Freedom's Fireworks

The earliest memories I have of the Fourth of July, Independence Day, are of sitting on a grassy hill with my grandparents, licking a See's caramel lollipop, and watching the fireworks display. To my four-year-old eyes it was all quite amazing.

Fireworks used to be a sign of great rejoicing at some great victory or deliverance from some despotic oppressor. If the Israelites had possessed fireworks certainly they would have been a part of Miriam's celebration of Israel's escape through the Red Sea and God's destruction of the Egyptian army, or to celebrate the long-awaited birth of Abraham's son Isaac, or perhaps the routing of the Philistine army after David's duel with Goliath. It's not a stretch for me to imagine that there are fireworks in heaven every time a sinner responds in faith to the gospel message (Luke 15:10), or to hear the angelic victory shout when a Christian overcomes some temptation to walk in obedience, the loving response of discipleship.

It is an oppressed man's burning desire for freedom that makes him willing to sacrifice everything to obtain it, if not for himself then for his family and countrymen. And when they are finally free they rejoice. However, those who never realize that they live in bondage, desire only their own pleasure, and unknowingly are selling their souls for a show. I wonder if we don't know too much about what makes for a good show and have too little firsthand experience of the joy that comes with true deliverance and freedom.

This year as we celebrate our country's freedom, let us remember that freedom requires sacrifice. Brave men and women established this country's independence at a great personal cost nearly 239 years ago. I don't think we can fully experience the joy of political liberty on Independence Day unless we have lived without it. Most of us have not experienced the oppressions (past and present) under fascist, communist, or Islamist governments. Perhaps if you are a minority group in the midst of an insensitive dominant culture you have known systemic racism and prejudice even here in America. However, we have all known the oppression of sin and death working in our lives and families. Yet, we can know a much deeper joy as we are reminded of the great victory and deliverance Jesus has worked on our behalf! The very colors of our flag, the red, white, and blue, so prominent during this season can serve to remind us of the freedom we have in Jesus Christ (John 8:36) and motivate us to stand with the oppressed and huddled masses wherever we may find them.
 

Red—Rose red, the color of love. God's love poured out on us in the person of his Son. Sin red, the color of our guilt (Isaiah 1:18). Blood red, the color of the covenant. Jesus shed his precious blood to purchase our freedom from sin and death if we confess our guilt and repent (1 John 1:9) not just as individuals but as a society. Red reminds us to take up our cross and follow him... "loving not our own lives even unto death" (Rev. 12:11).

White—Pure white, the color of innocence, peace, and healing. Through Jesus' death on the cross, we have been washed whiter than snow. We have been justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, not by our own works or ethnicity. We can now stand before God, white and clean, just as if we had never sinned. We surrender our rights for the sake of peace and leverage our privilege for justice and the healing of the sick and injured, in love binding up their wounds.

Blue—True blue, the color of undying loyalty reminds us of God's faithfulness and of our commitment to him. Heavenly blue, the color of our eternal hope in Christ. The reminder that when we follow Jesus, we have eternal life to look forward to—no matter what our current circumstances may be. It reminds me that we are not accepted by God because we are worthy, but because he is, and he has invited us all into his family. 

Here is a brief clip of the July 4th, 2015 fireworks from our local Minor League Baseball team, the Hillsboro Hops.

 

Salt & Light: Witnesses of the Kingdom

Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth,

            but if salt has lost its taste,

how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything

                                    except to be thrown out

                                                  and trampled

                                                            under people's feet.

“You are the          light of the world.

            A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket,

                                                          but on a stand,

    and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way,

          let your light shine before others,

                       so that they may see your good works

                              and give glory to your Father

                                                                     who is in heaven.

We began our study through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) by examining the “Blessed are the…” statements that are called beatitudes (5:1-12). These statements, the norms of “the kingdom of heaven”, reveal how God sees and values those whom the world so often rejects and even persecutes. These brief statements seem to be expanded and explained throughout the rest of Jesus’ famous sermon. This week’s passage (5:13-16) is no exception.

Salt and light are both necessary for life for more reasons than I have time to address in this blog. Perhaps you have heard many sermons about the meaning of these two great metaphors—salt and light. Let me just briefly mention some of the primary understandings if only to stir us up by way of reminder. 

You are the salt of the earth…

Those listening to Jesus’ words that day would have understood salt to be a necessary preservative for all meats, hindering decay in a culture with no refrigeration. Salt would have been rubbed into the meat to cure it much the way some today use a good salt and spice rub when they grill their meat.

Similarly salt is a flavor enhancer. In the Old Testament, Job said,

 “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt,

 Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?”

The followers of Christ should enhance the “flavor” of life for those to whom they are sent. This salt metaphor is tied to the beatitude in v. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” since salt was not only a symbol of righteousness but of that righteousness that only God can bring. It was an ingredient in all the OT sacrifices (including the incense that was offered before the Lord). Having the  salt of the presence of the Lord in our lives gives us and appetite for what is right and just by our presence, even like salt that is not seen once applied, we make a difference.

One of the most interesting salt references I found in the Bible is in Ezekiel 16:3-6 where the Lord is reminding his people (pictured as “Jerusalem”) of his care for them at the beginning of Israel and lists birth practices including washing and “rubbing with salt” acts of compassion. When we first visited Israel in 2007 we took time to swim in the Dead Sea (called the Salt Sea in the Bible). It is so salty that you cannot sink. As a result it has an oily, slippery feel to it. If you ever get the chance to visit there do it, but don’t shave before you swim because the salt will make your skin burn like fire! No one told us about that. Sometimes salt stings, but the most compassionate thing we can do for others is to be who we are in Christ, in a way that makes others hungry and thirsty for the same righteousness we seek.

You are the light of the world…

Light reveals, guides, encourages, and enables. Its symbolism is nearly universal in the human experience. How is it that the followers of Jesus are “the light of the world”? They take the good news about Christ Jesus wherever they go. The beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the mostly gentile region of Galilee was prophetically described in Isaiah 9 and quoted in Matthew 4:15-16,

¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

Yet while light is a symbol of hope and is usually good news, not all are glad to see it. John uses the metaphor light quite often. In John 3:19-21 we find that some actively oppose the light.

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. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 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.”

Those in either the tropics or the tenements know that when you turn on the lights in the kitchen at night you often see the roaches scurrying for cover.

This passage reminds me of something that happened when I was a child.  One summer, I had a couple of friends over to spend the night.  We, and my little brother, were in the basement playing Risk, a world-conquest board game that takes a very long time. It was quite late, so my Dad told us several times to be quiet and go to sleep, but we did not obey.  We thought we were very "clever" as we continued to play "quietly" (we were neither clever nor quiet) with only a small table lamp lighting our game.  Suddenly, the door burst open and there stood my dad, and he looked mad! He started to say, "What are you..." but before he could finish, one of my friends reached over and turned out the light.  I don't know what he thought that would accomplish.  What good does hiding do if you have already been seen?   My dad, pausing a moment, calmly turned on the bright overhead light and finished his sentence, "What are you doing up?  Get to bed NOW!"  The question was rhetorical at best. We jumped into our sleeping bags as fast as possible. I still don't know how my dad kept from laughing.  However, all humor aside, our attempts to hide our sin from the God who sees everything are even more stupid than the futile actions of my childhood friend.

Salt is meant to be salty, hindering decay, improving flavor, but not calling attention to itself. Light is meant to give a revealing, enabling light to all who are in the house not to get people to stare at it. As we follow Jesus he manifests his character through us, lovingly using us as salt and light in the world, for the benefit of all...even if no one notices us or says thanks.

Macaroni Blessings

So what is a beatitude? Simply put, beatitude is a term we use for a statement of blessedness. In the New Testament, when we read such declarative statements as “Blessed is/ are…” that are beatitudes. The name comes from the Latin word beatus. The earlier Greek word for the same thing is makarios (mä-kä'-rē-os) hence the other technical term for a beatitude is a makarism. This prompted my recent use of Macaroni & Cheese as an object lesson in a sermon. I will elaborate on this illustration later, but for now, let’s put it on the back burner to simmer. We need to ask what this word actually means.

 

So is it "Blessed", or "Happy"?
Traditionally, New Testament occurrences of makarios have been translated as “blessed”, but modern preachers and commentators have often opted for “happy” instead. In my opinion that creates a significant amount of cognitive dissonance. How can those described in these verses be happy? Certainly, it is not a “happy” as we commonly use the word today. Let me describe it to you in the following four points:

• The blessedness proclaimed in a beatitude or macarism is more than happiness as we commonly use the word. It is not dependent upon ideal circumstances and in fact, is often found in the most difficult of places. It is deeper, richer, more enduring than that elated feeling which a random stroke of good fortune (“hap”) might produce. It is a holistic blessedness that is more shalom than smiley-face emoji, ☺.

• A beatitude is neither something to be worked for like some kind of promotion or achievement level in a spiritual video game nor is it merely a wish for something we desire to be true. The beatitudes are too counter-intuitive and counter-cultural for that. Rather, as Kenneth Bailey writes, “They affirm a quality of spirituality that is already present.”[1] Like a spiritual MRI, the beatitudes proclaim a truth we cannot see within the dominant worldview. So why is this kingdom quality already present? Because the true disciple has surrendered to the liberating love of the very present Savior King, Jesus Christ. Certainly, there is also the eschatological aspect that anticipates complete fulfillment in the future, but they are also present realities in the sight of God.

• The beatitudes are not to be seen as a collection of individual attitudes, but rather as a cohesive whole. Too often we have approached beatitudes like the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:4-11) that are given individually and pieced together for the common good. Such thinking gives us “plausible deniability” to explain any apparent lack of these attributes in our life. However, Matthew 5 is no bullet list of happiness-hacks should we choose to take advantage of them, but an interrelated description of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Such thinking was to begin to transform the listener to that long-ago “Sermon on the Mount.” Some scholars argue over how many beatitudes there are, but in the end, it is apparent that no matter how you divide them, they really were intended and presented as a unit, a single multi-faceted picture, not merely a collection of independent blessings. Like the Snickers candy bar ad, “No matter how you slice it, it comes up peanuts!” The true disciple has all these nutty kingdom “attributes” present in them because the king has revealed himself to them and taken up residence within their lives. In fact, they may actually build on each other as Jim Forrest suggests in his insightful book, Ladder of the Beatitudes.

• Such macarisms proclaimed in Matthew 5 are a peek behind the curtain, an amazing revelation of how God sees the reality of our lives. As a classmate of mine pointed out, he is naming the reality—blessed! Jesus is naming the kingdom as it really is, not as the world sees or values itself.

Classic 3-D Glasses

We need to begin to see the world, and our lives, through his eyes. And as those who are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, with pure/undivided affection, peacemakers, not only enduring persecution but with joy join the ranks of the prophets who looked for the coming kingdom.

As we approach the message of the kingdom of heaven, as found in Matthew 5-7, the text calls for us to repent of our own wisdom and our inclination to trying to import the values of the world into the kingdom of heaven (see my pastoral post “Now it Begins…”).

Some of you may still be wondering about the macaroni metaphor. So how did I use Macaroni & Cheese as an object lesson? I used to think a plate of Kraft mac & cheese was happiness itself. I was comfortable with its hot bland yumminess. Over the years I began to put my own spin on it by adding some Parmesan cheese. Like all products that are marketed to us each day Mac & Cheese promised happiness. However, what I once thought was a blessing is now, in light of nutritional and overly processed food concerns, revealed to be something less…other…than what I thought.

 

This illustration fits into my metaphor exactly because those things that the world markets, values, and considers to be a blessing, are not the same as what Jesus proclaimed makarios.

 

We must repent and begin to see our situation through his eyes, his heart, and rest in his proclaimed “blessed” values. The world has an idea about what attitudes bring success, but they are of no value in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus' kingdom is truly counter-cultural...even in the church.

---

[1] Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, 68.

 

“Now it Begins…” (Matthew 4:12-25)

This week we are preparing to spend time listening to the simple yet challenging words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5-7, arguably his most famous teaching (what we call "The Sermon on the Mount").  This summer, if we are going to hear Jesus speak in his own voice, in a fresh way that penetrates our cultural conditioning, we will need to understand a few things before we begin.

The Nature of the Kingdom = "Good News!" (Matthew 4:12-16, 23-25)

Matthew’s narrative snippets are not as detailed as those of Mark or Luke and seem to be used primarily to frame five major discourses or sermons that some believe were intended to remind the reader of the five books of Moses. Daniel Wallace points out as much in his book Greek Grammar.

v. 12-16 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.  And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

v.23-25 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.      

This “kingdom of heaven” (or Kingdom of God in the other Gospels) was very good news for those who were oppressed--whether physically, politically, economically, spiritually or “E) All of the above”. This gospel of the kingdom was proclaimed to those who would have thought they were the least likely to receive it. The good news of a new kind of kingdom came to the poor, the sick, the outcasts, the powerless; to those who were outside the mainstream of Judaism…and even to Gentiles.  

A 19^th Century preacher, Charles Spurgeon summed up the uniqueness of this visitation,

The far-off ones were visited by him who gathers together the outcasts of Israel. Our Lord courts not those who glory in their light, but those who pine in their darkness: he comes with heavenly life, not to those who boast of their own life and energy, but to those who are under condemnation, and who feel the shades of death shutting them out from light and hope… What a mercy to know that to those who appear out of the reach of the usual means, to those who dwell “by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,” Jesus comes with power to enlighten and quicken! If I feel myself to be an out-of-the-way sinner, Lord, come to me and cause me to know that “light is sprung up” even for me! (Charles H. Spurgeon, The King Has Come, 43)

So what was this message of good news? It is one that we often fail to consider to be positive.

The Message of the Kingdom =  “Repent” (Matthew 4:17)

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Many of us have heard the word “repent” but what does it mean to repent? It means more than to be sorry. It is not merely remorse, “Remorse sees the bitter end of sin; repentance breaks free from it. The result of sin brings remorse; a divinely commissioned call brings repentance.” (Kittel, 589) Repentance means more than a change of mind that produces a change in behavior. It really is a heart change involving a relational return to the Lord. “It echoes the OT prophets’ frequent summons to Israel to return to God, to abandon their rebellion, and come back into covenant-obedience.” (R. T. France, Matthew, 90) Repentance is a radical conversion…allowing God to remake, re-wire, re-program you on every level…in preparation for entering the kingdom/kingship of God.

The Sermon on the Mount that we will examine in the coming weeks will require us to take up the challenge of thinking differently and loving differently.

Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom of heaven is different from the status quo. No matter how hard we try, we cannot smuggle our worldly ways into the kingdom of heaven (Rev. 22:14-15) whether it is our ways of …

·         thinking—I deserve what is good, what is better than you, even what is the best.

·         loving—as long as you love me

·         forgiving—as long as you don’t do it again

·         giving—for recognition

·         fasting—to get what we want

·         worship—to feel we are better than others

·         trusting—to relax only when we have a surplus.

"Jesus calls for a decisive response to a new situation, the arrival in his ministry of the kingdom of heaven." (France, 103) This is the repentance that is needed. But there is more to the message of the kingdom. It is not merely a divine directive, but a relational invitation. 

The  Invitation of the King = “Follow me” (Matthew 4:18-19)

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them,

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Is this not good news that Jesus invites people to follow him, to walk with him and learn from his life (words and works). This time will be life-changing and world-changing, valuable beyond imagination, but it will often be counterintuitive and difficult. Our decision to follow Jesus in discipleship will be tested. There is a cost to be counted, as we can see in Matthew 8:18-22. But we need to settle the question from the beginning—am I willing to follow Jesus wherever he leads me?

Will you join us in following Jesus into the kingdom of heaven…even here on earth?

Not By Bread Alone

This week we took time to consider Matthew 4:1-11 which is the account of the early temptations of Jesus (as opposed to the idea that it was his only time of temptation). Immediately after his baptism, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the Judean wilderness to face a test. He fasted for 40 days and nights, alone except for the devil tempting him, and he was hungry!

The first specific temptation recorded is in response to this very real and desperate hunger that Jesus would have experienced. The devil urges him to take things into his own hands. I summarized this temptation as follows,

“Turn Stones to Bread”—a temptation to self-satisfaction meeting your own needs rather than trusting God (Matt. 4:3-4).

And the tempter came and said to him,

 “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

At this time the devil came to Jesus in a terrible effort to provoke Jesus to doubt God's promised provision.  The temptation was one of self-satisfaction—for Jesus to take what he was "rightfully" entitled to, if in fact he was the Son of God.  Satan attacked Jesus' sense of Messianic awareness as the Son of God by using the word "if," and surely his tone of voice was one of derision and scorn like that of Jesus' neighbors who refused to accept him as Messiah saying, "Is this not the carpenter's son?"

We know that Jesus did not succumb to this temptation but answered from the Word of God.  His emphasis was that life does not depend so much upon the physical nourishment of bread as upon the God's creative Word of power—the same Word by which He spoke all things into existence.  Jesus’ answer was quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3, which if viewed in its entirety says,

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

So what was Jesus’ ”manna” in this situation? What was the word from the mouth of God that sustained him in this moment and in all the other moments to follow? I suggest that it was the last verse of the previous chapter, spoken at Jesus baptism,

And behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17, ESV)

Jesus knew to whom he belonged. Jesus knew he was loved by the Father. Jesus knew his life was a pleasing offering. How can we answer like Jesus? What has our ever-faithful Heavenly Father said about us that might sustain us through those moments and seasons of temptation? There are many powerful passages we could call to remembrance. You probably have some personal favorites. Here are four of mine—

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9, ESV)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5, ESV) 

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, ESV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, ESV)

Is there a special Scripture that sustains you in temptation? It is better and more nourishing than any physical bread. Come, let us encourage one another as the gathered community of Christ!

Suddenly

“And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1b)

On Palm Sunday we commemorate the day that Jesus Christ entered into Jerusalem in the fullness of his messianic mission also known as the Triumphal Entry. The narrative is found in all four gospels (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19; John 12:12-19). He had been ministering for at least three and a half years and had been in Jerusalem before but had not come in with the crowds. On this day, he came in surrounded by two crowds—the crowd following along with him from Bethany down from the Mt. of Olives to Jerusalem for the week leading up to Passover and the crowd of people in Jerusalem who, having heard that he had raised Lazarus from the dead, went out to meet him. The crowds shouted and sang “Hosanna!” while spreading the cloaks on the road in the expectation that he was entering as a king. They waved palm branches and added them to their cloaks in the road alluding to the last time that Israel had thrown off the yoke of a foreign oppressor (1 Macc. 13:51) in hopes that he would cast out the Romans. But that was not God’s plan.

The date palm was surely a symbol of Israel as “a land flowing with milk and honey” and represented national victory. However, there is another place that we find palm trees in Jerusalem besides in victory parades… they decorated the walls and doors of the temple itself! This was Jesus’ destination that glorious day… his Father’s house.

 

The accounts in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, conflate the entrance of Palm Sunday with the cleansing of the temple with happened the next day. Ironically, it is in Mark, the Gospel of Action, where events often happen “immediately” (35 times), that the author makes a special note that, “And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve” (Mark 11:11). Why is this important? Because the "cleansing of the temple" did not happen in a fit of anger but after a night of thought and prayer.

Jesus had come suddenly into the temple, and the priests and leaders of Israel had not recognized “the day of their visitation.” So the next day, saddened (Luke 19:41-44), but with a wholehearted effort, Jesus re-entered the temple and drove out those who were abusing the people who desperately needed it to be “the place of prayer for all peoples.” In Mark 11:17 Jesus quoted from this passage in Isaiah 56:6-7,

The court on the modern
 Temple Mount, Jerusalem.

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.” 

The Outer Court, or Court of the Gentiles, had been entirely co-opted by the sacrificial concession business at the sanction of the High Priests. It was noisy, smelly, and crowded with injustice. Not only were the people being oppressed economically with the “dishonest scales” condemned so often in Proverbs and the writings of the prophets, but those who had no covenant access to the other sections of the temple essentially had been denied access to meet with God. Where could they pray and who would hear their cry? These, the unprivileged and dispossessed, would have included all God-fearing Gentiles, as well as any of Israel who were ritually unclean (including the blind and the lame).

Jesus came that day, on a mission from God in answer to their prayer, “Hosanna!” (lit. "Save now!")  to restore the temple to them by driving out the merchants and moneychangers and by preventing profane and secular short-cutting through sacred space. Jesus restored the temple of God to the people for a place of prayer! 

I love that for a moment, we get to see the Temple functioning as it was intended. Matthew 21:14 pulls back the curtain of history for us to observe, “Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.” The Messiah, God with us—healed them (answered their prayers) in the temple and they praised him for it.

Of course, when there are “wonderful things” to be seen, some are always “indignant” and this was no exception.  

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?"

And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read,

'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

     You have perfected praise'?"   (Matthew 21:15-16)

As bothered as I am by the attitude of the priests I am encouraged by the first word of Jesus’ answer…”Yes.” He heard what the poor and marginalized were saying. He heard both their prayers and their praises. That gives me hope for myself and the church today. God hears his people! 

On that day, he restored the temple to them by making it again a place of prayer for all peoples, and for the blind and the lame he restored them to the Temple…for now, there was nothing to prevent their full participation in the covenant community.

Jesus restored the temple to them, and them to the temple…suddenly. 

Today, as the church, we need to be cleansed afresh by the Spirit of Jesus so that we might be more fully than ever a place of prayer for the nations, a place where desperate people meet God for the first time and praise him for having been heard.

Heaven Come to Earth & Earth Come to Heaven

One night recently, at a church’s regular night of prayer and worship, I noticed the emphasis in what we said, what we sang, and what we prayed touching again and again on the phrase “your kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10 which says,

“Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.”

It resonated with me at the time because just a day earlier I had been journaling through the tail-end of John 17—which is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer for his followers—and I was struck by the way that Jesus prayed for “Heaven to come to earth.” He was praying for the kingdom to come, just not in those words.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:20-24)

While Jesus prayed, it was not only for his disciples at that time…but by extension for all believers down through history…which includes all true Christ-followers today.

This section of Jesus’ prayer is first of all, that we might be one, in perfect relationship with each other. The church has an “invisible” spiritual unity in Christ, but often we lack that visible unity between denominations and congregations that we need to be a convincing witness to the world (v.21). Thankfully, while we have a long way to go, I think this is getting better all the time. I see new trans-denominational partnerships developing. Yet we have to stop seeing others as competitors in a market-driven approach to church growth. We were saved by the grace of God to be one body, woven together like strands in a great tapestry that as a whole testifies beautifully of the love and grace of God in Christ. In order to do this—to be one—we will need to trust in the glory Jesus has shared with us all instead of trying to produce our own. Unity takes humility and an intentional effort most of the time to develop brother/sister relationships with other congregations. Jesus' second prayer for us, in this section, is that we might be with Jesus in heaven to see the shared glory of God and experience that perfect Trinitarian love for ourselves.

Waiting for dawn in Jerusalem

We pray “your kingdom come, your will be done” and Jesus when he prayed for us, told us what the answer to our prayer looks like. He prayed for our unity with each other in the here and now (heaven come to earth) as evidence of God’s triune presence, and he prayed for our unity (earth come to heaven) with God in the future. That we could be with him where he is in the glorious love of the Father was the longing of our Lord Jesus. God in his shared glory invites us to eat with him in unity at his table (Luke 13:29).

So when we pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God perhaps we should start looking with the wide-eyed wonder and expectancy of a child for the ways in which it is already present in the midst of us (Luke 17:21) and seek to experience it together as “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
 

As we seek to live out heaven’s kingdom convictions on earth, many will see it and desire to “immigrate” in order to worship with us in the Spirit and in truth. May we walk worthy of such citizenship.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:9-11)

 



The Empty Tomb

As we continue through the Lenten season in preparation for our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, perhaps we would make Jesus’ prayer our prayer as well.
 

 Will you join me?