Lent 2 – 25 February 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 8^th Chapter of the Gospel according to mark: Verses 27 – 38:

²⁷ And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸ And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 

³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

³⁴ And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

This reading from the Gospel according to Mark Chapter 8 once again demonstrates in seven verses the condensed nature of Mark’s account of events.  The parallel account of the same event is recorded over fourteen verses in the 16^th Chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.

The other thing that demonstrates the condensation of the narrative is the number of events in today’s reading.  Normally we would hear Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ,” one Sunday and then we would hear Jesus teaching about His suffering, death, and resurrection on the following Sunday.  With Mark, you get them both on one Sunday and the reading still isn’t all that long.

The wonderful thing about this condensation in Mark is that you can compare and contrast these two events.  Given that Mark wrote His Gospel based on what he heard from Peter, it is interesting to study Peter in these two events.  At first Peter has this marvellous insight of who Jesus really is, and suddenly he speaks in ignorance of Jesus’ mission.  You get it all in quick succession in Mark.

The location for these events is the area around Caesarea Philippi.  Caesarea Philippi is north of Galilee in Gentile territory.  This means that Jesus and His disciples are pretty much alone.  This is a time of private teaching just for the disciples.

Jesus asked a very important question.  In fact, if you get the answer to this question wrong, it is very doubtful that you are a Christian.  Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  Most of us in the twenty-first century don’t know this, but just about every family in first century Israel had a son named Jesus.  So, just as we hear of all the women named Mary, there were actually a lot of men named Jesus.  It is important for our salvation that we get the right Jesus.  It is important that we know who Jesus is.  It is not enough to just say, “I believe in Jesus.”  We need to day something about Jesus so that others will know in which Jesus we believe.

We read that according to the disciples, most people got Jesus’ identity wrong.  They told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”  The people’s guesses were all honourable heroes of the Bible.  In most cases, men would be very honoured to be compared to these servants of God, but not Jesus.  The true Jesus is in a whole different status than these great historical figures.

Many people hold the name Jesus in high regard today, but they still have the wrong Jesus.  Some people look at the example of Jesus and figure that that is all Jesus is.  Jesus is an example, but He is much more.  Some people think that Jesus was just a good, moral teacher and nothing more.  In fact, Jesus is a great teacher, but He is so much more.  There are all kinds of opinions about Jesus that get part of the truth, but don’t get the main truth of who Jesus is.

Then Jesus asked the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”  Peter got the words exactly right.  Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one (NT Greek), the Messiah (Hebrew).  This is the foundation sentence of the creeds.  When we properly confess Jesus as the Christ, we have properly confessed our salvation.

The interesting thing about the rest of the Gospel reading is that it goes on to show that Peter did not understand what he said.  Although Peter got the words exactly right, He didn’t know what they meant. 

Strangely, Jesus strictly charged them to tell no one about him.  You would think that Jesus would want everyone to know His true identity.  Never the less, He strictly charged the disciples not to tell anyone.  He was stern.  Keep this information to yourself.

Then Jesus began to explain the true meaning of Peter’s confession to the disciples.  He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly.  This is what it means for Jesus to be the Christ.  It means suffering, death, and resurrection.  It means dying on the cross in order to take away our sins, and it means rising from the dead.  If we are to have the right Jesus, it must be the Jesus who died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead.  If your Jesus did not do these things, then you have the wrong Jesus.

It is at this point that Peter got it wrong.  Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him.  Literally, Peter embarks on a dialogue to set Jesus straight … to put him right in regard to his destiny.  Peter is ready to become Jesus’ minder.  Let me remind you that Peter is a fisherman who is only about half way through his ‘on the job’ seminary training and Jesus is God in the flesh.  Never the less, Peter takes it upon himself to scold the Son of God.

Jesus immediately saw the danger to Peter and He rebuked Peter right back.  Turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  Jesus’ words teach us that not only was Peter’s understanding wrong, but Peter was even acting as an agent of Satan.  Peter was actually tempting Jesus to abandon His mission to the cross to abandon His mission to die for our sins.

This exchange between Jesus and Peter should be a warning to us as well.  Peter’s master had just told him that He was to suffer and die.  It is very likely that Peter not only considered Jesus to be his master, but also a close friend.  Who would want a friend to suffer and die?  Peter, in his ignorance, was responding in the way that he thought was best.  I can empathise with Peter.  I can understand why Peter did what he did.  Never the less, Peter was wrong and Jesus scolded him severely.

How often do we make decisions based on what seems right to us instead of checking in the Word of God?  How often do we assume things about God without checking the words that He Himself gave us?  How often do we, like Peter, proceed in the way that we think is best and forget that God may have something totally different for us?  How often do we follow in Peter’s footsteps? 

How glad we can be that Jesus didn’t listen to Peter.  Jesus followed up on His promise.  He went to Jerusalem and there the elders and the chief priests and the scribes did exactly what He said they would do.  They arrested Jesus and held a mock trial.  Then they took Jesus to Pontius Pilate and used political pressure to have Him crucified.   Jesus died just as He said He would and then He also rose … just as He said He would.  Jesus did all this in order to take away our sin and give us His righteousness instead.  Because Jesus did not listen to Peter, but followed through on His plan, we now have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

When we talk about Jesus, it is very important that we talk about the right Jesus … the Jesus who suffered many things, was rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and died and after three days rose again.  The only Christ who can save us for eternity is the true Christ … the Christ crucified and risen from the dead.  It is in this Christ and this Christ alone that we have eternal life.  Amen

The peace and love of our Great triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 1 – 18 February 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 1^st Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 9–15

⁹ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 

¹² The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³ And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. 

¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Today’s reading from Mark’s account of the Gospel covers a lot of ground in a few verses.  The Gospel according to Matthew records the baptism and temptation of Jesus in 16 verses.  Luke records the baptism and temptation in 14 verses.  Mark covers both events in 5 verses.  The compact writing style of Mark is the reason why Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four.  In spite of Mark’s compact writing style, there are some details of Jesus’ ministry that we can find only in Mark.

One of the advantages of Mark’s brevity is that it is practical to include more than one event in the Gospel of the day.  Generally speaking, we hear the account of Jesus’ baptism on the First Sunday after the Epiphany, and we hear the account of the temptation on the First Sunday in Lent.  This means that several weeks pass by between the reading of these two accounts and we don’t always see the connection between them.  Mark’s compact writing style bridges that gap.  This morning we heard about both events and we understand that one moment the Holy Spirit was descending on Jesus and the next moment that same Holy Spirit was driving Jesus out into the desert in order to confront he devil.  This was before He did any teaching or miracles.  It was before He called any disciples.

We read, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”  The Greek could also be translated as, “The Spirit immediately threw him out into the wilderness.”  Mark almost gives us the impression that Jesus was still wet from His baptism when He entered the desert.  It is as if the moment the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove and said, “Move out!  Let’s go to the desert and do battle with the devil.”  Jesus was in perfect agreement with the Holy Spirit and readily journeyed into the desert.

The important point here is that this was an intentional confrontation with the devil.  It was not a situation where the devil noticed Jesus fasting in the desert and thought to himself, “Now that He is hungry, He will be weaker.  He will be easier to tempt.  This will be a good time to tempt Him.”  Instead we see Jesus eager to do battle for us and the Holy Spirit encouraging Him into that battle.  The leading of the Holy Spirit teaches us that this was not some random encounter between enemies.  Instead, the temptation was part of the intentional plan of God at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

Mark does not record many details of the actual temptation.  He does tell us that it was forty days long.  He also tells us that Jesus was with the wild animals.

Jesus in the desert with the wild animals is a reflection of an Old Testament figure that also went out into the desert with the wild animals.  We commonly refer to this figure as the scape goat.

The scape goat was a part of the Old Testament ceremony for the Day of Atonement.  The regulations for the Day of Atonement say this about the scape goat:

^{[Leviticus 16:21–22]} Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. ²² The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

The idea was that the goat was basically an innocent animal.  It did not take on the role of scape goat for itself, but for others.  It did not suffer or bear the burden of its own sins.  Instead, it bore the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the people of Israel.  Aaron, the high priest, confessed the sins of the nation over the goat.  In this way, he transferred the sins of the people onto the goat.  After that a special shepherd led the scape goat out into the wilderness to be with the wild animals.  The goat with all the sins of Israel went out into the wilderness never to be seen again.  The sins are gone.

There are many similarities between the scape goat and Jesus.  Jesus did not just appear innocent; He actually was the innocent Son of God.  He did not take on the role of sin bearer for His own sins.  Instead, He bore the iniquities of the entire world.  God Himself placed the sins of the world on Jesus as Isaiah wrote, ^{[Isaiah 53:6b]} “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  The Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness to be with the wild animals.  Jesus carried our sins away so that no one will ever see them again.  The sins are gone.

Of course, once the special shepherd set the scape goat free, no one really knew what happened to that goat.  The most likely outcome is that wild animals ate the scape goat.  It is also possible that a shepherd from another country who knew nothing about the scape goat would find it and take it home to his own flocks.  No one really knew.  The point is this: although the symbolism of the scape goat was that the sins of Israel were gone never to be seen or heard from again, no one really knew for sure what happened.  No one could really, absolutely know that the goat couldn’t sneak back from the wilderness into someone’s flock.

Fortunately, the scape goat is only a shadow as we hear from the writer to the Hebrews: ^{[Hebrews 10:1–4]} For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? ³ But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.  The scape goat is only a shadow that points forward to the real thing, Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who carries away the sin of the world.  Even though He carried the sin of the entire world into the desert, He Himself never sinned.  He endured and triumphed over every temptation of the devil. ^{[Hebrews 4:15]} We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Jesus endured the temptations of the devil and triumphed.  He not only endured the temptation in the wilderness, but he also endured all the other temptations that the devil threw at Him as He journeyed to the cross.

You see, if the devil could have gotten Jesus to sin just once, He would no longer be able to carry our sins.  He would have sins of His own to carry.  Never the less, Jesus did not sin.  He continued to carry our sin.  He carried it all the way to the cross.

With Jesus, we do not have to worry that our sin might accidently come back to find us again.  Jesus took our sin to the cross.  There He did battle for us and conquered sin, death, and the power of the devil.  Our sin is not just gone, but it is powerless.  In fact, Jesus took our sin to the grave and left it there when He rose from the dead.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ assures us that our sin is not just gone, but it is dead and gone.

The Holy Spirit made His presence known when Jesus stepped up out of the water from His baptism.  That same Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert to confront the devil and his temptations.  This teaches us that all these things were part of the plan.

It is important for us to know that Jesus endured all the hardships that we endure.  He is our substitute.  He doesn’t just know our lives academically, but He has experienced life as we know it.  He was tempted just as we are tempted.  He also experienced our pain, our sorrow, our frustrations … He experienced it all except that He never sinned.

In spite of the fact that He never sinned, He was full of sin. ^{[2 Corinthians 5:21]} For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  Just as the High Priest placed the sin of Israel on the scape goat, God has placed the sin of the world on Jesus.  He became full of our sin – your sin, my sin, the sin of the entire world.  Jesus has carried that sin to the cross.  As we remember the cross, we will remember that our sin filled Him as He suffered and died to pay the penalty that God’s justice demanded – a payment that freed us from our slavery to sin.  We will remember that God saw Him as a sinner so that He can see us as righteous.

After Jesus endured the temptations of the devil in the desert, He began proclaiming the Gospel.  Because Jesus endured temptation without sin, His Gospel proclamation is just as valid for us today as it was at the time of today’s reading from the Gospel.  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen