2nd Sunday in Lent Luke 13:31-35
Second Sunday in Lent
02/28/10
Text: Luke 13:31-35
Title:
Ever since the first Sunday in Advent we have been journeying with Jesus as he fulfills Old Testament prophecy concerning his role as the Messiah. We heard from angels, Mary, Elizabeth, shepherds, Wise-men, New Testament prophets, Simeon and John the Baptizer, Jesus, and God the Father all proclaiming that he is promised Messiah. It has been a long journey filled with powerful images of great healings, miracles, and opposition by the religious leaders to Jesus’ words of glory.
Today, the Second Sunday in Lent, we continue walking with Jesus, as he travels through Galilee toward his beloved city of Jerusalem. He is on his final journey to the city knowing full well that he will be made fun of, beaten, and finally murdered there. He knows all of this and yet he continues.
We will never understand the mind of God, as long as we are on this side of heaven, but there are some things we do know, for the answers are found in God’s Word. We know that Jesus willingly, in his humanity was born of an earthly mother, and that he had to grow into adulthood and be taught just we all are. We know he got hungry, that he needed sleep and that he got hungry. We know that he was tempted without falling into temptation. We know that there were times when he needed to pray to God, so that he would have the strength to do what needed to be done. In other words we know Jesus while being 100 % God was also 100% human.
Jesus has to be 100% human while being 100% God, for God’s plan of salvation to work. If Jesus had used any of God powers to overcome or bypass what we all go through his death would have been meaningless. If Jesus had not trusted in the Father completely he would have sinned and then like us he would have been deserving of God’s wrath.
Jesus in his 100% humanity did what no one that has ever lived, is living now, or will live in the future can do. He completely trusted in the Father to provide all he needed. We know that because as he took his last breath he cried out, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus knew that the Father would not abandon him in death, just as he never abandoned him in life, so he died fulfilling the prophecy first spoken of in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus came to be one of us, for each of you. He wants you to be restored back to the way it was back in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned; that is, in a trusting relationship with God. Jesus had to die in Jerusalem, for it is critical in God’s plan. Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish nation, for it is in Jerusalem that the magnificent temple existed where the Jewish people believed God existed. It was thus the center of power for the Jewish people. Jesus in his death was to be the final sacrifice ending the sacrificial system that God had set up thousands of years earlier that did not save but only pointed to Jesus’ death.
So what are we to learn from this Gospel reading? There are many lessons, but I believe the central lesson is that God pursues those he desires to be saved, but he allows us to reject him. In verse 34 of our Gospel reading Jesus cries out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.” Those words of Jesus remind us of similar words spoken in distress over those who have rebelled against the authority placed over them. King David, a type of Christ, in 2 Samuel 18:33, cries out in anguish after he learns that his son who was trying to overthrow him cries out in anguish, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" and in Luke 10:41 we hear Jesus chide Martha for loosing track of what was really important, as he calls out to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." And in Acts 9:4 we hear Jesus calling out to Saul on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
God by his nature is forgiving. He is compassionate. He wants all to be saved. He grieves over those who reject him, but because of free will grace is not irresistible; every case of resistance proves it, notably the glaring rejecting of Jesus by the Jews. Those who reject God’s grace on account of Jesus, life, death, and resurrection damn themselves, for damnation can only come from a person’s own will.
The question that comes to mind then is, “Why do some wills resist God’s grace while others submit to the Word of God?” is a legitimate question that demands a reasonable explanation, but there is no reasonable explanation for this unreasonable act of saying no to the Holy Spirit’s call to enter God’s grace. Some say that it is due to inborn sin, but that is not a good explanation, for those who have the same inborn sin, as those who reject God’s grace, are won over by God’s grace.
All we know is that the mystery of this resistance lies in the human will itself, and in no way is a fault of God, for God desires all to be saved. The question of why some are saved and others are not belongs in the same class of questions like, how could Satan fall? How could Adam sin? How can man resist grace and salvation to the end? How can a believer, whose will is changed, again turn to unbelief and be damned? They are all the same question and we are just not capable of answering the question.
All of those questions along with the question of why some are saved and some are not come from the mouth of Satan, as he desires, just as he did with Adam and Eve, to cause us to start doubting the Word of God which is very clear in its statements of salvation.
In Romans 10:9-11 we are told, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in Jesus will not be put to shame.”
In John 1:17 we hear from Saint John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
And in John 14:6 we hear Jesus say to the disciples, and thus us, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
And in Romans 8:28, we hear those wonderful words of comfort, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 is not just some empty promise that nothing bad will ever happen to you, for we know that bad things happen. It is a promise that assures you that whatever does happen to you, whatever pain or problem may plaque you, whatever fear may face you, or whatever sin may assail you, you will never be found defenseless or alone, for when you are under his wings of forgiveness and love you will thrive. Amen.
02/28/10
Text: Luke 13:31-35
Title:
Ever since the first Sunday in Advent we have been journeying with Jesus as he fulfills Old Testament prophecy concerning his role as the Messiah. We heard from angels, Mary, Elizabeth, shepherds, Wise-men, New Testament prophets, Simeon and John the Baptizer, Jesus, and God the Father all proclaiming that he is promised Messiah. It has been a long journey filled with powerful images of great healings, miracles, and opposition by the religious leaders to Jesus’ words of glory.
Today, the Second Sunday in Lent, we continue walking with Jesus, as he travels through Galilee toward his beloved city of Jerusalem. He is on his final journey to the city knowing full well that he will be made fun of, beaten, and finally murdered there. He knows all of this and yet he continues.
We will never understand the mind of God, as long as we are on this side of heaven, but there are some things we do know, for the answers are found in God’s Word. We know that Jesus willingly, in his humanity was born of an earthly mother, and that he had to grow into adulthood and be taught just we all are. We know he got hungry, that he needed sleep and that he got hungry. We know that he was tempted without falling into temptation. We know that there were times when he needed to pray to God, so that he would have the strength to do what needed to be done. In other words we know Jesus while being 100 % God was also 100% human.
Jesus has to be 100% human while being 100% God, for God’s plan of salvation to work. If Jesus had used any of God powers to overcome or bypass what we all go through his death would have been meaningless. If Jesus had not trusted in the Father completely he would have sinned and then like us he would have been deserving of God’s wrath.
Jesus in his 100% humanity did what no one that has ever lived, is living now, or will live in the future can do. He completely trusted in the Father to provide all he needed. We know that because as he took his last breath he cried out, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus knew that the Father would not abandon him in death, just as he never abandoned him in life, so he died fulfilling the prophecy first spoken of in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus came to be one of us, for each of you. He wants you to be restored back to the way it was back in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned; that is, in a trusting relationship with God. Jesus had to die in Jerusalem, for it is critical in God’s plan. Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish nation, for it is in Jerusalem that the magnificent temple existed where the Jewish people believed God existed. It was thus the center of power for the Jewish people. Jesus in his death was to be the final sacrifice ending the sacrificial system that God had set up thousands of years earlier that did not save but only pointed to Jesus’ death.
So what are we to learn from this Gospel reading? There are many lessons, but I believe the central lesson is that God pursues those he desires to be saved, but he allows us to reject him. In verse 34 of our Gospel reading Jesus cries out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.” Those words of Jesus remind us of similar words spoken in distress over those who have rebelled against the authority placed over them. King David, a type of Christ, in 2 Samuel 18:33, cries out in anguish after he learns that his son who was trying to overthrow him cries out in anguish, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" and in Luke 10:41 we hear Jesus chide Martha for loosing track of what was really important, as he calls out to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." And in Acts 9:4 we hear Jesus calling out to Saul on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
God by his nature is forgiving. He is compassionate. He wants all to be saved. He grieves over those who reject him, but because of free will grace is not irresistible; every case of resistance proves it, notably the glaring rejecting of Jesus by the Jews. Those who reject God’s grace on account of Jesus, life, death, and resurrection damn themselves, for damnation can only come from a person’s own will.
The question that comes to mind then is, “Why do some wills resist God’s grace while others submit to the Word of God?” is a legitimate question that demands a reasonable explanation, but there is no reasonable explanation for this unreasonable act of saying no to the Holy Spirit’s call to enter God’s grace. Some say that it is due to inborn sin, but that is not a good explanation, for those who have the same inborn sin, as those who reject God’s grace, are won over by God’s grace.
All we know is that the mystery of this resistance lies in the human will itself, and in no way is a fault of God, for God desires all to be saved. The question of why some are saved and others are not belongs in the same class of questions like, how could Satan fall? How could Adam sin? How can man resist grace and salvation to the end? How can a believer, whose will is changed, again turn to unbelief and be damned? They are all the same question and we are just not capable of answering the question.
All of those questions along with the question of why some are saved and some are not come from the mouth of Satan, as he desires, just as he did with Adam and Eve, to cause us to start doubting the Word of God which is very clear in its statements of salvation.
In Romans 10:9-11 we are told, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in Jesus will not be put to shame.”
In John 1:17 we hear from Saint John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
And in John 14:6 we hear Jesus say to the disciples, and thus us, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
And in Romans 8:28, we hear those wonderful words of comfort, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 is not just some empty promise that nothing bad will ever happen to you, for we know that bad things happen. It is a promise that assures you that whatever does happen to you, whatever pain or problem may plaque you, whatever fear may face you, or whatever sin may assail you, you will never be found defenseless or alone, for when you are under his wings of forgiveness and love you will thrive. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 12:08 PM
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