessor wanted us to do.” I said to the staff member again, “Why are we doing this?”  Looking a bit frustrated with me, she thought for a moment, and then said, “I have no idea.” I said to her, “Good answer.  How about we find out together what we should be doing?”

          We need to be willing to submit our personal decisions to act or to not act against the Word of God. “Why am I doing what I am doing? Why am I not doing what I am not doing? What is my motivation to act the way I am acting?  Am I acting this way to be praised by others?  Am I not acting in the way God wants me to act because I am seeking to escape the scorn of others?”  If we want to live a life that flourishes with God and follows Christian Ethics, then we need to know what Jesus said and what Jesus did.

          Second, corporately, as a church, when we meet for worship, we are doing two very different things at the same time.  In one context, we are organizing ourselves into action, song, prayer, and listening to renew and enrich our lives with a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We want worship to be a wonderful and meaningful experience.  We want to be challenged and we want to be uplifted.   The assembling of the body of Christ into the public setting should be a cause for joy. That is first purpose of worship.

          However, at the same time we are seeking to uplift the faithful we are also organizing ourselves into action, song, prayer, and listening for those people who do not usually attend worship.  We ask of ourselves, “How do we include those seeking the joy of worship into the family rather than exclude them?  The Pharisees and Sadducees thought Jesus’ disciples should be excluded from dining because their hands were not ceremonially clean.  These groups used their traditions to keep the things [people] they believed were impure from contaminating that which had been made holy. Holiness does not work that way. Jesus touched the leper, and the leper was made clean, Jesus was not made sick.  Holiness works the same way.  Holiness transforms whatever it touches.  We must ensure that our traditions, or behaviors, as a church are not stumbling blocks to those seeking God’s grace.  That is our second purpose when we worship.

          Finally, we should be able to see from this short passage that Jesus stood out from the crowd.  But why did he stand out?  Did Jesus stand out because of what said?  In part, yes, he did.  Did Jesus stand out because of what he did?  In part, yes, he did.  But I think the thing that cause Jesus to stand out head and shoulders above all others was that Jesus lived out the word of God in both what he said and what he did. Jesus was accused of being many things. He was called mentally ill, demon possessed, a heretic, a blasphemer, a rebel, and a revolutionary.  But no one ever called Jesus a hypocrite.  Jesus did as he said he would do.  Jesus ate with the sinners and tax collectors seeking to transform their lives and make them holy.  Jesus visited with the Pharisees and Sadducees answering questions in the hopes of making their lives holy.  Jesus raised up those who were troubled to lead them to holiness, and he humbled those who were proud to lead them to holiness.  Do we stand out from the world around us?  Do people hear our words and see our deeds and give the glory to God? 

          Sadly though, the traditions of the man and not the Word of God were too attractive to Pharisees and Sadducees.  These groups feared Jesus’ popularity and self-testimony 

that he was the Messiah and the Son of God.  And so, the Sanhedrin, the best and brightest of both the Pharisees and Sadducees met not to resolve differences between them.  Instead, the Sanhedrin met in unity to confront Jesus for his beliefs. The verdict of the Sanhedrin was Jesus believed what He said, acted accordingly, and gave weight only to the Word of God.  This the Pharisees and Sadducees could not accept and so they set in motion their desire to kill Jesus and end the conflict.  But.  There is always a but.  But God chose to show the Pharisees, the Sadducees, as well as Jesus’ followers that holiness cannot be corrupted.  God chose to raise Jesus from the dead demonstrating Jesus was who he said he was and that the traditions of men were nothing but vanity before God.

          Friends, let us not be found vain before God.  Let us live out God’s word, standing out in the world because we follow Jesus in word and in deed.  Let others see that God’s Word is the holy ground upon which we stand and that God through Jesus Christ has made our hands holy giving grace to others by what we do in Jesus’ name.  Amen and Amen.

12-17 Christ Our King

          We are in the fourth week of our celebration of Advent.  We have come to see that Advent is about preparing our hearts to receive the miracle of Christmas Day.  It is for us to see the wonder of the Son of God coming into the world as a baby being born, born also as the Son of Man.  It is for us to experience the joy in the prophecies, the promises of God, fulfilled in the coming of this baby, and in the words of promise Jesus would speak to the people of his day.  It is for us to experience the comfort and peace in known that this baby came as our priest, to intercede for us, that in following Jesus we would have great confidence that Jesus would lead us right into the throne of God’s grace.  These are the things we experienced these past three weeks.  Today, I would like us to look at one final blessing in the birth of Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, prophet, and priest.  And that is that Jesus came as the king of a new kingdom of God.

          Now, culturally, people living in the United States have some difficulty with understanding the notion of a true king.  After all, every July 4th, we proudly and loudly celebrate Independence Day in which the American colonists declared their independence from England’s King George III.  In the United States, we are inclined to make kings out of people and things that entertain us.  Michael Jackson was named the King of Pop.  Louis Armstrong was named the King of Jazz.  Football is named the King of Sports.  And in comedy, there was a group called the Kings of Comedy comprised of Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac.  All these kings are very accomplished and talented entities but none of them is a true king.

          What then in the original Biblical context is a true king?  A king was a male monarch, a supreme ruler, having dominion over a given territory of land and people living upon that land.  A king had that dominion, held that rule, for life. The king’s words were the law of the land.  Whatever the king demanded was to be given to him because, after all, it was his to begin with.  There was no higher human authority than the king.  Of the 195 countries in the world today, there are only seven countries considered absolute monarchies.  They are Brunei, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Eswatini (Swaziland), and Vatican City. 

In Biblical context, the Hebrew people did not have an earthly king to start out.  The Hebrew people were governed by judges.  But then the people cried out for a king and despite warnings from God, the people chose a king.  His name was Saul.  Why Saul? Because the Bible tells us that Saul was handsome and “and he was a head taller than anyone else” (1 Samuel 9:2). Well, at least they had some good reasons for choosing Saul as king.  For the people of Israel, the king was to serve God and rule over the people with righteousness.  But alas each of Israel’s kings had difficulties governing because they had difficulties with sin.

God then decided to act decisively and to send his Son to earth, as a human, to come as king and speak of the kingdom of God. But the kingship of the Son of God, the Son of Man, would be far different than people expected.  The people of Israel were looking for God to send a king, but an earthly warrior king who would fight their battles and once and for all time set the lands of Israel free from foreign, pagan, kings such as the likes of the Roman emperor Caesar.  The people wanted to have their king again.

But, as we know, there are the fantasies of people and the reality of God.  In that reality, God sent his angel to a young woman named Mary who told Mary that she would give birth to a son who “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32b-33).  So, a king was coming.  We also learned that “1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1-3).  The Magi, pagans themselves, realized that a new king had been born to the Jewish nation. The Jewish nation that longed for a great king to restore Israel, including its current King Herod, was not aware of the birth.  King Herod, though the King of the Jewish people, was not of the Jewish bloodlines. The Romans had appointed Herod to rule over Israel at their direction.  Hearing the news of a new King of the Jews was very disturbing to the present king.  So disturbing was the coming of a new king to Herod, that Herod ordered the execution of all boys two years old and young in and around the vicinity of Bethlehem.  Herod hoped in doing so the new King of Jews would lay among the dead boys.

So, Jesus’ entry to the world was marked by joy of his birth as well as sadness following a murderous rage both fueled by a desire for a king.  But what of Jesus’ kingship?  What was the reality of that kingship?  Our New Testament reading today put Jesus’ kingship into context.  Scripture says, “1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.  5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father”?  Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?  6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Hebrews 1:1-3).  The Scripture here made clear that God, the Sovereign, the ultimate Majesty, had decided to speak through and rule through his own Son. God’s Son received the anointing of God as king and was to be worshipped by all of God’s angels because God’s Son was superior even to the angels.  To the ancient Israel minds this statement is quite significant and telling.  For in antiquity, it was believed that every nation state was under the guidance and protection of its own angel.  There was even the idea that the fate of one nation’s battle against another nation was determined by a heavenly battle between their respective angels.  Therefore, to say that all angels are to worship God’s Son was another way of saying God’s Son, Jesus, was the king over all nations.

It is, therefore, not surprising that when Jesus began his public ministry he began with a royal command.  Jesus began with a kingly order, but it was unlike any previous royal command, and was universal, meaning Jesus’ command applied to everyone.  What did Jesus command?  Jesus commanded, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).  Jesus’ first command to “Repent,” that is to turn from one’s own ways and turn toward God, should have been a signal that there was something different about his kingdom and him being king.  Jesus’ command to “Repent,” was not about land acquisition or domination over the people.  Jesus did not say, “Gather your swords and let’s get those Romans out of here!” Instead, Jesus said, “Repent,” and “39 Do not resist an evil person. (Matthew 5:39a).  Jesus would go on to issue other royal commands that established a very different sort of kingdom indeed.  Jesus commanded such things as:

  •  Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Mt 5:16)
  • Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Mt. 6:33)
  • Make disciples of all nations, teaching them everything I have commanded you. (Mt. 28:19)
  • If you love me, keep my commands. (Jn. 14:15)

There are more of Jesus’ commands, but we get the picture that Jesus was a different type of king and one who was calling people to join a new kingdom.  It was not a kingdom of brutish conquest, it was a kingdom built upon the restoration and redemption of souls.

          Despite Jesus’ teachings and commands, many people insisted on seeing Jesus as an earthly king of territory and conquest.  For example, one time, Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children.  “14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (John 6:14-15). The people were overwhelmed by Jesus’ miraculous feeding and thought, “Ah, if we could just make him our king, think of the life we could live by the things this guy could do for us.”  Jesus would have not part of earthly plans for his kingdom was different.  But the people would did not understand.

          The ending of Jesus’ public ministry began with his arrest not by the Romans but by the Jewish religious authorities, people who should have been looking for God to send a king.  Instead of welcoming Jesus as king, the religious authorities became jealous of love and following of Jesus’ disciples for Jesus.  The religious leaders were angry at Jesus for his teachings and uncomfortable with Jesus’ challenges to their understanding of Scripture.  So, the religious leaders arrested Jesus and once Jesus was bound hand and foot, the religious leaders turned Jesus over to the Roman Governor claiming Jesus guilt of all sorts of crimes including claiming Jesus said he was the King of the Jews.  Pilate spoke to Jesus about the claims of the religious people.  33b “Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked. 34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”  35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”  36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”  37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”  38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said” (John 19:33b-38).  Jesus confirmed to Pilate that he, Jesus, had been born to speak about the kingdom in which Jesus was king but it was a different kingdom than would be found on earth.

          Pilate argued with the religious leader insisting again and again that there was no basis of a charge against Jesus that merited death.  12b But the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar” (John 20:12b).  Pilate then asked, “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.  “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. (John 20:15b).  And with that statement from the high priest, “We have no king but Caesar,” the crowd shouted to destroy Jesus.  “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!” the crowd shouted.  They wanted Jesus out of their brutish savage kingdom.  The crowd had chosen sides and they had chosen to remain an enemy of God. 

And yet, in that same moment of intense hatred and shouts to “Crucify Him!”, Jesus was willing to transform any of those present to come into His kingdom. Jesus would do so by loving them, forgiving them, and renewing them to be of the right spirit and personhood. Jesus would later bring one person into the kingdom.  A thief was crucified next to Jesus, and said to Jesus,42 “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  43 Jesus answered him [the thief], “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).  Jesus’ words are profound because they mean that Jesus was born to establish a new kingdom and upon Jesus’ death, the king, would open His kingdom to all those who would repent and follow him.

What then are we to do with our spiritual understanding of Jesus’ kingship and kingdom?  I think there is only one thing to consider.  Are we willing to be part of the kingdom of Jesus Christ?  We are not forced to be part of the kingdom.  We can live our lives without being subject to the commands of the king.  In fact, more people live outside the kingdom than live within it, so we would have plenty of company.  Living outside the kingdom of God is living in a fantasy.  If you don’t believe me that many people live a fantasy, then I encourage you to pick up a newspaper or scroll through a newsfeed on your phone and see for yourself the number of people who are making things up as they go and forcing other people to celebrate their delusions.  Life outside of God’s will is a fantasy.

Or we could accept for ourselves the reality of God.  We could accept that reality that God who created all things as good has called us into his kingdom.  This God who invites us sent his son, Jesus, to be our king. Jesus, in his own words, came to be a king of a different kingdom, a kingdom founded on bring each member of the kingdom into a right relationship with God so that they could experience the treasures of the kingdom: forgiveness, peace that surpasses all understanding, love, and eternal life.  Life lived within God’s will following our king, Jesus, is the reality that we should seek and encourage others to celebrate.  Amen and Amen. 

12-10 Christ Our Priest

          We are in the third week of our celebration of Advent.  It is that time of year in which we celebrate that Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one of God, changed the world forever.  In our first two weeks, we saw that Jesus, the Son of God came to earth as the Son of Man, fully human and yet fully God.  Jesus lived the human experience, including the experience of death that we would have life abundant now and forever.  Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, also came to give the prophetic word of God as God’s final prophet.  Jesus’ words called people, including us to action in the present, so that we could be assured of a future.  This week we will look at how Jesus changed the world by filling the role as the final high priest.

          Now, Baptist struggle a bit with the idea of priests and the priesthood because, well, we don’t have any person who serves in the Baptist tradition as a priest. I am not a priest.  I serve as a pastor.  We Baptists hold to Scripture that Jesus came to fulfill the role, once and for all time, as of our priest.

          So according to Scripture, what was the role of the priest.  Under the Old Testament, God had set forth the Law, the commands of what the people of Israel must and must not do.  We saw that law structure in Genesis when God said to the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16a).  The man and woman were free to not sin by refraining from eating that fruit or were free to sin by eating the fruit.  This was the original law.  We, of course, learn later that the couple ate that fruit, choosing to sin, and thus break the law.  As evil behaviors from that point spread further, more elements, more commands, were added to the law, to constrain evil.  We can think most famously of the Ten Commandments as part of the structure of the law.  But the choice for the people was the same.  People were free to choose to sin or to not sin.  To atone, to address, those occasions when people sinned, a system of ritual animal sacrifices emerged.  The sacrifice was intended to serve as an atonement from choosing to sin. Those sacrifices were a religious rite performed on behalf of the sinner by someone designated as a priest.

In this sense, the priest represented the people to God and interceded with God for the people and even the nation of Israel. Over and over, for hundreds of years, the priests of Israel sacrificed animals and burned them as an offering to God for the forgiveness of the sins by the priests themselves, the congregation, and nation of Israel.  This was the system when the people had the choice to sin or not to sin.

The apostle Paul would later say that the choice to follow the law or not, the choice to sin or not sin, had left him a slave to sin.  The law, Paul would say, was holy, righteous, and good and showed that with the choice to sin or not sin, we were helpless against sinning and had become slaves to sinning.  And so, with this slavery to inevitable sin, there was a near endless repetition of priestly sacrifice for the sin. 

          But then something happened.  Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man came into the world as human and divine came as a priest.  Now, Jesus was to be a different sort of priest to be sure because Jesus never performed the priestly sacrificial function of the Jewish religion.  And yet Jesus was considered a priest because Jesus represented, was the intercessor, for the people to God.  Let’s look at today’s Scripture readings to understand Jesus’ role as priest and why it matters today.

          We read from the Book of Hebrews last week, and again this week, these words from Chapter 2 of the Book of Hebrews, 14 Since the children have flesh and blood (you and I), he (Jesus) too shared in their (our) humanity so that by his (Jesus’) death he (Jesus) might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).  The writer of Hebrews is saying here that Jesus came to break the power that was leading people to be slaves to sin.  The babe that we celebrate this Advent came to change the world and grant us a new kind of freedom.

          The writer of Hebrews continued, “17 For this reason (to break the power of the devil and sin), he (Jesus) had to be made like them (us), fully human in every way” (Hebrews 2:17a).  To change the choices of humans, Jesus, the Son of God, needed to come as a human himself, the Son of Man.  This is why we Jesus was born.  Having been born as a human, Jesus, the Son of God, “might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God” (Hebrews 2:17b). A role Jesus would take on to change the world for humanity would be as a high priest.  Jesus would represent people to God and Jesus would do so faithfully, that is without sin, and Jesus would represent the people to God.  How would Jesus accomplish this role differently from the priests of the past?  What would be world changing in Jesus’ way of addressing sin?  The writer of Hebrews says, “He (Jesus) might make atonement for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17c).  Jesus, the Son of God, would be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people.  The atoning redemption of humanity from all its sins would be made by Jesus, the high priest himself, the sinless Son of God and the Son of Man.  Because Jesus was the Son of God, nothing greater could ever be offered to address the sins of humanity and because Jesus was the Son of Man, the sacrifice could only be offered one time.  When Jesus completed his work of changing the world, Jesus would ascend into heaven and once again take up his seat of honor and glory.

          Jesus changed the world through his sacrifice but how then does what Jesus did directly change us?  It does so in the most important way.  As we discussed, under the law, we were free to sin or to not sin. That was our choice.  And we know that under the law, we became slaves to sin. But under the grace of Jesus, through his one-time perfect atonement for our sins, there was a new freedom because Jesus we were made free from sin.  Under Christ, we are free from sin by believing in Jesus and by following Him, making Jesus our choice, we become free from sin.  The Apostle Paul says in following Jesus we are, “Set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22). 

We need to breathe for a moment and take in how Jesus, the priest changed the world.  Jesus came to deal with the problem, the human condition of sinful choices.  This is why Jesus said so famously to his disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6-7).  Jesus is the way to freedom from sin and to God.  And in the course of their time together, Jesus, the Son of Man, had shown God to his disciples, because Jesus was also the Son of God, “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus had changed the world giving us the freedom from sin by following Him into the very presence of God.         

We then read in Hebrews, Chapter 4, “14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess [faith in Jesus Christ]. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).  The call from Scripture then is to remain in the freedom from sin that we have by following Jesus, the perfect, sinless high priest, who offered as a sacrifice for sin, himself, perfect and without blemish.

The writer of Hebrews then went a little further and said, “23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself” (Hebrews 7:23-27).  From this passage, we come to understand that Jesus who lives intercedes for us.  Jesus represents us to God and therefore, we no longer need an earthly priest to represent us to God.  Hence, in Baptist traditions, we do not have priests because our intercessor, our priest, is Jesus, who offered himself once for all time.

What then are we to do with the spiritual understandings we have gathered from these Scriptures.  I think there are two things for us to consider.

First, for the unbeliever, they still only have the freedom of choice in life to sin or not to sin.  For the unbeliever, they are not allowing their world to be changed by Jesus.  As such, the unbeliever will predictably choose sin. The truth of that statement is found throughout the Bible.  Unbelievers are slaves to sin and have freely chosen to reject God.  What is the “So What?” for the unbeliever?  Jesus, the prophet and priest, shared with the believer and nonbeliever their respective destinies in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus said, “19 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  (We learn later the rich man lived the life of an unbeliever.)  20 At his [the rich man’s] gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his [Lazarus’] sores.  (The name Lazarus means “God has helped,” a name given by Jesus to show Lazarus lived as a believer.)  22 The time came when the beggar [Lazarus] died and the angels carried him [Lazarus] to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he [the rich man] was in torment, he [rich man] looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his [Abraham’s] side. 24 So he [the rich man] called to him [Abraham], ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’  25 But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he [Lazarus] is comforted here and you are in agony” (Luke 16:19-25).  The parable goes on from there, but this part of the parable shows the destinies of the believer and the unbeliever.  Here, Jesus showed to all that in mortal life, a believer may, and often will, experience difficulties but in eternal life the believer will only experience good things.  In a similar way, Jesus shows that whatever joy the unbeliever has will happen in this life for in the next, the eternal life, the unbeliever will only be agony. Why is agony the fate of the unbeliever? Because the unbeliever has rejected God, has rejected the completed work of Christ, has rejected the pathway of grace God offered, and has simply sinned without redemption.  If you have not accepted Jesus as your savior, your high priest, as the atonement for your sins, please, I beg you, do not wait. Celebrate the joy of Advent by accepting what Jesus has done for you now and for all time.

          The second thing we learn today is that the believer in Jesus has made a life choice to chose between freedom from sin by following Christ.  Freedom from sin is not the same as choosing not to sin.  To choose not to sin is to fight temptation on your own which is a plan destined to fail.  To choose freedom from sin in Christ is to let Christ be your intercessor, the last and highest priest.  In choosing freedom from sin, it is Jesus who gives you strength and power through his Holy Spirit to follow Jesus thus living a life free from sin.  And, yes, when, we in our humanness and frailness do sin, believers receive grace from Jesus to redeem them from that sin because of that perfect sacrifice from sin given by Jesus upon the cross, once and for all. 

Let’s celebrate our freedom from sin in the birth of your Savior, High Priest, and Redeemer, Jesus.  For Jesus is truly the way, the truth, and the life.  Amen and Amen.

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