B, Easter 1, The Resurrection of our Lord - Isaiah 25:8 Acts 10:39b-40 "Contronym of God"

(There is no video due to technical problems with my radio microphone.)

Do you know words that have two meanings, completely opposite to each other?  These words are known as contronyms (or contranyms).  We use these words all the time, usually without realising the word can mean the opposite of itself.

Dust is one such word.  Dust means to add particles to something, like dusting a cake with icing sugar.  But it also means to remove particles, like when one has to dust the house.

To dust is a contronym conundrum, a challenging contradiction in the one word.

Cleave can mean to adhere to something or someone, like a husband and wife cleave to each other in marriage.  Yet cleave also means to separate, as in to cleave meat from the bone with a cleaver.  To cleave your spouse, misunderstood, could see you incarcerated!

Bolt can be to flee, or it can be to restrain.  He bolted from the burning building or bolt the door before you go to bed.  If one bolts from one’s bed, and the door has not been bolted you’re possibly sleepwalking out into the night!

Fast means quick moving, but it also means unable to move as in stuck fast or fasten.  First-degree can be the most severe, as in murder.  But it can be not so bad, as in a first-degree burn. 

When you put out something, you’re either exposing it or extinguishing it, put out the bin or put out the fire! 

Is tempering making something stronger or softer?   To temper the mood takes the heat out of an argument.  But to temper steel hardens it with fire. 

Being transparent can mean invisible, but also it can mean being obvious. 

Left means what remains, as in left behind, or it means one has gone.  One could even use a contronym in the one sentence.  The girl has left but has left her sister here. 

Our language is very adaptable, but that makes it confusing too!   It gets even more fluid and baffling with colloquialisms and generational nuances.  The confusion of contronyms only increases between age groups!  

Around the house, I’m often told, “Heath, you’re special aren’t you!”  But with the amount of sarcasm with which it’s said, I don’t think it’s a compliment.  Especially, when the kids agree saying, “Yeah, dad is real special!”

Then again, I have told my children that they’re geniuses.  Should they take it as a compliment when they haven’t thought the process through!  They usually don’t!   …think the process through!  … or take it as a compliment!

Listening to young people today, one might wrongly be led to assume many of them are not healthy, or the situation their friends find themselves in, is bad. 

Every bro is sick, eh!  Their best friends are sick, and they do really sick stuff.  I’m glad I’m not there when they’re sick!  So much sick would make me sick!  I hate the smell of my own vomit, even less other people’s!

Contronyms are sick, eh!

I ask a question and get the answer, “Yeah-na”!  Ah, excuse me, do you mean yes or no?  Or are you being indecisive, taking a bet each way?  How does that fit into, the yes means yes and no means no mantra we’ve taught our kids?

Contronyms, yeah-na!

But it goes on!  Some say, “that’s wild!”  But they exclaim it with jubilation.  However, on seeing a nasty tropical storm approach with green clouds full of car-destroying hail, or a fire storm raging towards your house, saying, “that’s wild!”  fills no one with joy!

The confusion of contronyms can be catastrophic!

Filthy when I grew up meant dirty!  When mum saw us come inside after playing in the mud she’d say, “You boys are filthy!”  But today amongst our younger generations, I think, being filthy means being cool.  Yes, we were cool after playing in the mud, but mum didn’t think we were all that cool.  From memory it usually made her a bit hot under the collar when we dripped muddy water through the house!

And for that matter, dirty meant being filthy!  Yet, in our sexually promiscuous society, being dirty is seen as being good.  Regardless of one being covered in mud or being covered in shame, being dirty or filthy is not good.  Especially when good order depends on cleanliness!

The contronym conundrum starts to take on a confusing but sinister tone when words can imply good or bad.  The word wicked is one such word.  Once it meant evil, but now it can mean good.  When good and evil are confused, no longer are we in a contronym conundrum!  We’re actually in a state of confusion and chaos.

Piano Man, Billy Joel sings, “They say there's a heaven for those who will wait.  Some say it's better, but I say it ain't;  I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; The sinners are much more fun.  You know that only the good die young.”

Being good is good for some, but being bad is better!  That’s the message sung to us!  Not just by Billy Joel, but by most in society today.  Evil is good, good is evil.  Disorder and disobedience are good, because good order needs to be disobeyed as it’s destructive to the rights of the inner self.

In this age of good being evil, and vice versa, Jesus Christ has become a contronym.  When many use his name it’s not to glorify him!  The name Jesus Christ for many is a curse word.

But for us these two words are anything but a curse, they’re the most two blessed words in the world!

Many may use his name as a contronym, as a curse rather than a blessing.  But we allow him to be what he really is!   Therefore, we name evil as evil, and God as the only good.

In the hearing of the resurrection Gospel, all areas of society, all identities, all people, male and female, see in Jesus Christ what is good and what is evil.  The law of God is imprinted on everyone’s hearts having heard the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Perhaps this is why, rebellious humanity finds it so easy to use Jesus’ name as a cursing contronym.

In Jesus Christ conservatism and progressivisms are shown what is evil in them and what is good in them.  After all Jesus was conservative and progressive!  If we conserve anything other than Jesus Christ or progress anything other than his death and resurrection, we must truly ask ourselves, “Have I conserved or progressed Jesus Christ as a contronym curse?” 

However, to abide in his call to repentance and believe his word of forgiveness, conserves Jesus Christ in his Word and progresses his kingdom, the Kingdom of God!    You might identify with a certain identity.  But to be truly certain, we put aside being conservative or being progressive, for the certainty of being in Christ, a Christian!   That might not be good in the eyes of the world.  But then again, they are not saving you from death!

We hear, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,  but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.” (Acts 10:39b–40 ESV)

There was much confusion on the morning of that first Easter.  Jesus was dead and then he is alive again.  Despite the confusion, death on a cross since the resurrection, now means life for us! 

The world has no contronym for death.  Unlike the use of Jesus’ name as a curse word, most avoid using the word “dead or death”.  Death scares people, yet in the confusion and chaos of death Jesus Christ, and his word, stand out from all other words!

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, life and death are a contronym on the cross.  “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1:21 ESV)

Living in Christ is dying!  Dying in Christ is living! 

When Lazarus had died Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,  and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26 ESV)

And from Isaiah, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”  (Isaiah 25:8 ESV)

God has spoken!  God has acted!  In Jesus Christ the conundrum of death is resurrected as an eternal contronym for life!  Amen. 

B, Maundy Thursday - Exodus12:12-13, John 13:14–15, 34–35, 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 "Faith Judgement & Feet"

The feet of God walked through Egypt in Judgement.  It was to be the tenth time God would plague Pharoah and those with whom he took counsel.  This was a battle between God the Father and Ra, the sun god of Egypt, played out through their spokesmen Moses and Pharoah.

Each plague was an increase in demonstration of God’s power over Ra, in creation.  A sign not only for Pharoah, but a sign for all who witnessed the event, both Egyptian, Israelite and all who lived in the land.   

From undrinkable water in the Nile River, infestations of frogs, bugs, then flies, dead Egyptian livestock, then festering painful boils.  Devastating hail striking down man and beast, together with the crops of those who remained in their fields.  What was left in Egypt was then attacked by clouds of swarming locusts, inside and outside their homes.   Then darkness covered the land for three days, before the tenth and final plague, death of all first born.

The descendants of Abraham were called to faith in what they were witnessing.  Years after Abraham’s faithful listening was credited to him as righteousness, through faith, Moses having the opportunity to dwell in the spoils of Pharoah’s court, chose God and hardship rather than the pleasure of his position in Egypt. 

In Hebrews eleven we hear, “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,  choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.  By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”  (Hebrews 11:24–28 ESV)

These were days of faith.  The Law had not yet been given at Sinai.  Moses and Aaron were called to act in faith before Pharoah.  They announced what was to happen before God followed through with what he promised.  Pharoah and his help were called to believe too, but their hearts were hardened in unbelief, faithlessness!

These days of faith were told to be taught to future generations.  Not only were the plagues a display of almighty power to the Egyptian enemy, but they were signs to the Israelites, and a sign of their faith towards God, as they remembered the destroyer who passed through Egypt and gave them freedom at the first Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.  The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are.  And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.  (Exodus 12:12–13 ESV) 

Notice firstly, the Israelites would see the blood on doorways as a sign to them God had passed over them without death passing through their home.  Then secondly, what one logically might think should be first, God would see the blood posted in faith and faithfully pass over.

The Israelites were called to see first the blood on their houses, as a testimony to almighty God’s saving power.  Yet, as almighty as God is, he was discerning which houses had the blood of the lamb on the threshold of each dwelling.  Like tiptoeing through the tulips, he preserved the people who had blood on the doorposts, and those who didn’t he trod underfoot, like a person playing hopscotch from snail to snail up a damp footpath in the dark.  Israel saw this, after the fact, and was called to faith and to teach it.

The judgement God promised, proved to be faithful to the Israelites, but also true to his word for those who were faithless, or faithful to ways that were against his word of promise.

Prior to Jesus’ Passover when he becomes the Lamb of God, instituting a new covenant of God’s faithfulness, we find Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. 

Jesus says, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:14–15, 34–35 ESV) 

Here the Son of God, does not pass over his disciples, but serves them and washes their feet.  Unlike God the Father, who passes over Israel to crush Egypt underfoot, Jesus does the opposite.  In faith he cleanses the enemy from within, to save!  Whereas God the Father cleanses the enemy, from the Israelites, so they are without.

The disciples receive the washing as a sign from Jesus.  With full knowledge of what was to become of him he washes the feet of those who had no understanding, of what he was doing, nor what was about to happen.   Like the Israelites who remembered what God had done, the apostolic church now remembers Jesus body and blood, broken and spilt on the cross, given and shed in bread and wine for the forgiveness of sin.

There are great paradoxes between the first Passover and the Passover where Christ became the sacrificial lamb.  The first we’ve just heard.  God not only saves us from external oppression, but also frees us within from ourselves. 

The other great paradox is in the feet.  Jesus washes the feet of the disciples in love.  Then, in the same love for us, “he” is the one crushed by God.  It’s as if God tiptoes over us only to land on Jesus.  Jesus becomes the one crushed for our sin, as the enemy of God, out of pure love to make us God the Father’s children.

Jesus bridges the great divide between the uncleanness of humanity and the holiness of God within his very own body.  He is the Passover sacrificial lamb but also our great high priest, having been raised and glorified to the right hand of our Father in heaven.

In faith, Moses led the people of God out of bondage, and through Moses the Israelites received the Law, the ten commandments.  Jesus fulfilled the Law, but in faith led us out of bondage through his sacrificial death.

We faithfully continue in the holiness of Jesus Christ, by meeting with him in his divine service to us.  Our holiness depends on receiving it from Jesus in faith.  The Holy Spirit wills us into God’s presence to hear the word of God and receive the sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood. 

The holiness of Jesus’ body and blood is holy, by the perfection of his life in the flesh, coupled together with his perfect sacrifice at the cross for humanity’s sin.  A priestly offering of himself as the lamb, perfect flesh defiled on the cross as cursed, cleanness of life for the uncleanness of death.

As true functional Christians, we have a Holy Spirited desire to receive God’s gifts.  We could be a solitary Christian on a deserted island, but the moment we get off the island, we would not remain in isolation from Christendom. 

So, coming to church is not so much about what we do, but rather, about what God does to us through bringing us to church and being with us as he divinely serves us.  Paul centres our honouring of God in his work, in how we receive Jesus, in the sacrament.

He says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.  But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”  (1 Corinthians 11:28–32 ESV) 

Church is a gathering of the faithful in Christ, not in ourselves!  When we place faith in what we do, we desecrate the most holy body and blood of Jesus Christ.  The weakness, illness, and death Paul speaks of here is, primarily, but not limited to, one’s spiritual health.  When those who gather as church focuses on the self, one becomes estranged from the power of God, then the substance of coming to church becomes lacking.  One finds ill gain in coming and eventually cuts themselves off from God.  Then, one has begun to die a spiritual death!

However, those who truly judge themselves, see the cross and their place on it, seeing in themselves sin, therefore, a sinful being! 

Yet, in the great paradox that is Jesus Christ, those who judge themselves as sinners who sin, don’t glorify themselves in it, but faithfully find themselves rushing into God’s presence to have Jesus faithfully take their sin on himself. 

Faithful Jesus, the Lamb of God, has offered himself on your behalf, and now Jesus the Son of God, and King of Creation, faithfully intercedes for you before God the Father in the heavenly congregation. 

Such is a believer’s faith in Jesus’ faithfulness, worked by the Holy Spirit, when one discerns Jesus’ body and blood, receiving it for the forgiveness of sins along with the hearing of God’s word, as God divinely serves his children for their growth in faith.

Now that we have received Christ for our forgiveness, he has washed and cleansed us.  We continue his washing and cleansing work of forgiving others; this is loving as God has loved us.  God gave Pharoah ten chances to believe, but we give other’s what God gives us in Jesus, forgiveness seventy-seven times.  We forgive and intercede for others as Jesus does for us. 

We forgive and live only by receiving the energy to do so, by being forgiven and fed in the holy sight of Jesus Christ.  This happens when we gather in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  You are being made one with Jesus’ death and resurrection, having been baptised into Jesus’ holiness, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, help us to walk with feet of judgement.  Judging ourselves in a way so our feet turn and return to your holy divine service of us.  Judging ourselves in a way that allows our enemies to confess their sins to us.  Judging ourselves in a way that allows us to forgive them as we have been forgiven.  Grant us the Holy Spirit to faithfully wash their feet with the holiness of Jesus Christ, just as he has cleansed and washed us in the holiness of his body and blood.  Amen.

B, Palm-Passion Sunday - Phillipians 2:8-10 "Hard to be Humble"

Philippians 2:8–10 (ESV) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

To be humble is possibly the hardest thing for us to be or do!  Even those appearing to be humble usually only appear to be humble.  Most will tout, they feel humbled, when they’re praised by peers.  One could argue that feeling is not one of being humbled, in the true sense of the word.  Rather, one feels honoured because they’re actually being exalted! 

However, when one is truly humbled by their peers, they’re not exalted, they’re made low!  The situation knocks them, one is put in his or her place, they’re made to feel low, lower than what they once felt.  When one is truly humbled, rather than claim they’re honoured, they complain they’re hard-done-by, or humiliated!    

True humility calls for the death of self.  When it comes to humility like this, you and I, always look for another way.  Why is being truly humble so hard?  Why is the death of self so difficult that we continually search for other options?  It’s hard to be humble!

In 1980, Mac Davis wrote a song.  Some of you might know its chorus, “Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way.  I can't wait to look in the mirror; cause I get better looking each day.  To know me is to love me; I must be a hell of a man.  Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doing the best that I can.”

I imagine most will resonate with this song’s chorus, more than Philippians chapter two verse eight.  “Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  When death came to Christ, he was truly humble.  With his divinity put aside, out of sight, he took the low way of the cross. 

To be humble like Jesus, is strange and foreign to us.  To be humble as Mac Davis sings, or more precisely, to not be humble, is so much easier.

We resonate with this song more because of its self-contradicting comedy, the lyrics are haughty and proud while claiming to be humble.  But whether or not we find the lyrics amusing, they expose something not so funny.  So serious is the truth of what they uncover, the remedy comes only through the humility of Jesus Christ.

Like the song, our human humility actually is a humiliation of our humanity, and this leads to death.  The belief we are perfect, or more perfect than the next fellow, is buried within each of us.  When we look in the mirror, perhaps we don’t think we get better looking each day!   Those of us who don’t, still look in the mirror, compare, and picture ourselves better than someone else!  

Like the song, those that don’t love me are those that obviously don’t know me!  “I must be a hell of a man!”  Well actually, there’s probably more truth here than the writer of the song intends.  O Lord, it’s not hard to be haughty, at this we all seek to outdo each other!

Even when we’re humiliated by others, we ironically still seek to be haughty.  “Woe is me!  Nobody is as bad off as me”, might be the gripe made!  I’m more worse off than all others worse off!  This is a paradoxical exaltation of one’s lowliness! 

Then there’s also the rejection of humility by stating, “ I’m okay, others have it worse off than me!”  We’ve all been in this situation, and heard these words come from our mouths.

Such is the haughtiness of our humanity.  Humility and holiness are easily confused with humiliation of others and haughtiness!  It takes Jesus Christ to sort it out for us on the cross.  Before the cross, and our baptism into it, as enemies of God!  As well as after the cross, and our baptismal lives carrying our cross, as the Holy Spirit works to recreate us as God’s holy children in Jesus Christ.

Do you remember the Warner Brothers cartoon character, Foghorn Leghorn?  He’s the loud-mouthed rooster who’s anything but humble!  In his struggle to become the “top dog” on the farm he’s in a constant feud with the dog.  Once when he was outdone by the dog he says one of his familiar sayings, “That dog, I say that dog is lower than a snake full of buckshot.”

This saying is similar to an Australian expression, “They’re lower than a snake’s belly!” On the scale of things, you really cannot get much lower than the belly of a snake.  Both we and Foghorn Leghorn, make this statement from a haughty height.  Yet in reality, although we wouldn’t get down in the dirt and look a snake in the eye, we’re already there, humiliating ourselves in the dirt by the height of our human haughtiness.

Two weeks ago, we heard Jesus tell Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5–6 ESV)

Being born of the Spirit is our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection!  Jesus goes on to compare himself to the bronze serpent in the Old Testament, saying, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  (John 3:14 ESV)

As much as you or I wouldn’t get down in the dirt to look a snake in the eye, none of us would willingly allow ourselves to be humbled and lifted up with the shame and lowliness, of a snake’s belly, or a snake full of buckshot.  

It’s at about this point, we realise we have hoodwinked ourselves, between our unwillingness to truly be humble, and our desire to be haughty.  So, without any humour in our haughty humus, we cry out to God, “O Lord, it’s hard to be humble.”  The best we can do is not good enough!  I am a worm of a man; I am lower than a snake’s belly!  And yet, this low, I find myself ungrounded, debased, and like dirt, infested with weeds.

One of Job’s friends who wrongly takes the haughty position in judgement over Job, wrongly misuses God’s truth, saying, “How then can man be in the right before God?  How can he who is born of woman be pure? …how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”  (Job 25:4, 6 ESV)

Jesus is greater than any friend of Job!  He, the Son of Man, gets down with the afflicted, humiliated by our own affliction, by our own foolish deeds.  As the Psalmist wrote, inspired by the pre-incarnate Son of God, “I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.  All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads.” (Psalm 22:6–7 ESV)

Jesus becomes that worm, that maggot, lower than a snake’s belly!  Yet, he is lifted up and displayed like a snake, in affliction for all who are afflicted with sin.  The Sinless One, is lifted up afflicted and debased with our sin!  Where we find it too slippery to sort out our true humility from our haughtiness, he came down into the slithering cesspool of our sin, became sin, without sin, and was lifted up for forgiveness of sin.

We, like those on Palm Sunday, may very well have invited Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of hosannah!  Yet, as we will sing to Jesus shortly, “We made your crown with thorns from deep inside us, hammered your hands with nails no-one supplied us.  We need no help to stage a crucifixion; it’s our affliction.”

How quickly the heights of our hosannahs are reduced to the reality of our human haughtiness in the face of the cross.  Although we did not need help to stage a crucifixion, Jesus now bears your affliction! 

We killed him, yet he needed to be killed for us.  His death was unjustifiable!  Our killing him, is the height of human haughtiness, that condemns us. 

But the paradox of the passion is this; his death justifies us!  He humbled himself in the face of human haughtiness, and this now saves you and me from our haughtiness. 

As you’re led to a deeper knowledge of your haughtiness, see the purity of him, who humbled himself and took the heaviness of your haughty sin.  See the weight of your sin on him!  Let the Holy Spirit produce in you the true humility to carry your cross.   Just as he went through the hardship and humility of the cross,  be led to glorify him in your relationships of forgiveness with one another.  Amen.

B, Midweek Lent 5 - 15:37–39, 44–45 "Pilate & the Centurion's Passover"

Mark 15:37–39, 44–45 (ESV) “And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.  And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”  Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.  And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.  And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph!”

The last breath of Jesus Christ caught the attention of the centurion standing at the foot of the cross!

Sometime in the future you and I too will give up our last breath.  What might that look like for us, as we ponder Jesus’ last breath? 

This Roman soldier would have been accustomed to seeing death.  He would have seen plenty die at his command.  He would have spilt criminal’s and enemy soldier’s blood and seen them give up their last breath.  As a soldier, he would have been thankful it was them and not him who died. 

Yet, to see Jesus die in the way that he did, made this Roman commander of the crucifixion, make this extraordinary claim.  What did he see in himself seeing the Son of God dead on the cross?  A Roman soldier served only one god and that was Caesar!  Yet here he calls the dead man on the cross, Son of God!

This man was “a” Son of God, is the Greek translation of the centurion’s exclamation!  We are not told why he said it, we are not told what he saw other than the way Jesus breathed his last.

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ death, it’s not just the centurion who makes the exclamation, “this man was a son of God!”   Rather, it is he and the other Roman soldiers who are intensely frightened, or filled with awe, as a result of the eclipse of darkness, the earthquake that tore the curtain in the temple Holy of Holies, splitting rocks, and people raised from the dead. 

In Luke’s account of Jesus’ death, written for the Gentiles, it testifies, “when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47 ESV)

Whatever it was, causing the centurion to exclaim a man crucified to be a Son of God, shows this was no ordinary crucifixion. 

Being a commander of one hundred, he would have allowed and witnessed those under his authority having their sport with Jesus.  Dressing him in a purple robe, pushing the crown of thorns down into the flesh of his skull, spitting on him, striking him, and humiliating him as the King of the Jews!

Now the commander confesses this crucified man was a Son of God.  Why he said this, is not entirely clear.  However, what is clear, the one he exclaims as a Son of God, is dead!  God on the cross was no longer alive!

Pilate is surprised by the timeliness of Jesus’ death, when Joseph of Arimathea, asks for Jesus’ body.  So, he calls the centurion who witnessed Jesus’ death, and the centurion reports the accuracy of the situation, and Pilate releases the body of Jesus to Joseph.

The claim of Jesus being the Son of God has greater significance in Mark’s Gospel account than the other Gospel accounts.

John Mark, the gatherer, and complier of Peter’s witness of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection, introduces his account saying, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1 ESV)

Although not all manuscripts say “the Son of God” in verse one, those that do, stand out from Matthew’s Gospel which introduces Jesus Christ as the son of David, the son of Abraham.   Luke’s account begins in the temple with Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, not mentioning Jesus till later on.  And John’s account of the Gospel, begins with a parallel of Genesis one, “In the beginning was the Word…”, introducing Jesus as the Word made flesh!

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, written in Mark one, introduces only a few claims that Jesus is “Son”, “of God.”  Jesus only ever refers to himself as “the Son of Man” in Mark.  In fact, only in John’ Gospel do we ever hear Jesus directly name himself as “the Son of God”.

Surprisingly, in Mark’s Gospel account, we do not even hear Satan test Jesus in the wilderness,  by temping him with the words, “If you are the Son of God…”.  There are no “ifs” here in Mark, Jesus is the Son of God! 

However, the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God, comes from Satan’s entourage.  When Jesus comes in contact with evil spirits, they do not question “if” he is “the Son of God”.  They cower before Jesus, proclaiming him as “the Son of God”!

In Mark’s Gospel, God first declares Jesus as his Son, at his baptism, by John in the Jordan.  In Mark one verse eleven we hear, “And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11 ESV)  God again affirms this at the transfiguration.  We hear, “And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’” (Mark 9:7 ESV)

Nevertheless, it’s the evil spirited man at the synagogue in Capernaum who first names Jesus as being “of God”!

He says, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”  (Mark 1:24 ESV)

There is no testing here!  Rather, there is affirmation and fear of God the Son’s fury and annihilation!  And it’s not just a one-off accident as we hear from Mark three verse eleven, “whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”  (Mark 3:11 ESV)

Similarly, before Jesus casts the demons out of Legion into a herd of pigs, he reacts to the coming of Jesus in this way, “And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.  And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”  For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”  (Mark 5:6–8 ESV)

The demonic spirits who are destroying people, see Jesus, know, and fear Jesus of Nazareth because he is “the Son of God”.

The reality of the unseen world sees the reality of the truth; Jesus is the Son of God!  Now the centurion sees this too.  He is the first in the seen world to see Jesus as a Son of God.  However, he sees this after his death.  Here a gentile, a pagan, one who did the bidding of those seeking to do evil to Jesus, sees the truth of whom he has crucified on the cross.

The death of Jesus Christ at the Passover passes over nobody!  Those who were witnesses of the crucifixion, those who participated in the crucifixion, those who cowered before the crucifixion, remember Jesus’ death!  But now all know Jesus of Nazareth, is the Messiah, Christ the King, and is the Son of God raised from the dead.

How much more does Satan and his entourage of supporters now fear him since he has power over death!  The Son of God was born into his own creation and lived as a man, Jesus of Nazareth.  He was killed on the cross and buried with the dead.   Now he is raised and glorified as the Son of God. 

Now the Son of God takes away the sin of those who do not pass over Jesus as the Son of God, who bears forgiveness of humanity’s sin in his resurrection from, and power over death. 

As we draw near to the remembrance of Jesus’ death on Good Friday, in the reality of your death, in your last breath, may the Holy Spirit grant you comfort and clear sight in the Son of God’s salvation over your sin.  Amen. 

B, Lent 5 - John 12:31-32 Jeremiah 31:29-34 "Behold, days are coming"

John 12:31–32 (ESV) Jesus answered, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Unlike the prophet Jeremiah, Jesus says, “Now!”

Jeremiah points forward to this “now” from Jesus. 

Fifteen times Jeremiah prophecies, “Behold, days are coming!” This is a call to notice something is going to occur.  Expect the unexpected at a time that is unexpected. 

Jeremiah is called to speak on behalf of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, “In those days they shall no longer say: “ ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’  But everyone shall die for his own iniquity.  Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,  not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.”  (Jeremiah 31:29–32 ESV)

The days are coming when everyone will be responsible for their own sins.  No longer will children suffer from the sins of the fathers!  Nor will wives, children, or others in the household be covered by the father’s piety.  Everyone who eats sour grapes will have their teeth set on edge!  Everyone shall die for their own evils.  In other words, God only has children, he does not have grandchildren.

God’s covenant with Israel had become ineffective.  Not from God, but from what Jeremiah describes as Israel’s whoredom.

This whoredom was through the worship of Baal, a fertility cult, to make the land productive by appeasing Baal.  In a bid to become wealthy off the land that God had given them, they made this Canaanite god their master.  “Baal” literally means “master” or “husband”.  God was their master, their caring husband, who took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt into this land of milk and honey.

But in the land of Canaan, the Israelites were unfaithful, and God who brought them in as their husband and master, withdrew and tested them with their wanton ways.    The God of providence stopped providing.  Therefore, the livestock produced no milk, and the bees produced no honey, in the land of milk and honey!

We can see the vicious spiral occurring in Israel’s bad choices.  Things going from bad to worse as Israel the bride, no longer desired her husband, but became contrary with God and his rule.  What does God’s rule look like next to our deeds, desires, and choices? 

God’s rule over Israel, became tough through Jeremiah.   Not only did the Israelites and Jews struggle, but as God representative, so too did Jeremiah.  You could imagine his words of prophecy against them were not well received.  Through Jeremiah, God’s call to repentance and prophecies of judgement, fell on deaf ears, and stubborn hearts, landing Jeremiah in gaol.

Imagine being a faithful partner in a relationship, imagine being the unfaithful partner.  It is not what a healthy relationship looks like.  This relationship broke down between God and man at Eden.  There were consequences for Adam and Eve and these consequences continued between God and Israel, in the days of Jeremiah.  God was the faithful husband or master, and Israel the unfaithful partner.

This strain on the relationship appears first in the wording of Genesis chapter three verse sixteen by the double meaning of the text.  God says to Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband”, but it can also mean “Your desire shall be against (or contrary) to your husband.” (Genesis 3:16 ESV)

Like Eve, Israel’s desire should have been towards God as a faithful and giving husband, yet Israel’s desire was for God’s position and therefore contrary to God.

As mentioned earlier, the language of husband, used by Jeremiah, is the confrontation between God and Israel over "the other man” in Israel’s life.  This other man is Baal.  He has become their master when their master was God.  Yet Israel’s desire for Baal worship is really a desire for their own prosperity at the expense of their relationship with God and the land they received from him.

Fifteen times we hear Jeremiah say on behalf of God, “Behold, (the) days are coming.”  These are all calling the Israelites to look backward, focusing on what has occurred beforehand, while walking into the future.  The days are coming for Israel’s judgement, but also their restoration back as God’s faithful bride.

God would do this work of restoration through a new covenant.  This covenant looks backward while striving forward, much like a swimmer, backstroking their way up the lanes of a pool!

God will etch the law on each person’s heart.  They will know him by his forgiveness of sin.  In these days every generation, every person, knows, God will deal with their evil. 

Not only will each person have their teeth put on edge from eating sour grapes, but each person will have the law written on their hearts.  Jeremiah continues…

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33–34 ESV)

At first glance, this seems like God is going back on his word.  Each will die for their own sins, yet God promises to forgive and no longer remember sin.  How can this be?  Israel and Judah had proven themselves as harlots deserving divorce.

The clearest hint God gives through Jeremiah has already been given by another “Behold the days are coming” statement.

In Jeremiah chapter twenty-three verses five and six we hear, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:5–6 ESV)

For us today we know that the days were coming and came in Jesus Christ!  Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Jesus is the righteous branch!  He is the Israel and Judah that Israel and Judah could not be!  “Now” is the day of salvation for all who are drawn to Jesus.  Once someone has heard the name of Jesus, proclaimed for the forgiveness of sin, the law is etched on their hearts.  Jesus draws all people to himself for the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus is the Lord, and the Lord is our righteousness!

As Jesus walked to the cross, he said, “For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’  Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’  For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”  (Luke 23:29–31 ESV)

Here Jesus tells us what to expect as his followers on earth.  As the days increase after Jesus’ death and resurrection, in the last days, the green wood of the gospel, the righteous branch, will be attacked and burned, the drier and more mature it gets.

We will suffer because of our sinful being.  We will also suffer as we believe and receive forgiveness while others take offence at the law written on the heart.  Just as generations of Christians have before us.

Incidentally, those who take offence, know the truth of the law and gospel, having heard the name of Jesus.  God’s word is repulsive to them, because they are rejecting the Holy Spirit who gives faith in his word written on each heart.

Jesus also gives another “Behold the days are coming” statement, but gives it in two parts, to the Pharisees and then the disciples…

“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,  nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.  And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.”  (Luke 17:20–23 ESV)

As God’s children today we have the word of God stamped on our hearts!  The kingdom of God is in our midst.  The kingdom of God is within us!   As we desire the return of Jesus in these last days, we know days are coming when we will see Jesus, face to face.

We remember, at the cross, our Baals, our Old Adam, our human spirit, and Satan the ruler of this world, the deceitful master, are judged.  Our master, Jesus Christ, has eaten our sour grapes!  His teeth have been put on edge!  He has died for your sin, and my sin!

“Now”, when Jesus returns, behold, the day will have come for the prince of this world to be cast out forever!   “Now” that Jesus is lifted up in resurrection glory, let him take you by the hand, draw you to himself in repentance, and lead you into the eternal land of milk and honey.  Amen.

B, Midweek Lent 4 - Mark 15:1-32 "Barabbas' and Simon's Passover"

Mark 15:15,21 (ESV)  So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.   And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

The Passover from the viewpoint of Barabbas and Simon of Cyrene, stand out as two remarkable events.

Barabbas was being held for murder in an uprising.  We know the Ten Commandments does not pass over a person for killing another person.  At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extends this, by saying if someone calls another a fool, they are liable to hell fire (Matthew 5:22). 

Barabbas’ deserved death yet those in authority rallied the mob to have him released and Jesus crucified.  Pilate asked “Why?  What evil has he done?”  Jesus had done nothing wrong.   However, because the crowd was seething for Jesus’ blood,  Pilate sought to please the people.  He freed a murderer and delivered the innocent Son of God over to death by crucifixion.

Imagine Barabbas learning his fate!  Guilty yet set free!  A dead man, passed over, now with a second chance at life!  I reckon Barabbas wouldn’t have believed his good fortune, having done absolutely nothing to deserve his stay of execution. 

So, it’s Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father who takes the place of Barabbas.  Jesus, the king of the Jews, serves as the Son of Man, taking the place of a murderer, Barabbas, the son of Abba, the son of a father.

You and I, the sons, and daughters of a father, like Barabbas, have had our stay of eternal execution because of Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father.  Like Barabbas who was passed over and given new life, you too have been passed over and given eternal life.  You can, and should, give thanks to God your Father for your “Good Friday fortune”, having done nothing to deserve this stay of eternal execution. 

Jesus has changed places with you at the cross.  All daughters and sons have received Jesus’ Sonship through adoption,  accepting you as God’s holy Son through Jesus’ exchange, a true and faithful elder brother.  Eternal death now passes over you and me, borne by the King of the Jews.  Now, with Jesus, the exalted King of Creation, you will be raised from death.

The cross was the crossroads for Barabbas, and so too was it for Simon who innocently, perhaps accidentally, crossed paths with the crucifixion party at the Passover.

After being brutalised by the battalion of Roman soldiers, we could assume Jesus was too weak to carry his cross.  Or perhaps he was not moving quick enough for the soldiers, who wanted to get on with the job they were tasked to do.  Whatever the reason, the soldiers grab Simon who was passing by on his way in from the country. 

If Barabbas could not have believed his good fortune, we can imagine that Simon could not have believed his bad luck!  Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Simon carried the cross of a dead man.  He carried the curse of death on his back.  Albeit for a brief time, he walked the walk of death, under the means of death!  Was it unfair that he carried the cross?  He may or may not have felt the injustice of the Romans’ expectation, but he did what he had to do under their compulsion.

Unlike Barabbas, it seems Simon did not deserve what was put on him, carrying the cross to Golgotha, or at least part of the way.  Yet like Barabbas, there is relief for Simon!  Once at Calvary, his job is done, and he is set free.  Perhaps, he breathed a big sigh of relief!  No longer having to feel the weight of the cross, the experience leading to death.  

Christ is left to bear the greater burden, bearing the sins of all people.  This includes Simon.  Who, although an innocent passerby, is not passed over before God as innocent from sin. 

Like Simon, you feel the burden of the crosses you bear in this life.  There is also relief, like Simon, as you know when you get to the destination of death, you will put down your crosses, and be carried through death to victory by he who has borne the burden of your sin on the cross.

When Simon put down Jesus’ cross, he was putting down his cross; the cross all humanity deserved to carry and on which you, and I, should have justly been nailed.

Those who seemingly are guilty, like Barabbas, are passed over.  Those who are supposedly innocent, like Simon, are not passed over.  The consequences of Christ’s cross, pass over nobody’s guilt or innocence, at this Passover. 

The cross of Christ sets us free!  Yet the cross of Christ calls us to carry our cross!  Like Barabbas and Simon, you suffer from your sin, yet are relieved to know that your sin is carried by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Those two robbers nailed on either side of Jesus, easily could have been Barabbas and Simon, you, and me!   Like Barabbas our deeds condemn us, and like Simon, the humanity of our being condemns us too. 

Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, is at the right place in the right time.  The fullness of time had come, and the Jews killed him.  It is his blood that saves Barabbas and Simon, not from Roman law, but from the greater law of God.  Jesus is our King of Kings, and yet our sins of commission, our sins of omission, and our nature seemingly innocent but guilty, breaks God’s law and killed the King of the Jews. 

Your blame and my blame are not passed over but passed onto Jesus.  As a result, the consequences of our sin are passed over! 

Like Barabbas, who could not believe his good fortune, and like Simon, who realised it was his good fortune to only carry the cross, we look forward to our Good Friday fortune.   Our sins are before us on the cross, very real, very deadly, yet very forgiven, and very much paid for! 

Jesus is our greatest wealth in this world.   We, sinners like Barabbas, receive the fortune of freedom, while our guilt remains on the cross.  We, fortunate forgiven sinners carry our cross, like Simon, knowing it was Christ who was lifted up on it in our place. 

Our sin is not passed over, yet we sinners are being passed over.  You are being passed onto the prosperity of an eternal resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Amen.

Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, when we have carried our cross to the end of life’s road, help us give thanks for the Holy Spirit’s help to carry it, knowing we are sinners, but forgiven sinners.  Help us to not let the fortunes of Good Friday pass away, so that we are not passed over, but pass through death to our resurrection with you, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.   

B, Lent 4 - Numbers 21:4-7 "Serpents, Sin, & Salvation"

God is patient.  He takes the long way round.  If he took the path of least resistance, humanity would have long been annihilated.

God is patient with humanity.  In the days of disobedience before the flood, God was patient.  God was patient with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  While the Israelites lived in Egypt, God was patient for four hundred years.  In the wilderness after the Israelites were exiled from Egypt, God continued to be patient.  Today, God continues to be patient with his church, and he continues to be patient with you!

So, what is it with — me, you, the church, the Israelites — all of humanity, that God needs to be patient?  What is it that allows all of humanity to stand as one before God’s patience?

God is patient with our lack of patience.  Our impatience can come from various things, but at its root is our displeasure with suffering.  Therefore, God suffers with our lack of endurance in suffering.

Ultimately, God sent his only begotten Son to suffer in our place!  Yet in this life, you and I will still struggle with suffering.  Nevertheless, God is pleased to be patient with us.  He takes the long way round, he takes the way of patience, the patient path.  And we can be very thankful for that!

When God lifted Israel out of bondage in Egypt, he could have marched them into Canaan in a relatively short amount of time.  But he took the patient path, leading Israel forty years, his way in the Sinai wilderness, the way of suffering that led to salvation in the land of milk and honey.

The bronze serpent story gives us a window into God’s patience and his mega-work of humanity’s salvation.  

The Israelites became impatient with the way of God!  They spoke against God and his servant Moses!  So, God sends fiery serpents amongst them.

Let’s take a moment to take this in!  God sends fiery poisonous serpents to bite his people.  Not only do the serpents look fiery, a bronze coppery colour, they are fiery, wielding the rod of God’s wrath.  Their mouths are fiery, in that their venom inflicts a hellish bite leading to agony and certain death. 

The Israelite’s impatience with God, his providence in the wilderness, and with Moses, was instantly removed by the Israelite’s immediate need for a remedy against the forced death from the fierce fangs of serpents sent by God.

Snakes are animals that cause fear.  Since Satan spoke from a serpent in the garden of Eden, snakes have been feared by humans.  Moses ran from his staff that turned into a serpent when God commanded him to throw it on the ground (Exodus 4:3).   So, there’s no doubt the venomous snakes got their attention.

The wilderness is a place of serpents.  The Israelites would have seen plenty as they walked the way of freedom!  Up until this event, we can assume God would have protected them from serpents, just as he protected them from other dangers as he led them out of Egypt.  So, God patiently works his way to will his people from their impatience.

When it comes to snakes, not many of us are heroes.  The thought of being faced with an infestation of fiery serpents is chilling!  Do you remember Indiana Jones encircled by stirred up serpents?  Or imagine the reality of being buried in a box of snakes, slithering over you in the dark.  As they do on the television show, “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”.  That’s truly the stuff of nightmares!

This is the living nightmare of the Israelites, and we can fully understand their fear!  Not only were the snakes just present in their vicinity, but they were sent by God to discipline their disobedience.

Can you see the people begging Moses?  Remorseful for being impatient!  Penitent for their impatience against God’s providence, saying, “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.” (Numbers 21:5 ESV)

In Ecclesiastes seven verse eight, it is written, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV) 

God removed their pride when the serpents began to bite.  They cried out to Moses, for it to end, saying, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” (Numbers 21:7 ESV)

Moses prayed but the end of it was not the removal of the serpents.  Instead, God said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8 ESV)

So, God sends the serpent, and he doesn’t take them away, but rather gets Moses to put the pest up on a pole.   This is the patient path consistent with God’s way.

Imagine if God did remove the snakes!  As soon as they lost sight of the serpents, their impatience and pride would have returned even more so!   But the serpents remained, and God added yet another serpent, calling them to turn and trust God’s way, even in the midst of their suffering. 

Knowing what human nature is like, some would have tested God on this.  The fiery serpent is sent to bite.  It does its job.  The tester is tested.  Do they turn to the serpent up on the stick, or do they stick to their digs and remain in rebellion?   It’s a life-or-death decision.

Now, this might seem like a pretty simple decision to make.  Yet many continue to choose the decision that leads to death.

Jesus says, “…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.” (John 3:14–15 ESV)

Not only are people impatient with God,  but now many also fail to acknowledge God’s existence.   Some think they know God, but they choose to create their own idea of God to suit their way through the wilderness of this world.  But when suffering of death comes, and it always does, crying out to a false god cannot save from death.

God is patient with humanity, but Paul warns God shows no partiality, saying, “…do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?  He will render to each one according to his works:  to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life;  but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”  (Romans 2:4,6–8 ESV)

The serpents of sin and suffering still exist.  This sin and suffering left unattended by God will lead to eternal death.  Yet God is patient, he wants to save, and not condemn. 

The good work of God within us, exposes our sin, wills us into confession, keeps us repentant and enduring in belief of our forgiveness, as well as makes us patient.  This happens through the work of the Holy Spirit despite living in the reality of fiery sin serpents still biting and wounding us, causing suffering. 

However, the good works of repentance and belief in the forgiveness of our deadly sins lets us see God's patient reality!   We see our sin, but we see the Servant of Man saving us from sin, lifted up like the serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness.

The irony in all of this is that sin came into the world through the deception of a serpent.  Satan, the old snake, also sought to seduce Jesus to sin in the wilderness but failed.  Then at the cross he thought he had won, seeing Jesus nailed to a cursed sinner’s cross.

But death lost its eternal sting at the cross.  The devil was double-crossed.  The great injustice and evil of the cross became the hallmark of mercy and holy goodness stamped on those who allow the light of God to expose and forgive. 

Jesus steals the serpent from Satan and attaches the sin of humanity to it.  He becomes the sin, the serpent, and is lifted up guiltless for the guilty.  He takes the curse of your sin, exposing it in his broken body and spilt blood, and swaps it with his victory over death, for you!

Just as God sent serpents, and then placed one on a pole to save the Israelites, God allows us to suffer as a result of our sinful being and its deeds.  God wants us to see our sin, but even more he wants us to see our sin on Jesus, lifted up on the cross. 

Just as the Israelite’s saw and feared the reality of the serpents that bit them, we too see our reality too.  We can allow the Holy Spirit to continue the patient work of peeling the layers back, to expose the greater depths of our sin.  But in the suffering of that exposure, the Spirit will show us the endlessness and patience of God’s love, who takes our sin and makes our sin – crucify Christ on the cross. 

God is patient with you.  God hates your suffering.  Yet despite this he would rather you suffer in short through confession of your evil works, exposing them in the true light of God’s love and suffering on the cross.

We are reminded by Jesus in John three verse twenty-one that, “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their works have been carried out in God.” 

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts to work in us the good works of confession of our sin in daily repentance and belief in the forgiveness of sins.  Thankyou for sending your Son Jesus Christ to bear the slipperiness of our sinful being and its deeds on the cross, which should have been our cross.  Help us to patiently bear our cross with the help of the Holy Spirit with full expectation of our resurrection to eternal life with you.  Amen.

  

B, Midweek Lent 3 - Mark 14:70b-72 "Peter's Passover Pride"

Mark 14:70b–72 (ESV) And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Peter’s grief was raw and sharp.  The full weight of his ugliness was before him.  He had cut himself off from his Lord, calling down curses upon himself, he excommunicates himself from Jesus after telling Jesus, he would not deny him, but rather die with him.

Peter passed Jesus off; he passed over him in denial.  And at hearing the cock crow, he remembers Jesus’ promise and sees the foolishness of his own promise.  Peter realises his self-preservation had kicked in, to kick out his trust in Jesus and his word.

After Peter and the others fled from Gethsemene, Jesus is humiliated.  Hiding himself in the rabble, Peter cowardly follows at a distance.  The Lord needs Peter to be a witness, to see what happens to him at the hand of the Jews, without the helping hands of those who promised to follow him.

As guilty as those who commissioned false evidence against Jesus, is Peter, who now does not come to Jesus’ defence, but rather remains speechless with his omission of evidence on Jesus’ behalf.

Below in the courtyard Peter warms himself, when a servant girl sees him and says,   “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”  But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” (Mark 14:67–68a ESV)

Peter stands at a distance; he stands below Jesus.  He denies Jesus and says he doesn’t understand what the girl is saying about him and his relationship with Jesus!  The cock crows!  Then he excommunicates himself from Jesus with another lie, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

All those who bore false testimony against Jesus gave conflicting evidence.  Twice before the cock crowed, we hear the false witness borne against Jesus, did not agree.  Now, Peter’s lie is the testimony that agrees with the lies of the false testimonies that hands Jesus over to death.

The sin of commission from the mouths of the Jews, seals the fate of Jesus.  Peter adds his sins of omission and commission to also seal Jesus’ fate. 

The weightlessness of his words, despite being delivered with so much passion, proved impotent. 

“If I must die with you, I will not deny you.  Even though they all fall away, I will not.” (Mark 14:29, 31 ESV) Is now part and parcel of Peter’s passing over of Jesus, ““I neither know nor understand what you mean.” “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

He fell away from Jesus!  He denied Jesus!  He understood exactly what the girl and others had said, and he knew the man of whom others spoke.  The weight of his lying lips spoken with so much passion, proved potent and powerful. 

We can clearly see why Peter’s Passover proclamation gutted him!  When push came to shove, he proved to be no different than any other person.  Frightened, fainthearted, faithless, fake, and futile!

Jesus’ word, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” (Mark 14:30, 72 ESV) Proved to be true.  Peter’s three-fold denial announced the law to Peter, and it hit him hard.  Despite Peter’s positivity to support the Saviour, his pride crashed head-on with self-preservation to save himself. 

Peters “Passover crash” was the second most crucial thing to happen to Peter, second only to Jesus’ death on the cross!  As hard as Peter’s reality was, it was essential for it to occur, if Peter was to be a follower of Jesus.  Similarly, it is the same for us too.

The old saying, “Pride comes before the fall”, is relevant here!  Peter’s pride needed to pass away, to die its death.  So too does our pride, so Jesus can be our sole Saviour.

It is not a percentage game; we do not provide any percentage in our eternal salvation.  Jesus provides one hundred percent of the perfection in our eternal preservation.

We need to come to the gut-wrenching reality of our powerlessness to save ourselves, so we look to Jesus, and him alone.  Peter could only bear his cross and follow Jesus, after he realised what his cross  actually was, and what only Jesus’ cross could do for him.

Jesus’ cross must come before our cross,  if it doesn’t our cross is the wrong cross to bear.  In fact, if we put our cross before the cross of Christ, it’s a cross against our name, it’s a lie.  This is why when the cock crowed a second time, the pain of Peter’s realisation was great, and it had to be for Jesus’ salvation of Peter to be real.  So too for you and me.

When Peter called down curses upon himself, these curses were “anathema” in the Greek.  Peter unwittingly testified to being anathema or accursed.  Only the cross and resurrection of Jesus could kill Peter’s curse, and raise Peter up, blameless.  Only then, Peter could lead God’s church, not by himself, but by the power of the Holy Spirit in the knowledge of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In God’s church, sin cannot be passed over.  The recognition of sin, in our lives is hard!  At some stage in your life, God will allow you to weep bitterly over your sin.  As hard as it is, it’s a healthy thing for those being refocused from the self to the selfless, single, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

With Jesus as our true Passover lamb your curse or anathema is removed.  At our resurrection we will see with our eyes what the Apostle John was shown, which is recorded in Revelation chapter twenty-two for our encouragement.  For your faith, hope, and love!

Hear what John reports, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb  through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”  (Revelation 22:1–4 ESV)

Amen.