B, Last Sunday of Church Year Proper 29 - John 18:37-38 What is Truth?

John 18:37–38 (ESV)  Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

What is truth?  Pilate askes Jesus this question, after Jesus not only speaks about, what is truth, but speaks the truth of his kingdom.  God’s kingdom is, God’s kingdom was, and God’s kingdom will be as we proclaim at the end of every Psalm, “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever more”.  And the great resurrection proclamation of the church, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!”

Yet ringing in the hearts and minds of all people from the first in God’s creation is the question, “Did God actually say?” (Gen 3:1) Tripping us up to place his Word second to ourselves and everything else.

God’s kingdom, despite its existence is not seen by humanity.  If it were so, God would not have had to speak through Moses, Aaron, and others, his priests and prophets of the old covenant.  God would not have had to send Jesus Christ to be the new Israel through which all people can be blessed!  And he wouldn’t have had to send the Holy Spirit after the Ascension, to call, gather, enlighten, and make us holy through pastors faithfully preaching God‘s Word and administering his sacraments.  Without the action of the Triune God, no human would see or seek God and his kingdom.  The only kingdom we see without God, is of this world!

However, Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36 ESV)

The only way God’s kingdom is seen is through Jesus Christ’s atonement in God’s law.  The Son had to step into the void and fulfil what vain humanity couldn’t do!  Jesus Christ became Israel!  Out of “Galilee of the nations”, came the only one who could truly bless the nations of all time!

Yet even in Jesus’ time on earth, the disciples struggled to see his kingdom coming.  Therefore, the Holy Spirit was sent for the sole purpose to continue turning us away from our motives to Jesus’ motive, so God’s kingdom could be built, within us, with us, and for us. 

God’s kingdom is hidden, but not to those whom Jesus allows the Holy Spirit to make it unhidden through his Word.

Jesus said to Pilate, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37d)

In the English text there’s a hidden irony.  It’s partially revealed in Pilate’s response, “What is truth?”  But there’s much going on in this exchange between Jesus and Pilate, that’s missed in English translations of God’s Word!

We know the riddle of God’s kingdom, that it’s hidden and only seen by faith, generated within by the Holy Spirit when we receive God’s Word into our hearts with our eyes and ears.  However, hearing how the Greek word for “truth or true” is constructed, deepens our understanding of Pilate’s and Jesus’ discussion, and exposes the farce of Pilate’s hand washing and allowance of the Jews to crucify Jesus.

The Greek word for truth is made up of two words, “not and hidden”.  Jesus is the one who makes heaven truly known, or unhides the reality of heaven to us!   Therefore, those who are unhidden hear and heed his voice and receive the hidden kingdom not of this world.  So, when Jesus unhides us with his Word we see his kingdom unhidden in his world.

The craziness of Pilate’s action comes about, despite Pilate finding no guilt in Jesus. He found nothing hidden in Christ! Yet contrary to his conclusion, he turns Jesus Christ over to the Jews for crucifixion.

Listen to the discourse with Greek meaning of the word for truth inserted in its place.

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to what is not hidden. Everyone who is not-hidden listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is not hidden?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”

Pilate responds to Jesus with classic political double-speak, “What is not hidden? There’s hiddenness in everything!” Or in today’s language, “everyone has a truth!” But after this he asks the Jews if they want him to release, “the king of the Jews”. 

Regardless of Pilate being sarcastic or not, he has been allowed to see two things, Jesus’ innocence, and his kingship.  He has answered his own question, “What is truth? What is ‘not hidden’?” This innocent king is the unhidden truth! But the revelation of truth continues, not just of Jesus, but of Pilate too, who knowing the truth unhidden before him, hands Jesus over to death.

What is not hidden? Pilate’s hidden political motives for pleasure and popularity become unhidden, in the path of least resistance in his leadership over the Jews and having to answer to Caesar.

Because Jesus is not hidden, he is like no other! His un-hiddenness reveals the truth, not just of God’s kingdom and his Word, but of those who think they’re hiding their reality from him!

God is a God of love! But he is also a God of justice! As you move towards your last breath on this earth, God lovingly has placed before you his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Why? To unhide your hiddenness! All things we’ve sought to hide since Adam and Eve hid themselves in the Garden of Eden. He seeks to call you out of your knowledge of good and evil into the light of perfection found only in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  He does this “in you” by the Holy Spirit, when you hear his Word.

If any of us, having been unhidden, return to hide from what Jesus has unhidden, that is ourselves, we endanger ourselves, by stepping out from under Jesus’ protective Word of truth.  Jesus unhides the motive of all human thoughts, words, and deeds.  The Holy Spirit wills you to be repentant!  Those who resist repentance, resist the justice that fell on Jesus at the cross. If God’s justice doesn’t fall on Jesus Christ, then God’s justice has to fall on those who do not listen to his Word!  Being unhidden without Jesus, before God on judgement day is a bad place to be!

The feelings you feel when God’s Word of Law convicts you, makes you want to hide what’s been unhidden!  We all understand this, for sure, as it’s in our nature to run and hide.  However, the Holy Spirit comes to gather and enlighten you in God’s Word of Gospel.  So, rather than running and hiding from the light, you can run unhidden into the light and loving forgiveness of God.  Listen to Jesus’ voice saying, “Come!  The Holy Spirit wills you to come and confess your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ!

At the start of God’s Revelation to John, we hear that having been unhidden by his just love, he “has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”  (Revelation 1:5b-6)

The unhidden reality is that you are priests of God in his kingdom.  This now is seen only by faith, revealed by the Holy Spirit in God’s Word.  We call this the priesthood of all believers.  You were unhidden and given the right to be “children of God” priests in your baptism.  Now the Holy Spirit seeks to lead you out of this place, prepared to practise your faith amongst those to whom God leads you in everyday life.

When he comes, he promises all will see him, the kings, the politicians, those who have excluded him from their lives, those who have pierced him at the cross and pushed him aside and hidden themselves from their call into his baptismal priesthood.

God is the Alpha and the Omega!  The beginning and the end.  Will God find you uncovered in Christ, or will he uncover your reality hidden with this world? 

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Revelation 1:7 ESV)

With Pilate, all those who have pierced Jesus, literally, “kicked him out”, will wail on account of him.  Their wailing will occur because they will be chopped, cut down in their kingdom, because his kingdom will come and discontinue all other kingdoms!  In his justice and love, God has the first and last say. 

Before this finally occurs, you and I have access to the unhidden truth, to be unhidden, so that what we seek to hide can be bound to the cross.  We now have the freedom through Christ’s blood, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be unhidden before others, so they too can have sins bound and be sinners set free by what Jesus unhides at the cross and in the unhidden truth of his Word.

What is the truth?  Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”(John 14:6 ESV)

Even so, your kingdom come! Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Expectation"

What do you expect from this day?  We all live with expectations everyday of our lives.  What are expectations and from where do they come?  To where do they lead?  Are your expectations healthy or unhealthy?

Expectations change from person to person, from place to place, and they vary in different times of life throughout the ages.

Our expectation for a meal, a bed in which to sleep tonight, an enjoyable day amongst likeminded folk, seems reasonable to us.  But, for those in war-ravaged places perhaps these expectations would lead to disappointment, resentment, and further hopelessness.  Our expectations might be quite trivial to those whose very existence hangs in the balance! 

The expectations we place on others can differ too.  What you expect of your parents or children changes over time.  Children learn to expect parents to care for them when young, but they expect to escape from their authority when they’re teenagers and young adults!  Likewise, parents expect to care for their children when young, and our mums and dads expect to be cared for, when they grow old!

Expectations are buried in our being from the time we’re born. 

Expectations remember the past, in the present, and furnish one’s future. 

Depending on the culture into which you’re born, will usually dictate the expectations you have of others, and yourself.   What you did and do, dictates what you will do.  Enjoying what you ate encourages what you will seek to eat.  Where you live, who you serve, who serves you, who and what you trust and don’t trust are learnt expectations.

Another word for expectations is wants!  Wants or expectations are fuelled by something deep within each of us.  Examining our inner wants and expectations can tell us a lot about ourselves.  Learning of another person’s wants, or a group’s expectations, can also help us discern much about the person or group.

For example, those who expect the world to continue to evolve into a better and better place, might have an expectation of society learning from its mistakes and not making them again.  There’s an expectation of humanity cycling round and round in an ever-rising series of events towards perfection.  On the other hand, those who expect the universe to one day spiral and explode into a chaotic oblivion will have very different expectations.  Both are expectations, both are not right, but they affect how humanity acts and reacts to events and other people.

So, what or who fuels your expectations?

Are your expectations, or wants, a false god?   Are your expectations premeditated resentments?  Setting yourself up, or others, for hurt and failure?

What do you expect of God?

What does God expect of you?  You might be surprised what God expects of you, written in his Word!

What fuel’s your expectations of God, and your understanding of his expectations of you?  It depends on whether your expectations submit to the Word of God, or you try to make God submit to your expectations and wants!

Ten virgins expect the coming of the bridegroom.  In this parable Jesus says five were wise and five were foolish.  The wise were those who have considered bringing extra fuel for their lamps.  The foolish have not thought things through and don’t have extra oil to fuel their lamps.

Jesus teaches the parable to prepare us for his coming and what we should expect.  So, what is the parable of the ten virgins teaching us to expect about Jesus’ return?

At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13 ESV)  This sudden surprise is made explicit in the midst of the parable.  All ten virgins are asleep and startled when the cry comes for the bridegroom’s arrival.

Jesus previously says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”  (Matthew 24:36 ESV)  Not even Jesus knows, only the Father in heaven.  Obviously when Jesus is sent by the Father, he will know, but not beforehand.

Notice that in the parable all the virgins fall asleep, and they cannot lend their oil.  This is so, because when we fall asleep in death, what we believe and trust, is the fuel of our faith, and it’s this light that will expose us as followers of Christ.  What you believe, or what you expect when you die, cannot be changed when Christ returns.

When we think of lamps, we might assume that lamps were used to see the way.  They may have been, if the lamps were rags soaked in oil on sticks, but the parable tends to suggest a lamp that’s not a temporary torch to see the way, but a lamp made of clay with a reservoir to hold the fuel and a wick to draw the fuel and burn a flame.  Much like a candle would burn and produce a small amount of light.

This type of lamp is not for seeing the way, but for being seen.  Virgins walking in the evening moved about with lamps to illuminate their faces, so they could be plainly seen.  Women who moved around hidden within the cloak of darkness, were usually anything but virgins.  The virgins needed the fuel for their lamps, to be seen by the bridegroom on his arrival, not to see the way to the bridegroom. 

One cannot work their way to Jesus.  Just as he came the first time, he will come the second time.  We didn’t find him the first time, and neither will we find him when he returns.  What will be seen of you when he returns?

This is a key part of the parable because if one does not have the good oil, so to speak, when the bridegroom arrives, we cannot expect to bargain our way through the door of eternal life to be with Jesus.

Like the virgins who went to find oil and returned to begged to enter, Jesus also says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21, 23 ESV)

If we have an expectation that we can change our story on judgement day, Jesus clearly tells us it doesn’t work like that!  The fuel of faith we need when we die, is the fuel of doing God’s will, or what God expects and wants. 

He wants to see us waiting for him, illuminated by his presence, and not the back of us working, or changing, to get the good oil.  He wants to see the radiance and joy of our hopeful expectation in which we will enter the grave and will be woken at his coming.

So, what is this fuel?  The good oil of expectation!  It’s not an idol of our works, or a belief in a false image of God we’ve concocted in our hearts.

What is this fuel of faith that God expects to see in you?   It’s the fuelling trust in God’s Word, looking not to ourselves or finding our way to eternity.  It’s allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ’s death for our daily death of self.  This fuel of faith lets him shine his holiness in us.  So, when the Father sees us, our lamp of faith shows Jesus the bridegroom, shining for us, in his resurrection glory.

God expects you to be a sinner!  If he did not expect this, he would not have sent Jesus to be the only sacrifice for sin!  But God also expects you to be an enlightened repentant sinner, who despite knowing your sinfulness, willingly stands in his presence to confess, be forgiven, and forgive as Jesus has forgiven us in his death and resurrection.

Like the wise virgins whose faces are lit up with hope and joy at his coming, our wisdom is not so much about you or me, but about the wisdom of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working and waking us with the Word of God.

God expects us humans to have doubts and troubles with faith.  Every day you can expect the old human self will seek its resurrection.  That, you can count on without a skerrick of doubt!   This is not a time to forget the oil reserve that is being deposited in you through God’s Word. 

When you have doubts, let the eternal resurrected bridegroom pour his Word into you with the Holy Spirit.  When you doubt, bash on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to open Godly expectations of his Word in you!  When you pray, trust the Holy Spirit to give you a desire and joy in God’s Word.  When you receive God’s Word as the good oil, expect this oil to be the oil to keep your lamps burning.

God wants your greatest expectation, to be of him. 

He wants your expectation of him alone.  

He expects you, to expect him, to be your God.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 9 Proper 12 - Romans 8:37 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 "Treasured Conquerors"

Romans 8:37 (ESV) “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “your kingdom come”.   What hinders God’s kingdom from coming?  The answer to this is also prayed in the Lord’s Prayer.  We pray, for God to “lead us not into temptation”.  In other words, we pray for ourselves and for each other for God to protect us from being led into temptation, by ourselves, someone, or something else, to seek other kingdoms.

Luther tells us in his explanation to the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer that, “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven for ever.”  (Luther’s Small Catechism: Lord’s Prayer, 2^nd Petition)

Luther also demonstrates in his explanation of the sixth petition that temptations shut out God’s kingdom from coming, saying, “God tempts no one to sin, but we ask in this prayer that God would watch over us and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful self may not deceive us and draw us into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins. And we pray that even though we are so tempted we may still win the final victory.” (Luther’s Small Catechism: Lord’s Prayer, 6^th Petition)

The kingdom of heaven comes when God gives us his Holy Spirit so that the devil, the world, and our sinful selves are not led to a faith in ourselves.  A faith in the self ends in death, in vain, vainglory, or vain despair!  Those living in the ways of the world, practise a faith in the oneness of great and shameful sins, which end in despair and death.

The devil stands as the master of this world, deceiving people that they are either, too good to need help, or too bad to deserve help.  The devil, the world, and the sinful self, tempt people into isolation and opposition to God.

The parables of the kingdom of heaven calls for acute listening, measured up against the entirety of God’s Word.  They call you to pray and ponder over what Jesus is saying!  They call you to take time in the Word of God! 

The disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables, “And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”  (Matthew 13:11–13 ESV)

In Romans chapter ten we are told, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  (Romans 10:17 ESV)  So, to those who have ears to hear, what is the belief the Holy Spirit seeks to enlighten within us, from Jesus’ teaching in the parables before us today?   

The picture Jesus paints in the parable of the mustard seed is full of hyperbole to get the hearers attention. 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”  (Matthew 13:31–32 ESV)

Mustard seed is from the brassica family, the same as canola.  It shares its genus with vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, turnip, and cauliflower, to name a few.  When these vegies go to seed, the flowers displayed are yellow cross-shaped blooms, hence they are called cruciferous vegetables. 

Jesus uses hyperbole here to shake the hearer’s expectation.  These seeds are tiny, and we do not expect them to grow into trees.  The kingdom of heaven seems hidden but once the cross is planted and Jesus is lifted up, what seems small will grow greater than any human expectation. 

Even today the kingdom of heaven is somewhat hidden!  Just after hearing this parable the disciples saw Jesus feed the five thousand, leaving twelve baskets of leftovers.  Still today we do not understand how this works with only five loaves and two fish!  Yet, we believe, and, like the birds in the branches of the mustard tree, we trust we’ll be nested and rest in the kingdom of heaven eternally! 

The parable of the leaven is next.  “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”  (Matthew 13:33 ESV)

What on earth is leaven?  Today we might say yeast.  It’s the raising agent in bread!  Once when bread making was an everyday affair in the home, one would keep back some of the leavened dough to put into the bread mixture for tomorrow.  One gets a picture of succession here!  Perhaps an eternal loaf of bread being raised.  Every loaf of bread is borne of the dough from the day before.  

Elsewhere, Jesus refers to leaven negatively as an unhealthy teaching, spread by the Pharisees and Sadducees. (See Mat 16:5-12)   Paul refers to the leaven of malice and evil, needing to be lifted from amongst believers.  But not so here! 

The leaven is added to three dry measures of flour.  That’s three measures of thirteen litres, thirty-nine litres of flour, yet to rise!  That much bread dough not only overwhelms the mind, but it also makes the hearer realise Jesus is raising a point.

Like the mustard seed that produces cruciferous flowers, that grows into a tree in the parable.  So too, the leaven that’s sometimes bad, here is good leaven, that’s raised up on the tree of the cross.  And it’s placed in the flour by a woman, just as Jesus Christ is nurtured in the world by the church. 

The mustard seed and the leaven seem insignificant and hidden but becomes something great.  One is unexpected to grow so much, the other is expected to overwhelm everything!  

Such is the kingdom of heaven!  What one would have expected to end in death after the crucifixion, flowers and flourishes into eternal fruit that raises up you and me and all who believe.

This leads us to the next two parables.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”  (Matthew 13:44-46 ESV)

Many times, we’ve probably been told these parables are about what we should “do as disciples”!  But the cost of discipleship is not our cost, we cannot buy the kingdom of heaven.  Rather these two parables are about “being disciples”.

What do I mean by this?  Jesus pays the cost, and he does so because you and I are the treasure and the pearl that costs Jesus his Sonship, making us Sons of heaven, Sons of God.  It cost him his human life.  In complete selflessness he served, suffered, and died to save us from our sin.  So treasured are you as the pinnacle of God’s creation, he became weak so you would become more than conquerors despite your weakness.

To that end, we are so treasured by God, he sends the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness, to help us in our discipleship.  And even so today, as the Spirit intercedes for us with levelling groans that straighten out our prayers, they are presented to Jesus, “who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34b ESV) 

Jesus Christ treasures you so much, that through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit our prayers are joined with all those treasured of every time and every place, and are united with the eternal petitions of Jesus, our great high priest, who intercedes for us at the right hand of God, until he comes as the victorious merchant man to unveil you and me, his treasured possessions!

The parable of the dragnet is possibly the easiest of these parables to understand. 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.  When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.  So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous  and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”   (Matthew 13:47-50 ESV)

This parallels the parable of the weeds that come up in the wheat.  They too will be burned in the eternal furnace, painting a picture of suffering an eternal mental and dental living hell.  This simple parable warns the unbelieving hearer will be red flagged from the kingdom of heaven. 

Finally, Jesus asked the disciples if they understood what he was saying.  They said, “yes”.  But desertion at the cross shows they still had much to learn.

Yet they were Jesus’ apostles, his twelve baskets of treasured leftovers!  Even Judas was treasured, who in unbelief would turn and betray him!  He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13: 52 ESV)

God trained his Apostles to be the scribes of the kingdom of heaven, so having been sent you might believe the old and new treasures of his Word.  This is the death of original sin inherited in us from the old Adam and eternal life into which we’re born by the new Adam, Jesus Christ. 

Having receive these treasures of the kingdom of heaven, we who are treasured are given the Holy Spirit.  He gives us relief as he leads us to repent, and belief in knowing we are being loved by God. 

The kingdom of heaven is Jesus’ victory for you.  He treasures you so much he makes you more than conquerors!  Those who have ears, let them hear!  Amen.

A, Easter 7 - Acts 1:6–8 & John 17:11 "Jacob and the New Israel"

Acts 1:6–8 (ESV) “So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

John 17:11 (ESV) Jesus prayed to our Father, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Just prior to Jesus’ ascension, the apostles ask Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 ESV)

Will Israel be restored?  It all depends on what one means by “Israel”! 

The father of Israel is Jacob, the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham.  Jacob received the new name of Israel, when he struggled with God at the Jabbok. 

Jacob is one of the great scoundrels of the bible.  The Hebrew definition of his name is “heel grabber”.  In short, Jacob was a heel of a man!  He was born a sly trickster, holding onto Esau’s heel.  After he grew up, he and his mother Rebekah worked a plan to deceive Isaac.   To trick him into passing Esau’s birthright onto him. 

Jacob gets the birthright but has to flee to his in-laws to escape Esau’s wrath.  He marries Laban’s two daughters, Leah, and Rachel.  He works for Laban for fourteen years but deviously devises a way to get the strongest of Laban’s sheep.  So, Jacob has to flee from Laban too.

Jacob is literally between a rock and a hard face.  Fleeing from Laban back to his father’s home from where he fled for stealing Esau’s birthright.  As Esau approaches, Jacob puts a buffer between himself and Esau.  He sends drove after drove of animal gifts to appease Esau.  Then he sent his wives and children, ahead of him, across the Jabbok.  No courageous leadership here, as Jacob stays alone to see what happens to his flocks, wives and children.

It's here Jacob wrestles with God till dawn.  It appears Jacob’s shrewdness has finally caught up with him.  One would expect this heel of a man to get what he deserves, having deceived others, now coming face to face with God.  But no!  As they wrestle, Jacob realises it is not just a man with whom he struggles.

“When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.  Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”  Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.  So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”  The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.”  (Genesis 32:25–31 ESV)

Jacob the scoundrel, the heel of a man who fought with his family and struggled with God, is spared from death, and given the name Israel.  His children became the twelve tribes of Israel, and God continued to struggle with Israel, the children of Jacob.

From Jacob and his sons, the kingdom of Israel came to be.  The high point of the kingdom was in the reign of David and his son Solomon.  At this time the kingdom hit its peak in power, annexing land from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River.  The Kingdom not only was at its pinnacle politically but also religiously with the building of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

Most likely, it was the hope of political power behind the question of Israel’s restoration.  The apostles, like many of their era, yearned for “the good old days” of Israel’s supremacy under David and Solomon.

However, the supremacy of Israel was made complete in Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father.  This was the completion of Jesus’ holy coronation.   God’s Kingdom of Heaven came to humanity in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Born into his kingdom in the unlikely place of Bethlehem and laid in a manger. 

Jesus’ coronation began in his march to the cross, being lifted up as the King of the Jews outside Jerusalem.  After his resurrection from death, Jesus’ coronation was made complete at his ascension as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, being not only King of the Jews, but the King of Creation.

We now live in this victory.  Jesus has supreme authority in heaven.  The only place this has not been fully realised is in the created realm.  The devil has been eternally beaten, but he still has limited power in creation.  He knows he is beaten but he also knows he has limited time before Jesus returns, so he is determined to deceive and lead astray as many as possible.

Jesus said to his apostles, and he says to us, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”    We don’t know when the fullness of time will arrive for Jesus’ return.  But what we do know is he is the King and Fullness of Israel.

The man who fought with Jacob at the Jabbok, should have taken Jacob’s life.  But Jacob the heel of a man, a devil of a deceiver, was spared.   The man that fought with Jacob, was God, and we know that only God the Son could allow sinful man to struggle with him and not die as a result.  Jesus struggled with Jacob and bore all of Jacob’s sin on the cross.  It was Jesus who died, and Jacob walked away with a limp.

Jacob received the name of Israel, after struggling with God.  At the cross the struggle was completed, and Jesus Christ became the new Israel.  He overcame God’s struggle with Israel by becoming what Israel or Jacob could not be.

Before he finished this work on the cross, he prayed, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11 ESV)

Here Jesus prayed for the apostles.  The apostles, and all believers, have been grafted into the kingdom of Israel through the Sonship of Jesus Christ.  We now live, waiting for Jesus’ return, knowing he is the King of Creation, and the prince of this world’s time is coming to an end.  The devil roams and roars because he knows he is beaten!

To keep us in the oneness of the Father and the Son, the congregation of Jesus’ believers are given the Holy Spirit, to which the apostles were called to wait.  Once the Spirit was given at Pentecost, the book of Acts reports the apostles’ Holy Spirited witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The Apostolic witness continues today as the Holy Spirit continues to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify those who have been brought into the oneness of Jesus Christ and the Father.  Jesus is now the oneness of Israel’s and humanity’s access to our Father.  In fact, his High Priestly prayer continues before the Father in heaven as the Holy Spirit works to protect us from the devil, the prince of this world, with the blood of Jesus, until he, the King of Kings, returns to bring us into the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.  Amen.