Mid-week Lent Service III [Matthew 27:26-31] (7-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.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

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.

In Isaiah 50, we read the following words: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting. In our sermon tonight, we think about particularly where Jesus’ physical suffering turns particularly nasty in a way that we haven’t seen yet in our readings so far. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus anticipated this great suffering, and was so shaken by the thought of what was to come, he sweated blood and an angel came to minister to him.

In our reading tonight, we read about the scourging of Jesus, how the soldiers gathered around him and clothed him with a purple robe, crowned him with thorns, put a reed in his hand, mocked him by kneeling before him, spitting at him, and striking and slapping him. And then after all this, Pilate brings him out before the crowd, and present him to the them.

So let’s look at the first part of our reading tonight:

I.                   The scourging of Jesus.

In ancient times, it was a common punishment to flog a criminal. Some countries in the world today still use this as a punishment. Even in the Old Testament, there was a law about it in the book of Deuteronomy: If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. We even read in St Paul’s letter that he had received this punishment. He writes in 2 Corinthians: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. It was common for the Jewish people to give 39 lashes, 40 minus one, just to make sure that the people were not given more than forty.

But in Jesus’ case, it was something quite different. Notice in the book of Deuteronomy, God set a limit to the number of lashes—the number 40. And there is a reason given: Lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

Jesus was not flogged by the Jews, but by the Romans—in fact, he received a scourging, as it called. A Roman scourging called for the prisoner to be naked. There was no consideration of shame—there was no regard for whether the person would be degraded. Also, the Romans would use a whip with pieces of metal or bone embedded in the whip. The purpose was to make a mess of the person. Also, there was no limit to the number as with the Jews.

This is what Jesus underwent in our reading. Also, in John, it says that Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Pilate would have had someone employed to carry out this scourging. Think about if we had had such a thing like this in our society today—who would do it? Who in our country would agree to do this? Only the most deranged low-life imaginable would be willing to do this. We could imagine Pilate had got one of his most bloodthirsty soldiers, an “ex-prison guy”, in other way, a madman to do this job.

This is the kind of person that Jesus was in the hands of. And strangely enough, not much is said about it in the Scripture. In John we read that Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Matthew and Mark simply say: And having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. And yet this one word: scourged, or flogged, indicates the fulfilment of a wonderful prophecy from Isaiah. We read: Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds [or with his stripes] we are healed.

This event teaches us about who we are. It brings us face to face with our sinful nature. Here we see a man laid bare, like Adam and Eve in the garden. Before the fall, there was no shame. But now, Jesus is stripped of his clothes—the purpose of this is to shame him. And in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were clothed with skins. Because of the sin, payment was required, and an animal, maybe a sheep or a leopard or something, lost its life in order to cover them. But here, Jesus’ bare skin is not covered up, but it is removed from him, one stripe at a time. And Jesus reveals to us his true humanity. When Jesus was on the mountain of the Transfiguration, he showed a glimpse of his divinity: the light of his divine nature shines through his face and his clothes and lightens up the night. We learn here that God the Father is his true Father, and that Jesus is his true Son. As John says: We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father. However, that same skin which glowed with all of God’s power and energy, is now stripped to reveal that he had a human mother, Mary. And he shows to us, by submitting to this tremendous cruelty, that he underneath his skin, like all members of the human race, we have blood and flesh and bones.

The shame of this whole event of Jesus’ scourging is our shame. The innocent Son of God is stripped and tied in place, and subjected to a beefy pagan madman, and in his hand with one of the nastiest known weapons know to the human race. Can we even come to think that this is our human nature? This is our sin being punished.

But also, Jesus does not want us simply to think about this because he wants to shame us: no—he does this because he wants to cover over our sin, and forgive it. We should think about this not about what other people did to Jesus, but what Jesus himself accomplished and achieved. Psalm 32 says: Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Jesus’ nakedness and flesh is uncovered, you are covered by him. St John writes in his first letter: The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. And in Isaiah, we read: Upon him was the chastisement—not for nothing—but that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

So often as a pastor I have heard people say: If you knew what I had done, you wouldn’t be so quick to speak about forgiveness. What I’ve done can’t be forgiven. Yes—you’re right, I might not know what you’ve done. But I know what Jesus has done. And if only these words about Jesus’ suffering and death for you would hook into your mind and skin, your heart your flesh, just as that whip did to Jesus! Hebrews says: The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow. Let it pierce! Let it sink in. You are a beloved, forgiven, child of God. By his wounds, with his stripes, you have been healed.

We come to the next part of our reading:

II.                 Jesus receives a mock-coronation.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put scarlet robe on him. Mark calls it a purple cloak.

When we hear in our times about someone wearing a certain colour, we don’t often think very much about it, though we do have some associations. We clothe baby boys in blue and baby girls in blue. We are used to the police and the navy wearing blue, the army wearing brown. Pastors often wear black and white. Brides wear white at their weddings. We might look twice if someone wore a gold or silver suit or a dress.

However, in ancient times, purple was a very expensive colour to wear. Purple dye was made from a particular type of sea-snail, and was hard to come by. Generally, it was royalty then that wore purple. Even today, if you see an official photograph of the Queen with her crown, she would often wear a purple robe. In the New Testament, we read about the businesswoman Lydia who became a Christian. We read: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. When Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we read that the rich man wore purple. This is to say that the man was dressing like a king, when he wasn’t one. Being rich doesn’t make a person royalty. (This would be like if wealthy people like Clive Palmer or Rupert Murdoch started to wear gold crowns!)

Here in our reading, Jesus is clothed in purple. This is a mock coronation. He is given a royal, purple robe, not because they recognise him as a king, but because they are mocking him.

Once again, if we go back to Genesis, we read that God said: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God says to his human creatures: have dominion. In order words: live like kings and queens and royalty, ruling the world together with me. But Adam and Eve exchange this royal dignity of having dominion for being the devil’s slaves. They weren’t satisfied with the dignity they had already received from God, and the devil tempted them by saying: You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat it you will be like God! And yet the promise is false.

Now, Jesus, the true King of glory, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, is treated like a pretend king, and is clothed with a purple robe.

The next part of the coronation ceremony is where we read: and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.

This is a mock version of a real crown, and a real sceptre, usually made out of gold, which were symbols of a king’s authority.

In Genesis we read: When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Can you imagine this picture of a perfect serene created world, with a gentle mist watering everything? But then after the fall into sin, we read where God says to Adam: Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. Here in our reading tonight we see these thorns and thistles return. The thorns are twisted into a terrible crown, and a thistle, or a reed, is put into Jesus hand as a sceptre. The very things which were God’s judgment upon Adam, Jesus now takes upon himself as he takes that same judgement upon himself.

In Psalm 110, we read the wonderful words: The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your enemies!

Here in the city of Jerusalem, from Zion, the LORD sends forth his mighty sceptre. Jesus receives a sceptre in his hand—but not a gold one, but an old stick. And yet the words are true: Rule in the midst of your enemies! Jesus is here surrounded by his enemies, and yet he is not being ruled, but he is ruling. We read in Matthew that the soldiers took the reed and struck him on the head. Jesus knows what he is doing—he is suffering all of this to make atonement for the sin of the world.

The next part of the mock coronation happened like this. We read: And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Mark says, they saluted him. Remember here that when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, we read: Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he”. [In Greek, the word are simply I AM, just as when he said to Moses, I AM, when he spoke from the burning bush.] It says: When Jesus said to them, “I AM”, they drew back and fell to the ground.

Do you see here that the immense power of Jesus’ words, and the use of the words, “I AM”, forces the people to the ground—the power is so great, so intense, and so immense. And the same here: when these soldiers are in the presence of Jesus, they can do nothing but kneel and hail and salute him. They do it out of mockery, but we know their actions speak true. This is the very thing that we should also desire when are face to face with Jesus: to kneel before him, to hail him, and to salute him as our king. But not in mockery, and God cannot be mocked. When King David was anointed as a king, God said to Samuel: The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

We also read in Philippians: At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here we see in this mock coronation ceremony, that the soldiers also kneel before God and confess Jesus as king of the Jews. We can see their outward appearance, but God sees the heart.

What also is part of a coronation ceremony? Well—normally if a king or queen is crowned, there would be a great cheer from the crowd. But what do we read? And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. We see here a fulfilment of the prophecy from Isaiah: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

God would know what these men ate, what they had for breakfast. God would know when they had last brushed their teeth, and he would have seen the gingivitis and the phlegm. In his suffering, Jesus received the filth and the dirt of human spit upon his face. By contrast, after Jesus had risen from the dead, and had destroyed death and conquered death, and had no sign or scrap of death anywhere around him, we read that he breathed on his disciples and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. This breath would have been even fresher than that cool gentle mist over the Garden of Eden. That mist was created by God, but Jesus was God himself.

Just to finish our sermon tonight, we should also remember that at Jesus’ ascension, we see the other side of what happened in our reading tonight. Tonight we read about his mock coronation, but at the ascension we read about his entrance into heaven, where he sits down at the right hand of the throne of God. Instead of the sound of mockery, we read in Psalm 47: God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. In stead of the laughing, the jeering, the fake saluting, we read in the same Psalm: Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne!

Let’s bow the knee before our Saviour and Redeemer and our Sacrificial Lamb, who, as Isaiah said, was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our inquities. Let’s receive him as our Saviour and our king and our Lord, and worship him in spirit and in truth. Let our hearts and our lips speak together, and not in conflict with each other, as Jesus says to the Pharisees: The people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

The famous hymn says:

O sacred head, now wounded / With pain and scorn weighed down / In mockery surrounded / With thorns Thine only crown. / O sacred head, what glory / What bliss, till now, was Thine! / Yet, though despised and gory, / I joy to call Thee mine.

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

Mid-week Lent Service II [Matthew 27:15-23] (28-Feb-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.

The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”

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.

In our Lent sermon tonight, we’re going to continue from where we left off last week, where we were looking at the event where Jesus goes to Herod.

We read that Herod had mocked Jesus and sent him back to Pilate dressed in a royal robe of some kind. So now that Jesus has been returned to Pilate, this is what we read in Luke 23:

Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of the charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.”

You remember in our readings last week, that Pilate had tried to rid himself of having to deal with Jesus, and so when he had heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent him off to Herod. Herod also didn’t know what to do with him, so he sent him back to Pilate.

And Pilate gathers together all the people again. And he says: You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people.

In our passage last week, we read that the chief priests had said: He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place. When they say he was stirring up the people, it didn’t so much mean that he was simply getting them excited—that would have been no crime. When Pilate says that they had brought Jesus to him as one who was misleading the people, he also doesn’t mean that Jesus had simply made some mistakes in his teaching. What he was talking about was that Jesus was being accused of leading the people in a revolution. He was being accused of misleading people or stirring them up against the established order.

But of course, there was no proof that Jesus was doing anything of the sort. Remember though that Jesus says: I am the way, and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except by me. This saying of Jesus is a great comfort to Christians, but to outsiders it is a real stumbling stone. Paganism has always believed that there are multiple roads to God, and that experience is more important than truth. You can have two people who have some kind of religious experience, but say conflicting things. Pagan unbelief says, “Who cares about the conflict? You can’t criticise the experience. That man or woman is a holy man or woman.” This is not what Jesus teaches. He teaches only one way to God, and that is through him.

And so, would it be any surprise to us that those who don’t follow the words of Jesus are going to criticise him for misleading people? When King Ahab saw Elijah, he said: Is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel but you have.” In the same way we could say about Jesus: It is not Jesus who is misleading people, but everyone else is misleading people.

Back to Pilate – Pilate once again proclaims Jesus’ innocence. He says: After examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.

Even though Jesus is innocent, Pilate says that he will punish him. Here, he means a flogging. It’s as if he is saying: I understand that you want him to stop preaching, but he hasn’t really done anything to deserve death. How about I give him a flogging? Hopefully, I’ll scare him enough that he won’t say anything more.

The punishment is unfair and unjust—it is simply to appease the crowd. However, we need to remember here that Jesus is the lamb of God, and he is carrying the sin of the world. And our sin can’t be dealt with by a simple flogging, and then it’s done. It is worthy of death, just as God said in the Garden of Eden to Adam: If you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Yes, Jesus is innocent, but he is carrying our sin, and he is doing it for us. He is making atonement for us, he is making a sacrifice for us.

Now, we come to the text which we read earlier from Matthew 27. We read: Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. What we are talking about here is an arrangement that the Romans had with the Jewish people to keep them happy, and to give some kind of appearance that they were good and generous rulers. So when it came around that the Jewish people were celebrating the Passover, at they were at this time, the governor would release a prisoner. This did three things: firstly, it gave the people the opportunity to release someone who was unjustly imprisoned, and possibly to right a wrong that had been committed by the Romans; secondly, it gave the Romans a chance to keep the people happy; and thirdly, it made the Romans look good.

Once again, we see how part of the way in which the Romans ruled the people was every now and then to give them what they wanted. So just as Pilate had threated to flog Jesus and release him, to keep the crowd happy, so also we see that there were other customs in place to keep the crowd happy.

We read: And they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. In John’s gospel we read about him: Now Barabbas was a robber. This is true, but he wasn’t a pickpocket. This is a serious robber, like a highway robber, or like an Australian “bushranger”, who would be happy to kill anyone who got in his way. In Mark’s Gospel we read: Among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. Do you hear that? He had committed murder in the insurrection. An insurrection is an uprising, or a rebellion, or the beginnings of a revolution. Luke says that he had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Luke even gives us the impression that he was one of the people who was instrumental in leading this uprising, and that he was one of the front-runners. After all, Matthew says that he was a notorious prisoner.

And so what do we read that happens? We read in Matthew: So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” We also read: For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

Here we see that Pilate has a plan. He knows that Jesus is innocent. He doesn’t want to send a man to his death who doesn’t deserve it. And so what is he going to do? Well—he thinks—maybe if I can get them to release Jesus, according to this custom. But here’s the problem: The custom was that there would be released whatever prisoner the crowd wanted, not whom the governor wanted. If a mother tried to pull this trick with their child, and said, “I’ll buy you whatever icecream you choose”, and then the mum tries to wrangle it in such a way that the child should choose her favourite, so that she could also have a lick, the child would smell the rat a mile off. “No, mum—you said I could have whatever icecream I wanted. I don’t want Rum and Raisin. I want to choose the icecream that I want!”

And so this is a similar trick that Pilate is trying to play on the crowd. To release Jesus was his idea, not theirs. And yet, he thought if he gave them a choice between someone they simply didn’t like, and a hardened criminal like Barabbas, they would obviously choose to keep Barabbas in jail. Think about a notorious criminal that we might know—we all know what prisons are like. The worst thing about going to gaol is not simply having your freedom taken away, but being stuck in there with all kinds of bloodthirsty characters. Barabbas is probably someone a bit like Chopper Reid. He thinks, if I gave them a choice between Jesus and Chopper, surely they would want to keep Chopper back in the clink! Surely, people must think: Don’t let Barabbas out! We don’t want him back loose on the streets! Pilate thinks that common decency would prevail. He sensed that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Hopefully, this choice between Jesus and Barabbas would put them to shame, and they would see just what fools they had been.

At this point, Matthew interrupts all of this “action”, and he tells us about a little event which only he tells. We read: Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”

Pilate is not only being pulled in all directions by the crowd, but now his wife gets involved. There are many dreams in the bible—we might think particularly of Joseph in the Old Testament with his dreams. But then also there are many dreams in the Gospel of Matthew. When we read about Jesus’ birth, we read about Joseph having many dreams: about taking Mary to be his wife, about fleeing from Bethlehem to Egypt, about coming back from Egypt, and about settling in Nazareth. Also, we read about the Wise Men being warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Here, we have Pilate’s wife suffering much in her dream about Jesus. She wakes up, and is frightened, and warns her husband not to have anything to do with Jesus.

Isn’t it strange that here is a Gentile woman who perceives much more about what is going on than the crowd and the priests? Through this dream, her conscience is pricked, and she realises that there is something big going on here.

Sometimes people make too much a thing about dreams. Pagan people have often looked to dreams as messages from whatever spirits they worship. Sometimes, in the bible, we see God also send people messages in a dream. But we also have to be careful that we don’t look for this, and try and use techniques to play games with our sub-conscious. If we dream, we dream. If we don’t, we don’t. Sometimes a dream brings to mind someone we know—well, we should pray for them. Or maybe a dream makes us worried about something—well, we should pray about it.

In the case of Pilate’s wife, all we read about is that dream terrified her conscience. And she says: Having nothing to do with that righteous man. This is the wrong message. Yes: he is a righteous man. But even though we are unrighteous, this righteous man—who is also the righteous God—wants everything to do with us. The fact that we are ungodly, and Jesus is righteous, the fact that we are sinners and Jesus is perfect, does not mean that we can have nothing to do with him. Rather the opposite—Jesus is laying down his life for you, so that you can be with him, both in this life and in the next. He forgives your sin, so that you can have your whole lives—and the next life—with him.

Now we come back to the crowd. We read: The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified.”

We see here that Pilate’s great plan has back-fired on him. He thought that this would be the opportunity to release Jesus. But instead, they choose to have Barabbas released. Now that his plan hasn’t worked, Pilate is stuck. The very fact that they have called for Barabbas, now gives them the opportunity to call for Jesus’ blood. Pilate is stuck in a corner. He says: What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They say: Let him be crucified. Pilate protests Jesus’ innocence. He says: Why, what evil has he done? But the cat is now out of the bag. The horse has bolted. All the crowd have to do now is keep shouting louder and louder, so that they eventually win. Pilate’s protests are drowned out.

This is often the way it is. Truth can only be attacked with noise, noise, noise. If the truth is inconvenient, all we can do is make sure that the truth is drowned out, and that the falsehood or the error is proclaimed louder and louder. This is why it seems to us so often in the world that unbelievers and those who have false beliefs are more energetic and have more passion and fire in their bellies than believing Christians. But you see, energy and passion and fire is all they have. Jesus doesn’t pray to his Father: Sanctify them with your energy, with your passion, with your fire. Instead he says: Sanctify them with your truth; your word is truth.

So the crowd chooses to have Barabbas released and Jesus crucified. Just as a final thought for our sermon this evening, we see here the corruption of the human will. Because we are sinful, fallen human beings, every part of us is corrupt. Our bodies age and get diseased. Our hearts are full of all kinds of evil thoughts. Genesis says: The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This includes our will. Our sin always wants to hide itself and protect itself—it never wants to be exposed. And so our hearts do not choose forgiveness. It is Jesus who chooses us.

Some Christians make a mistake in this regard. They think that Christian conversion is about choosing to follow Jesus, or making a decision to follow Jesus. But this isn’t the case. Jesus is the one who has made a decision from the foundation of the world to have you as his follower. He has called you through his word and Holy Baptism. Jesus said to his disciples not long before he was arrested on the night when he was betrayed: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.

Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world. That means he has died for your sin. He has called you through his word, and he has baptised you, and he constantly gives you the opportunity to hear his word of forgiveness spoken to you by your pastor in the church. This is what you should put your trust in, because this is Jesus’ words. Don’t put your trust in your decisions, and in your will—the human will is corrupt. In our reading tonight, the crowd freely chose to release a criminal and to crucify its Saviour. That’s what human will does.

However, once we have been converted, then Jesus sends us his Holy Spirit to change and shape our will, so that we choose things which are pleasing to him. This is something that is only begun in this life, though. Even as a Christian we will find ourselves doing things that we wish we hadn’t done, and things that we don’t want to do. St Paul says: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Jesus here in our reading shows us what our hearts and our wills really are. Our sinful flesh, and our sinful hearts, want to see Jesus out of the picture. Like Pilate’s wife, our sinful hearts and our dreams want to have nothing to do with this righteous man. When Peter’s boat was breaking from all the fish Jesus had allowed him to catch, he said: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Jesus was crucified because people just you and me wanted him crucified. And now he says to us: I know that wanted me dead. I know that like my disciples you would rather run away. But I have died for your will. I have died not because the world wanted it, but because you need it. And so, now, do not be afraid. What is more important is not want you want, but what God wants. We read in Isaiah 53: It was the will of God to crush him. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said: Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken away from me. Yet, not my will, but your will be done.

Thank you, Jesus, for your perfect will, for submitting to your Father’s will, and even letting yourself be submitted to the will of the crowd, so that you could go to the cross to purchase and win me and all believers. Teach me your will, O Lord! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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

Epiphany I: Baptism of our Lord [Matthew 3:13-17] (7-Jan-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.

John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

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

In our Gospel reading today, we read about Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan. And this is a very significant event: The gospels of Matthew and Luke begin by teaching us about the birth of Jesus. But the gospels of Mark and John begin with the baptism of Jesus. This is because Jesus’ baptism is the beginning of his ministry. Before Jesus was baptised, he didn’t go around preaching and healing people yet—but he led a simple life of a humble carpenter in Nazareth.

We sometimes forget about the city of Nazareth. We talk about Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and Jerusalem, where he went to the temple and was later sentenced to death. But Nazareth—which was in the area called Galilee, north of Jerusalem—was the place where Jesus spent his childhood, his teenage years and his life as a young adult.

And at the beginning of our gospel reading today we read: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him.

Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee all the way to the place at the River Jordan where John was. This was a long journey of about 125kms.

But this is not the first time Jesus had made a long journey to visit John. This had happened once before, when his mother Mary was still pregnant with him, and went to visit Elizabeth, when she was still pregnant with John! We know that Mary and Elizabeth were distantly related in some way. And when pregnant Mary came to visit pregnant Elizabeth, the baby John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb.

Here in our Gospel reading today, we read about where Jesus and John meet each other again, but 30 years later as grown men.

Many people in the early church also believed that John was in the wilderness right from when he was a boy. In Luke it says about John: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the days of his public appearance in Israel.

We often assume that he grew up into a man first and then went out into the wilderness, but it is also quite likely that John went there very early in his life. Remember that his parents were both old when he was born, and could have died early in his life. Also, remember that John ended up being dressed in clothes in which any mother would have been embarrassed to send their child outside, and eating certain food that seems as though he wasn’t been looked after properly. We read: John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. John seems like a pretty wild character! His mother and father are probably quite long dead and are not making sure his hair is combed and teeth are cleaned!

So what exactly was John doing?

We read that he was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We also read many people were going out to him, and they were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

John’s baptism had a particular character to it. John was a voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. And in order to prepare, the people were coming to John to be baptised, and to confess their sins.

John’s baptism is slightly different from Christian baptism: Christian baptism is not preparing for Christ’s coming, but happens after Christ has already come in the flesh, and has already suffered, died and rose. As baptised Christians, we are not waiting for Christ to come the first time, but we are waiting for him at the end of the world.

When John baptises people, people come confessing their sins. Everyone who comes to be washed by John is a sinner. Someone who is clean doesn’t need to be washed. Only people who are dirty—not physically dirty, but spiritually dirty—need to be washed.

Now before Jesus arrived, we read that some of the Sadducees and Pharisees came to be baptised too. These people were the Jewish religious teachers at the time, and they fiercely disagreed about many points of theology. But they were self-righteous, and trusted in their own works and their family trees in order to be saved. They wanted to be righteous, but they just wanted to be baptised just so that they could add another feather to their spiritual caps, and sew another spiritual badge onto their hat.

But John won’t allow this sort of hypocrisy. So he preaches a very strong sermon against them: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

John’s sermon is a very harsh one, a very strong one! He preaches against their hypocrisy, and their trust in their family tree. What’s the point of being part of God’s family, if you act like you’re part of the devil’s family? God doesn’t want pretend sinners coming for baptism, he wants real sinners coming for baptism, sinners that know they have nothing to give God, nothing to show for their lives, no brownie points. And so this is what John preaches about.

So we can see the sort of work that John has been doing: baptizing, preaching, calling people to repentance, hearing the confessions of sin that people were making before God.

And now Jesus comes. And John recognises that Jesus is the only person he has met so far that has absolutely no need for this baptism whatsoever.

We read: John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

John recognises that his ministry has its limits. He recognises that if Jesus himself baptised people, it would be a different kind of baptism altogether—not simply a pouring out of water, but a pouring out of the Holy Spirit! John is simply preparing the way for the Lord, but Jesus is the Lord himself! And John recognises that this is the kind of baptism that he needs!

He knows that Jesus doesn’t need his baptism, because Jesus isn’t a sinner. He has no sin to confess, and he has no need to repent. Also, why would Jesus want John’s baptism? Think of all the people who have come to John to be baptised: all those sinners – isn’t Jesus giving the impression that he’s a sinner too?

But this is precisely what Jesus does. Jesus is happy to be counted as a sinner, and to be mistaken for a sinner! He comes to be baptised just like all the other sinners, and joins in with them.

But Jesus is not a sinner – so what’s going on? The book of Hebrews says: that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin. On the other hand, Jesus takes upon himself our sin—he takes the weight of it all upon his shoulders. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And this is the precise reason why Jesus came—to die for sinners, and to carry and bear their sin.

And so Jesus is happy to dive into the Jordan, without hestitation. And he says to John: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.

Here Jesus fulfils all righteousness. He wants to take our sin upon himself, and share his righteousness with us. He wants to go into the water and take every piece of sinful human filth into his own hands and die for it, so that we can share in every drop of divine eternal joy and live forever.

St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: For our sake [God the Father] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And so we read that John consented.

But just imagine if you were an onlooker and bystander on this occasion: you would have thought that Jesus was simply another sinner just like you! And if that were the case, he would never be able to die for your sin, because it would be an imperfect sacrifice, one that was tainted, and not holy and pure. Jesus needs to be a lamb without blemish.

And so, just at the time when Jesus is baptised—just when Jesus could give the wrong impression that he is actually a sinner—God himself intervenes, and makes sure that all the bystanders and eyewitnesses and all people throughout history won’t make that mistake. So we read: When Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God the Father sits on his judgment throne, and he reveals himself to the whole world before the eyes of all. God reveals himself as the Father, speaking from heaven, as God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with whom his Father is well pleased in the water, and he reveals himself as the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove.

And so, when Jesus ascends into heaven and sends out his disciples to baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, promising to be with them always, we know that when we are baptised too that we are adopted as God’s beloved children, his sons and his daughters, together with Jesus, praying to his Father together with him. We know that we are made the brothers and sisters of Jesus and are with him always. We know that the Holy Spirit is poured out on us, and the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given to us. The door of heaven is opened to us and we can walk in together with Jesus.

And this wonderful manifestation of the Holy Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is given at the very same time when Jesus identifies himself and joins himself with sinners. This happened again later in his life, when Jesus was happy to be mistaken for a criminal, in fact, dying the worst kind of criminal’s death on a cross. He even was happy to be mistaken for a dead, buried failure. But God does not desire that Jesus’ death should be thought of in this way—and he does not keep silent, but raises him from the dead, to show us that what Jesus did on Good Friday was not a failure, but a perfect, holy, acceptable sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.

So also, at Jesus’ baptism, God does not keep silent, but opens up the heavens, and speaks his own voice, so that we would not mistake Jesus for any old sinner like us, but that we would trust in him as our Saviour, God’s beloved Son, filled with the Holy Spirit, to save us and rescue us and bring us to eternal life with him.

And just as Jesus is happy to let himself be mistaken for a sinner, so also he is happy to let us sinners be mistaken for a child of God. But Jesus does not make mistakes—he knows who he baptises, he knows to whom he preaches, and he knows each person to whom he gives his body and blood. And it’s no mistake that we are beloved children of God—because Jesus forgives us. He cancels our debt, wipes our slate clean, and presents us pure and holy and perfect before God, taking all our sin and guilt and punishment that we deserve upon himself. This is no mistake! It is a true and living fact: it is the way that Jesus fulfils all righteousness.

And so, what John says is true: I need to be baptised by you. What a wonderful gift it is to be baptised, not simply by a pastor in the church, but at the same time by the living hands and voice of Jesus Christ himself! Yes, Jesus, I need to be baptised by you, and yes, I have been baptised by you, washed with water and your holy and precious word.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, thank you for the precious gift of baptism, and for making us your beloved children together with your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you for adopting us as children completely freely through baptism. Send us your Holy Spirit continually, that we may always trust in the precious gifts that you have poured out on us through the water and the Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.