A, Post-Pentecost 13 Proper 16 - Matthew 16:13-20 "Son of the Living God"

Living post-resurrection, we lose the enormity of Peter’s confession that Jesus of Nazareth is both the Son of God and the Christ.  In our ears we hear Jesus, Christ, and Son of God as a synonymous confession of the same man, and rightly so!

But to understand the magnitude of what Peter confesses we need to realise in that in his day Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, and Son of God were not perceived as one and the same person.  In fact, one claiming someone as the Son of God was considered as blasphemy!  It is only after the resurrection that confession of Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God became one in the Early Church.  Judaism still considers this to be blasphemy.

In Matthew’s Gospel it is the devil who’s recorded as first addressing Jesus as the Son of God.   Twice he temps Jesus, saying, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” (Matthew 4:3 ESV) 

And second, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”(Matthew 4:6 ESV)

If the devil, who succeeded in tempting the first man, Adam, into sin, can succeed in tempting the Son of God, born as the Son of Man, to put right the sin of the first man, then he would have been able to stop God’s plan of salvation for humanity.

But Jesus who his both Son of Man and Son of God, is not tempted into sin despite being hungry and humiliated by the devil.  “If” Jesus is the Son of God, is not even a matter for question.  Not, “if” He is the Son of God, rather, Jesus “is” the Son of God, born to be the Son of Man.

Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man.  It’s only recorded in John’s Gospel that Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of God.  The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) very deliberately record others as confessing him as Son of God.

The title Son of Man is a term from the Old Testament, first used by Balaam when God gave him his word to respond to Balak.  God says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?  Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.” (Numbers 23:19–20 ESV)

Job is told by Bildad the Shuhite, “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.  Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;  how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”  (Job 25: 2,5–6 ESV)

In Psalm eight which is taken up in Hebrews chapter two we hear, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?  You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour,  putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”  (Hebrews 2:6–8 ESV)

In addition to this, Ezekiel is named “son of man” as he is called to serve both the Israelites and gentiles with prophecy.  God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”  And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.  And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.” (Ezekiel 2:1–3 ESV)

If we ponder the first son of man, we think of Cain.  Adam and Eve expected Cain to be the great successor who would crush the serpent under his heel, but he wasn’t!  Instead like Adam, Cain was driven out by God after he killed Abel. 

Interestingly, Cain and Abel are not named as sons, even though they were sons of Adam and Eve.  But it is only Seth who is named son.  We hear, “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”  (Genesis 4:25 ESV)

And again, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”  (Genesis 5:3 ESV)

Seth was the substitute for Cain and Abel, and it is through him that God would substitute the sin of Adam with the righteousness of the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, for us all.

Jesus is the Son of Man as the fulfilment of what Daniel saw in a vision, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.  And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13–14 ESV)

Jesus came as the Son of Man, to serve man as a son serves his father and family.   For Jesus to do this he had to put his divinity aside to serve as we are told in Philippians two, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:6–8 ESV)

Jesus’ servanthood is one of peacemaking.  At the Sermon on the Mount he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  (Matthew 5:9 ESV)

As with all the beatitudes they are fulfilled in the servanthood of Jesus, the Son of Man, who became poor in spirit and was persecuted for righteousness’ sake so we could have the kingdom of heaven.  Who mourned over sin that we could be comforted, who became meek in order that we inherit a new earth, who hungered and thirsted for our righteousness, to satisfy God’s requirement of righteousness.  And who made peace being the servant Son of Man, so we can be called sons of God.

But all this was yet to happen at the cross.  Peter and all the other disciples had witnessed the demons in Legion cry out to Jesus, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?  Have you come here to torment us before the time?”  (Matthew 8:29 ESV)

It took two turbulent trips across the Sea of Galilee, feeding the five thousand, healings, and being sent out as apostles, for the disciples to see the unhidden truth and confess Jesus as the Son of God.

But now, in the text for today, Jesus askes the disciples who the Son of Man is?   Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  (Matthew 16:16 ESV)  He says this after the other disciples tell Jesus who others think he is. 

But Peter has not learnt this from others, nor from within himself, but from God.  Jesus says to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17 ESV)

It is God the Father himself who has led Peter to confess Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, as the Christ, and as the Son of the living God.  The Living Father brings about a living confession from Peter, that hidden within Jesus of Nazareth, is the living Christ and Son of God.

In next week’s Gospel reading we hear how Peter’s confession from God the Father is replaced by his rebuke when the Son of the Living God tells the disciples he will be made21` Christ through his death and resurrection.

Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ anointed to serve humanity as the Son of Man, humiliated as if he was a maggot or the worm of humanity.  In this three-fold role he is our living sacrifice, resurrected from the dead.  He did not lie; he did not change his mind; he fulfilled what he was sent to do on the cross!  Now raised in victory over his sinless death, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.”  (Philippians 2:9 ESV)

Paul says we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, not to be conformed to the world.  How do we do this?

Just as Peter’s confession was not of his own, our service as living sacrifices is not of our own.  Our work of living as a sacrifice is anchored in Jesus Christ, our Living Sacrifice.  He put his divinity aside and was carried along by the Holy Spirit who rested on him in his baptism.  For us to be living sacrifices for him, we too need the Holy Spirit, so we can have our sinful nature put aside and substituted for a new spirit, a spirit that trusts in Jesus despite the cost.

We now live and move and have our being because Jesus of Nazareth is the resurrected Christ, the living Son of God.  Now that we are sons of God through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have freedom to be servants of humanity, serving others with forgiveness and confession of, how and what God has forgiven us.  Amen.

Sermon Summary
This sermon reflects on Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and shows how remarkable that confession was before the resurrection. It traces the titles “Son of Man” and “Son of God” through Scripture, showing that Jesus is both truly human and truly divine: the promised Son of Man who serves, suffers, and fulfils God’s saving purposes, and the Son of God who overcomes temptation, sin, death, and the devil.

Peter’s confession is not produced by human insight but revealed by the Father. In the same way, Christian faith and service do not arise from our own strength. Because Jesus humbled himself as the servant Son of Man and was raised as the living Son of God, believers are made sons of God through him and are freed to live as servants of others, offering themselves as living sacrifices through the work of the Holy Spirit.

1.   Reflection Questions

1. Why is Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” so significant in its original context?
2. How does understanding Jesus as both Son of Man and Son of God deepen your understanding of his saving work?
3. What does Jesus’ resistance to the devil’s temptations reveal about his identity and mission?
4. In what ways does Jesus fulfil the Old Testament hopes connected with the “son of man”?
5. How does Jesus’ humility and servanthood in Philippians 2 shape the way we understand Christian service?
6. Peter’s confession was revealed by the Father rather than discovered by human wisdom. How does this encourage humility in faith?
7. What does it mean for you to present your body as a living sacrifice, anchored in Christ’s living sacrifice?
8. Where might the Holy Spirit be calling you to put aside your sinful nature and trust Jesus despite the cost?
9. How can being made a son or daughter of God through Christ free you to serve others with forgiveness?
10. What confession of Christ do your words and actions make before others?

C, Holy Trinity - Psalm 8 "God's Majestic Name"

Standing under an evening sky, with no light pollution from cities, is a wonder to behold.  To see the stars in the sky and know that many of them are so large, it would make our sun appear like a speck of dust, if they were alongside each other, makes the mind boggle.  Yet these massive stars join with all the other heavenly beings, to fill the darkened sky as microscopic pinpricks of light in the heavenly curtain of darkness.  As we stand and see their tiny lights radiating towards us, it blows the mind that the light we see now, has been in transit from that star, for years, lightyears. Arriving just now from the era when God created the heavens and the earth. 

But greater than the night sky is God in his magnitude, but also in the minute detail of something so massive and eternal.  We hear that God’s glory is still bigger!  We join with King David, the Psalmist, in contemplating his eternal question, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1 ESV) David literally says, “O I AM, our ruler!”  The Existing One, is our keeper!  His majesty is immeasurably wide.  But, despite this, David realises we have access to him by simply calling on his name, “Yahweh”, which is “I AM”, I exist!  And furthermore, the glory of his name is greater the heavens!

As a child, on the farm, there were times when I would look at the majestic twilight sky and try to imagine the width and length of eternity.  I stared into the orange light, the cloud tails, and the fading into blue darkness with stars beginning to appear.  No matter what distance I could imagine.  I was in awe that my imaginings, were just that imaginings, only the beginnings, insignificant, terribly shortsighted, and childish.

King David reflects, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” (Psalm 8:2 ESV)

One might think that my childish imaginings are still greater than the cooing and garbled words of babies and infants.  Yet, I am reminded, that before I could imagine and ponder, while I was still an infant totally dependent on my mother, God had set in place strength that stops his enemies or haters, his foes or those who are cramped by him, and the avenger or those who carry a grudge against him.

What is made clear by God to David and us, is that the Almighty, works completely contrary to our intellect and what we imagine to be strength.

It’s at this point David and all of us remember that we’re the babies and infants of Adam.  Imbedded in the way we think, feel, work and reason, is the original sin we’ve inherited from Adam.  This makes me, a child of Adam, ponder the brokenness of my existence in the face of God.  Why would he begin to consider me?  If I am the same as Adam, and the rest of humanity, why shouldn’t his glory write me off and annihilate me?

How often do I regard God as the enemy, when I am suffering, when I don’t get my way, when my actions work against the truth of his word?  Like Adam, I am tempted to see God as the enemy, to see him as a deceiver, and thereby, I am deceived by Satan, the father of lies.  So, standing under the stars, I stand humbly in awe of the privilege of being allowed to live.  My sinful work pales into insignificance compared to the works of God in creation.  I realise how much my sinful being is completely dwarfed by his being, who has created the heavens and the earth, and still preserves everything that exists.

Be it the exquisite minute detail of a flower.  How animals know to migrate at the right time?  The order of the planets revolving around the sun without crashing into each other.  My smallness and my lack of attention to detail is highlighted by God’s extraordinary control of creation.  I am brought back to standing under the stars, not to worship them, but to worship he who made them.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”  (Psalm 8:3–4 ESV)

Why is God mindful of me?  A child of Adam!  It’s right here at this point where all seems lost, we hear that God cares for the son of man.  He cares for the son of Adam, in spite of our weakness, despite our deadly ungodliness.  Saint Paul reminds us, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6&8 ESV)

The Son of Man is Jesus Christ!  We hear from the author of Hebrews, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:8b–9 ESV)

Adam’s disorder, our disorder, has been handed over to Jesus Christ to reorder.  Nothing has been left outside his control.  This Son of Man is the Son of God.  King David says of God, “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:5 ESV)

Indeed, Christ was made low, he was willing to go the opposite way to Adam.  Adam unfaithfully sought to be God.  But Jesus faithfully submitted to God the Father, and although he is God the Son, he was prepared to put aside his Godliness, and became human, for you, for me, for King David. 

This is the love of God the Father and God the Son for humanity.  Jesus Christ became the Son of Man.  He became lower than the heavenly beings, lower than the angels.  He became lower than sinful humanity, to serve and save humanity, because God considers humanity the jewel of his creation.

We were the gold of God’s creation but became fool's gold against God.  But God loves us so much he gave the gold of his divinity in his only Son, who suffer death and broke the crucible of hell.  So, we might have the impurities of foolishness removed from us, so we might be the golden children we were meant to be.

When I stand and look at the stars and know that God is greater than these works of his.  And as I ponder that Jesus who was with the Father in his work of creation, departed his dominion to descend below me to the depts of depravity in my place, then my heart leaps in the knowledge of God’s love for me. 

In knowing God’s love in his forgiveness of you and me, through Jesus’ death, see the greater works of God in his work of salvation!  You and I are his new creation, through Jesus Christ!  You and I are perfectly restored in him!

But the love of God does not end there!  The threefold being of love that God is, is for us.  In Christ we have been grafted into God’s circle of love.  The love of God the Father and God the Son is continued in us with the Holy Spirit who in being sent in love from the Father and the Son, now loves to lead us to the Father and the Son. 

With such love, see that we are restored as the golden pinnacle of God’s creation. 

We hear of God, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:6–8 ESV)

In Jesus Christ our care of creation has been reset, since God has given Jesus’ dominion over the works of his hands. The Holy Spirit now works with us, God’s re-creation, to cover our world with care and prayer in his name.  So that the world knows that Yahweh is the Lord, our Lord, through the majesty, the wideness, of his name in all the earth. Amen. 

C, Lent 1 - Luke 4:1-13 "By The Authority"

By the authority of God the Father, a human being is given a renewed being of life in Jesus Christ!  When we are baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we receive life anew, full of the Holy Spirit, giving us a holy life before our Father in heaven! 

Just as Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, we leave the baptismal font full of the Holy Spirit and are led into a worldly wilderness that seeks to starve us of the holy spirituality we’ve received in baptism.

From the spiritual heights of holy baptism, we wander in the wilderness of earthly existence like a wandering Aramean, tempted to wonder if our baptism is really holy.  All of God’s baptised children are tempted to believe baptism is not eternally effective. 

Therefore, some wander away from God and their holy baptism into hopelessness, and find nowhere to dwell, so that their thirst or hunger is not satisfied. (See Psalm 107:4-9)

Some, like sheep flop down and sulk.  They clearly see the darkness of death, the painful reality that  life is death preceded by hard labour.  In flopping down in their darkness, they forget the light of eternal life given to them in baptism.  Therefore, they believe no one can help them in their trouble or distress. (See Psalm 107:10-16)

Some are led away by their desires, into foolish afflictions and addictions.  The food of life first given in holy baptism is rejected. The baptismal life first received then dwindles away and dissipates back into the death that baptism once overcame. (See Psalm 107:17-22)

Some, figure when the going gets tough the tough get going.  They seek to work their way out of the wilderness.  They don’t realise, in doing so, they’re putting aside the very things given to support them in tough times.  A baptismal faith in which the Holy Spirit causes one to be still and know that God is God.  A baptismal faith that demonstrates God’s strength in our weakness.  That in his power, God allows and tempers the tides of worldly turbulence and troubles, in which we’re tempted to wander and wane. (See Psalm 107:23-32)

Jesus faced all of this in the wilderness.  But he did not lose what he received in his baptism at the Jordan – the Holy Spirit, and his Sonship as God the Son.  In your baptism, you have been sealed in Jesus’ Sonship by the Holy Spirit. 

As you hear the Word of God, in this worldly wilderness, the Holy Spirit works belief in you.  Like Jesus, you have received the Holy Spirit in holy baptism, and the Holy Spirit seals you with the promise of salvation, in the good works of Jesus Christ. 

The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians, “In him we have obtained an inheritance…  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:11a,13 ESV)

And later, he warns, “…do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30 ESV)

Jesus seals us for the day of redemption by not grieving the Holy Spirit in the wilderness.  He faces the fiery trials of the devil but doesn’t succumb to his temptation.

Jesus put aside the power of his Sonship and took on the weakness of our human flesh.  Then, he was baptised into death as the servant Son of Man.  With the same weakness as us, he was given the Holy Spirit and was tempted as we are tempted, yet he did not sin.

We hear of three temptations put before Jesus by the devil.  The first is physical hunger and the temptation comes through a question, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3 ESV)

The devil seeks to get Jesus to prove his Sonship, to use his heavenly power, by turning a stone into bread.  Later on, five barley loaves and two fish are used to feed five thousand, but not now in the wilderness and not the way the devil wants Jesus to do so.

Jesus doesn’t give in to the temptation to use his Sonship, to make bread when he was hungry, nor does he when he feeds the five thousand.  Jesus responds to the devil with God’s Word, “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.”  (Luke 4:4 ESV)

Jesus, the Son of Man, lives with faithfulness to the Father, not on bread alone!  At the feeding of the five thousand, with his divinity set aside, he faithfully prays to the Father.  Then, in the weakness of his human flesh, he faithfully feeds the five thousand as the servant Son of Man, full of the Holy Spirit. 

Then in Luke’s Gospel, the devil temps Jesus with pride and power to receive all authority and glory from the kingdoms of the world.  But to get this he has to turn his back on the Word of God.  He has to break the first commandment, bowing to worship the devil. 

Yet again, Jesus remains faithful to the Father in his baptismal mission of mercy.  Like in the first temptation, Jesus’ defence is the Word of God, and he rebuffs the devil, saying, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” (Luke 4:8 ESV)

The devil can’t separate Jesus from the Father, despite showing him humanity from one moment in time.  I imagine Jesus was shown humanity in all its ugliness and suffering.  But there is no way Jesus abandon’s his relationship despite the devil’s coercion that might seem rational to get control for the “greater good” of humanity. The only good is the good of the cross in all its ugliness.  Jesus is faithful to God, looking to the good and evil of the tree of the cross, to repair God’s creation for the greater good of God.

In the third temptation, the devil uses the Word of God, having been foiled by the Word of God in the previous two temptations.  Of all places to tempt Jesus, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here…” (Luke 4:9b ESV)

Again, comes the questioning of Jesus’ Sonship but the devil uses parts of Psalm Ninety-One.  It’s shrewd, but like anyone who uses parts of God’s Word to deceive, a wider reading reveals the weakness and shallowness of their deception.

The devil begins his quote with the same words with which Jesus rejects the devil the previous two times, saying, “for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and  ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:10–11 ESV)

Yet, as we have spoken in Psalm ninety-one earlier, we know the deception of the devil.  For the next verse of the psalm reveals the deceit of half-truths. We hear that Jesus will, “tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” (Psalm 91:13 ESV) This is the promise and fulfilment of Jesus at the cross, first proclaimed by God in the Garden of Eden, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)

This is repeated by Paul for the encouragement of the Romans and us, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Romans 16:20 ESV)

The devil who is bound and crushed by Jesus in his victory over sin and death, still has limited authority, but only on earth for a period of time. Though judged and condemned, the devil has been allowed to test us to further condemn himself.  We like Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit can crush the devil underfoot with Jesus and his Word, saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:12 ESV)

In Revelation chapter twenty, John sees the last day where, “the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10 ESV)

Be encouraged in these days of difficulty, walking in the wilderness, to walk with Jesus.  He went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit and came out of it and into Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus endured in his hometown of Nazareth, full of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus having endured in human flesh endures in us.  In Jesus’ baptismal Sonship, walk in the wilderness by the authority of Jesus Christ, full of the Holy Spirit.

Know that being filled with the Holy Spirit in God’s holy baptismal reality, you are being daily renewed in Jesus’ reality because he endured our reality and promises, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)

Amen. 

B, The Third Sunday after the Epiphany - Mark 1:15 & Psalm 62:5-12 "Standing under Jesus"

Understanding Jesus Christ, in its simplicity, is simply standing under Jesus. 

Understanding Jesus is so straight forward, a child or an adult can stand under him, the poor or the wealthy can stand under him, a new convert can stand under him, and so too can a mature believer on their death bed.

Why then do we struggle to understand Jesus?  Is it because when one seeks to stand out from under him, that the outstanding person has little to no understanding of Jesus Christ?

From where does one get an understanding of Jesus?  One gets it from standing under Jesus’ Word! 

Standing under Jesus can only occur when the fullness of the Good News comes to us, causing one to repent and believe. 

Therefore, we trust!  We believe and receive the Holy Spirit, moving us to confession, bringing us to Jesus’ power over sin and death.

Standing under Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit, so we are willed into God’s Word.  We all know this by how difficult we can find it to engage ourselves in God’s Word. 

When you seek to read the bible, notice how easily you’re distracted by other tasks that always seem to pop up!  Before you realise it, the bible is not opened, the dust settles, and weeks pass by!  The devil then works on the spirit of the sinful self and guilt drives you further away from receiving the Word of God.  Therefore, standing under Jesus’ Word, requires the full help of the Holy Spirit. 

When one is starved of God’s Word, every other word floods in, to fill the void.  The word of the human spirit within, is led by the words of the world, so one becomes use to being without the Word of God.

This is the struggle all face who seek to stand under Jesus.  Our old nature would rather us forget and lose interest in prayer and praying.  Confessing one’s sin, hearing God’s Word preached, and practicing the faith in a God pleasing way, becomes detached and dysfunctional!  The busyness of life quickly takes over and the spirit within becomes comfortable with the status quo.

Standing under Jesus requires faith.  Faith does not come from understanding, but rather, the other way around, understanding comes from faith, and faith sees one standing under what we allow our ears to hear.

As Paul says to the Romans, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’  …So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:13–15, 17 ESV)

Jesus understands that standing under him, requires us to be put in a position of hearing.  Not just any word, but the Word of Jesus Christ.  God the Father, together with God the Son, know this.  That is why we receive the Holy Spirit when we hear the Word of God.  He leads us to the Father through the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ spoken word drew an immediate response from Simon, and Andrew, James, and John.  So much so, they left their families and Galilean fishing boats and followed Jesus.  Through Jesus’ word the fishermen became his disciples and followed him. 

We are discipled by Jesus and grow in our understanding of Jesus, when we stand under his written Word, just as those of his disciples, who remained under his word.  All, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, and that didn’t end well for him!

To get a greater understanding of Jesus Christ you are called to stand under his written Word.  Standing under it allows the Holy Spirit to work faith in the Word within you!  The Holy Spirit continually points us back to Jesus’ way, the truth of Jesus’ Word, and his life.

We are in the season of Epiphany.  In it we hear that Jesus is proclaimed as the Son of God.  In the New Testament, Jesus is declared as the Son of God, some forty-three times.  Of these, it’s recorded only four times in the Gospel of John, where Jesus refers to himself as the Son of God.

Jesus is the Son of God, but as Paul tells us in Philippians, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6–8 ESV)

Jesus put aside his standing as the Son of God and stood under God the Father, and indeed stood under all of humanity as the Son of Man.  He served you, and still does, in human flesh!

Standing under the Father, Jesus Christ demonstrated great faithfulness towards the Father and all who trust in him.  His understanding or nature was such, he put aside his self-assurance in his  divinity, and lived in the weakness of the flesh, allowing himself to be guided perfectly by the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus, the Word made flesh, went away to pray, he prayed his Word, the Word of God.  The Psalms are Jesus’ Words of prayer, given and written down years before he was born. 

When we stand under the Psalms as an anthology of Jesus’ intimate prayers, our faith is encouraged by the depth of his faithfulness to God the Father.  He allows his servanthood to stand, not on his Godliness!  But rather, is led by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, the Psalms give a very personal insight into Jesus’ life as he submits to the will of God the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, when we stand under the Psalms, the Holy Spirit increases our understanding of the perfect relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Standing under God’s Word of the Psalms will increase faith!  So, we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us just as Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus was led by the Spirit to do the will of the Father, having put aside his heavenly divinity.  As faith grows within us, we are led to do the will of the Father, when we put aside our human spirit’s self-assurance and desire for ill-gotten selfish divinity.  Faith allows us to surrender and lets the Holy Spirit point us to God the Father and God the Son.

To understand Jesus’ life, understanding the Word of Jesus’ prayers written in Psalms is as simple as standing under the word by questioning; who is speaking, who is the speaker addressing, and who is the speaker speaking about?   Is a singular person speaking or listening?  Or is it a group of people, usually Israel represented by those gathered in the temple? 

We get understanding of the Psalms and can stand under the Word of the Psalms when we realise, how we, as individuals, or, as a heavenly congregation, are grafted into Words of the Psalm by Jesus himself!  Into Jesus either, as the only Son of God, or, as the head of his body, the new Israel, the church.

Psalm sixty-two demonstrates the perfection of the Triune relationship, and the faithfulness of God’s perfection into which we are grafted by Jesus.

(Psalm 62:5-12)  For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. 

Here, the speaker is speaking about our Father in heaven to the hearer.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. 

The speaker hear is King David having been given these words from the Word made flesh, the King of kings, Jesus.  So, Jesus is the real speaker of these words having inspired King David by the Holy Spirit to write them down.  By the Holy Spirit, it’s Jesus who confesses and knows God the Father is his rock, salvation, and fortress.  He trusts God despite the weakness of his flesh.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. 

Jesus trusted in God our Father at all times on earth, and he calls us to do so too.  Jesus our King calls us to pour our hearts out to our Father in heaven.  Jesus, the Son of God, put aside his divinity and gave up his human spirit on the cross.  God is a refuge for us because Jesus is our Good News.  

Jesus did this for Israel; he is the New Israel, into which we have been grafted.  When weighed up, next to Jesus’ perfection in the flesh and sacrificial suffering as the Lamb of God, our human haughtiness and lowliness are as long lasting as a warm breath on a cold morning.

Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. 

Israel failed in the wilderness for forty years, then continued in failure right the way through to Jesus’ revelation as the Son of God.  Similarly, we fail time and time again in our lives too.  Jesus, the new Israel, did not fail having been tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days.  Jesus calls us to trust in his work, rather than our lifetime of fruitless works, vain expectations, or earthly riches!

Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,  and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.  For you will render to a man according to his work.

Alone Jesus hears only God speak.  Therefore, we hear him proclaim two things he hears and abides by about our Heavenly Father.  That power and steadfast love belong to God! 

We know from the gospel; God the Father rendered the man Jesus according to his work.  We know; the Holy Spirit led Jesus to finish his work of suffering and death and was then raised to life by the Holy Spirit having completed this work for our sake. 

The Holy Spirit works faith within us to trust the power of God.  We become willing recipients of his steadfast love made complete, for us, and in us, by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit creates and maintains our faith in God’s promises, in his Word.  God the Father renders or completes our salvation when we believe the work of his Son Jesus Christ, hearing by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

When we stand under Jesus and his Word, we allow the Holy Spirit to foster faith within.  Then we understand, standing in daily repentance and belief, is standing under Jesus.  Trusting the gospel or good news of our salvation is knowing the kingdom of God is ours eternally.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 14 Proper 17 - Exodus 3:13-15 "The I AM Full Stop"

Exodus 3:13–15 (ESV)  Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”  God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Our world is full of information!  Everyone wants to tell us something!  Who is it that you listen to?

Social media, YouTube, the internet, broadcast media, talkback radio, the bloke over the back fence, politicians, comedians…  There are so many from which to choose!

Perhaps you choose not to listen to anyone!  You have been hurt by bad advice and look for answers within yourself, your own understanding of things!  What you judge to be good and what you judge to be evil!  There’s so much noise out there, so you withdraw to your thoughts within.

Or further still, maybe you just like not to think about anything.  The noise of society tires you, so you try to retreat into a place of perfect silence.  Like the ten thousand, in Simon and Garfunkel’s song, not wanting to disturb the sound of silence!

Our world is full of information!  To whom do you listen?  What is it that informs you?

The great danger of listening to the many and various sources of information out there, is that more than not, you will be misinformed!  Whereas, listening to what’s within, there’s a danger of being ill-informed!  And not listening to anything or anyone, you will find yourself uninformed.

So, we need information, immediate life without it suffers, and without information we cannot seek eternal life!  But the trick is getting the right information?  But how to get it and from whom?

If we look within for information about life, the answers we get will seem like they give us life, but the life we find will ultimately destroy life elsewhere!  The life of our feelings and mood can destroy the life of our physical being or mental health.  Within the heart one seeks life, but there, one finds, “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:19 ESV)  The information we get from our own good and evil ill-informs us!  It’s information that leads to illness, dying, and eternal death.

Okay, so we don’t want to be uninformed or ill-informed!  But neither do we want to be misinformed either.  There are so many charlatans and con artists out spreading misinformation and causing heartache today.  And it’s growing!  Inside and outside the church!  It’s here there’s the temptation to go scampering back into the self.  But this is not the answer that gives life.

Moses was a Levite living in the court of Pharoah.  But he was on the run after murdering an Egyptian whom he witnessed beating a Hebrew slave.  He thought he had covered up the murder after burying the Egyptian in the sand.

However, “When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”  He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”  When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.”  (Exodus 2:13–15 ESV)

The information Moses had from within and from without, told him to run.  And it’s after running and settling in Midian he has a strange encounter with a burning bush that burned without being burnt.  Curiosity got the better of him, so he stopped to see what was going on.

God speaks to Moses out of the bush.  God informs Moses that he has heard the cry of his people in Egypt and, through Moses, was going to deliver them from the hand of Pharoah and the Egyptian taskmasters.

But like us today, all the information known to Moses makes him question what God says to him.  God says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,  and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey… Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:8-9a, 10 ESV)

Moses is hesitant to go back into the melting pot that’s Egypt.  But God’s call does not leave Moses ill-informed, despite the death sentence that loomed if Moses returned to Egypt. 

Nor is Moses uninformed!   He’s promised, God will be with him, and informs him he will bring him with the Israelites, back to the mountain, to serve God. 

Neither was this misinformation!  Moses’ credibility before his fellow Israelites would be backstopped by God.  Moses was given God’s name!  Not just a name of an unknown God, but the name of the God of Israel’s Fathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God’s name is beautifully simple, but profoundly complete!  This name comes from the simplest of verbs, in any language, the verb “to be”, “I AM”. 

His name captures the eternity of his existence.  What God and his name tells us is that back in the past, “I AM”, right now “I AM”, and in the future “I AM”.  In other words, God was, is, and will be, present in name, word, being, and promise! 

God’s being to Moses was a full-stop.  He is the source, middle, and end of all information.  The be all and end all of all existence!  Moses was completely informed by God in the simplicity of his name.  The great I AM in Hebrew, is from the verb, to be, hâyâh, from where we get the name Yahweh, or Jehovah.  In most English bibles when this name used, it’s usually printed as Lord (capital “L” with small capitals “ord”).

The name of our Great I AM is our full stop.  So simple, pure, complete, and eternal is God’s name that God calls Moses to take off his shoes and not come too close to the burning bush, from which God spoke.  Not only is his name pure, complete, and eternal but so too is the presence of God whose name most perfectly defines him.  Our God who says, “I AM” is holy in presence so in the presence of Moses and in the burning bush that did not get burnt, Moses is called to the most holy full stop in Almighty God.

God and his name are so holy that the Israelites feared saying his name for fear of desecrating it.  Matthew’s Gospel being a catechism for Jewish believers of Jesus Christ differs from the other Gospel in that “the kingdom of God” is referred to as “the kingdom of Heaven”, so as not to offend Jewish ears.

Jesus offended Jewish leaders when he came not denying himself as the Son of God.   John’s Gospel account gives testimony to Jesus as the “I AM”.

He says, “I am the bread of life, that came down from heaven.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)  “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12, 9:5)  “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7, 9)  “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14) “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) “I am the way the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)  “I am the vine.” (John 15:1, 5)

John also records Jesus’s direct reference to God and himself as the “I AM”, making the Jews want to stone him for blasphemy. 

Jesus says to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”  So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”    (John 8:56–57 ESV)

Jesus is our I AM!  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”  (Hebrews 13:8 ESV) He is eternally present with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.  Three persons in the one I AM full stop!   This is our God, your God!  The I AM, who is, who was, and who will be. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8 ESV)

God is the I AM of your being, your soul!  Because he is your full stop you can deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him, the I AM!  You will lose your being carrying your cross, but you have received a new being, you are receiving a new being, and you will receive a new being, a new existence in the I AM, Full stop!

In an age of misinformed, uninformed, and ill-informed information, inside and outside the church, do not just hear and believe what someone says, what I say, or any pastor says!  Open your bible, and confirm what is said, is what the I AM says! 

Pray, the Holy Spirit leads you in submission to what is written in its pages, so you do not mishear the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Pray, so the word of God is not corrupted into a piece of ill-informed knowledge of good and evil within.  

Let the full stop of the I AM, be not a passing comma in your life!  Rather stop, be still and know that I AM is your God!  Let the full conjunction of your being be infused with the I AM.  Give thanks and call on his name!  Make known the deeds of the Great I AM; sing to him and praise his name!

God “is”, so you “are”!  Call on his name, and he “will”!  Into every situation you enter, the I AM is there waiting for you to call on his name!  Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 13 Proper 16 - Matthew 16:13-20 "Son of the Living God"

Living post-resurrection, we lose the enormity of Peter’s confession that Jesus of Nazareth is both the Son of God and the Christ.  In our ears we hear Jesus, Christ, and Son of God as a synonymous confession of the same man, and rightly so!

But to understand the magnitude of what Peter confesses we need to realise in that in his day Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, and son of God were not perceived as one and the same person.  In fact, one claiming someone as the Son of God was considered as blasphemy!  It is only after the resurrection that confession of Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God became one in the Early Church.  Judaism still considers this to be blasphemy.

In Matthew’s Gospel it is the devil who’s recorded as first addressing Jesus as the Son of God.   Twice he temps Jesus, saying, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” (Matthew 4:3 ESV) 

And second, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”(Matthew 4:6 ESV)

If the devil, who succeeded in tempting the first man, Adam, into sin, can succeed in tempting the Son of God, born as the Son of Man, to put right the sin of the first man, then he would have been able to stop God’s plan of salvation for humanity.

But Jesus who his both Son of Man and Son of God, is not tempted into sin despite being hungry and humiliated by the devil.  “If” Jesus is the Son of God, is not even a matter for question.  Not, “if” he is the Son of God, rather, Jesus “is” the Son of God, born to be the Son of Man.

Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man.  It’s only recorded in John’s Gospel that Jesus refers to himself as the Son of God.  The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) very deliberately record others as confessing him as Son of God.

The title Son of Man is a term from the Old Testament, first used by Balaam when God gave him his word to respond to Balak.  God says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?  Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.” (Numbers 23:19–20 ESV)

Job is told by Bildad the Shuhite, “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.  Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;  how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”  (Job 25: 2,5–6 ESV)

In Psalm eight which is taken up in Hebrews chapter two we hear, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?  You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour,  putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”  (Hebrews 2:6–8 ESV)

In addition to this, Ezekiel is named “son of man” as he is called to serve both the Israelites and gentiles with prophecy.  God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”  And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.  And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.” (Ezekiel 2:1–3 ESV)

If we ponder the first son of man, we think of Cain.  Adam and Eve expected Cain to be the great successor who would crush the serpent under his heel, but he wasn’t!  Instead like Adam, Cain was driven out by God after he killed Abel. 

Interestingly, Cain and Abel are not named as sons, even though they were sons of Adam and Eve.  But it is only Seth who is named son.  We hear, “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”  (Genesis 4:25 ESV)

And again, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”  (Genesis 5:3 ESV)

Seth was the substitute for Cain and Abel, and it is through him that God would substitute the sin of Adam with the righteousness of the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, for us all.

Jesus is the Son of Man as the fulfilment of what Daniel saw in a vision, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.  And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13–14 ESV)

Jesus came as the Son of Man, to serve man as a son serves his father and family.   For Jesus to do this he had to put his divinity aside to serve as we are told in Philippians two, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:6–8 ESV)

Jesus’ servanthood is one of peacemaking.  At the Sermon on the Mount he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  (Matthew 5:9 ESV)

As with all the beatitudes they are fulfilled in the servanthood of Jesus, the Son of Man, who became poor in spirit and was persecuted for righteousness’ sake so we could have the kingdom of heaven.  Who mourned over sin that we could be comforted, who became meek in order that we inherit a new earth, who hungered and thirsted for our righteousness, to satisfy God’s requirement of righteousness.  And who made peace being the servant Son of Man, so we can be called sons of God.

But all this was yet to happen at the cross.  Peter and all the other disciples had witnessed the demons in Legion cry out to Jesus, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?  Have you come here to torment us before the time?”  (Matthew 8:29 ESV)

It took two turbulent trips across the Sea of Galilee, feeding the five thousand, healings, and being sent out as apostles, for the disciples to see the unhidden truth and confess Jesus as the Son of God.

But now, in the text for today, Jesus askes the disciples who the Son of Man is?   Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  (Matthew 16:16 ESV)  He says this after the other disciples tell Jesus who others think he is. 

But Peter has not learnt this from others, nor from within himself, but from God.  Jesus says to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17 ESV)

It is God the Father himself who has led Peter to confess Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, as the Christ, and as the Son of the living God.  The Living Father brings about a living confession from Peter, that hidden within Jesus of Nazareth, is the living Christ and Son of God.

In next week’s reading we hear how Peter’s confession from God the Father is replaced by his rebuke when the Son of the Living God tells the disciples he will be the Christ through his death and resurrection.

Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ anointed to serve humanity as the Son of Man, humiliated as if he was a maggot or the worm of humanity.  In this three-fold role he is our living sacrifice, resurrected from the dead.  He did not lie; he did not change his mind; he fulfilled what he was sent to do on the cross!  Now raised in victory over his sinless death, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.”  (Philippians 2:9 ESV)

Paul says we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, not to be conformed to the world.  How do we do this?

Just as Peter’s confession was not of his own, our service as living sacrifices is not of our own.  Our work of living as a sacrifice is anchored in Jesus Christ, our Living Sacrifice.  He put his divinity aside and was carried along by the Holy Spirit who rested on him in his baptism.  For us to be living sacrifices for him, we too need the Holy Spirit, so we can have our sinful nature put aside and substituted for a new spirit, a spirit that trusts in Jesus despite the cost.

We now live and move and have our being because Jesus of Nazareth is the resurrected Christ, the living Son of God.  Now that we are sons of God through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have freedom to be servants of humanity, serving others with forgiveness and confession of, how and what God has forgiven us.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 6 Proper 9 - Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30 "No Need - Know Need"

Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30  (ESV) Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;  yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Boastful big-mouthed immature children, call out and scoff at those passing by.  They are obnoxious youths, who have no need.  They do not listen.  Therefore, they do not hear!  They are children who do not know what they want!  They don’t want to mourn, nor do they want to rejoice!  Nothing is good enough for them!  They mock and scoff at those who mourn, as well as those who celebrate.  These are the children Jesus compares to the generation around him.

Jesus likens those who reject John the Baptist as children who do not mourn at the singing of his dirge, at his call to repentance before the coming of the kingdom.  He quotes Malachi and follows it up, saying, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’  Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:10–11, 15 ESV)

The children who reject John the Baptist have no need for the past.  They do not need the law to call them to repentance, nor do they need a prophet to expose their need for a saviour!  They need neither Elijah nor John the Baptist.  As they scoff, “He has a demon”, they have no ears with which to hear.  They languish, with a bad spirit, because they do not listen.

Similarly, these children also refuse to celebrate the coming of the Son of Man.  They have no need either way!  Either mourning in repentance nor rejoicing at the coming of the Redeemer is not what they want or need.  It seems nothing is good enough for them!  They are brash boastful children who do not have ears with which to hear!

Jesus speaks of this generation like children in a town’s public marketplace.  He also addresses himself as a child too!  He calls himself the Son of Man!  A son, a servant of those in the public place. 

Despite the shaming of those mocking him in public, Jesus declares, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:19 ESV)

Jesus is not only the Son of God and Servant Son of Man, but he is also the Wisdom of God, personified, in flesh, and Wisdom is justified by her deeds.

Some of the ancient manuscripts do not say “deeds”.  Rather, they say, “Yet wisdom is justified by her children.”  This is the same as what Jesus says in the parallel account in Luke seven chapter thirty-five.  Therefore, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ is justified in the children produced.

So, who are these obnoxious children in the marketplace?  The children that chide and scoff are not those from the outer but rather from within the town centre.  They are those who should have ears to hear, to have received the Wisdom of God, through hearing what has been taught to them.  Rather than having no need for the Word from John the Baptist and Jesus, they should have listened as those who knew they needed a Saviour.

They should have known what Paul reports, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”  (Romans 3:19 ESV)

But the mouths of the children were not stopped by the Law, they did not receive a knowledge of sin.  Therefore, they boastfully block off their ears having no need for salvation.  Without knowledge of sin, they did not know they needed to stop their mouths, and hear with their ears, to receive the Word of Life!

We are the generation to which he says these things.  Jesus speaks to every generation.  He is the New Adam, the Servant Son of Man to all children of Adam.

Like Paul, we are called to a knowledge of sin, having had our mouths stopped, and our ears opened.  We know we need!  We know nothing good dwells in us.  Our sin makes us tired and heavy burdened, often leading us to dis-ease with God and therefore, disease.  We are debased and cry out, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 ESV)  Such is the reality of all recreated from Adam!

God peels back the layers of our blindness to sin; he repeatedly stops our boasting.  He replaces it with Holy Spirited repentance.  In our knowledge of sin, we know our need.  As God the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of our sin, peeling and re-peeling us, he shows us the eternal magnitude of Jesus’ generosity and forgiveness.

Even the children chiding and scoffing in the marketplace are offered a new place under Jesus’ forgiveness.  This is the Wisdom of God, justified in Jesus Christ, and him alone.  All people need Jesus Christ, some know, and some don’t want to know and say “no”.  He takes the depraved children who know their need, burdened and heavy laden with sin and gives them the yoke of forgiveness and rest in the promise of his Word!

We are the children in the marketplace.   But unlike us, the Son of Man is the Son of God who is not haughty nor hollow.  He is meek without being weak.  He is humble and serves all people in his fulness as the Son of God, but he does it in humility.       

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit.   We who allow the Holy Spirit to remain within, allow him to stop the unruly child within, recreating us as the children of God.   Therefore, as God’s children, with the Holy Spirit within, we know we need and have received our Saviour Jesus Christ!

Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;  yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Matthew 11:25–26 ESV)

We once, boastful children, have been stopped and given the Holy Spirit.  We are the little children of God!  Literally, we become non-speakers, as opposed to the brash foolish bad-mouthed babblers we once were.  As non-speakers, we become hearers of the Word in the Holy Spirit.  This is God’s will and his good pleasure.

As children of God our ears are opened, and our mouths are shut.  Our mouths open only to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ and tell others of our forgiveness.  We are the body of Jesus Christ!  As his body under the headship of Jesus Christ we are the Wisdom of God for the whole world, as we remain in his Word. 

The wisdom bestowed upon us, gathers us as the faithfully receiving church of God.  The church is the new bride of the New Adam being born from his side.  Not like Eve, who was created from Adam’s side with his bone and flesh.   But the church is the justification of Jesus’ death at the cross.  From the cross, the Wisdom of God flowed as water and blood from the side of the New Adam, Jesus Christ. 

The church, the faithful body of Christ, is the new woman, created by water and the Word, and sustained with the blood and body of Jesus Christ, as his body of Wisdom in Christ.  In Christ the church gives life to those the Holy Spirit calls through his Word and sustains with the sacraments.

When the church uses things other than Jesus Christ and remaining receptive to his Word, the church loses its wisdom in Jesus Christ, and she soon finds herself turning away from God’s Word in worldly pursuits of good and evil.  Confused at best, she returns to join the children in the public marketplace pursuing the popular opinion of folly and foolishness.

But the church remains wise, she remains Christ’s bride, when she allows the Holy Spirit to return her to the knowledge and forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ, the Word of God in flesh. 

Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Amen.