Pentecost 6 – 26 June 2016 – Year C
Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 9th
Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 51 – 62:
51 When the days drew near for jhim to be taken
up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent
messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to
make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not
receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And
when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to
tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But
he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to
another village.
57 As they were going ralong the road, someone said to him,
“I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said
to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To
another he said, “Follow me.” But he said,
“Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus
said to him, “Leave tthe dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim
the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will
follow you, Lord, vbut
let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus
said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow
and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
The first
verse of today’s Gospel is an important turning point in the ministry of
Jesus. It tells us that the time came
when Jesus not only taught, but He also focused on getting to Jerusalem. He focused on Jerusalem because He had an
appointment with a cross.
Jesus made
this appointment in eternity before He even participated in the creation of the
world. We learn this from the inspired
words of Paul in Ephesians, [Ephesians 1:4] [God] chose us in [Christ] before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
him. He also wrote to a young pastor
named Timothy and said, [2 Timothy
1:9] [God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our
works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ
Jesus before the ages began. In addition, he began a letter to another
young pastor named Titus with these words: [Titus
1:1–3] Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the
sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which
accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies,
promised before the ages began. These Bible passages and others like them
tell us that the Son of God made His appointment with the cross before the creation of the world. Indeed, God made the promise to save us
before He even created time itself.
The fact that
God already had a plan of salvation in place reminds us once again that God
knew we would sin before He even made us.
This means that God wasn’t surprised when Adam and Eve sinned in
Eden. The plan for saving Adam, Eve, and
all humanity from sin was already at work.
The Son of God had already made His appointment with the cross. So it is that the Son of God could speak to
the serpent and say, [Genesis 3:15]
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and
her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” He could say this because He had already made
His appointment with the cross. The
entire Old Testament points forward to the time when the Son of God kept His
appointment with the cross.
His
appointment with the cross determined when the Son of God would take up His
humanity. This also happened right on
schedule as the Bible says: [Galatians
4:4–5] When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born
of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were
under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. The Son of God took on human flesh in the
womb of the Virgin Mary at exactly the right time, and when He was born, they
named Him Jesus. Everything in Jesus’
life happened at exactly the right time so that the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
would keep that appointment with the cross.
Eventually,
that appointment drew near and Jesus had to focus on His journey from Galilee
to that cross in Jerusalem. As the
beginning of today’s Gospel says, “When
the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” That explains the determination in today’s
Gospel. If you will follow Jesus, now is
the time. There is no time to deal with
the things of this world. Now is the
time to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Now
is the time to follow Jesus. Later may
be too late. The teaching and the
healing will go on during the journey, but the main goal of the journey is
keeping the appointment with the cross.
When Jesus
set His face toward Jerusalem, He intended to go to Jerusalem straight south
through Samaria. He sent disciples ahead
to make arrangements for the trip, but the Samaritans had a problem with people
who were traveling to Passover in Jerusalem.
The Jews treated the Samaritans with a certain amount of arrogance and
disdain, and the Samaritans got even by being uncooperative and
inhospitable. They made it fairly clear
that Jesus and His disciples were not welcome.
They saw Jesus as just another Passover pilgrim who was trying to take a
shortcut across their land.
James and
John were upset with this village and they demonstrated their anger by
suggesting that this village deserved destruction by divine fire from
heaven. Once again, the disciples
demonstrate their lack of understanding of Jesus and His teachings. Once again, Jesus had to rebuke them. (By the way, it was probably incidents like
this that caused Jesus to give these two disciples the nickname “Sons of
Thunder.”)
This is whole
point of Jesus’ appointment with the cross.
He was going to the cross so that we do not have to endure the fire of
God’s punishment.
As we confess
in our regular worship sertvice, we are unworthy sinners. We do not deserve any of the blessings God
gives to us. Instead, our sins have
truly earned us the fire that James and John wanted to call down on the
Samaritan village. We not only deserve
punishment here on earth, but we also deserve the eternal punishment of hell. Because of our sin, God has every right to
pour His wrath out on all humanity. The
Samaritan village deserved the wrath of God.
James and John deserved the wrath of God. We also deserve the wrath of God.
Jesus kept
His appointment with the cross so that we will not get what we deserve. Just as Jesus had mercy on the Samaritan
village and on James and John, He also has mercy on us. Jesus kept His appointment with the cross so
that He could endure the wrath of God in our place.
Jesus lived a
perfect, sinless, innocent life. Never
the less, He endured the emotional, mental, and physical anguish that only a
sinner deserves. He endured unjust
trials, torture of many varieties, and then death on a cross. As He hung on the cross, He endured the
greatest torture of all. The only clue
we have to the depth of that torture is His cry of dereliction, as He [Matthew 27:46] cried out with a
loud voice, saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His appointment with the cross was also an
appointment with the forsakenness of God the Father … a forsakenness that we
cannot understand, but can only believe.
In this forsakenness lay all the fire of God’s wrath against our
sin. In this forsakenness Jesus endured
God’s wrath so that we may live in God’s eternal blessing.
Jesus had
another appointment in Jerusalem. He had
an appointment with an empty tomb … an appointment with the resurrection of His
dead body into a body of immortal life.
His resurrection is the ultimate sign that He is our saviour … that when
He kept His appointment with the cross, He earned salvation for all
humanity. His resurrection offers
resurrection and eternal life to all people in all times and places. He earned resurrection and eternal life when
He kept His appointment with the cross, and He certified that resurrection and
eternal life with His own resurrection from the dead.
The Holy
Spirit now works to distribute the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation
that Jesus earned when He kept His appointment with the cross. The Holy Spirit makes Christ’s gifts
available to all people. In fact, there
is really only one way to lose out on those gifts. The only way to lose out on those gifts is to
reject them … to reject the work of the Holy Spirit as He offers these gifts to
you. This is the one and only sin that
cannot be forgiven. It cannot be
forgiven because it is the sin of rejecting God’s forgiveness.
Our Lord,
Jesus Christ has one more appointment to keep.
He has promised that He will visibly return on the Last Day. On that day, He will raise all the dead to
immortality. Those who rejected His
gifts will be swept away to eternal punishment.
Those who are left behind will enter with Him into eternal blessing and
joy.
God [2 Corinthians 6:2] says, “In a favourable
time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favourable time; behold,
now is the day of salvation. Do not
reject Christ’s gifts. Do not struggle
against the work of the Holy Spirit.
Instead, when the Holy Spirit places you in Christ by faith, simply
remain there. [Colossians 3:16]
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly that you may receive that
eternal blessings that Jesus Christ earned for you when He kept His appointment
with the cross. Amen
The grace and
love of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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