Reflection on Matthew 3:1-12

 

Matthew 3:1-12 (NRSVue)

1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

 “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

 ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

  make his paths straight.’ ”

4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.

  7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, 9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

  11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Reflection

Fire dramatically alters life.  From fires that destroy all you have to fires that burn within your soul, fire dramatically alters life.  And the power of fire is ablaze within John the Baptists imagination as he declares that “every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in to the fire” (Matthew 3:10).  He talks of fire as if it is some sort of tool used by the Holy Spirit to clear out the dead branches and useless weeds of our lives.  He says that the powerful one who is coming separates the wheat from the chaff, and the useless chaff “he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12).  John expects that fire will be used to dramatically alter people’s lives.   

Fire changed a woman’s life.  I read about her a few years ago.  I read that fire changed everything about her.  Not only did she lose her home to an arsonist who set her home ablaze, but she also lost her face. 

Before the fire, she was beautiful.  She was beautiful in the ways that models are beautiful.  She was make-up commercial beautiful.  But after the fire, when she looked in the mirror, all she saw was misaligned, plastic textured skin, filled with scars.  All she saw in the mirror was the woman who kids pointed at, and around whom mothers steered their children, as if she were able to spread the devastation to their little ones like a disease.  She rarely went out after the fire.  When she did go out, it took so long to get ready.  She caked on makeup and even needed to draw eyebrows on her face because they had burnt away for good.  The fire was devastating.  It changed her life.

Still, she discovered that there was a life after the fire.  It was a life that she had never known before.  She discovered that there were people who did not look away or walk away when she came near.  There were people who were drawn to her.  There were people for whom her face was an invitation to get closer, both physically and emotionally. 

These people were those who the Bible would describe as outcasts.  They were the people for whom connecting with others was hard because they too were not beautiful, or they had a disease, or they had an odd tick, or they just did not know how to relate to others in the same way as everyone else. 

They were the people with whom Jesus hung out.  There were the people with whom Jesus poured his attention and care.  They were the blind, the sick, and the lame.  They were the socially awkward and the chastised.  And they were the first people to invite the woman over to their table at the coffee shop, so that she would not have to enjoy her tea alone any longer.  They were a gift from Jesus Christ to her.

Life after the fire seemed to be so much more…authentic than life before.  It was less about looks and glamour and more about love and laughter with faulty but lovable people.  The fire had taken so much from her, but on the other hand the fire ended up providing so much more.  It provided the people of God.  It provided love.  It provided a seat with Jesus Christ at the table in the Kingdom of heaven.

Fire does that.  It burns away all that you have previously known.  And that either drives you into complete hopelessness, or it shows you what this life that God has given us, is truly all about.  It is this purifying fire, where all of the impurities are burned away until all that remains is pure and good.  John the Baptist talks about this fire when he says, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11).

This fire, which stands as a kind of wall between the common and the divine, is a reality that is very, very ancient.  Way back in Genesis, at the beginning of creation, after the first man and woman had been thrown out of the garden, removed from the presence of God because of their failure to trust God, there was a sword of fire stationed between them and God.  The fire separated them, and if they ever dreamed of returning, they would have to walk through the deadly fire.  (Genesis 3:24).

Some have walked through the fire and stood with the Divine.  Moving in a reverse direction, back toward the Garden of Eden, stepping through the cleansing waters of the flood, and then stepping through the all-consuming, purifying fire at the gate of Eden, Moses steps through the fire when as he climbs God’s holy mountain.  He survives.  He encounters God.  He is given wisdom, the Ten Commandments, all because he steps through that dangerous and holy fire.

Job also encounters fire.  It falls from the sky and destroys all that Job once had.  Job goes through a fiery ordeal, much like the woman with the burned face.  Only after the fire, only after refusing to break his trust in God, does God restore Job to a new life. 

God comes to give wisdom to Job, but only after he had gone through a fiery ordeal. 

And only after the fire did the woman with the transformed face find the community of Jesus’ beloved outcasts.  Only after the fire burned away her idealized life of beauty did Jesus give the woman a real, authentic community of love, all drawn together by the Holy Spirit.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).

I have something to admit to you.  I do not find stepping into fire to be all that comfortable.  In fact, I tend to avoid stepping into fire and teach my children the same.  Fire is uncomfortable.

Yet, John the Baptist is out in the wilderness preaching a fire-filled word that is similarly uncomfortable to hear.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” John shouts (Matthew 3:2).  He screams that it is time to change your mind completely.  It is time to prepare a highway for the Lord to come.  It is time to clear out everything that is getting in the way of the Lord’s arrival. 

“Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” John shouts at the Pharisees and Sadducees.  “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Matthew 3:8-9). 

He wants us to learn not to put our faith and trust in the things and in the people that we have trusted before.  We do not put our trust in Abraham!  We do not put our trust in governments!  We do not put our trust in our beauty or success! 

God can take it all away or replace it any time that God wants!  “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). 

This fire seems threatening and fearful, because it is.  This fire seems full of death and destruction, because it is.  And this fire seems like it will change everything for good, which it will.  It will change everything for the sake of all that is good.

It is God’s fire, after-all.  It is the fire that Jesus carries with him and pours over the heads of those he loves, just like John pours water over the heads of those who desire more than anything for life to change. 

It is the fire of the Holy Spirit which destroys all that we have previously known but is also the purifying flame at the gate which allows us to pass through the door, back into the garden, to walk and talk with God. 

It is the fire that God uses to open the gate of the kingdom to us.  It is the refining fire that burns away all of the injustice, hatred, unfaithfulness, violence, apathy, misdirected loyalties, cold, unforgiving hearts, and sin which keeps us from life in the kingdom of heaven with God.

It is an uncomfortable fire.  It is a devastating fire.  It is not what you sign up for if you are looking for a day at the spa.  But, the Bible seems to be saying that the only way that Jesus has to draw us to him, to draw us away from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom in which he stands, is to drag us through the cleansing water and pull us through the purifying fires so that we can finally be cleansed of everything that tugs at our trust and love.  After we are pulled through the fire, we can trust in his love. 

Only then, stripped of the old, can we live in Jesus’ new kingdom of love and peace, where “the wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).  Children will be able to play near snakes and not get hurt because, in God’s kingdom, on the mountain of God, in the land of Eden, there is no attacking one another and there is no destruction.  There is just the peaceful life that the Lord our God has given as a gift by his own blood on the cross.

This purifying fire is what death and new life in Jesus Christ is all about.  All of this is what faith and grace looks like when we encounter it.  All of this is being loved by God and then shaped into the person we were created to be.  All of this is being given the gift of living in the kingdom of heaven…the kingdom which has come near.

Reflection on Isaiah 11:1-10

 

Isaiah 11:1-10 (NRSVue)

 ¹ A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
  and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
 ² The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
  the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
  the spirit of counsel and might,
  the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
 ³ His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

 He shall not judge by what his eyes see
  or decide by what his ears hear,
 ⁴ but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor
  and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth;
 he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
  and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
 ⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist
  and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

 ⁶ The wolf shall live with the lamb;
  the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
 the calf and the lion will feed together,
  and a little child shall lead them.
 ⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
  their young shall lie down together;
  and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
 ⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
  and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
 ⁹ They will not hurt or destroy
  on all my holy mountain,
 for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
  as the waters cover the sea.

  ¹⁰ On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Reflection

“Cut down.”  “Cut off at the knees.”  “Cut down to size.”

The people of God were once the great tree that God planted.  The people of God, together, were once a great cedar tree planted on the mountain of God upon which all eyes could look for guidance and inspiration. 

But the people of God forgot they were that tree.  They forgot that the fruit of their branches were for the benefit of all, so that all people could eat and find shelter; especially the poor, oppressed, and forgotten.

And when trees bear no fruit, they get cut down.  Assyria, and later the Babylonians, attacked and that kingdom was no more.  The once mighty tree was left as a stump. 

Has shame and guilt ever cut you down to size?  Have your past mistakes cut you off at the knees?  Do you feel cut down in life, unable to walk properly?

“Where do I go from here?” the woman asked after being abandoned by family and friends because of her lying and stealing.  “What am I supposed to do now?”  The woman felt utterly cut off, literally and figuratively.  She did not know how to live life without the support of the family and friends that she once had.  She wanted some wisdom that could just fix it all.  She wanted some way to gain everything that she had lost back.

There is hope.  “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots,” Isaiah promises (Isaiah 11:1).  Maybe, the first thing to do is simply acknowledge that you are a stump.  Martin Luther put it this way as he gazed at his own life and action in his last moments, “We are beggars.  This is true.”  We are beggars.  We are unable to help ourselves.  We are stumps.  Stumps cannot grow fruit.

Or can they?

Have you ever seen a tender shoot sprout out of the side of a stump?  Just because the tree and fruit became bad does not mean that the roots are rotten.  The roots of love and righteousness, the roots of trusting in the Lord and following the Lord’s ways, are still below, holding firmly to the ground, and they can send out a new, tender shoot that can grow into a full-sized tree.

Isaiah envisions a new leader of God’s people who will grow from the roots.  This leader is the one who we beggars can cling to.  This leader is the one who will be what we often fail to be.  Isaiah says that “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2-3).

This spirit filled, tender shoot will trust in the Lord’s ways.  “He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth” (Isaiah 11:3-4).  This new savior will care for those who are poor, oppressed, and forgotten.  This new savior will open the eyes of the blind, feed the hungry, preach good news, and welcome the outcast and forgotten.  This new savior will take the sin and failures of stumps and beggars like us and bring them back to new life.  Even stumps will not be forgotten.

Jesus Christ is our tender shoot.  He is the new life for old stumps.  He is the one to whom we look for peace and life.  He is the one who can create a kingdom in which “the wolf shall live with the lamb” and in which it is safe for a child to “play over the hole of the asp” (Isaiah 11:6-8).

When Jesus comes to dwell with us, to stand with us, to hold us upright so that we are no longer cut off or cut away, all people can look again upon the mountain with that mighty cedar tree and find life!  On that day all people “shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10).

Reflection on Matthew 24:36-44

Matthew 24:36-44 (NRSVue)

[Jesus said to the disciples,] 36 “About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Reflection

“Keep awake!” Jesus implores us.  “Keep Awake” (Matthew 24:42).

Shouting that at the start of the Advent sermon is a favorite pastime of preachers throughout the world, startling parishioners for years and years.  One startled parishioner once shouted back at me, “I’m not asleep yet!”  “Yet.”  This was the same guy who loudly snapped open his newspaper whenever he thought I was preaching too long.

But it is more than an inside joke for preachers.  It is an actual desire in the heart of Jesus.  He desperately does not want us to be swept away in the concerns and distractions of this world. 

And we do get swept away.  Like “in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” we get swept away in the family drama that inevitably comes with the holiday season.  We get swept away with the national stories and political concerns that tug at our attention as we talk and sip our coffees.  We get swept away with the struggles of paying bills and providing for our families.  It is not that these things are never important or worthy of our attention, but our minds and our lives can get swept away with these things, causing us to fall asleep to all that God is doing. 

Not all of us, of course.  Some of us are able to work “in the field,” keeping our minds on God, while others of us are swept away because of others concerns (Matthew 24:40).  They are the ones who are not paying attention while the cows are stampeding towards them, and they get swept away in the commotion and get trampled.  “Keep awake,” Jesus says. 

Some of us use our time in the kitchen to pray and meditate on all that is holy, and others are swept away while “grinding meal together,” worried more about the things that distract, and their bread is ruined along with their lives (Mattew 24:41).  “Keep awake,” Jesus says. 

A monk once taught me that even the simple task of bread making or beer brewing can be holy.  He taught that all of it can be a time for prayer and…and.  Well, I did not really hear the rest of what he was saying because my mind wandered to something else.

Ever been there?  Have you ever been so distracted and carried away with your concerns that you were not truly present with the person you were with, or not truly present to accomplish the task at hand?

I was once at a doctor’s appointment, and the doctor was so distracted, talking and decompressing about the trauma from which she had just come, that it was only after 15 minutes of talking that she realized that she only had about 5 minutes remaining to talk about why I was sitting there in the room.  And you thought there was nothing hazardous about a pastor’s job.  “Keep awake,” Jesus says. 

“Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 26:42-44).

“Keep awake…you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 26:42). 

While I was preparing for this sermon, I decided that I needed to find some way to stay awake spiritually.  “I need to try my best to keep awake,” I thought to myself.  “Maybe I will set an alarm to help remind myself.  Maybe I will start some sort of daily routine that allows me to remember to keep awake.”  And just as I resolved to do exactly that, a very basic question popped into my head.  “Jesus?” I asked, “what does keeping awake look like?”

“How can I possibly keep awake if I have no idea what you are talking about, Jesus?”

And that question sent me into the Bible.  I started searching for what was going on just before Jesus told us to keep awake.  And if you take a wander with me to just a few chapters before today’s reading about keeping awake, you will discover in Matthew 23:37 that Jesus laments that Jerusalem has refused to gather under his wings and follow his ways.  And if you look even further back you will see Jesus warning some scribes and Pharisees that they have been paying attention to the wrong things; they have been swept away, focusing on things that are not very important.  Sound familiar? 

Listen to Matthew 23:23: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23). 

“Justice and mercy and faith.”  The scribes and Pharisees have been distracted by things that are not so important and have forgotten to do the most important things: “justice and mercy and faith.”  We still get distracted today from these very things in favor of other concerns and pressing needs: “Justice and mercy and faith.” 

Jesus is not stating anything new by trying to bring our focus back to “justice and mercy and faith.”  This has been the drumbeat of the prophets forever and ever.  Micah 6:8 reminds us: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

Isaiah 1:17 tells us to: “Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

And just in case you are not the type to hear a message through verbal instruction, but you need to hear it in song form, the Bible serves up for us Psalm 82:3. “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”

Ensuring that all people are treated fairly and just, making sure that all people experience forgiveness and experience a concern for their wellbeing, and encouraging people to love and trust in the Lord is exactly what Jesus is talking about when he tells us to keep awake! 

And just in case you do not know what any of that looks like, Jesus provides us with a very clear example.  He teaches that when he comes again, “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,  for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me’” (Matthew 25:35-40).

This is what keeping awake is all about: giving the hungry food, providing drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger and caring for them, giving clothing to the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison.  Those who are awake enough to remember these things are the ones who will not be swept away.  They are the ones who know what kingdom living is all about.  They are the ones who are awake enough to see the needs around them and are awake enough to keep the thief from snatching away those opportunities to show love to others.

And, in this teaching, did you also notice that Jesus has already returned?  It says that when we give water to the thirsty, we give it to Jesus.  He has already returned in the face of a thirsty child.  He has, indeed, shown up at an unexpected time and in an unexpected way.  “Keep awake,” Jesus urges.  It is possible that he has already arrived.

And with that, instead of being inspired, I am now thinking about the number of times I have seen the thirsty one and walked away.  I guess it is only natural to think that way, and I know that I am not alone.  I know plenty of people who live in fear, or feel tired, or simply lack the ability to feel the Holy Spirit at work in their lives.  We stand gazing at the horizon, looking for something better, looking for something beyond this time in life, always looking into the distance.  All the while, the flood waters of hopelessness are collecting around our feet. 

If I have just described you, do not worry.  There have been plenty of times that I have stood, unable to move, unable to shake the waters of inaction from my soul.  That is why we have each other.  That is why Jesus has given us a kingdom in which we stand. 

That is the very reason that Jesus asks us to keep awake and care for others; because there have been plenty of times that Jesus has sent someone who was awake to provide the water when I needed it.  Jesus has often provided someone to hand me some food when there was none.  Jesus has provided me people who have not been swept away by fear and inaction.  Jesus has provided me with kingdom people, who have not forgotten to give the hungry food, provide drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger and care for them, give clothing to the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. 

And unbeknownst to me, Jesus has offered me to others as well.  Remember that doctor who had to unload about the trauma she had just experienced?  Well, Jesus just happened to provide someone trained in pastoral listening to help ease that burden off her shoulders.  And a weary and tired doctor experienced a bit of mercy. 

“When was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing?” the people ask at the end of the age.  I did not realize it at first either, but that is the way of those who are awake to God.  You do not plan or schedule love, you are love.  Jesus makes you person of love.

Living in this way is such a gift!  We get to be a part of the love and salvation that Jesus has given us on the cross!  We get to see the eyes of people start to gleam once again when they realize that someone notices them and realize that someone cares about them.  We get to know deep down that we are a part of something vital in this world when we help others.  We are extensions of God’s love, blessing the world when we give the hungry food, provide drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger and care for them, give clothing to the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. 

Keep awake so that, together, we will be a part of Jesus’ great vision to allow God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Reflection on Luke 23:33-43

 

“Let him save himself” (Luke 23:35).

“Save yourself” (Luke 23:37).

“Save yourself, and us” (Luke 23:39).

This is what those who are “of the world” tell Jesus.  This is what those who are “of the world” say to each other.  This is what we say to ourselves.

“Save yourself.” 

“Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” 

“Take some time for yourself.” 

“Save yourself, and us!” 

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Did you know that last one is not in the Bible?  It is quoted constantly as if it were.  “God helps those who help themselves.”  It is a better-known phrase than John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” 

The two phrases could not be any different.  The John quote, which is actually from the Bible, tells us about how God saves us through faith.  God saves us. 

The one that is not from the Bible tells us that we need to be the ones who take the initiative to save ourselves.  We save ourselves. 

“Be the author of your own story.” 

“You can do it.” 

“Trust in yourself.” 

“God helps those who help themselves.” 

“Save yourself.”

Those of us who are “of the world” take great pride in our self-made accomplishments.  Those of us who are “of the world” can clearly see that if it were not for our own hard work, we would be nowhere in life. 

Maybe we are right.  Maybe we care a lot about making our way in this world and this life, and we have accomplishments to prove that we have done exactly that.  Maybe our own success has been our focus in life.  Maybe, that is what drives our life.  Maybe, at the end of the day, all we care about is saving ourselves…or more graciously, ourselves and our friends and family. 

“Save yourself,” we whisper to ourselves when the times get rough.  “Save yourself,” we whisper to ourselves because we are too afraid to lay our burdens on anyone else’s shoulders.  “Save yourself,” we say into the lonely night as we twist and turn and try to figure it all out before the sun comes up.

Do you know what Jesus did not do?  Jesus did not save himself.  He was not the focus of his own life.  His own welfare was not the center of his own actions.  Instead, he made his life all about others. 

He healed people who were blind.  Just ask blind Bartimaeus (Luke 18:35-43). 

He found people who were lost.  Just ask Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). 

He ate with people who were tax collectors and sinners.  Just ask Levi and the tax collectors and sinners who were feasting with Jesus at Levi’s house (Luke 5:29-39).

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” Jesus explained (Luke 5:31-32).

Jesus, “the King of the Jews,” as the sign above his head on the cross declared, did not save himself.  He was not that kind of king.  Rather, he hung on a cross of humiliation for the sake of other people; to save them.  Jesus was not a rich and successful king as our world defines a king.  But he was a king.  He was a king with and for the people.  He is “our” king.

I know of a faithful member of a church who was given a harsh warning from the pastor when he started hanging out on the front porch with some unsavory neighbors.  You know, the ones with the beer in hand, playing shoot the squirrel, sitting on the old couch in the front yard.  “You are who you hang out with,” the pastor warned the faithful church member.  “You won’t get anywhere in the world hanging around them.”

Do you know what the faithful church member answered?  “You are right.  You are who you hang out with.  I hang out with Jesus.  Maybe, they will become a little more like him by hanging out with me.”  The faithful church member was exactly that: “faithful.”  He hung out with the wrong people, because that is where Jesus hung out.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Luke 5:31-32).

Jesus hangs out with the wrong people, he hangs out in the wrong places, and he winds up on the wrong throne.  Christ’s worldly throne, after-all, is not one with gold plating atop a marble staircase.  Christ’s throne is a cross. 

No one fights to the death to sit on that throne.  No one strives to be nailed to a throne in the middle of a kingdom of dying criminals.  But Jesus does.  Jesus was a king with and for the people.  He is “our” king.

Those who walk up to Jesus’ cross, taunting Jesus and spitting in his face, do not actually think that he can save himself.  It is a display of mockery for the benefit of all who pass by on the road into the heart of Jerusalem.  But these people who mock do say one thing that is absolutely true, “he saved others.”

Yes, that part is the absolute truth.  Jesus did save others.  He healed others when other people could not.  He guided others when other people would not.  He accepted others when other people refused.  “He saved others.”

And he is going to do it one more time before he dies. 

You see, Jesus, our King, refuses to use his powers to save himself.  After-all, Jesus explicitly states that he “is not a king of this world” (John 18:36).  But Jesus will go to any length to use his powers to save others. 

One of the two criminals hanging with Jesus at the very end of his life refuses to join with those who taunt.  Instead, that criminal admits that he wasted his time in this life.  “We indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds,” the man admits (Luke: 23:41).

He is one of those people who tries only to help himself, but in doing so, he ends up destroying himself.  He is one of those people who deserves his cross.  But he is also the only one who turns his head toward Jesus and asks, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). 

That man is the man who Jesus chooses to save.  Jesus does not save himself.  Jesus does not save someone who is morally deserving.  Rather, Jesus saves someone who simply and profoundly asks to be saved.

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).

Jesus, our king, did not build for himself a worldly kingdom with a palace and throne, gilded with gold.  Jesus did not create for himself a wealthy life.  Jesus did not save himself.

But Jesus does save others. 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Jesus promises us.  “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10).

All those who ask, find that they are welcome in Jesus’ kingdom. 

That was true way back on the day that Jesus joined a thief on some crosses, and it is still true today. 

All those who ask, find that they are welcome in Jesus’ kingdom. 

Come to the cross with your burdens, you need not bear them alone. 

Come to the cross with your sins, Jesus offers to feast with you and make you clean. 

Come to the cross with your pain, Jesus desires to heal you. 

Come to the cross and worship your king.  He is a king who understands pain.  He is a king who understands sin.  He is a king whose throne is a cross of shame.  He is a king who helps those who are unable to help themselves. 

Come to the foot of Jesus’ throne. 

Come to the cross and ask Jesus to remember you. 

Come and be given the kingdom of God.

Jesus remember me,

when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus remember me,

When you come into your kingdom.

Reflection on Luke 21:5-19

 

Luke 21:5-19 NRSVue

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, [Jesus] said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

  7 They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8 And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

  9 “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and plagues, and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

  12 “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and siblings, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Reflection

“Trust in me,” Jesus teaches.  “Not a hair of your head will be destroyed forever.  By your steadfastness you will gain the breath of life” (Luke 21:14, 18-19).  

That is the promise that Jesus gives his followers when the world as they know it begins to crumble.  When the institutions start to shake, when the people start to riot, when the natural forces take lives, and when hatred is turned even toward you, one of Christ’s loving people, Jesus begs us to listen close.

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

These words of Jesus were remembered just years later as those first Christians found themselves in a world where the curtain of the temple was not only torn in two; the curtain was gone.  So was the temple that housed the curtain.  God’s house was mere rubble.  “The days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down,” Jesus said (Luke 21:6). 

The dust of the temple’s destruction settled onto the shoulders of those early Christians who were viewed by the Roman Empire as secretive and rebellious.  The empire used those early Christians as a scapegoat to cover the ills of the empire.  Empires always find a scapegoat to arrest, persecute, imprison, and even kill so that they do not need to look too closely at themselves.

“They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name,” Jesus clearly warns (Luke 21:12).

But Jesus also bears a promise.

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

We cannot repeat that promise too much because the reality that we face is that everything falls apart, everything comes to an end, and nothing lasts forever.

The peace and prosperity of the 1950s fell to the riots and wars of the 1960s.  The international harmony and economic prosperity of the late 1990s fell when the twin towers fell in 2001.  Nothing lasts forever.  Everything falls apart.

Just the other day I overheard someone mentioning that “Ten years ago I was running miles.  Can you believe it?  Now my knees won’t even let me walk across the room.”  Nothing lasts forever.  Everything falls apart.

One time while staying at my in-laws’ home I was working on some kind of project, and I needed scissors to cut some plastic.  I went downstairs and found some nice, sharp scissors in a drawer just below my mother-in-law’s sewing machine.  As I cut away, my mother-in-law walked in and saw the horror that was taking place right there in the sanctity of her own home!  In my whole life I had never before heard the term “sewing scissors.”  But I learned about them that day.  I wanted to say, “Nothing lasts forever.  Everything falls apart.”  But I also wanted to live.

Jesus says:

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

When everything is going wrong and everything seems to be falling apart in our lives, the fundamental problem that we face each and every time is that we try to stack all the falling pieces back up and we try hold it all together someway and somehow.  We try to fix it all, and when our fix does not work, we are left with nothing but rubble around our own feet.

Adam and Eve did not trust God.  Rather, they ate from the tree that would let them decide good and evil for themselves.  They trusted in themselves, and they ended up cast out from the life of the garden.

Moses did not trust that God could do anything about the slavery of his people.  So, he took matters into his own hands and murdered an Egyptian.  He ended up being cast out of Egypt into the wilderness where there is little life.

Jesus says:

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

When life started falling apart for those early Christians who were arrested and persecuted, and brought before kings and governors because of Jesus’ name, Jesus tells them: “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (Luke 21:14-15).  “Trust in me” Jesus is saying.  “Trust in my wisdom.”  We do not know how to pull things from destruction to wholeness, from death to life, but the one who rose from the grave does.  “Trust in me,” Jesus says.

“Pastor, now that I trust in Jesus, I thought that life would go so much better.  But I have to tell you, it hasn’t gotten any better.  What am I doing wrong?”  He was a man in his thirties, but he was still a baby Christian.  Jesus had found him just a year earlier.  But I do not think that his question is any different than some our questions who have been following Jesus since we were able to put on our own shirt.  “Why is this happening to me?  What did I do wrong?”

Here is the truth.  When you are facing hardship, you might have caused it yourself, but much of the time you probably did not do anything wrong.  Wars and earthquakes and famines and plagues and every other thing that we struggle with in this universe “must take place first” Jesus teaches (Luke 21:9).  We live in a world outside of God’s garden.  Bad things happen out in the sticks and thistles outside of the garden.  Good people are brought down from well-deserved heights after being “betrayed even by parents and siblings” Jesus says.  “They will put some of you to death,” Jesus continues (Luke 21:16).  You might not have done anything wrong.  You might not have done anything bad to anyone.  But your neighbor or family member or leaders or even little viruses might have done something bad to you. 

But listen to the promise from your Lord: “Not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:18).  Not even a hair of your head will be destroyed forever, says the one who knows how to pull people up from graves into new life.

“You cannot be destroyed forever.”

“By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:19).  Another way to say that is, “By your steadfastness you will gain your breath of life.”  Trusting leads to life.

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

Years after Jesus uttered these words, one of his followers, Stephen was his name, was sentenced to be stoned because he steadfastly followed Christ Jesus.  And as the stones fell, crushing Stephen under their weight, he prayed to the Lord for those showing him hate: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).  He loved his neighbor to the end.  He trusted the Lord through it all.  He held tight and breathed in life eternal with the Lord.  And I find it strangely comforting to know that even when I am in the wrong and I am doing something terrible, that someone might be praying for me and hoping for my forgiveness.  That is powerful stuff.  That is the stuff of trust.

Now, I know that life can become crushing.  I know that life can completely fall apart and look completely different from all that you have previously known.  But you have a Savior who, though the power of the Holy Spirit, stays with you through it all: Jesus Christ.

And that savior has a promise for you:

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”