Palm Sunday - 28 March 2021 - Year B

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

 

The text for our meditation is written in the 14^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 1 – 15 & 27:

 

It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; ² for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” 

³ While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. ⁴ But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? ⁵ For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. ⁶ But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. ⁷ For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” 

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. ¹¹ When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. 

¹² On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” ¹³ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, ¹⁴ and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘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.”

 

²⁷ And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written, 

‘I will strike the shepherd, 

and the sheep will be scattered.’

A woman named Mary, twelve seasoned disciples, a room filled with the fragrance of the finest perfume, a broken alabaster jar, and a Saviour drenched and dripping with the finest imported perfume. I am sure that you are familiar with the story. It was Holy Week. Jesus was only a few days from arrest and trial and crucifixion. But, tonight it was a celebration. It wasn’t so long ago before this night that Lazarus had been dead and buried, but tonight, he was sitting at the table with Jesus – and his sister Martha and Mary were there. The Passover was just around the corner. Jesus was with friends in the familiar village of Bethany. It was a happy night, but we don’t hear about that. No, this evening meal is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and John for one reason only: because of what Mary did. 

 

Mary had already made a mark on the Gospel stories. Remember, she was the one sitting and listening to Jesus while Martha cooked. But, tonight, Mary really did it! Sometime, while everyone was still seated, or as John tells us, reclining around the table, she came to Jesus with an extraordinary gift. The perfume Nard was imported from northern India, from a plant that grew there at the foot of the Himalayas. It wasn’t cheap. Mary had almost 12 oz. (that’s about 350ml) of it, worth about a year’s wages—by today’s standards, it was worth tens of thousands of dollars. This precious nard was bottled in a glass-like, translucent alabaster flask or bottle, with no lid. This bottle was sealed, as one piece, the nard encased within. It did not have a screw top, a wax plug, or even a cork. There was only one way to open it—snap off the top. It was a single-use dispenser. There was no way to use just a bit, no way to save some for later. So, Mary used it, pouring it—all twelve ounces of it—over Jesus’ feet and hair. 

 

We’re actually not told exactly why Mary did it. Was it love for her Lord? Was it gratitude for the resurrection and healing of her brother Lazarus? Was it an act of worship? We can’t know for sure. We just know what she did ... and we know what the disciples thought about it. 

John’s Gospel singles out the reaction of Judas, but Matthew lets us know that this time, at least, Judas was speaking for all twelve disciples. They were shocked. They simply could not believe what they were seeing. This was way over the top. Sitting and listening while her sister worked was one thing, but this was different. This was just wrong! 

 

We could justifiably ask, what was so wrong about the disciples’ reasoning? You can’t reject the force of the argument just because it comes from the mouth of Judas. Jesus himself had taught the lesson well— deny yourself, avoid the foolish indulgences of this world, scorn its deceitful vanities, focus on the needs of others, pay attention to the poor and to the social outcasts. So, why not take that luxury, that obscenely, embarrassingly expensive jar of pure nard, and sell it so that the money could be used for something important—something like helping homeless people, or reaching out to people who had lost everything in a sudden disaster? Why not use such a valuable resource for a good, God- pleasing purpose like doing evangelism work or building a church for a remote village that has no church? How could they justify merely pouring it out in one fleeting moment – even if it was to honour Jesus? Come on—there are other ways to honour that don’t come with such an absurd price tag. They were the compassionate conservatives. Mary was the wasteful liberal. Mary surely was a misguided fool at best, and a wasteful thief at worst, taking food from the mouths of starving babies to fuel her extravagant demonstration of affection! 

 

The truth is though, we are just like the disciples, we like to play it safe. We like to do what is controlled and reasonable and frugal and careful and responsible. So, we give what we think is reasonable—and consider that a great feat. We covet and hoard our time and exercise our right to relaxation time, this may be good in moderation, but are we reasonable about our rights? Does this mean a few extra hours of meditation in front of the TV? Some extra communing – with nature? Playing it safe leaves Jesus unimpressed. 

 

You know, I can’t think of a single time in the entire Scriptural record where anyone was ever commended or praised by God for playing it safe. Every time someone tried to play it safe, it ended with a rebuke from God. It was not that way for Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, and Elijah. They were praised for taking a risk on what God said to them. The faithless servant who buried his single talent was rebuked! The rich fool who had every future plan perfectly covered and retirement all worked out was condemned. God is not impressed with a play-it-safe attitude. 

 

So, the conservative, play-it-safe disciples missed the point entirely. Here in Bethany, they we left wanting. And then, in a few days in the Garden, when Jesus was arrested, they again did the safe, responsible thing, and they fulfilled Jesus prophecy in our text; “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ They ran and hid from impending danger.

 

At Golgotha, only John mustered the courage to make a brief appearance —the rest were nowhere to be found. Of course not, it was dangerous to be there ... better to play it safe, right? The disciples were wrong. Mary was right. 

 

Mary was 100% right! She was completely vindicated. Jesus did not play the role of mediator. Jesus did nothing to try to pacify both sides in this confrontation. He didn’t throw even a dry bone to the disciples and their calls for “be smart, play-it-safe” ministry. He did not even gently remind Mary of the importance of keeping things in balance, and the need to avoid extremes. No, it was not an issue of neglecting the poor. Jesus’ ministry proves his love and concern for them, and it was not an issue of making choices between competing goods. It was simple. It was an issue of a broken container and now could only be used completely with nothing held back. 

 

You see in Jesus’ eyes the vessel that was broken, the vessel that won the praise of Jesus was Mary herself. The broken alabaster container was only a symbol of a much more significant breaking that had already happened. In her love for Jesus, and in her singular desire to serve and honour him, Mary was holding nothing back. Like the broken jar that had to be completely spent once it was broken, so Mary could keep back not one thing in her devotion. She did not give herself halfway. She did not give part. She did not do what was safe, or even reasonable. That’s what love does. It’s gives all of itself. 

 

Isn’t that the way God has loved you and me? God so loved the world that he stopped short of sending his Son? No. God so loved the world that He sent one of the millions of angels He could afford to give up? No. God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. Jesus told His disciples that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for your friends; and Jesus proved that...by laying down his own life. He was broken and His whole life was poured out on that cross. He didn’t hold back a little life. He didn’t just merely faint. No! like that alabaster jar he was broken and his whole life was poured out. Not just for his friends, but for the whole world. 

 

He poured His entire redeeming blood over us head to foot, covering us in the fragrant aroma of His perfection. He gave himself completely for all the times you and I hold back loving God with our whole heart, soul and mind. He gave himself extravagantly for every time you and I try to play it safe. That’s why He is our Saviour. That’s why He is our substitute before God. He did what we don’t do, for what we find excuses not to do. 

 

So, what’s that mean for us? It seems to me that the lesson is at once obvious but so painfully demanding we want to try to avoid it. Jesus doesn’t want us to be play-it-safe disciples. He wants us to be broken jars that can’t hold anything back. So, does this mean that you need to go out and spend $40,000 on a bottle of perfume, and then go looking for a likely candidate who could use anointing? Probably not. But it does mean that perhaps it is time now to pull out the stops and to knock down the safety barriers and to go all - out in faith in the way we serve God.

 

I’m not sure that Mary fully realised what she was doing that evening in Bethany; but she got it right. Jesus took that broken vessel, that object of ridicule, and restored it as a wonderful example of love and devotion for all time. 

 

Stepping out unreservedly in faith means that we never know with what or where our Lord and Saviour will challenge us, but we can be certain that He who ^{Phil 2} “found in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” has given all that He had that we may have salvation and eternal life, and will keep His promise ^{Matt 28} “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” As we go forth into this Holy Week let us stand with Jesus through His trials and suffering; let us mourn at His death and on Easter Sunday let us rejoice in His victory over death that he has won for us into eternity. 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 5 – 21 March 2021 – Year B

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

The text for our meditation is written in the 12^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 20 -33:

 

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. 

²⁷ “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” ³⁰ Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹ Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

"We would like to see Jesus," the Greeks say in our text. You know way back in more traditional times, some pulpits had a plaque that only the priest can see, engraved with this same verse from the King James Bible. "We would see Jesus," is all it says. – Reminding the priest: "Don't show us yourself; don't show us your oratory ability, your brilliant brains, your scintillating wit, not even your deep theology. We would see Jesus!"

 

That’s the aim of the sermon. The priests wear robes; not to look churchly, holy, or nice. It's because robes highlight the pastor's office and diminish his person. His clothes, his physical features, and his personality are hidden under their official robes. That's why judges wear robes in courtrooms. They too are in an office. - For that same reason, judges and priests speak from behind benches and pulpits, usually big, thick wooden things. Why? Because they aren't speaking as individuals: Judges speak for the state; priests speak for the Lord. Most of their individual person is hidden behind their official bench or pulpit. Frankly, anything any priest says from their pulpit or anywhere whilst leading a service should be based on God’s word, for the purpose of developing a nurturing relationships between our Triune God and everyone who hears. 

 

When the priest forgives, baptises, communes or does any pastoral act, it's really Christ who does it. You are to see in these robes the instrument of Christ forgiving your sins, baptising souls, and distributing His body and blood in the Sacrament of the Alter. 

 

It is important that you see this because this is what makes the sacraments valid and certain, as if Christ our Lord is physically present and dealt with you Himself. You see if the priest was forgiving, baptising, or communing based on their person, you would forever have to wonder what kind of a person they are. Do they have enough faith? Are they Christian enough? Then any little or big flaws you find in their person would cause you to doubt, "Are my sins really forgiven? Is that baby really baptised? Can the body and blood of Christ really come from such sinful hands as those?" The focus is to be on the office instituted by God to dispense the means of grace. In their ordination priests understand and acknowledge that they do not represent their own persons but the person of Christ, because of the church's call, as Christ testifies, 'He who hears you hears me.' When they offer the Word of Christ or the sacraments, they do so in Christ's place and stead. 

 

In worship, through the dispensing of the means of grace ‘the Word and sacraments’ you do see Jesus, but the question we must ask ourselves is ‘how do we see Him?’ I wonder, do you really want to see the Jesus shown in our text? This isn't really a glorified Jesus in the common sense of the word. This isn't a Jesus who leads millions of angels forth in glory. This isn't a Jesus who lifts high the cross in a victory parade over sin, death, and the power of the devil. This is a Jesus lifted high, crucified, dead on a cross, and then buried in the ground after.

 

We are kind of used to that sort of talk, aren’t we? We talk a lot about a dead Jesus during Lent. I’m concerned that we don’t really react to that. You still would like to see Jesus even if we're talking about a dead one. How about a troubled one: Would you still like to see Jesus if we're talking about a troubled one?

 

Jesus says plainly, "My heart is troubled." "Troubled" is too mild. Agitated, terrified, grieved, are better translations. This isn't a godly emotion. This isn't a noble feeling. Have you ever been in a shopping centre or wherever and thought you lost a child? Well, that emotion that pounced on you that you felt in your stomach, in your throat, down into your legs; that’s what Jesus felt.

 

Would you really like to see such a Jesus? Did you ever see your mum or especially your dad troubled? Didn't that unnerve you? We shut such sights, such memories out of our mind because they bother us so very much. We expect strength, support, and courage from our parents, and from our Jesus. We want to see the Jesus of John 14 who says, "Let not your heart be troubled." We don't want to see the Jesus who flatly tells us His heart is troubled. We don't like to see the troubled Jesus, …… but, we can get used to that too, can't we? … Many trips to dark Gethsemane over the years have made us immune somewhat to a "troubled" Jesus. We've seen Him stumble, fall, and sweat blood because He was so troubled there, so we don't mind seeing a troubled Jesus too much. But what about an "insincere" Jesus?

 

Some may think that I am being inappropriate at the least. The question is however, how else do you explain the text? Jesus says, "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? – ‘Father, save Me from this hour'? No, it was for this reason I came to this hour." – But wait! At least each Lent period we read of Gethsemane and what Jesus prays there? "Father take this cup from Me; don't make Me drink of it. Let this hour pass Me by." …… Who wants to see an apparently insincere Jesus? He says He won't pray "Father save Me from this hour," but in Gethsemane, according to Hebrews Chapter 5, "He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death."  - Isn't Jesus being insincere?

 

Of course He isn't. He can't be. He is true God, He can not and did not sin: But remember He is also true man who is about to suffer incomprehensible pain and humility; He is about to die, cut off from God, bearing the full burden of the sin of mankind, to the grave. The events in our text take place Tuesday of Holy Week. Here Jesus makes no such prayer to be saved. But over the next two days till Thursday night we see the troubling progress from His heart to His spirit and ultimately to His very soul. The pressure gets so great it squeezes the prayer out of Him that He would not pray on Tuesday, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”

 

Do we want to see such a Jesus as this? Believe it or not, this is the Jesus we need to see. We need to see this Jesus specifically because of the apparent inconsistency in Him between Tuesday and Thursday of Holy Week, specifically because it is this Jesus in whom we can really aspire to follow and take hope. A Jesus who in the face of agonising suffering can in faith remain obedient unto death, just for a bunch of unworthy beggars like us. You see we can relate to a Jesus who has experienced troubles like we have; One who gets so troubled that His prayers tumble out of Him just like ours do sometimes. One who shudders at the thought of a violent and prolonged death; just like we do.

 

I can relate to this Jesus because He tasted death, as I and all of us will in time. He didn't face death like a stoic or a movie war hero striding confidently toward the cross saying “I’ll take care of this” No, in the words of Psalm 18 “The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.  The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.” 

 

 Because Jesus had anguish over suffering the horrible consequences of our sin and went on to die in the most grisly way under the most horrific circumstances; we can look forward to a peaceful and endurable death, regardless of the circumstances. Because He was overcome by trouble and sorrow, then death holds no sting for us. Because He called on the name of the Lord, "O Lord save me!”, we too know that we have been saved!

 

The truth is, for us, we will be heard where He wasn't. He wasn't heard so we would be. The Lord will deliver our soul from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from stumbling because the soul of Jesus was given not only to death but to hell; His eyes were given not only to tears but to bruises, and His feet were given not only to stumbling but to nailing. Because Jesus wasn't delivered from death and suffering, we will be.

 

Filled with shame and guilt, I want to see this Jesus - a Jesus who suffers in my place for my many sins - because this is the only Jesus who is capable protecting me from the dark prince of this world. Note Jesus doesn't say that He is driving the dark prince, Satan, out of this world, for indeed He doesn't. What Jesus does, according to Revelation, is drive the dark prince of this world out of heaven. The death of Jesus prevents Satan from doing to us what he did to Job. Jesus dying for our sins makes it impossible for Satan to stand before God in heaven and accuse us on the basis of our sins.

 

That means the answer to our feeling accused; the answer to our feeling like we have to defend ourselves; the answer to the ever-present guilt resting heavily on our minds is not in anything we can do or think. Learning to think positive thoughts doesn't cast Satan out. Trying to esteem ourselves highly won't drive Satan out of heaven or our heart. Vowing to ignore the accusations of the prince of this world won't throw him out of our heads let alone out of heaven. Only Jesus does that, and He does it not by force but by meekly submitting to torture and crucifixion in our place. Satan can no longer accuse us before God because there are no sins of ours left that Jesus hasn't already suffered and paid for. Satan has no standing in heaven because Jesus went to the depths of hell standing in our place.

 

For Christians, Lent is a time where we are compelled to move out of our comfort zone; sin can not be sanitised by complacency. We must look upon the ugliness of Jesus on the cross and clearly see the ugliness of our own sin. The words of Isaiah 53 ring loud in our ears: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

 

In our text Jesus says, "When I am lifted up from the earth (That is, when I am crucified), I will draw all mankind to myself." The Greek is stronger. Jesus says literally, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will drag all (without exception) to Myself." This is the Greek word for dragging deadweight, a weight that doesn't in anyway help to be moved….. Do you see and can you accept just what this means? This means our deadweight, with all our sin, with all our doubts, our reluctance to submit, our fears, and all our human burdens will be literally ‘dragged’ by Jesus to where He is going eternally. The Grace of God rules in our lives through the unconditional love that drove Jesus to the cross of suffering and shame.

 

Would you like to see Jesus? – look to the Crucifix on the alters of the world; look at the lead light window in the churches and cathedrals – our conscience may lead us to guilt over the suffering servant; but think of the confession and absolution in our worship services where Jesus pronounces that ‘Our sins are forgiven’ and suddenly we will see in the crucifix the king on His victory throne and with the Psalmist we can rejoice ^{(Ps 95)}“Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.” 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 

 

Lent 4 – 14 March 2021 – 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 21^st Chapter of the Book of Numbers; Verses 4 – 9 (Old Testament Reading); and in the 3^rd Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 14 – 21.

 

Numbers 21: 4 - 9
⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he takes away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

 

John 3: 14 - 21

¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

    Most people don’t like snakes.  Some people have ophidiophobia, which is the formal term for an abnormal fear of snakes. Even people, like me, who don’t mind snakes, are quick to jump when they see a “stick” lying in their path and it suddenly moves. Some people I know say that the only good snake is a dead one!  But the fact is that most snakes are beneficial predators that help control the rodent population.  It’s also a fact that most snakes are more afraid of us than we are of them. 

    Snakes don’t get a real good portrayal in the Bible; the devil used a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve; also in Genesis God created a deep animosity between the snake and women; bad people are described as vipers; and then Revelation 12:9; 20:2 refers to the devil as the ancient serpent.  Today’s reading from the Old Testament also contributes to our bad attitude toward snakes.  

    The Old Testament for today from Numbers is the account of the Children of Israel after they leave Mount Sinai.  Exodus tells us that before the Children of Israel arrived at Sinai they were a  scruffy mob of slaves.  While they were at Sinai, God organised them.  He put the moral law into the words we know as the Ten Commandments.  In the last half of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the first half of Numbers, God gave Israel the civil law for governing themselves as a nation.  He also gave them the ceremonial law of offerings and feasts that were the shadow that pointed forward to the Messiah.  When the Children of Israel left Sinai, they were an organized nation headed for the Promised Land.

    God disciplined the people differently before and after Sinai.  Before Sinai, the people grumbled, and God fed them with manna.  He sent quail into their camp for meat.  He gave them water.  God recognised their ignorance and disciplined them gently.  This all changed after they left Sinai.

    When Israel left Sinai, God expected His people to know better than to grumble.  They had seen the plagues in Egypt.  They had seen the water of the Red Sea part for them and drown the Egyptians.  God had given them the Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant as tangible reminders that He was with them.  God was more stern with them than before.

    So when we read the Old Testament reading for today, once again we see the Children of Israel complain.  “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”  Notice the contradiction in their complaint.  They say that there is no food, but then they go on to say that they loathe the food.  How can they loathe the food if they don’t have any food?

    Of course, the food they loathe is the miracle food of manna that God gives them every morning. The people of Israel have judged God’s food and found it to be worthless.  These people are incurring the wrath of God by casting judgement and ridicule on His grace; especially when in John 6:25 - 59 we hear Jesus compare Himself to the manna as the Bread of Life from Heaven.

    Just as in the past, God disciplined all those who opposed Him. Here we see His own people standing against Him, complaining about Him, criticising Him by bringing their complaints to life.  Deadly serpents invaded the camp.  Their bite began killing many in the camp.  Sadly, the people wouldn’t listen to God when He merely spoke to them.  He had to allow death to enter their camp in order to get their attention.

    The people finally confessed their sin and asked God to take away the serpents.  God heard their prayer but gave them an answer that they did not expect.  Instead of simply removing the serpents, He gave them salvation from the serpents. He gave them what we know to be ‘a means of grace’.

    God ordered Moses to duplicate one of the serpents in bronze and place the bronze serpent on a pole.  Moses did as God commanded and everyone who looked at the serpent on the pole survived the snake bite.

    Now, just so you don’t get a false picture of this situation, remember that Israel had a population of about 600,000 men of military age.  If you multiply that by wives and children, it doesn’t take long to estimate a population of 2.5 million people not to mention livestock and luggage.  This meant that the Israeli camp covered many square kilometres.  You didn’t just poke your head out of tent flap and glance at the serpent on the stick.  It was a long walk to the bronze serpent on the pole.

    A most important point here is that the healing powers of the bronze serpent did not depend on the quality of the bronze that Moses used.  It did not depend on the quality of the wood used in the pole.  Instead, the healing power of the bronze serpent depended entirely on the promise of God.

    In a way, the bronze serpent is like all the means of grace that the Holy Spirit uses to bring salvation.  Whether we consider hearing the Word of God, Confession and Absolution, Holy Baptism, or the Lord’s Supper, they all depend on the promise of God for their effectiveness.  It is a long-established sound theological principle that “Without God's word in Holy Baptism the water is plain water and there is no Baptism.  But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.” (Luther’s Small Cat.: art. iv, par. 7–10) It was the promise of God working through the bronze serpent that healed the snake bite.

    Jesus used this Old Testament event to point to Himself.  In today’s Gospel, He compared Himself to the bronze serpent in the wilderness.  As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  With these words, Jesus gives the promise of eternal life to all who believe in Him as He is lifted up.  The promise of God healed the Israelite when he looked upon the bronze serpent.  In a similar way, the promise of God in Jesus Christ heals and gives eternal life to the sinner.

    Jesus then expanded on the meaning of this comparison with one of the most famous verses in the Bible: God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  The word “Whoever” means that this promise is for all people.  As the bronze serpent hung on a pole in order to save Israelites from poisonous serpents, so Jesus hung on a cross in order to save the entire world from sin.

    If God allowed our sins to turn into snakes, our infestation would dwarf the problem Israel had in the desert.  Sadly, our sin is more subtle than that.  Once in a while, we recognise our sins, but most of the time, they are like the serpent in Eden, crafty – slithering into our lives in ways we just don’t recognise.  Some of the sins we know.  Most of our sins are known only to God.  Jesus knows all of our sins whether we know them or not.  He has taken all these sins to Himself.  He has taken them to the cross.  There on the cross, Jesus battled for us.  It was a battle to the death.

    To all present Jesus’ death for our sins meant that he lost the battle. But it wasn’t over; in a few days later, Jesus came back to life.  He rose up from the grave.  He was the victor of the battle on the cross.  He defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.  That ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan has been defeated, he has no glory, no future, but he does have a burning desire to drag as many souls as possible with him into the darkness of eternal banishment. 

    On the other hand, those who belong to the victor, Jesus Christ, have an eternal future of celebration with Jesus.  Those who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith in Jesus Christ will live forever with the victor.  They will forever enjoy the eternal reward of Christ’s victory over the serpent of sin.

    God does not turn our sins into snakes.  Instead, He forgives them for the sake of His son’s innocent suffering and death.  For the sake of Jesus, He makes us His own that we may live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  We shall rise from the dead just as Jesus rose from the dead.  We shall reign forever with Jesus.  For we have the promise of Jesus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  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

 

 

 

Third Sunday of Lent – 7 March 2021 – Year B

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 2^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 13 – 25:

³ The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵ Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

²³ When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. ²⁴ But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

 

 

 

I have to confess, that my choice of TV programmes are BBC crime dramas. I watch all the series of Shetland, Hinterland, Vera, Line of Duty and a few more just like them. I like the way the British are very organised in a more conservative manner in their investigations of the crimes. There is usually always a body, and quite a number of people with connections to the victim and even motives to commit the crime. There are people in ‘insider positions’ like police officers or retired police officers who come up looking very dodgy. Usually, it’s not very far into the episode when I am saying to Carol, I reckon he or she did it. Carol usually has a different opinion about who the ‘bad guy’ is. And so, throughout the programme, although we may both shift on our opinion, we’re both working on who or who isn’t the ‘bad guy’. We’re quite often both wrong as the episode climaxes to a surprise finish, but it’s always engrossing being the ‘lounge room detective’.

 

My wife and I might have trouble determining who the “bad guys” are in a TV program, but in the Gospel before us, we see that Jesus would have no problem doing that — none at all!  -- As we heard, ^{(v-v 24 - 25) “}Jesus knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone”.

Of course, these words of St. John refer to something far more important than a television program. John’s words have a true “life and death” aspect to them — unlike 

the fictitious situations with which the fictitious detectives contend. You see, Jesus knowing all people, leads to our cleansing. So, let’s consider the implications of this.

 

Today’s text is in the early stages of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It’s time for the annual Passover celebration, so as a faithful Jew, Jesus goes to Jerusalem as required.

 

But, when he went to the temple, he was disgusted by what he found. The temple courtyard had been turned into a marketplace! Merchants had set up shops selling 

pigeons, oxen, and sheep to the faithful who had come to Jerusalem from far-off 

lands. Money changers were also there, changing foreign currency into local 

money, again, so the faithful could pay the temple tax of one-half shekel.

 

To have these things available to the foreign worshipers wasn’t bad, because worship of the Lord demanded the people bring sacrifices in proportion to their wealth. (Something 

that continues to this very day!) And it was totally impractical—if not impossible—for someone who had come a long distance to bring their own sacrificial animal. There needed to be some way for those things to be acquired in Jerusalem… In the Old Testament, God had even given instructions for this kind of arrangement.

 

The problem was that the sellers had set up shop right in the temple itself, in what is known as the ‘Court of the Gentiles’. A ‘Gentile’ is fundamentally a ‘non Jewish person’. Now, whilst there were many places in the temple that were off limits to the gentile, one large area of the temple was set aside specifically for the gentiles.  Anyone who loved God, regardless of their origin, could come to the Court of the Gentiles and worship God. At the dedication of the first temple in 957 BCE, (which was later destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt), Solomon prayed these words:  ^{[2 Chronicles 6:32-33]}  "When a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house,  ³³ hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name”. – You see, all of this temple was part of God’s gracious heritage to Jews, but with provision for outreach to Gentiles alike, and here, our scripture reading tells us, the people had made the house of God into a stinking spectacle.

 

Think of it! Even the Jewish worshipers, as they passed through the Court of Gentiles 

on their way into the temple, were probably more focused on bargaining over the cost of the animals or bickering about the exchange rate for their foreign money than they were on singing the traditional entrance psalms and preparing their hearts for worship of the Lord Most High! As for the God worshipping Gentiles, they were disregarded altogether. - What a disgrace! …. No problem recognising the guilt of everyone involved in all this trading. As Jesus came into the temple, the “bad guys” were right out in the open for all to see. The merchants and stall holders were certainly culpable parties, but the brunt of guilt lay with the Jewish priests who were responsible for good order in the temple. The very ones who questioned Jesus’ motives in clearing the place out.  

 

Jesus, who was incorrectly thought by some to be weak and soft, goes on to show himself to be a man of strength and action. He personally—and by himself—took on the whole lot of them—putting even our TV heroes to shame! He took cords and, using them 

as a whip, drove the animals and merchants out of the temple, thus fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy in Psalm 69 that the Messiah would have “zeal” for the house of God.

Such zeal in fact that, according to the account before us, not one of the merchants even dared to stand up to him!

 

We hear this story, and we say, “Good! - Good on you Jesus! You saw that those insiders from the temple hierarchy were ‘bad guys,’ and you busted their racket and kicked ’em out, quick smart”.

 

There’s no doubt this smelly spectacle of sweaty people and droves of animals being sold right within the house of the Lord was bad, but Jesus was seeing even more. He looked into people’s hearts. He saw through their duplicity, their hiding behind God’s instructions in order to make a fast buck. As bad as the scene and the smell had to be, 

the spiritual stench of the place—lust for money at God’s expense—was worse!

 

And how could Jesus know that? John tells us: ^{(v 24)} “because he knew all people”. Jesus knew their hearts and saw them for what they were—sinners through and through, more interested in making a few shekels than in honouring the Lord’s house.

 

But before you join me on the couch, self-righteously pointing out the “bad guys,” consider again the words before us: “[Jesus] knew all people . . . for he himself knew what was in everyone.” The Lord Jesus knows all and sees all. And, if he knows the hearts of the money changers and animal sellers, he knows our heart as well!

 

He sees our real attitude toward those Ten Commandments we heard as our Old Testament Reading this morning! Although we might not be caught bowing down to a “carved image,” he sees our attitude toward the myriad of other things we allow to be foremost in our lives—such as our work, our money, our family, our holidays, our unfulfilled dreams! He sees our attitude toward sins of the flesh, toward other people’s property, toward speaking well of our neighbour.

 

There’s no doubt, he sees it all!  And we have to admit, that we — just like the temple priests and the merchants — are one of the “bad guys”, rightly deserving to have Jesus take a whip and drive us out of his presence forever!

 

A prominent Bible commentator, Dr John Ylvisaker, describes why Jesus had to rid the temple of those “bad guys.” He writes: “The uncleanness in the temple portrayed the corruption of the people and was an image of the impurity in their hearts. The conditions existing in the temple are therefore a testimony against the people. [Jesus’] blows [with the whip] struck at their hearts. And the cleansing is a picture of what must occur with the people to make it a holy nation acceptable to God. And what is more, this must be made to apply to the individual. The house of the heart must be cleansed if it is to be the temple of God” 

 

Dear people of God, we, too, from birth, have inherited a “spiritual stench,” as repugnant as that encountered by Jesus in our reading! The sin of our first parents has continued to manifest itself in our hearts down through the generations, sin that was declared by God Himself as redeemable only by death. Here in this season of lent especially, we reflect on the depth of our sin, and as we travel toward Good Friday, our minds reflect on the guilt of our sins and the one who will pay the price of a horrible death in our place.

 

During this holy season of Lent, our Lord calls us to recognise our utter need for cleansing of our hearts laden with sin. He calls us to allow his right and just Law to show us our sins and then in repentance and faith to receive him as he reaches out to us—to you—with his love and mercy.

 

He urgently desires to cleanse “the house of our heart,” to wash it pure with the only cleaning agent that will get the “stench” out — His holy, precious blood shed for us and the whole world on the cross of suffering and shame!

 

This he did on the blessed cross of Calvary, about three years to the day after he cleansed the temple. “Zeal” for his Father’s house drove him to cleanse the temple that fateful day, and “zeal” for us — zeal motivated by his eternal love—drove him to the cross to cleanse us, so that we could be ^{(1 Cor 6:19)} “a temple of the Holy Spirit”, having our body and soul washed clean and pure. And through His glorious resurrection from the grave, he has overcome death and the Devil, thereby making us to be a righteous one of his forever!

 

You see, we’re no longer “bad guys” in God’s sight. No! Through faith given to us in the washing of renewal in our baptismal waters, we’re now one of his very own, a forgiven child of his.

Rather than chasing us out of his eternal presence with a whip, he eagerly walks toward us, always seeking to embrace us, inviting us to dine at his Table, regularly here on earth at the Alter of grace, and eternally with him in heaven!

 

Dear friends, continue to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. On this day, led by the Spirit of Christ, vow that you’ll allow the house of your heart to be—and remain—cleansed, that it will forever be a temple of God! 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