Transfiguration (Year A) [Matthew 17:1-8] (23-Feb-2020)

This sermon was preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Semaphore, 8.45am, and Good News Lutheran Church, Albert Park, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today we are celebrating the event of Jesus’ transfiguration. This is the wonderful event in the life of Jesus where he took Peter, James and John up a mountain, and his clothes and face began to shine with bright heavenly light. We are also told that Moses and Elijah appeared next to Jesus, talking with him about his departure, his journey to Jerusalem to die as the Lamb of God for the sin of the world. We are also told that when Peter, who was completely amazed by this appearance and had no idea what to do, was suggesting that he make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, a cloud came and covered over everything. And God the Father spoke from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

This is such a wonderful event, and yet many Christians don’t often think about it too much. We have a custom in our church of remembering this event, and celebrating it on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season. The Epiphany season is that time of the year after Christmas, which begins by remembering the visit of the wise men to the baby Jesus, and the Baptism of Jesus. The word Epiphany means to “show”, or “manifest”, or “display”. We see God making a wonderful “showing” when he sent the wise men a star to lead them to the country of Israel, and also when he “showed” himself as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the Baptism of Jesus: The Father spoke from heaven, the Son was being baptised in the water, and the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove. Today, as we celebrate the Transfiguration, we remember the wonderful way in which God showed to us the power and the divinity of his Son, Jesus Christ—he shows us that he is truly the powerful Son of God himself—by speaking his voice from the cloud, as wonderful light radiates and beams forth and shines from Jesus face, and body and clothes.

Actually, the two events of the Baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration form a kind of pair of bookends to the Epiphany season: we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus at the beginning of the Epiphany Season at the beginning of January, and we celebrate the Transfiguration at the end of the Epiphany season. And both of these events have something in common. On both occasions, God the Father actually speaks his voice in the hearing of all the people who were present at these events. In fact, at both events, he says the same thing: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. However, at the Transfiguration, he says something extra: Listen to Him! It’s this command of God to listen to Jesus that I’m going to focus on today, and I think that these words of God the Father actually give us a wonderful interpretation of everything that goes on. In fact, these words are the centre and the focus of this event at the Transfiguration – Listen to Him!

 So firstly, today, I’d like to take us back to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is a particularly special book in the Old Testament, which contains—if you like—a long sermon or speech from Moses, just as all the people are about to cross the River Jordan and enter into the promised land of Canaan.

Now, during the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives the people all kinds of warnings to the people about what they should do and not do when they enter the Promised Land. Particularly, they must remain faithful to God, and not start worshipping the false gods of the people in the land. But not only that, but the people were not allowed to copy to worship practices of the people who worshipped other gods, and use these practises to worship the true God. For example, you might remember in the book of Exodus, when the people worshipped the Golden Calf. Not only did they worship this statue, but Aaron said that the calf was in fact God himself, and that through worshipping this statue of the calf, they were worshipping God himself. Do you see? Aaron made it look like they weren’t worshipping some other god, but that they were actually worshipping the God of Israel. But the people weren’t allowed to do this—they weren’t allowed to use idols, and such like, in such a way that they could gain access through them to God. The way to meet God was not to worship a calf statue made out of gold.

So, in Deuteronomy 18, this is what Moses preaches to the people. He says: When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.

Let me read to you this last verse again. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. Moses is saying that God will raise up a prophet like himself, from his brothers, from the Jewish people. Now, there are a number of places in the New Testament, where this verse is taken to be talking about Jesus. After Pentecost, Peter uses this passage to speak about Jesus in one of his first sermons, after he heals a man sitting outside the temple. Stephen, the first person to be killed for the Christian faith, uses this passage from Deuteronomy to refer to Jesus. It’s as if to say, that since the people entered the Promised Land all those hundreds and hundreds of years ago, after Moses had died, they have been waiting for a prophet. And Christians say, that this prophet that the Jewish people had been waiting for centuries, is in fact, Jesus.

Let me read the prophecy again. Moses says: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. Now, let’s have a look at the Transfiguration, and see how this prophecy is actually fulfilled in our reading.

First of all, Moses calls Jesus a “prophet like me”. Actually, at the transfiguration, Moses is there. In fact, we’re not entirely sure whether this is Moses in his spirit, or in his body, because at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, it says that nobody knew what happened to Moses body. Mysteriously, here is Moses, talking to Jesus. And after Moses had received the law, we read that his face began to shine with bright light, such that he even had to put a veil, a cloth, over his head, because the people just couldn’t cope with and withstand this wonderful light. In the same way, Jesus’ face shines, but not only that, but his whole body shines, and even his clothes. But Jesus doesn’t normally appear like this, but he is always the Son of God, he is always God of God, Light of Light, but most of the time when people saw Jesus, this light was not hidden by a cloth or a veil, like Moses, but is was hidden simply by his human flesh. So Jesus is like Moses, in that his face also shone like Moses’ face.

Also, Jesus was like Moses, in that both of them performed miracles. But they performed very different types of miracles. Moses performed miracles that were frightening and scary for people. They were miracles that revealed God’s anger and his judgement and his wrath. For example, Moses put his hand in his coat, and it was full of leprosy. He put his staff on the ground, and it became a snake. He poured water on the ground, and it turned to blood. He brought about many plagues in Egypt—flies, frogs, darkness, death—you name it!

Now, when Jesus came, he also performed miracles, but miracles that were comforting and encouraging and which strengthened people. For example, he turned water not into blood, but into wine, for people’s enjoyment. He didn’t bring about leprosy, but he healed lepers. He healed many people, he cast out demons, he gave sight to the blind, and allowed the deaf to hear, and raised the dead. So Jesus’ miracles were of a different character to Moses’ miracles. But the fact that they both performed miracles like this, means that Jesus is very much like Moses.

But also, Jesus was a prophet like Moses, in the way that he spoke. Moses brought the 10 Commandments to the people. But then Jesus applies and comments on the commandments in a way that had never been done before.  He says: You have heard that it was said, “You shall not murder”. (Jesus quotes the 10 Commandments). But then he says: But I say to you, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. So Jesus is also like Moses in the way that he speaks. Moses spoke the thunder of God’s law, and brought the people in a limited way into God’s presence through all the laws and details about worship, about the tabernacle, and the priests, and the food regulations, and all that kind of stuff. But Jesus also speaks the thunder of God’s law, but he does so in order to lay them bare and to bring them the forgiveness of sins, which he won for them through his suffering, his blood, and his death on the cross. That was something that Moses didn’t bring, but Jesus did bring. So in this way, Jesus is very much like Moses, and he is a wonderful teacher of both the law and the Gospel, but especially the Gospel. We read in John’s Gospel: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Now, if we look back through the bible, we read that there were many great prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. And if we were to name the greatest of these prophets, we would probably say, Elijah. Elijah was an amazing prophet, and he spoke God’s word clearly and boldly at a time when very few people wanted to hear it. However, we believe that Elijah was not this prophet that Moses spoke about, but that Jesus is this prophet.

And we realise this at the Transfiguration, because not only is Moses standing there with Jesus but also Elijah. And together Moses and Elijah testify by their presence, that the prophet that the Jewish people are looking for is not Elijah, but Jesus Christ. Can you see this wonderful way in which Moses and Elijah point to Jesus here? And together they show that Jesus is the fulfilment of these words from Deuteronomy: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers—it is to him that you shall listen.

But there are two more things in the Transfiguration that relate to this prophecy. First, it says that Jesus will come from among you, from your brothers. Moses means that Jesus will come from the Jewish people, not from some other people. And so, we see Jesus here, just like an ordinary Jewish man, amongst his three friends, Peter, James and John. He takes them up the mountain, these three fishermen, who grew up similarly to him, and to whom Jesus talks to as an ordinary person to ordinary people. Jesus came from among them, from among the Jewish people. But then, when they arrive at the place, a separation occurs—Peter, James and John are over there, and Jesus is over there. Jesus is shining with brilliant light, with all the light of his divine nature, brighter than the light from heaven itself, and Peter, James and John are completely dazzled by it. Because Jesus is not just a normal Jewish man, but he is also the Son of God, and in fact, true God of true God. At the end of the reading, when the cloud has gone, and everything is back to normal, Jesus touches his disciples, like a brother, like a friend, and he says: Rise, and have no fear. Don’t be afraid, it’s me, let’s go, let’s walk together. And so, Jesus comes from among his people, from the Jewish people, from their brothers.

But secondly, God the Father wants to make it especially clear that these words from Deuteronomy apply to Jesus. Moses says: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers—it is to him that you shall listen. At the Transfiguration, God the Father himself hides his voice in a cloud, and speaks his voice to all who are there: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him! Moses said: It is to him that you shall listen. And now God the Father says: Listen to him! It’s as if God the Father is coming with his own finger, and pointing to his only Son, and saying to Peter and James and John: This is the one that you’ve all been waiting for, this is the one you should listen to. In fact, every Sunday, this is what we Christians actually come here to do. We come to listen to Jesus. We don’t come to listen simply to a pastor, or to listen to each other over morning tea. We come to listen to Jesus, as he speaks his own words to his people, through the absolution and the forgiveness of sins, whenever someone is baptised through the words that are spoken, in the Lord’s Supper when we hear that this bread and wine is in actual fact his body and blood, and in the sermon, when the word of God and the words of salvation are proclaimed and spoken to you. So listen to God the Father’s voice, when he says to you: Listen to him! Listen to Jesus!

Now, there’s another aspect to the Transfiguration that we haven’t really spoken about yet. What happens here is an amazing vision. And Jesus himself calls it a vision, but it’s not like the disciples were dreaming or day-dreaming, and what they saw wasn’t actually real. It was real, it happened. They saw it, and they saw it as something that was happening right there in front of them, they didn’t imagine it, and it didn’t happen in their heads.

But also, there’s something very mysterious in the way that Moses and Elijah appeared. Because in one sense, they were dead—but also, there was something very strange about the deaths of both these men. With Moses, nobody knew where he was buried. In the book of Jude, it says that there was some kind of dispute between the archangel Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. We don’t really know much about it, but it’s a strange thing that nobody knew where Moses’ body was, and yet, here at the Transfiguration, here is Moses. Also, Elijah was taken into heaven on a chariot—he didn’t die a normal death, and he also didn’t have a grave site. And yet, at the Transfiguration, here is Elijah. All this is very mysterious, and strange, and is a holy mystery that we leave in the hands of God. We don’t want to delve into it too much, because if we do, it can even become dangerous to us. When Peter starts to ask about these things, God brings down a cloud. It’s as if he puts all these things off limits. Sometimes Christians are deceived into thinking that they need to penetrate through this cloud of unknowing to discover God in the darkness there. No—the cloud comes down, the mysterious things are off-limits, and God the Father points us to Jesus.

Now, there are actually many people in our country and in our society who are interested in spiritual things. In the 60s, many hippies went to India to find spiritual enlightenment. Many people still go to wellness clinics in Asia to find spiritual health. Many people want to receive visions, and they want to contact the dead, and cross over into other dimensions, and they start to wonder about all these things. People even today, just like superstitious people in ancient times, look up at the stars, and practice astrology, and try to derive meaning from them, as if the stars and the zodiac are telling us messages about our lives.

Well, Moses spoke about these things in Deuteronomy: Earlier, I read where Moses said to beware of the practices of the nations when they entered into the Promised Land. Moses says: The nations, which you are about to possess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. Moses makes a long list of these strange practices of the nations: fortune-telling, sacrificing children, practicing divination—which is, let’s say, “trying to get a message from something that doesn’t give messages”—, interpreting omens (like reading stars, or tea-leaves, or bird-calls, or whatever, to get some warning), sorcery (which is witchcraft, or occult), charming (which is attaching some spiritual power to something that doesn’t have that power—like saying, “this magic rock will protect you”). Moses also mentions, “mediums” (who are people who claim to give messages from the dead), or “necromancy” (which is talking to dead)… all these things, Moses says, the nations listen to these people. But the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. Instead, who should you listen to? Moses says, “It is to him you shall listen!” To the prophet like me! God says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!

What Moses describes with all these strange practices things, is basically the traditional religions which are found all across the world. If you go to India, you’ll find talking to the dead, reading omens, fortune-telling in Hinduism. If you go to Africa, you’ll find it there with the witch-doctors. If you go to South America, you’ll find it there with the shamans, or whoever. And this stuff is making a strange come-back in Australia. If you start take notice, you’ll see this stuff everywhere, and realise just what a pagan country Australia.

What you need to know, and what Moses teaches, and what God the Father teaches at the Transfiguration, is that, if you hear a message from any of these people, who practice this stuff, it is not Jesus. It is not the voice of Jesus. The Word of God does not come through these people, and these practices. It is mutually exclusive to listen to the fortune-tellers, and to listen to him!

So we don’t become distracted by the wonderful spiritual vision at the Transfiguration, and go off trying to chase our own personal spiritual vision, through whatever means. We don’t become distracted by the presence of Moses and Elijah who are there, and start trying to build tents for dead people, and try to talk to them, and get messages from them. King Saul wanted to talk to dead Samuel, and he was rejected by God.

And so, at the Transfiguration, there are so many comforts for us. We don’t need to embroil ourselves in all this complicated, mystical stuff. We are simply told to listen to Jesus, to hold fast to his Word, and never let it go. When we have the Words of Jesus, we have everything we need. We have everything we could ever possibly want, and we will never be disappointed. He is our true Saviour, our true God, our true Light, who has won the true forgiveness of our sins, and promises us eternal life with Moses and Elijah, and all his saints, in wonderful glory, just like we see in the Transfiguration. Our bodies will be transformed to be like his. The forgiveness of sins which receive even today through the absolution and the Lord’s Supper is the beginning of that wonderful Transfiguration that will happen to us on the last day so that all our sins will be completely erased and we will shine like Jesus. So let’s listen to him, and take tremendous comfort in this event! Amen.

Good Friday [Hebrews 10:19-20] (30-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In the Old Testament in Leviticus chapter 16, we read about the Day of Atonement. In Hebrew, the Jewish people even today call it “Yom Kippur.”

And on this Good Friday, I want you to picture in your minds the Jewish ritual of this occasion. In the second half of the book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent, which the people of Israel—the Jewish people—carried around with them from Mt Sinai and into the land of Canaan. The tabernacle was the place of worship for the people of Israel, and God commanded them to make all kinds of offerings and sacrifices there at different times. Later on, when King Solomon ruled Israel, the tabernacle was replaced by a temple. During the time of Jesus, this first temple had been destroyed and had been replaced by a second temple. The second temple was destroyed 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and to this day has never been rebuilt.

Now picture the tabernacle (the tent) in your mind: the whole thing is a rectangle shape. It is about 45 metres by 22.5 metres. If you draw an imaginary line through the middle of the rectangle you would have 2 squares, 22.5 metres by 22.5 metres. In Hebrew, they would have said 50 cubits by 50 cubits.

If you were to walk in the front, in the middle of the first square area, there was a large altar: the altar of burnt offering. This is the place where they burnt the various animals that had to be offered there.

In the other square area, there was the tabernacle itself, the tent of meeting. This was a small narrow rectangle tent. Inside it had two parts, the first part was called the Holy Place, where there was the Altar of Incense.

You might remember at Christmas time, when John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, was on duty in the temple and saw the Angel Gabriel he was standing at the Altar of Incense. The Altar of Incense was inside the Holy Place.

But then, if you imagine walking into the tent, where the Holy Place is, at the back you would see a curtain, and behind this curtain was a place called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. Inside the Most Holy Place was the Ark of Covenant, which is the box that the Jewish people carried with them from the wilderness into the promised land. On top of the Ark of the Covenant there was carved cherubim—that is, angels with their wings outstretched and touching, one cherub on either side of the Ark of the Covenant. On top of the Ark of Covenant, between the two cherubim was the area which was called the mercy seat.

Can you picture all this? Let’s walk outside and come back in again. You come through the front of the tent, and in the middle of the open courtyard is the Altar of Burnt Offering. In front of you, is the Tabernacle itself. If you went through into the Tabernacle you would see the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. Behind the Altar of Incense was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place. In the middle of the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant, which had the carved cherubim with their touching wings, and on top of the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat.

Of course, as any old Israelite, you would never have been allowed to have a pleasant stroll around the Tabernacle, a guided tour just as I’m trying to get you to imagine. Only the priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place.

But now I want to describe for you the Day of Atonement, or “Yom Kippur”, in Hebrew.

The Day of Atonement was a particularly special day and a particularly special Jewish festival. The High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place. This was the only day of the year, when anyone was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and the only person who was allowed to go in was the High Priest.

The first thing he would do would be to take two animals, a bull and a ram. Then he would have to put on special clothes, which he would only wear on this one day of the year. He would put on a linen robe, and linen underwear, with a linen sash, and a linen turban on his head. He had to wash his body with water and put them on.

Now, after he had the bull and the ram, and put on the special clothes, he would also take two goats.

Now he was all prepared for the next part.

He would then bring forward the bull—it was going to be offered for himself and his family.  Then he would take the two goats and put them at the entrance of the tent. Now one goat would be chosen for the Lord, and one goat would be chosen for Azazel. Azazel means a demon, for the devil, for Satan.

Now, he would kill the bull as an offering for the sin of himself and his family. He would then have to take a pan full of hot coals from the altar and put incense on it and take them behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place would be covered in thick smoke so that the Ark, the priest –and also God – was hidden from anyone’s sight. Then he had to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on top of the mercy seat once, and then he would sprinkle it seven times with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the floor.

So after he had done this with the bull’s blood, he would then go and do the same thing with the goat that was set apart for the Lord. The goat was for the Israelites, and for their sins. The priest would kill the goat, and then take the blood and sprinkle it on top of the mercy seat and then in front of the mercy seat seven times. The reason for doing this was the cleanse the people from their sins.

Now, when the High Priest does all this, he would come out into the Holy Place to the Altar of Incense. Here he would put the bulls blood on the four horns (the four corners) of the altar, and seven times on the floor. Then he would do the same with the goats blood: on the four horns of the altar and seven times on the floor.

Now after this, the priest would then come out of the Holy Place and mix the bull’s blood and the goat’s blood together and put it on the horns of the Altar of Burnt Offering. Then he would also have to sprinkle the blood on it seven times. The reason for doing this was to clean the altar and make the altar clean from the sin of the people. So you can see that the priest goes into the Holy of Holies to make atonement, then he goes to the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place, and then he brings the blood out to clean the Altar of Burnt Offering. The holiness of God comes out and then makes everything clean.

Altogether there was 49 sprinklings of blood, which is very significant, because 49 is 7 times 7, which is a special number.

Then after this, he would take the live goat and he would put his hands on the goat’s head and he would confess all the sins of the people over it. The High Priest would confess the sins of the people as if their sins were his own sins, and he was place these sins on the goat. Then a man would take the goat away into a remote place in the wilderness somewhere.

Now, after the goat had been sent away, then the High Priest would have to go into the tent of meeting and take off his linen vestments and leave them there. Then he would have to wash his whole body with water somewhere in there and put on his regular vestments that he would normally wear. Then he would make the normal burnt offering on the altar of burnt offering and sacrifice the ram.

You see how the Altar had to be cleaned first through the blood, and then the High Priest would offer the burnt offering. Also, after this, the bodies of the bull and the goat which were killed for the atonement in the Holy of Holies had to be carried out and burnt outside the camp.

You can see how the atonement is made in the Holy of Holies, and then the priest goes out to the Holy Place, and then to the Altar of Burnt Offering and everything becomes clean. The altar is made clean through the blood, and the dead animals are taken outside to a faraway place outside the camp.

Now, it’s taken me a long time to describe all this, and you might be scratching your head wondering what all this has to do with Good Friday.

On the day that Jesus died, as soon as he had breathed out his last breath on the cross, we read that the curtain of the temple was torn in two. In the past, the High Priest could only enter into God’s presence once a year and with very strict conditions. Now the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is presented before the Holy of Holies, and Jesus opens up the curtain for us to enter into God’s presence. You can see in our churches today, there is no curtain in front of the altar. We all come and enter into the sanctuary and receive Christ’s body and blood.

Jesus’ blood has been sprinkled on the mercy seat, not on earth in the temple, or in the tabernacle, but before God’s own throne in heaven. Jesus’ blood makes atonement for all our sins and gives us full access into God’s presence. We don’t come into God’s presence because we are pure, but we enter into God’s presence because of the blood of Jesus Christ, which he shed for us on Good Friday.

The High Priest only entered in once a year, but now we are all made priests through the blood of Christ, and we enter into God’s presence with the blood of Christ shed for our sins, and we offer our prayers to God. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he brought his holy and precious body and blood with him and stands there as the one perfect sacrifice for all sin. There is no need to atone for our sins once a year, but on Good Friday atonement was made for every day to come.

And just as Jesus goes into the Father’s presence, so he is always coming out of the Father’s presence to make everything clean, offering us his gifts of baptism, washing us pure from all condemnation, and giving us the gifts of his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. And he gives these things and applies them to us.

Jesus death tore the curtain in two. His atonement, his death, his sacrifice, ripped through the curtain and cleanses us of all sin. Jesus is true God and true man. Because he is a man he has blood, and because he is true God that blood has divine power to make us clean not just outside but inside of us: our hearts, our minds, our souls, our consciences. And we go and we enter through a new and living way through the curtain. We enter into a new and living way into the Father’s presence through the holy and precious blood of Jesus.

All our sin and condemnation is laid on Jesus. Jesus absorbs it just like the goat. He went out into the wilderness with Satan, and he won the victory over the devil. All the sins of the world are placed on Jesus just as if they were his own sins and he dies for them. And just like the bull and the other goat, Jesus was carried out of the city and burnt on the cross. He endured all the fire of God’s anger against sin and all the fire of his love for the world, and was made a perfect burnt offering for us. And when he had done it all and when he had made his atonement, he said, “It is finished.”

So Good Friday brings an end to the Jewish Day of Atonement. We have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 13 says: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

So on this Good Friday, let’s praise our Lord Jesus Christ for his perfect sacrifice made once and for all. Let’s praise him for the atonement for our sins which he made with his own blood. Let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, because on this day, on this Good Friday, the perfect blood of Jesus—true God and true man—was shed for you, so that you can enter into the Holy Places of heaven, and walk into the heavenly Jerusalem with him. Just as he said to the thief next to him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you for your sacrifice, for your offering, for your atonement which you made for us with your blood and with your own body and life. Forgive us and purify our hearts with this same blood, and give us the confidence to enter into the Holy Place of heaven. Send us your Holy Spirit from the Father’s throne, and make us holy together with you. Amen.

Mid-week Lent Service IV [John 19:4-16] (14-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, bless all of us with your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

Tonight in our sermon we read about Pontius Pilate and his final dealings with the crowd before Jesus was lead off to be crucified. Last week, we read about where Jesus was scourged, and crowned with thorns, clothed with a purple robe, given a reed as a sceptre and mocked and spat upon. This week, we read mostly about Pontius Pilate, walking back and forth inside and outside his headquarters, speaking to the crowd and to Jesus, before he finally gives up and hands Jesus over to be crucified.

Our reading tonight is broken up into three parts:

I.                   Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd, and testifies to his innocence.

II.                 Pilate goes back inside with Jesus and asks him where he is from.

III.              Pilate takes Jesus outside again, trying to release him, but to no effect.

So let’s come to our first part, where:

I.                   Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd, and testifies to his innocence.

We read in John 19:4, where Pilate says to the crowd: See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.

Last week, we read about the terrible suffering that Jesus endured. We read so clearly now, that even though Pontius Pilate had had him whipped in one of the most horrendous punishments known to humanity, he still comes out afterwards and says: I find no guilt in him. So why did he have him flogged? Well, it was all politics: it was simply to appease the crowd. And Pilate had thought that maybe if he had Jesus flogged, that the crowd would have a sense of shame about it, and they would feel sorry for Jesus and agree to release him.

So Pilate says: See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. We read: So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

What a mess Jesus must have looked, after all that he gone through just then. Compare that wonderful time before the fall into sin, when God created woman and brought her to the man. We read: Then the man said: This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. What an amazing thing it was for the first man to see for the first time the first woman!

Now everything is reversed. This time God, through Pilate, presents his own Son to the crowd. The Jews were God’s chosen people, his bride. And now Jesus, their bridegroom is presented to them. Behold, the man! He is flesh of their flesh and bone of their bones. And yet, instead of receiving him with love and affection and devotion, as the first man received the first woman, they receive him with burning hatred, with not a drop of sympathy at all. We read: When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”

These words of Pilate — Behold, the man! — also remind us of what St Paul says in comparing Adam and Christ. He says: The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. He also says: For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall be made alive. Here we have a comparison between Adam and Jesus. Adam sinned, Jesus dies for sin. Adam started off perfect and pure and strong and healthy and even immortal, and then ended up completely wretched because he chose sin. But then Jesus comes along, and he is true God, and he then becomes completely wretched and poor and hungry just like us when he becomes a man, not because he is a sinner, not because he chose to sin. But he chose to bear our sin, and to carry it. And now Pilate shows us what it looks like for a man to bear our sin: Behold, the man!

It will also be a wonderful thing when we appear before God’s throne, full of sin. There is nothing in us that is worthy of God accepting us or welcoming us into heaven. But we can say: Behold, the man! Don’t look at me and my sin, but look to Jesus and his atonement for sin. Look to Jesus and his purity. This is the man who has died for you and made himself your brother and your Saviour. Pilate says: Behold, the man! John the Baptist said: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

When the people called for his crucifixion again, we read that Pilate said: Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. Pilate here is almost throwing in the towel, so to speak. He is fed up with it all. He says to them that he finds no guilt in him. But on the other hand, he puts out a challenge to them: Take him yourselves and crucify him. It’s almost to say: I can’t come up with a reason to crucify him. So if you want to crucify him, you better have a good reason. I’ve exhausted the Roman law, so if you have a good reason to crucify him, I want to hear it.

                                         

So what do they say? They say: We have a law, and according to that law he ought to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God. Now the Jews had the law in the Ten Commandments about taking the Lord’s name in vain. And also we read the law in Leviticus: Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. Now the Jews here thought that because Jesus had said that he was the Son of God, that he was blaspheming the name of the LORD. But he would be blaspheming the Lord’s name if such a thing were not true. For example, if you or I said that we were to Son of God, it would be blasphemy, because it’s not true. But Jesus had not only testified with his mouth that he was the Son of God, but also through his works, and his wonderful healing and comforting miracles. It was true.

But there was a lie in what they said. Jesus had not made himself the Son of God. God himself had declared from heaven that he was His Son, at his baptism, and also at his transfiguration.

But this thing stabs Pontius Pilate in his conscience. You see, in Ancient Roman religion, the gods were super-human beings, as they often are in many pagan religions. And Roman people were open to the possibility of one of the gods coming down in human form. Caesar Augustus had actually called himself amongst other things Filius Dei, the son of a god. What the Jews said to Pilate here would have really made him tremble. “I know that he is innocent, but the Son of God, you say?” And so we read: When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

Once again, Pontius Pilate’s grand plan to free Jesus through arousing sympathy for Jesus had backfired on him, he comes out in confidence, and he ends up in fear.

This brings us to the second part of our reading where:

II.                 Pilate goes back inside his headquarters to speak to Jesus.

We read: Pilate entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

Now Pilate is not asking him, “Where are you from?” just like we might say that to someone in the church narthex to someone, talking about what city or town they come from. Pilate already knows that: he knows that he is from Galilee. That’s why he had him sent off to King Herod. He is asking him something much deeper. And yet: Jesus gave him no answer.

This is like a young couple, who are in love, and thinking about getting married. They say to each other: I love you. And when they say this, they take a risk, and also commit themselves to each other. When Jesus says to Peter: Who do you say that I am? He says: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter knew where Jesus was from. He made a confession of faith.

But imagine the young couple, and one of them said, “Do you love me?” This question is not a commitment, but doubts whether they really do, and they want the other person to commit first. If you put yourself on the line first, then I’ll follow, but I won’t take the risk, and take the lead. This question could also carry underneath it a rebuke, as if to say: “Do you love me? You sure don’t act like it!”

And so, Pilate says to Jesus, “Where are you from?” He won’t make a confession of faith. He says to the crowd that he is innocent, but he won’t commit himself to Jesus. Jesus has already said enough to create faith in him. He had already said: My kingdom is not of this world. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Jesus already told Pilate that he came into the world from outside of it, from eternity, from the bosom of the Father. And so in answer to his question, Jesus remains silent.

This makes Pilate angry. He says: You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Pilate threatens Jesus here. It’s as if he says: Hey, speak to me, or I’ll crucify you just for that! This would be as if a world leader said to another world leader: Reply to my emails, or I’ll launch a nuclear bomb! Everyone knows just how silly this is. So Jesus does open his mouth, and doesn’t give his answer, but says: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

Jesus says something here about authority. We live in a society that doesn’t respect people in authority. Many students in schools don’t respect their teachers, citizens don’t often respect their politicians and leaders very highly, and we could give other examples. But God has actually created authority, and he has given it to the world as his blessing and as his gift. Now, there are plenty of people who abuse their authority, but the abuse of authority doesn’t make authority in and of itself a bad thing.

So God has created authority in the home, in marriage and in the family. He also has created authority in the church. And he also has created authority in the civil realm, in society, with leaders, police, armed forces, and so on.

It’s a wonderful privilege that God gives to us to pray for those who are under our authority, and to pray for those people who are in authority over us. St Paul writes in 1 Timothy: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Also, we read in Romans 13: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. St Peter also writes in his first letter: Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. Pontius Pilate is a governor, just like Peter mentions here in his letter.

Have a think about our leaders, and world leaders. We might imagine some leaders that we like, and some we don’t like. For example, there’s the prime-minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull. Or the Queensland premier, Anastacia Palaszczuk. Or there’s our local members of parliament. Or then there’s the Queen, who is also the Queen of the Commonwealth of Australia. Whether we personally like these people or not, the fact is they have their authority from God, and God has placed them there. There is great wisdom is knowing what authority we have, and then to use it.

And so here we have Pontius Pilate, who is threatening to crucify Jesus for not opening his mouth. And Jesus says to him: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. This means that when Pilate finally does give Jesus over to be crucified, it is God who has allowed it to happen. But also, if Pilate misuses his authority by sentencing an innocent man to death, it is a great sin. And Jesus says this to him: Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. Jesus says: If you crucify me, it will be a sin, and even a great sin. But those who have given me over to you, to manipulate you, and to use you, and to get what they want by pressing in on you, they have committed a greater sin. They are using God-given authority not to promote what is right and good, but in order to suit their own ends.

This now brings us to the third part of our reading tonight, where:

III.              Pilate brings Jesus outside again, and tries to release him, but to no avail.

We read: From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” This time, these words are addressed to Pilate. In effect, the Jews here are threatening Pilate, as if to say, If you don’t do what we want, we’ll put in a bad report about you to Caesar, and he won’t like that, will he, Mr Pilate? Pilate is now put in a difficult place. The crowd remind Pilate that he is not simply a man in authority over them, but he is a man under the authority of Caesar. What will Caesar think, they say, if you don’t put a rival king to death?

We read: So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. We can see here that this is Pilate’s last opportunity. He is going to sit in his official judgment seat. The judge is going to make his pronouncement. John also mentions the day and the time. It is the Day of Preparation—the next day is going to be the Sabbath, and time is running out. It is Friday at midday, and there are only so many hours left in the day. Later on in the chapter, we read that the Jews didn’t want to have bodies on the cross on the Sabbath, so they asked Pilate to break their legs and get the job over and done with. But here we are told specifically, that Pilate has ascended onto his judgment throne. As Peter says: He is a governor sent by God to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

And so mindful of this holy calling and duty that God has bestowed upon him, he says: Behold your King! We read: They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

Just as they chose to have Barabbas released—a murderer instead of their creator—so they also choose to have Caesar as their king, the Roman Emperor, who has taxed and oppressed them, and call for the death of the King of heaven, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the King of David, the Lion from the Tribe of Judah, the Son of David and the Son of God.

In Matthew’s Gospel we read: So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather than a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Pilate tries to excuse himself by washing himself clean, in a little symbolic ritual, and declaring his innocence. But he is saying: Jesus is innocent, and I want to share in that innocence too. It’s you that are forcing me into this.

But then the Jews say something quite tremendous. They say: His blood be on us and on our children! It’s as if they are saying: “Don’t you worry, Pilate! You might have a bad conscience, but we don’t. We know he’s guilty. His blood can be on us and even on our children, but we know that we are right and that we have nothing to worry about. We know that we are innocent, and we know that he is guilty.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. They did not give him a fair trial. Pilate had tried to free Jesus, the crowd had simply pushed and pushed until their voices prevailed.

In some sense, they call upon themselves the guilt of Jesus’ death upon themselves, convinced that they are right and Jesus is wrong. However, those of us who believe that they were wrong and Jesus was right must really shudder at these words.

These words are very sensitive, especially in the way that they have been used in history. Sometimes, different people have developed a particular hatred for Jewish people, and this came to a particular head, when Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist party exterminated many, many Jews—together with many other unwanted people—in the holocaust at the time of WWII. Hatred towards to Jews was justified because they had called the guilt of Jesus’ death down upon them and upon their children.

And yet, we who are Gentiles, have been grafted in, through holy baptism, into God’s people. Both Jews and Gentiles are called to be part of God’s church on earth. And of course, Jewish people are so close to our faith, in that they have the Old Testament, and yet they are so far away in that they reject the New Testament, and Jesus as their Messiah. Jesus was a Jew, as were all the apostles, and all the writers of the bible. As St Paul writes: But if some of the branches [that is, some Jews] were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, [that is, Gentiles] were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who supports the root, but the root that supports you. The Jews were originally God’s chosen people, and now we have been made God’s chosen people together with them. Those Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah are cut off, and need to be called to repentance and faith just like the rest of us. As long as Jews and Muslims in the Middle-East reject Jesus together they will always be fighting. Jesus calls both Jews and Muslims to him, to his cross, to his blood, to his peace which passes all understanding. Imagine what a joy it would be for Jews and Arabs if they had one common Saviour, Jesus Christ, having one common baptism, and could share in the Lord’s Supper together! This is not to say that Jesus’ peace is simply a political thing—not at all. However, Jesus says: Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. What a wonderful joy it must have been for that Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 to read prophet Isaiah—that prophet which he knew so well—and then to realise that it was talking about Jesus!

It should be a great prayer for us towards those of the Jewish race and of the Jewish faith that the blood of Jesus may be upon them and upon their children, not as a curse, but as a blessing. And this should also be our prayer about ourselves and our children, just as Peter said on the day of Pentecost: Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

Behold the man! Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world—have mercy on us! Amen.

Pentecost XVIII (Proper 22 A) [Matthew 21:33-46] (8-Oct-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son”. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

In today’s reading, we read about a master of a house who plants a vineyard. Jesus says: Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.

Here in this parable we see a master of a house. The master of the house is God the Father himself. He is the one who plants a vineyard, he is the one who owns this vineyard, he is the one who builds a hedge around it, he is the one who digs the winepress, he is the one who builds a tower, and he is the one who leases his vineyard to the tenants that he chooses. The word “tenant” here doesn’t simply refer to someone who rents to property, but someone who also works it. This is a share-farming arrangement—there is a property owner, and then there are workers and farmers who come into work the farm. It’s just as if someone around our area owns a piece of land with a sugar cane plantation, but they are not able to work it, and so they get someone else to work the plantation for them.

Also, we see in our reading that not only does God the Father plant a vineyard, but he also puts a hedge around it. It is important that the vineyard is protected from wild animals. Once I remember staying on a farm in South Australia which had a vineyard on the property, and the fence next to it wasn’t very secure, and the neighbour’s cows would come into the vineyard and eat the grapes! It was quite a nuisance for the vineyard owners to have to keep leading the cows back next door! — Also, God the Father builds a winepress in the middle of his vineyard. What’s the point of having a vineyard if they’re not making something? So, this winepress is where all the action happens in the vineyard—this is where they press the grapes into a pulp, and make the wines. — God also builds a tower – what’s the tower for? For the workers to watch. They can make sure that there’s no people coming, or animals coming, or fires coming that might affect the vineyard.

So just as Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a vineyard, so also we can see that there are different jobs that need to be done in the kingdom. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: Your kingdom come. Martin Luther, in his Small Catechism, writes: God’s kingdom comes when our Heavenly Father sends us the Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy word and live godly lives here in time and there in eternity. Right at the heart of the kingdom of God is the God’s Word, and God sends us his Holy Spirit to believe that word, so that we lead our lives according to that Word.

So in the vineyard there is also a hedge around it. God’s word needs to be protected—it needs to be guarded and fenced in, so that we are very clear about what is in the vineyard and what is outside the vineyard. We need to make sure that the vineyard is well-fenced and snake-proof, so that the devil doesn’t come in and alter God’s word, or twist it around to make it say what it doesn’t say. But also, in this vineyard there is a winepress. The word of God must be preached – we must be crushed up by God’s law, and confronted with the truth about who we are as sinners. All of our pride must be stomped under God’s feet with his gumboots, but all of this happens not to destroy the fruit, but so that the grapes will grow and mature. It’s only the crushed grapes that are then collected and saved by the workers, put in bottles, and left to ferment into wine. And so God also wants his wonderful gospel to be preached to us too, the message of the free forgiveness of our sins for Christ’s sake, and for it to permeate and ferment our whole life through. Jesus was crushed on the cross for us, and is now raised from the dead. Jesus also raises us up and gives us new life, just like the crushed grapes are now given new life, and made into something completely new. -- This vineyard also has a tower in it. The tenants of God’s kingdom need to sit up high and be able to see outside the vineyard and make sure the vineyard is protected. Here we can see that it is part of the task of managing God’s vineyard to carefully watch what is outside his kingdom and make sure that none of it comes in. Then when we can see where the fence might need repairing. In the kingdom of heaven, people watch and pray. We watch what is going on in the world, and also we pray that the kingdom of God may not be infiltrated by error and falsehood.

Now, let’s read what happens in the next part of our reading: When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

What happens here? Well, nothing went wrong with the vineyard—it was a good vineyard, and God had planted it well. Nothing went wrong with the fence. The fence was still working well and no wild animals had got in. Nothing went wrong with the winepress—everything was in fine working order. Also, nothing went wrong with the tower—it still stood high over the vineyard. Everything that God himself had built and put in order was fine. But the problem was with the tenants. It’s not that they weren’t working in the vineyard, but they started to think that they were the property owners now, and not the tenants anymore. They kill their master’s servants, and finally they even kill their master’s son.

Then Jesus says: When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” You can see here at the end of the parable, God the Father, as the owner of the vineyard, punishes the unfaithful tenants, and kicks them out of his vineyard and he leases his vineyard out to new tenants. The old tenants prevent the property owner, like an owner of a vineyard, from coming to collect the bottles of beautifully-aged wine which we made from the grapes in his vineyard. These tenants even killed the owner’s son, so that they could keep all the produce, and the vineyard, for themselves. The new tenants will work joyfully for the owner of the vineyard – and there’s a wonderful sharing of the produce. The owner of the vineyard sends his messengers, and on behalf of the owner, collects the wine for selling and distributing. Even the workers in the vineyard get to share in the owner’s work, and are rewarded for their work.

Now this parable has two applications. First of all, it applies to God’s chosen people of the Old Testament, the Jewish people. But second, it also applies to the church throughout history. So first of all, let’s see how this parable first of all applies to

I.                   The Jews.

In the first five books of the Bible, we see how God chose the Jewish people to be the custodians of his kingdom. God called Abraham, and brought him to the land of Canaan. His grandson, Jacob had 12 sons, who became to heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Levites, were chosen to be the priests, and the guardians of the worship and the tabernacle and later the temple. If we read the book of Exodus, we read about how God brought his chosen people out of Egypt, and gave them his law, in great detail, about how they should guard his word and his worship.

But God didn’t simply want his people to keep a whole lot of outward regulations and ceremonies. He also wanted his word to sink deep into their hearts, and produce the wonderful fruit of faith. Abraham had trusted God’s word so many years ago. And we read: Abraham believed God, and he counted it to him as righteousness. In Deuteronomy, we read where Moses tells the people before they go into the promised land: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command today shall be on your heart. God wants his people to give their complete devotion to him, and to return to him the wonderful fruit of his vineyard, like aged wines.

But then what happened? God had not employed them as owners of the vineyard, but only managers. But instead they began to consider themselves to be the owners. God had sent his people many prophets throughout the years, who had called them to repentance. The prophets had called God’s people to share with their God the fruit of the harvest. But there was no harvest – instead they rejected the prophets. Jesus says: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!

God’s chosen people, the Jewish people, put themselves in the place of God, and saw the prophets as nothing but a threat to their existence. They thought that God could nothing without them. They insist that the land of Canaan is their land, because of Abraham, not God’s land for them to look after. And then when prophets had come to the land, they had killed them. When Jesus came, both Jews and Gentiles worked together to have him killed, kicked out of the city of Jerusalem, and killed like a common criminal, and nailed to the cross.

What then happened as a result? In the year 70 AD, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was destroyed, and to this day it has never been rebuilt.

Even after the Second World War, the Jewish people received the land of Israel back as a nation state. But where the temple once stood stands one of the largest Muslim mosques in the world, and one could only imagine that World War III would start if the Jewish people today decided to destroy that mosque and rebuilt the temple. Many Christians support the Jews, at the expense of the Palestinians, even Christian Palestinians. Many Christians support Palestinians, at the expense of the Jews. The kingdom of heaven is not a matter of politics. The kingdom of heaven is a matter of the word of God, it is about Jesus our Saviour, and faith in him. And so, even though there continues to be terrible trouble in the Middle-East to this day, the solution is not for the Arabs to crush the Jews, or the Jews to crush the Arabs, but for both Jews and Arabs to receive Christ as their crucified Saviour, together with Christian people of all nations. It is only with Jesus that there can be Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth. In Colossians, we read that Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross.

In the early books of the bible, we read how the kingdom of God was given to the Jews alone. But then towards the end of the bible, we see all these wonderful letters. To whom? To Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and Hebrews. You see, God had taken away the kingdom of God away from the Jews only, and given it instead to the Jews who received Christ, the Son of God. And then He also grafted in many believers from other nations. The Jews are not forgotten—the church today is not an anti-Jewish group. Not at all! The church is made up of people from all nations, including Jews. In fact, in started off with Jews, and expanded all throughout the world. All the books in the bible, even in the New Testament, were written by Jews, like Paul and Peter and James and John. The church doesn’t belong to one ethnic group anymore, and even today, the kingdom of God has expanded even to places that the apostles didn’t even know existed, like Australia. In recent years, there have been missions to some of the most remote people on earth, to the Mongolians, to the Nepalese, to tribes still unreached in Africa, in South America. Even today in Australia, the Gospel is still yet to be preached to a new generation of people, who seem to be being “protected” more and more from hearing the Gospel.

So let’s now come to how this parable applies even to

II.                 The Church today.

The church today is called to be a custodian of God’s vineyard. But sometimes we can start to put our own human wisdom in place of God’s word. We can start to think that God won’t do anything unless we do it for him. We start to think that the Holy Spirit doesn’t know how to call people, and so we exchange his word for entertainment. We water down his word so that the wine can’t mature properly. When true messengers of God come our way, whether they be pastors or laypeople, we can so easily remain stuck in our comfortable lives, instead of listening to God’s call to repentance, and presenting a harvest back to him. God sends people all throughout history, who speak the word of God afresh for us, and when they do this, we must listen. Because if we reject God’s word, then we reject Jesus himself, and if we reject the Son, then reject the owner of the vineyard also. Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.

Sometimes, even in the church, Christians can reject Jesus, and rob God of his own property, because they want it for themselves, and turn it into their own little social club, as if it’s all about them. The church is not a social club built around us, it is the mouthpiece for our living God. And when we turn this mouthpiece into something else, then faith is completely eradicated from people, and it is given to other people. Even in our culture—in European, western culture—the Christian faith was once at the very core of the civilisation. And now, in our country, the name of Jesus for many people is nothing more than a swear-word. Now it is not Europe where most of the world’s Christians are to be found any more, but Africa and other places. But what about them? Will they remain faithful to God’s word? Africa is a continent that is full of false prophets too. God knows full well how to take his kingdom away from one group of people and to rain it down upon another.

So it is of utmost importance for us Christians to keep the faith. It is not for us to make Christianity into our own brand. We cannot work by ourselves, but with God every step of the way, and let him shape and change us, and it is his word that must sink into our hearts and minds. If we don’t remain faithful to God’s word, then the church won’t be here anymore when people come looking for it. There might be a church building, but the church won’t necessarily be inside it. But if there is a church inside the building, then it can only be a group of sinners who trust their Saviour, who look for their hope and their salvation from Jesus, their Good Shepherd. Any other group of people is not a church, and it is only a matter of time before they become an angry group of dangerous tenants.

In the church, we do nothing but plant seeds and water the seed. God is the one who gives the growth. And so in the meantime, let’s work together with God in that task, being shaped and formed by his word—in changing our minds in repentance, and receiving the wonderful gift of the free forgiveness of every single one of our sins, and we look forward to that wonderful time when Jesus will return and share with us the joy of his harvest. Amen.

Dear Jesus, when you come to your Father’s vineyard, we want to receive you with joy, and share in your harvest. Send us your Holy Spirit, and keep us faithful to you. Amen.