C, The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany - Luke 6:17-26 "Word of Comfort"

Jesus is proclaimed from the mountains to the plains.  The comfort of his proclamation is this: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25 ESV) He says these words to Martha whose brother Lazarus had died some days before.

For us who are being saved in these days of death, before us are blessings and curses.  In a nutshell we are told: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” And, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5&7 ESV)

Psalm One parallels these words of Jeremiah, speaking of the fruit of the blessed, and the wicked or cursed as being chaff, saying “the wicked will not stand in the judgement”! (Psalm 1:5 ESV)

The power of Jesus healed the diseases and touched the hearts of those with unclean spirits, at the “level place”.  What he then preaches is essentially the same he said at the sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. 

Matthews Gospel was originally intended to be a catechism for Jewish believers, who would have remembered the proclamation of blessings and curses commanded by Moses, for Joshua and the Israelites to speak the blessings from Mount Gerizim and the curses from Mount Ebal. (Please read Deuteronomy 11:26-29, 27:1-26, Joshua 8:30-35)  So, the Jewish hearers and readers who understood what God was doing through Moses and Joshua would have found great comfort in Matthew’s  Gospel account of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”.  

But at the sermon on the plain here in Luke’s Gospel there’s a wider audience as we’ve heard.  Disciples, Jews from Judea and Jerusalem, and Gentiles from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon hear Jesus proclaim not just the blessings of the sermon on the mount but also the woes or curses. 

Now in this level place, Jesus levels the playing field between the Jews who knew the Law.  The blessings and curses of God made known on the mountains of God, are now plainly set before Jews and Gentile.  Jesus flatly addresses all the discomforts and comforts to all humanity on level ground from the word of God for the first time.   The word of God has descended from the mountain and the Jews, to the plain for the Gentiles too!

Then, all those troubled by unclean spirits heard him, and those with diseases were healed by him.  But he lifts up his eyes to address his disciples.  These are the twelve disciples whom he had just set apart as apostles, together with many other disciples who followed him.  Also in his hearing are other Jews, but furthermore the Gentile Phoenicians from the coastal areas of Tyre and Sidon hear him too.

But with all these present, it’s to his disciples he says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.  But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.  Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:20–26 ESV)

Are these comforting words?  How do you see those who were healed receiving these words?  As comfort or discomfort?  How do you think the disciples received them?  Jesus levels the playing field with his word of balance, his word of blessing and woe!

But it’s to you Jesus asks: Are you comforted by being poor, and discomforted by being rich?  Are you satisfied by being hungry, and discomforted by being full?  Are your tears comforting, and your laughter in these days of death discomforting?  Are you comforted by being hated, and treated as evil because you believe Jesus, and his word?  And are you discomforted by those who say nice things about you but hate Jesus’ word?

Are you blessed by your comforts this side of the resurrection, or blessed by the promised comforts coming after the resurrection?  Are you cursed and in despair by your comforts this side of the resurrection, or will you be cursed and in despair afterwards?

Jesus’ Word is the great levelling field!  In fact, Jesus himself is the great leveller!  He gives blessed balance to our existence calling out the comforts that need to be named as idols.  But he also shows us the true comfort we can have in him, despite knowing our existence, now, is broken. 

Your being was never meant to be dying.  Jesus teaches he is the way, the truth, and the life.  The Word of God reveals that human existence begins by being born only to be delivered into death, but through Jesus’ death and resurrection your being can continue forever with life!  Surely that is our comfort in this world of discomfort.

We have just sung: “Comfort, comfort all my people with the comfort of my Word. Speak it tender to my people: All your sins are taken away.”

Our sins are taken away!  That should be a comfort for us!  Why?  Because now we can focus on the true comforts of God’s kingdom.  However, using the forgiveness of sins to carry on in our own comforts that teach us to turn from God to selfishness, and the creation of our own kingdoms of idols to worship instead of God, is not what God intends for us. 

You and I are reminded of this in the woes with which Jesus balances the Jews and Gentiles at his sermon on the plain.  As God the Father did with the Jews at Mount Sinai and at Mount Ebal when they entered Canaan.  Jesus continues to balance us with the reality of blessings and woes today, as we’re moved over the mountains of our suffering and across the vast plains of temptation towards our resurrection, being led in the comfort of Jesus’ way, truth, and life.

Yet, we hear the true nature of our existence after Jeremiah tells us we are cursed by trusting ourselves, over against the blessing we receive in trusting God.  He says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”  (Jeremiah 17:9–10 ESV)

With our hearts being desperately sick, is there any comfort for us, is there any consolation from the blessings we hear and receive from Jesus and the Word of God?  Some might hear Jesus say, “…woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:24 ESV)  And think, “My riches in this existence of suffering and death are the only consolation or comfort I can attain. I just can’t do what Jesus requires of me, even now that my sins are taken away.  Therefore, many are deceived into returning to the comforts of one’s self-seeking pleasures. 

Or, on hearing the blessings of being poor, hungry, weeping, and being hated, they’re too much to add to the suffering and death of our human existence!  So, there’s a temptation to reject these blessings as just nice sentiment.  But sentiment doesn’t have any eternal substance!  One quickly finds themself impatiently returning to pursue the passing pleasures of the heart, believing God’s word insufficient to console and comfort.

If Jesus was to just leave us with his word of comfort, for us to figure out his way, his truth, and his life, without any help, his word would end up being a discomfort to us.  But he doesn’t leave us to our own devices.  Jesus comforts us with a Comforter!

He has led us out of ourselves, and he continues to do so today.  Right from the Early Church era, after Saul became a believer, and became known as Paul, we hear, “…the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”  (Acts 9:31 ESV)

In John fourteen Jesus tells us he has left us the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter; our Helper.  The Holy Spirit helps us in the comfort that, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

Like Simeon who waited his whole life for the consolation of Israel in the birth of the Messiah, now that Jesus has come, has been crucified and has been raised from the dead, we too wait for the consolation of Christianity in the comforting promise of Jesus Christ’s second coming.  

The Holy Spirit comforts us in his work of faith building.  He does this, with ongoing forgiveness, to make us God’s holy people, with the work of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and his word and sacraments.

The Holy Spirit now wages war with the human self within each of us.  He seeks to hinder and stop the old human nature from resurrecting itself and re-creating its idols of comfort and recreation.  He’s sent to comfort and console, and to level us with God’s Word, so we’re easily led to Jesus Christ.   The Holy Spirit works within, so we believe and receive the comforts of Jesus’ Word. 

The Holy Spirit seeks to comfort you with the implanted word that Jesus is the resurrection, but he’s also the re-creation and recreation of life, right now!  That believing in him, although you die, you shall seek, and one day live in, the kingdom of God.  Amen. 

B, Post Pentecost 18 Proper 20 - Mark 9:35 "Wisdom in the Wind"

Mark 9:35 (ESV) “And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’ ”

Imagine you are walking in the dark.  Your light is fragile, a candlelight, a burning wick, that’s easily snuffed out.  It’s not a battery-driven, weather-proof torch that continues to burn after taking a beating, dropped in the mud, submerged in water.  No! It’s a flame that requires three things in perfect balance to exist: oxygen, heat, and fuel.

The fuel is the wax of the candle, or the oil in the reservoir.  Oxygen too is needed, but not too much, especially with such a small flame!  And heat is the third.  But because the flame is so small and its heating qualities are limited, too much oxygen, too much air, will take the heat away in an instant and the flame is out, and the light is gone.

Now imagine you are walking in the dark, in a raging windstorm, just before the rain comes pouring down, or perhaps near the ocean where the waves are whipped up by the winds and freezing salt spray is soaking everything.  How do you keep your wick burning.  You have oil in your lamp; to light the way, how do you keep it burning?

In ages past various devices have been designed to protect the wick from the wind.  Glass was typical, or a metal mesh scrim was used to diffuse the air and protect the flame.  How fortunate we are today to have torches that recharge with electronic light sources such as bulbs or LEDs (light emitting diodes)! 

Nevertheless, a fragile flame in the wind is a good picture for understanding ourselves and our faith.  Our faith flickers in fragile vessels as we face furores along the way of life.  What sustains the flame of faith within, so we might withstand the day of judgement, and not be blown away like chaff in a windstorm?

You all know the answer is Jesus Christ!  He sustains the flame of faith within, so we might not be blown away in the wild storms of life and death.  But to our continual surprise, how Jesus sustains the flame of faith is contrary to human thinking, it’s opposite to human modes of operation, what we do and how we react, and Jesus’ way is the reverse of what we’re taught by the world.

Jesus was born into the fragile frame of humanity.  And within that frame he bore the same fragile flame, as do we all. 

James speaks of the qualities with which we should operate.  These are ultimately the qualities of Christ.  James asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” (James 3:13 ESV)

Meekness of wisdom or wisdom born in meekness is a quality misunderstood by most.  Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5 ESV) The modus operandi of the world is to put meekness aside in favour of assertiveness, self-confidence, and boldness as individuals and collectively with mob mentality!

But the structure with which the world operates is contrary to what Christ Jesus brought on behalf of God the Father, and how it was enacted and empowered, when he put aside the privilege of his divinity, humbled his spirit, was compelled by the Holy Spirit, and ultimately gave up his human spirit on the cross.  Within Jesus’ meekness was a wisdom far above the works of any other person.

When James asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” The answer is Jesus, and not me!

Yet what we find when the storms of life threaten the fragile flame within, our worldly way turns on the gas of the old Adam within, and the pilot light of Christ gives way to the heat of our fiery passions and pride.  And rather than being protected from the storms we face, we engage with frenzied force adding to the faithless fracases of the world.

We hear from James, “if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”  (James 3:14–15 ESV)

Our jealousy and selfish ambitions are no match against God, since “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? (James 4:5 ESV)

So jealous is God our Father over you, he sent Jesus to be the “blessed one”.  Jesus is the blessed one of the Psalms and is the blessed man introduced to us in Psalm one.  He is blessed or balanced in a way fulfilled by no other person.  His way is the blessed way, he does not walk with the wicked, he does not stand in the ways of sinners, nor does he sit to join with the scoffers.

However, Jesus who delights in the law of God, sits with sinners to teach them God’s way, he does not stand in the way of sinners, but he stood for all sinners on the cross, having walked the way of the cross. 

In meekness and humility, he took what was earthly, unspiritual, demonic, on himself on the cross and gives you what the world cannot.  He allowed his separation from the Father and the Holy Spirit and descended into hell, so we no longer have to go there, or be separated from God.  But in the wisdom of his meekness, he won victory over death. 

When Jesus sat down with the twelve disciples, he sat down with sinners, not to join them in their sin but to teach them the way of the cross.  Their lesson was a bitter lesson learnt.  They were the first to learn through their bitterness when they deserted Jesus at the cross.  Yet eleven of them were reinstated in the forgiveness they received, and the blessing Jesus bestowed on them when he breathed the Holy Spirit on them.

They were the first to learn the lesson, and the lesson continues for us, through the bitter experience of sins exposed by God’s Word of Law.  But the blessed reinstatement continues too, with the breath of the Holy Spirit keeping the flame of faith burning, so we receive and believe the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus sat down to serve sinners, to balance us with his blessedness, to straighten our crooked ways with his blessedness.  He took his stand and hung on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin, and he walked the way of the cross for your salvation.  Jesus’ meekness led him through death to the resurrection. This was a meekness that allowed his flame to be snuffed out.  But the wisdom in his meekness meant death had no control over him.  He could not stay dead!  This wisdom is meek, but it’s servanthood contrary to the ways of the world, you and me, who daily struggle to allow the Holy Spirit deal with the pride and passions of the old sinful spiritual self. 

The world does not understand what Jesus teaches you and me.  That, “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”  In fact, Jesus is the only one who understands this in a practical way, having willingly experienced not just meekness, but the weakness of death, to be last of all and servant of all.  Having done so, he is the firstborn of the dead, the glorified head of the church.  Even so, he continues to serve us now, interceding for us before our Father in heaven.

Unlike the world, the church lives under a servanthood structure.  Where structures in the world are triangular with the base at the bottom, where servants serve the person at the pinnacle, the pinnacle of the church is on the bottom and serves the base at the top. 

Undergirding this upside-down triangle is the Trinity that bears the church.  The upside-down pinnacle of the church is balanced on the cross of Jesus’ death and resurrection that connects it with the Triune God.

This balance defies all human pride and passions that struggles under the folly of the world’s frenzied faithlessness.  This balance and level in the church comes from Christ who balances our frailty and fragility with his wisdom won through being the eternally begotten firstborn of creation. But also, because he is the Servant Head of the church, the firstborn of the dead (Colossians 1:15-20).

You now have this wisdom within.  Despite the fragility of your frame, within is Jesus’ faithful flame, that has not only weathered the storm but has conquered the raging storm of death so you can take you stand, straight and balanced in Christ, anchored in his blessed wisdom in the wild windstorms of life and death.  Amen.     

B, Easter 7 - John 17:17-19, Psalm 1 "Truly Sanctified"

John 17:17–19 (ESV) Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus prays to our Father in heaven, “Sanctify them in the truth: your word is truth.”  These words are familiar to our ears because many pastors begin their sermons by also praying, “Sanctify us in the truth: your word is truth.”  What is it to be sanctified in the truth?

Another way of saying “sanctify” is “to make holy”!  We can view holiness in two parts to understand what being made holy, or sanctified, is and does!  First there is the practical conception of being cleansed.  Second, when a person is cleansed, they are set apart.  Like cleaning the dishes or washing the clothes and then keeping them separate from that which is dirty.

But being sanctified is much more than just being clean!  Cleanness in our world is common.  Many things are clean and common but are still not holy or sanctified.  Many common things can also be dirty or are desecrated and defiled.  But what Jesus prays for, here in John chapter seventeen, is the common holy perfection that is found in God alone.

The holiness to which Jesus seeks for those he prays is a holiness that separates people from the common cleanliness and goodness of the world.  After all, how good is good enough for God?

The first we hear of holiness in the bible is in Genesis chapter two, where after God worked the creation of the world in six days, he set aside the seventh day as a holy day of rest.  This is where we get the word holiday; God created the sabbath holy day once a week, so we might stop or sabbath from working, to rest with him. 

God’s original intention was for his holy created humans to stop and recognise God above all that he created.  Or to put more simply, to see him as holy and the source of true holiness.

The first Psalm of one hundred and fifty Psalms, is divided into five books and parallels the five books of the Law (Genesis – Deuteronomy).  As the first Psalm it paints a foundational picture of God’s judgement, discerning what separates true holiness from what is not holy in God’s eyes.  We hear…

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1–6 ESV)

This Psalm gives a picture of a man who neither walks, stands, nor sits with those God sees as wrong, guilty, and contrary scoffers.  Instead of being caught up in their ways, this man delights in God’s law and ponders it day and night.  It likens him to a tree planted by a stream.   Here we need to understand in the Middle Eastern context, this is a date palm in the desert with its roots receiving life from a stream of water.  Date palms are evergreen trees, and their fruit is “the sugar” of the Middle East.

Against this, God pictures those who walk the wrong way forward, as chaff that’s blown away!  Those who stand unrepentant with the guiltiness of sinners, will not survive judgement!  Or those who scoff, with contrary teaching, will not be a part of the righteous congregation!

Why?  Because God knows the way of the righteous, as the only way forward, the only sanctified way, because it is his way!  However, the wrong way forward, the way without the word of God, is a wicked way and it will perish with those who persist in following it!

So, who is this man who doesn’t walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers?  Why does it have to be a man?  It has to be a man because the man is Jesus Christ!  All other men, women, and children are not set apart as Jesus Christ is set apart, clean as Christ is clean, perfect as Christ is perfect.

As we have heard in John chapter seventeen, Jesus prays to the Father, “I consecrate myself”. No one else can do this!  No man!  No woman!  No child!  Those who think they can consecrate themselves, or make themselves holy these days, reveals the fruit of their foolishness sooner or later.  Like chaff they are blown away and do not endure.  Like a deciduous tree they not only lose their leaves, but they fall over dead, and are used as fuel for the fire.

But Jesus does not consecrate himself for vainglory, he does it for us!  He says, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Jesus does this for those who know the truth in every sense of the word “truth” and God’s word.  Jesus is not just the word made flesh, he is the Word of God set apart in flesh, set apart from all other flesh!  Jesus is the word made flesh, to also reveal the truth of all flesh, all men, women, and children!

The irony of Jesus’ life on earth is he dwelt in the flesh with sinful humanity, but he did not walk, stand, or sit in our ways.  Jesus was set apart for a very different way, the only way forward!

Jesus sets himself apart from all other ways of walking, sitting, and standing, to take up his position on the cross.  When John heard Jesus pray the prayer of chapter seventeen, just before he was crucified, he and the other disciples would not have understood what this self-consecration was.  But later they knew this consecration was the fulfilment of God’s word, to fill them and all believers with the joy that was in him, which led him to the cross for us!

At the cross a truly profound thing occurs!  The blessedness of the man Jesus Christ, who consecrates himself, who does not walk, stand, or sit in the counsel of the wicked, is crucified for those who know and confess the truth, that they are not like him but fail with wayward walking, standing, and sitting. 

At the cross the truth of what is hidden is unhidden in the perfect flesh of Jesus Christ. 

At the cross the truth of our unhidden unholiness, our being set apart from God as his enemy, is covered by the holiness of Christ’s perfect flesh and sinless blood.

We are sanctified, made holy, in the truth of Jesus Christ because he is the Word of God, and he is truth in every sense of the word “truth” and the Word of God!

In the New Testament the Greek word for truth is, “what is not hidden”.  At the cross Jesus does just that, he exposes in his wretched crucified body, he takes what is hidden in humanity and makes it public! 

The Old Testament Hebrew for truth is, “Amen.”  The “ truth” work of Jesus Christ’s consecration or setting himself apart as our sin, and exchanging it for his sinless perfection, is truly our Amen!  This is the great “yes” of Jesus’ joy, our joy, and that of our Father.  This is the end of our way forward!

Jesus sanctifies us in his words of repentance and forgiveness of sin in calling us to believe his work at the cross.  Just as Jesus was sent into the world by God the Father, he sends all of you into the world as his learners, as his disciples, made holy, sanctified, set apart to carry Jesus Christ and his cross before others.

The truth of the matter, the great Amen of Jesus’ prayer on earth, is he is now at the right hand of our Father, interceding on our behalf, so we allow the Holy Spirit to make him visible with his word in us.  But also to make his crucifixion consecration visible for others to repent and be forgiven as we are!  Jesus’ sanctified way in his word is the only way forward!  Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, even though the cross reveals us as sinners, thankyou for covering our sin at the cross, so we can walk, stand, and sit, before God our Father, to continually confess our sin.  Thankyou for also sending the Holy Spirit, to set us apart as holy in your work at the cross, to receive life-giving faith, in your Holy Word and Holy Sacraments.  Amen. 

C, Epiphany 6 - All RCL Readings "A Level Playing Field"

Jeremiah 17:5–10  Psalm 1:1–6  1 Corinthians 15:12–20   Luke 6:17–26

The Gospel reading before us today is Luke’s parallel to the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew Chapter five.  Luke however begins by saying, “Jesus came down and stood on a level place”, which here in Luke is why it earns the name, “Sermon on the Plain”.

Jesus had just chosen the twelve disciples, or twelve learners, on the mountain and coming down from doing this, teaches the crowd together with the disciples.

As Matthews Gospel records, Jesus teaches not just Judeans and folk who had come from Jerusalem, but also Gentiles too.  The Gentiles he mentions in his account are from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, this is the region of Southern Lebanon today.

Although the locations seem different between the two accounts, the material Jesus teaches is the same.  He teaches what it is to be blessed.  And it is where we get the name Beatitudes, as beatus is the Medieval Latin word for blessed.

However, Luke also adds a parallel list of woes.  Four blessings are counted by four woes, whereas in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount there are nine blessings.  These are the four in parallel…

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.”

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”  “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” 

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”   “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

After the Israelites crossed over the Jordan into Canaan, the land of milk and honey, Joshua led the Israelites, proclaiming blessings and curses from Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal, as Moses had commanded them to do beforehand.  (See Deuteronomy 27-28, Joshua 8:30-35)  

Jesus is the new Joshua announcing blessings and woes.  We know Joshua and his generation died.  Following him, came Judges in Israel who were called to lead the Israelites out of their curses back into the blessings of God.  Unlike Joshua, after Jesus died, he was raised in glory.  In fact, Joshua, like all who die, waits in hope for his resurrection blessing through Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks on the blessings of Jesus’ resurrection and mirrors that against, “if Christ was not raised from the dead”.  If Jesus did not die or was not raised from death, Paul says our faith is vain and futile.  We would be still in our sins.  In other words, we would be the most cursed of all cursed to walk the earth, having falsely trusted and testified about God.

However, we are blessed because Jesus Christ has risen in power over our sin and death.  This blessing was begun in us when we were baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  So, what do these “woes” have to do with us now that we are baptised into Jesus’ death.

Jesus’ death has everything to do with our woes!  Just as much as his death and resurrection has everything to do with our blessedness!

In fact, Jesus becomes cursed for us, and we receive his blessedness.  Our sinfulness is hung on him on the cross.  A completely desolate, destitute, and deserted Jesus Christ descended into hell in our place.  But, because he was without sin in himself, but selflessly bore our sin according to the will of God the Father, he was raised and has received all the blessings of the first-born Son of God.

Unlike Jesus, we are still journeying through this life.  We live with the hope of our resurrection, but also with the reality of the curse and its woes.  These have been with humanity since Adam and Eve turned from God to the desolation of life without fear in God, without trust in God, and with all love directed inward, towards both one’s good and evil desires.

Just as those from the coastal plains of Tyre and Sidon, as well as those from the hill country of Judea and Jerusalem were taught together with the disciples by Jesus, he levels the playing field with us too.  He levelled the playing field for Jews and Gentiles who heard the same plain message at the Sermon on the plain.

Today it’s still relevant for all believers and unbelievers, pagans, and people of all religious persuasions, and Christendom too.  We all face the droughts of life and the final desolation of life in death.

All of us face the “Blessings and Woes” of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.  For those not in Jesus Christ the woes and blessing are an inexplicable riddle or a cruel twist of fate in which one lives.  No matter how much good one strives to accomplish, the result is the evil of death.

However, for Christians guided in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit gives plain and simple understanding, in the curses and blessings of us living with the curse of sin and our deeds of sin, and at the same time as living with the blessedness of forgiveness that covers sin. 

As the psalmist says in Psalm 32, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.  For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.  [Selah]  I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.  [Selah]” (Psalm 32:1–5 ESV)

The Holy Spirit wills us to confess our sins to God.  We acknowledge the poverty in our life and receive the wealth of God’s blessing in Jesus Christ.  For now, it is held in faith and in the hope of the dissolution and death of all life sources other than Jesus’ resurrection.

So too, the death and resurrection of our hunger and fullness, our weeping and laughter, and our exclusion as evil as well as the perverted goodness in pleasures and popularity.

Jesus is like the weed and feed we buy to hose our lawns.  He kills the weeds and feeds our faith in the weary walk through the drought-stricken desolate deadliness of our days we spend here on earth. 

This is not about bringing down the tall poppies around us and making us better than our neighbour.  No!  It’s about the weeding and feeding within each of us, so we all grow together, healthy, and strong.  Like a healthy lawn pleasing the gardener, who has gone to the effort of painstakingly weeding and feeding it.

Jeremiah warns those of us who trust one’s own strength to feed and fertilise themselves.  Those who do, kill themselves with the salts they seek within themselves.   He cautions, “He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”  (Jeremiah 17:6 ESV)

But those who live in the drought-stricken desolate deadliness of our days are called to be weeded and fed in the solution of God’s salvation. 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:7–10 ESV)

God is making desolate the weeds of our sin with his forgiveness in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The wickedness of our sin is being levelled in God’s judgement, poured out on Jesus.  We now live on the splendour of Jesus’ holy faithfulness that led him through death into life with our Heavenly Father.

God knows the way of the righteous because the Holy Spirit continues to destroy your wickedness and make you holy and righteous in Jesus Christ.  Therefore, God knows you better than you even know yourself. 

You have heard him and are being healed from this life’s disease!  Your unclean human spirit, which causes trouble in this life, is being cured of the curse and is being blessed in the body of Christ.  Amen.