Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
Just before our
Gospel lesson for today we have the account of Jesus’ baptism.
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he
came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from
heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased."
Son of God.
This is a
Messianic title used for the Davidic King in Israel.
In Psalm 2, a
psalm read at the coronation of the Kings of Israel, we read:
God said: "I have set my king on Zion, my holy
hill."
David’s response
was: “I will tell of the decree of the
Lord:
He said to me,
"You are my son;
today I have
begotten you.”
Jesus’ baptism
was his coronation. God declaring him to
be King of Israel. That’s the first
thing to know.
Second,
immediately following today’s Gospel lesson we read that “From that time Jesus
began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."”
In between these
two texts, the first dealing with Jesus begin declared to be King, and the
second dealing with his announcement that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near,
we have the account of Jesus’ temptation.
This is no
accident, as the temptations Jesus faced at the beginning of his ministry, are
temptations related to the Kingdom of God.
Having been
called by God to be King, Jesus struggle was to determine what type of King he
would be, and what shape that Kingdom would take.
And so he
withdrew into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days.
At the end of the
40 days, when he was hungry and tired, the temptations came.
The temptations
came in the form of what Jesus might do and accomplish as King.
Imagine, for
example, what each of our President’s undergo in the days following their
election as they prepare to take office.
An intense and frantic effort is underway to set an agenda for their
first 100 days in office – which will shape the remainder of their
presidency. There are many competing
ideas and people who are advocating for a certain direction for the country to
take.
Temptations
abound.
And somehow out
of all of it, a direction must be chosen.
This is what is
happening to Jesus.
The concept of
the Kingdom of Heaven and a return of a Davidic King to the throne of Israel is
not new in Jesus’ day. There were plenty
of people thinking about it, and many voices expressing the hopes and dreams of
what that might mean.
In the Gospel
lesson, the Devil is the one who gives voice to the hopes and aspirations of
the people of Israel.
The tempter came
and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to
become loaves of bread."
The problem was
not that Jesus could not find something to eat.
There would have been food aplenty for him, as soon as he wanted
it. His fast was voluntary.
The temptation is
about the Kingdom.
Later, Jesus
would teach us to pray: “Give us this
day, our daily bread.”
Martin Luther
explains what is meant by “daily bread” in the Small Catechism:
Everything
that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink,
clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse,
pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good
government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends,
faithful neighbors, and the like.
In short daily
bread represents and abundant and prosperous life.
“If you are the
Son of God, just imagine what you could do, Jesus. You could return prosperity to Israel, fill
our bellies, and our coffers.”
“We only want,
what all people want, which is enough money to live on and retire with. We want a car or two, and the opportunity to
take a vacation now and then.”
Or to quote
another politician, James Carville, in counseling Bill Clinton’s campaign
strategy: “The economy, stupid!”
“But
Jesus answered, "It is written, 'One
does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
God. '”
Then the devil
took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 saying to him,
"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
'He will command
his angels concerning you,'
and 'On their
hands they will bear you up,
so that you will
not dash your foot against a stone. '"
It is not
uncommon for Nations to believe that God is on their side, and so they can do
anything, and God will preserve and protect them.
Israel would look
to its own history for reason to believe this.
And in Jesus’
day, against the overwhelming odds of trying to defeat the vast Roman Empire,
Jewish patriots thought that the Messiah, with God’s help and blessing, would
be able to do the impossible, and so they would launch one insurrection after
another.
The belief that ‘God
is on our side’ has led many a nation into battle.
And underlying
that bravery, was the belief that because their cause was a righteous cause,
God would protect them, sending angels, so to speak, to insure victory.
Our own nation
has believed throughout much of our history that we were/are a holy nation, and
that the wars we fight are righteous and holy, and that indeed, God is on our
side.
“Jesus
said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the
test. '"
Again, the devil
took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world
and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if
you will fall down and worship me."
An unholy
alliance if ever there was one.
All these I will
give you, if you just acknowledge and pay homage to me.
Again, History is
ripe with examples of unholy alliances.
Jesus came
proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and in response, the Church often resorted to
unholy alliances, most often with the secular state, to advance the Kingdom of
God, supposedly.
Much of Europe,
for example, became Christian not by one by one coming to faith in Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior, but because the State established Christianity as the
official religion, and thereby forced it’s citizenship to adopt Christianity.
This pattern
began with the Emperor Constantine, a few hundred years after Jesus, and to one
extent after another, continues to this day.
But this has
always been an unholy alliance, between the State and the Church. And it was most definitely the Church that
suffered as a result.
The Kingdom of
God is so unlike the kingdom’s of this world, that marrying the two together
makes no more sense than Jesus himself bowing down to worship Satan.
Perhaps Satan
could have given Jesus all the Kingdoms of the world, but to choose this path
would be to abandon the Kingdom of God that he was called to establish.
10 Jesus said to
him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
'Worship the Lord
your God,
and
serve only him. '"
Prosperity.
Military Might.
And an unholy
alliance with the powers of this World.
These things
Jesus rejected.
Tempting as they
were, Jesus would not bite.
Then the devil
left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
17 From that time
Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come
near."
In Luke’s Gospel,
Jesus describes this Kingdom:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the
captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favor."
If prosperity,
military might, and worldly power are not the things of the Kingdom of heaven,
what are?
Good News for the
poor.
Forgiveness.
Healing.
Freedom.
And a new start,
a new day, where all share equally in the blessing and abundance of God.
"Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven has come near."
Amen
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