“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” So ends Matthew chapter 7, what we commonly refer to as the Sermon on the Mount.[1] Let’s read the sermon with this fact in mind. We ought to approach it as much more than ethical teaching or a collection of sayings from one of history’s great teachers. Instead, we ought to take it in as the authoritative words of God in the flesh.
Just before this, Jesus was baptized by John and God the Father confirmed that Jesus was indeed His Son. Immediately, the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to enter the wilderness where Satan made his frontal attack. Jesus had fasted for forty days and was hungry (um, I would think so). Being not stupid, Satan leads his temptation attempts with food. Standing firm against each successive temptation, Jesus emerges from the wilderness to begin His public ministry. He begins to preach, call His disciples, and then heal the sick and rescue the demon possessed.
Have you ever wondered at the purpose of Jesus’ miracles? If it were to actually help stem disease, deformity, and sickness, why didn’t He heal thousands at a time? If it were to demonstrate His authority, why not exercise His power in some stupendous way so that no one could deny who He was? He had to work miracles for some other reason. Just before Jesus came along to be baptized, John the Baptist was proclaiming “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”[2] And that seems to be the message of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – the kingdom is near in a way never seen before. His miracles proclaim the invasion of God-power like never seen before. In a world twisted by the effects of sin, a world where things are not as first intended, not they way they’re supposed to be, miracles peppered the crowds with restoration to the way things are supposed to be. Yes, they saw with their own eyes that the Kingdom of God was near. Jesus’ message came in show and tell form. After showing the nearness of the Kingdom, he began to tell them what the Kingdom was like. And so, “he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach . . .”[3]
First, Jesus begins to talk about people who are blessed and will possess the kingdom of heaven. Interestingly, Jesus initially characterizes these blessed ones as poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. In my study of the sermon, I’ve read the works of a number of commentators and many approach this passage assuming that if people with these qualities experience blessing, we ought to pursue those qualities. Since becoming poor in spirit and a mourner do not strike us as particularly “blessed” qualities, we need an explanation that makes them more desirable. So, the poor in spirit become those who acknowledge their spiritual need and the mourners those who experience sorrow over sin in their own lives and in the world. We see meekness in a positive light and hungering and thirsting for righteousness a condition to long for. I have a nagging sense of pounding a square peg into a round hole when I think too long about this handling of these verses. Certainly, the balance of Scripture bears out that recognizing our spiritual need and responding to sin with mourning will position us for deeper fellowship with Jesus. If we have the ability to apply a spirit of meekness to certain situations good things can result and of course we ought to desire righteousness. But these facts do not require us to read the same conclusion here.
The impression that seems to rest more comfortably in the text is that poorness, mourning, meekness, and hungering and thirsting may not describe something good or beneficial. Here’s why. Jesus says “blessed are [the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek] because they will possess the kingdom of heaven, will be comforted, and will inherit the earth – not because they are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, or hungering. In fact, it could just as well be that they are blessed in spite of these characteristics. In spite of such conditions, the kingdom of God is near, newly available to even these. The kingdom invites the one who suffers from spiritual neediness. The kingdom calls to the one experiencing the short end of life’s stick and who rightfully mourns over tragic loss. The gates of the kingdom swing wide for that one oppressed by others. And, Jesus reaches out His hand to the one whom so lacks the righteousness he desperately desires.
[1] Matthew 5:1 – 7:29.
[2] Matthew 3:2.
[3] Matthew 5:1-2a.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Alone on a Hill
They scourge Him, ripping flesh from bone. They mock Him, place a crown of thorns on His head. They spit on Him and they beat him. Then they crucified Him. The mocking continues and Jesus not only suffers physical pain beyond the body’s ability to comprehend, but He watches as those He loves suffer His loss. For six hours this agony continues, working His arms and legs to grab another breath. He would first feel the panic of asphyxiation and the desperate need for air. Then, He would simultaneously pull down with his arms against the spikes in his wrists while pushing up with his legs against the spikes in His ankles. Moments later the panic would return accompanied by the anticipation of the painful price of He would pay for the next breath. Then in a loud voice Jesus yells out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” A moment later He uses His remaining strength to breath out a last time in a loud cry and then it is done.
We don’t know what that momemnt looked like, sounded like, or felt like, but we have an eyewitness. “When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God! Jesus once asked His disciples “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" The gospel writer Mark follows that up with “For even the Son of Man [came] to give His life a ransom for many." That’s the story Mark wanted to tell.
But, what does it mean that Jesus was our ransom? A ransom is the price paid to redeem someone from captivity into freedom. It refers to our redemption from sin. In theological terms, redemption is one part of a bigger idea: atonement. By His work in life and death, Jesus earned our salvation. He atoned for us, wiping away our sin and replacing it with His righteousness.
In life, Jesus lived perfectly, satisfying every requirement of God’s law. What Adam, and all of us coming after could not do, Jesus did, able to place his perfect righteousness for the benefit of those who respond to His call. We receive more than a neutral position from Jesus. Through death he paid the penalty of sin, but in life, He made possible our eternal acceptance by God.
The New Testament uses several perspectives to gain a full view of the atoning work of Christ in His death. Because we deserve on our own to die for the penalty of our sins, Jesus became our sacrifice.[1] Because we deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin, Jesus died to satisfy God’s wrath.[2] Because our sins have separated us from God, Jesus’ death reconciles us to God.[3] Because sin and Satan hold us in bondage, Jesus redeems us.[4]
We described earlier how the sufferings of Jesus intensified as He approached the cross until that point where He finally bore the penalty for our sin and died in our place. Jesus suffered a gruesome death, but so did the thousands that were crucified during His time. Beyond the physical pain, he bore the pain of enduring to satisfaction the penalty of our sin. Consider for a moment, the guilt that accompanies sin for each of us now. Certainly, we want to quickly recognize that in our saved state, our guilt is a holdover from before our own atonement, but our first reaction to sin is often the shadow of guilt. Now imagine that you cannot rely on the atonement of Jesus for to wipe away your guilt. What would the anguish of that guilty knowledge of one sin feel like? What if you found yourself at the end of days standing before God bearing the guilt for the sin of your entire life? What if you were Jesus who took on the guilt of every sin of every person of faith for all of time?
Jesus did not just “bear” or hold onto our sin.[5] No, His pain resulted from choosing to become sin for us,[6] to become a curse in our stead.[7]
On top of the physical pain and the agony of becoming sin, Jesus experienced the abandonment and wrath of God. Only on His own, alone, could He complete His mission. Surely He experienced pain at the abandonment of His disciples, but what must the abandonment the Father have been like, to hang alone having become sin and no longer experiencing oneness with the Father?[8] Finally, Jesus received in Himself the torturous wrath of God, wrath stored up for all the sins of the past and those yet to come.
Remember as Children when we sat in the bright summer sun with a magnifying glass and a piece of paper (or an anthill for those of us who quickly tire of inanimate objects)? Remember how we could start a fire or annihilate a column of ants in just moments under the intensified heat of the sun? Now imagine that instead of the power of the sun, we observe the Creator of the sun and His necessary anger at the rebellious attack on His righteousness. That alone should strike terror in the heart of any person. Now, instead of a magnifying glass we see the Creator focus that wrath on the person of Jesus nailed to a cross on the top of hill. Jesus endured for hours until He had taken the full measure of God’s wrath.
In this state, Jesus cries out the words of Psalm 22:1-2: My God, My God, why have You forsaken me. Mirroring the sentiment of David who wondered why God had delayed so in rescuing Him. Then finally the torrent of God’s wrath subsided, His righteous demand for payment satisfied. Mission accomplished, the price paid, and Jesus, whose life was His alone to give, let it go.
[1] Hebrews 9:26.
[2] I John 4:10.
[3] II Corinthians 5:18-19.
[4] Mark 10:45
[5] I Peter 2:24.
[6] I Corinthians 5:21.
[7] Galatians 3:13.
[8] John 10:30.
We don’t know what that momemnt looked like, sounded like, or felt like, but we have an eyewitness. “When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God! Jesus once asked His disciples “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" The gospel writer Mark follows that up with “For even the Son of Man [came] to give His life a ransom for many." That’s the story Mark wanted to tell.
But, what does it mean that Jesus was our ransom? A ransom is the price paid to redeem someone from captivity into freedom. It refers to our redemption from sin. In theological terms, redemption is one part of a bigger idea: atonement. By His work in life and death, Jesus earned our salvation. He atoned for us, wiping away our sin and replacing it with His righteousness.
In life, Jesus lived perfectly, satisfying every requirement of God’s law. What Adam, and all of us coming after could not do, Jesus did, able to place his perfect righteousness for the benefit of those who respond to His call. We receive more than a neutral position from Jesus. Through death he paid the penalty of sin, but in life, He made possible our eternal acceptance by God.
The New Testament uses several perspectives to gain a full view of the atoning work of Christ in His death. Because we deserve on our own to die for the penalty of our sins, Jesus became our sacrifice.[1] Because we deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin, Jesus died to satisfy God’s wrath.[2] Because our sins have separated us from God, Jesus’ death reconciles us to God.[3] Because sin and Satan hold us in bondage, Jesus redeems us.[4]
We described earlier how the sufferings of Jesus intensified as He approached the cross until that point where He finally bore the penalty for our sin and died in our place. Jesus suffered a gruesome death, but so did the thousands that were crucified during His time. Beyond the physical pain, he bore the pain of enduring to satisfaction the penalty of our sin. Consider for a moment, the guilt that accompanies sin for each of us now. Certainly, we want to quickly recognize that in our saved state, our guilt is a holdover from before our own atonement, but our first reaction to sin is often the shadow of guilt. Now imagine that you cannot rely on the atonement of Jesus for to wipe away your guilt. What would the anguish of that guilty knowledge of one sin feel like? What if you found yourself at the end of days standing before God bearing the guilt for the sin of your entire life? What if you were Jesus who took on the guilt of every sin of every person of faith for all of time?
Jesus did not just “bear” or hold onto our sin.[5] No, His pain resulted from choosing to become sin for us,[6] to become a curse in our stead.[7]
On top of the physical pain and the agony of becoming sin, Jesus experienced the abandonment and wrath of God. Only on His own, alone, could He complete His mission. Surely He experienced pain at the abandonment of His disciples, but what must the abandonment the Father have been like, to hang alone having become sin and no longer experiencing oneness with the Father?[8] Finally, Jesus received in Himself the torturous wrath of God, wrath stored up for all the sins of the past and those yet to come.
Remember as Children when we sat in the bright summer sun with a magnifying glass and a piece of paper (or an anthill for those of us who quickly tire of inanimate objects)? Remember how we could start a fire or annihilate a column of ants in just moments under the intensified heat of the sun? Now imagine that instead of the power of the sun, we observe the Creator of the sun and His necessary anger at the rebellious attack on His righteousness. That alone should strike terror in the heart of any person. Now, instead of a magnifying glass we see the Creator focus that wrath on the person of Jesus nailed to a cross on the top of hill. Jesus endured for hours until He had taken the full measure of God’s wrath.
In this state, Jesus cries out the words of Psalm 22:1-2: My God, My God, why have You forsaken me. Mirroring the sentiment of David who wondered why God had delayed so in rescuing Him. Then finally the torrent of God’s wrath subsided, His righteous demand for payment satisfied. Mission accomplished, the price paid, and Jesus, whose life was His alone to give, let it go.
[1] Hebrews 9:26.
[2] I John 4:10.
[3] II Corinthians 5:18-19.
[4] Mark 10:45
[5] I Peter 2:24.
[6] I Corinthians 5:21.
[7] Galatians 3:13.
[8] John 10:30.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Mark: A Long Introduction to Golgotha
Some commentators describe Mark’s gospel as a passion account with a long introduction. Mark begins the account of Jesus in Chapter 1 with John the Baptist and never stops running. In the first 7 chapters, Jesus demonstrates who is He is and even offers His disciples explanations in private. Even with constant attention from Jesus, it took a considerable time for His disciples to catch on (but I suspect in their sandals, we would have reacted much the same). In Mark chapter 8 the disciples finally start to get an idea of who they’re dealing with. “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asks. The disciples offer up a couple of answers and then it gets more personal. “Who do you say that I am?” Immediately after Peter jumps in and declares “you are the Christ,” the journey to the cross escalates. Jesus begins to tell the disciples that He would die and be raised from the dead, something they've not heard before.
All along the way in those first 8 chapters, Jesus continued to prod the disciples and check their progress. A number of times He challenged their lack of understanding, yet waits until they begin to understand the magnitude of His presence before revealing the reason for His presence. To Mark, everything so far was preparation. Now that his disciples were catching on, Jesus would put the plan into full action. “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 was stating the matter plainly.” A chapter later three of the disciples witness the transfiguration of Jesus, see Moses and Elijah, and hear the voice of God speaking from the heavens. Not exactly the confusing parables they were used to. After that, Jesus explains that He must die and rise from the dead twice more and enters Jerusalem behind people calling out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.”
Confrontations with the religious leaders also escalate – they no longer have to travel to Galilee to challenge Jesus because He had planted Himself in the temple grounds – teaching, driving out the money changers, telling parables against religious leaders, and silencing them with His authority. Jesus even explains to His disciples events that will transpire after He has died, risen, and ascended like the destruction of the temple and His triumphal return. At the last Passover meal, Jesus makes an astonishing statement, “Take [this bread]; this is My body” and “This [cup] is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” And then, He is betrayed.
Before His entry into Jerusalem, Jesus shushed anyone who publicly announced His identity. Demons were tormented by His very presence. When they identified Him as the Son of God He rebuked them. Jesus insisted upon silence from those he healed. Even when His disciples began to understand why Jesus had come, “He warned them to tell no one about Him.” But, warnings stopped when Jesus entered Jerusalem. And now, in the hands of the high priest, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Roman government Jesus makes His identity crystal clear. "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? And Jesus said, I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." “Pilate questioned Him, Are You the King of the Jews? And He answered him, It is as you say."
And there He stands, at the brink leaning too far forward, past the point of no return. No more need to postpone the inevitable, His calling was clear. It was time. There were promises His Father made that must be kept and all creation was waiting.
All along the way in those first 8 chapters, Jesus continued to prod the disciples and check their progress. A number of times He challenged their lack of understanding, yet waits until they begin to understand the magnitude of His presence before revealing the reason for His presence. To Mark, everything so far was preparation. Now that his disciples were catching on, Jesus would put the plan into full action. “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 was stating the matter plainly.” A chapter later three of the disciples witness the transfiguration of Jesus, see Moses and Elijah, and hear the voice of God speaking from the heavens. Not exactly the confusing parables they were used to. After that, Jesus explains that He must die and rise from the dead twice more and enters Jerusalem behind people calling out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.”
Confrontations with the religious leaders also escalate – they no longer have to travel to Galilee to challenge Jesus because He had planted Himself in the temple grounds – teaching, driving out the money changers, telling parables against religious leaders, and silencing them with His authority. Jesus even explains to His disciples events that will transpire after He has died, risen, and ascended like the destruction of the temple and His triumphal return. At the last Passover meal, Jesus makes an astonishing statement, “Take [this bread]; this is My body” and “This [cup] is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” And then, He is betrayed.
Before His entry into Jerusalem, Jesus shushed anyone who publicly announced His identity. Demons were tormented by His very presence. When they identified Him as the Son of God He rebuked them. Jesus insisted upon silence from those he healed. Even when His disciples began to understand why Jesus had come, “He warned them to tell no one about Him.” But, warnings stopped when Jesus entered Jerusalem. And now, in the hands of the high priest, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Roman government Jesus makes His identity crystal clear. "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? And Jesus said, I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." “Pilate questioned Him, Are You the King of the Jews? And He answered him, It is as you say."
And there He stands, at the brink leaning too far forward, past the point of no return. No more need to postpone the inevitable, His calling was clear. It was time. There were promises His Father made that must be kept and all creation was waiting.
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