Jesus the man

1^st Sunday of Christmas

Isaiah 63: 7-9

Hebrews 2: 10- 18

Matthew 2: 13-23

I think it the letter to the Hebrews that provides the meat in the sandwich today.

Isaiah talks about the presence of God that saves us, and Matthew’s gospel narrates one of the early examples of terror and jeopardy that marks the life and history of Jesus but it is the letter to the Hebrews that expressly and definitively stresses the full humanity of Jesus.

Just for a bit of historical context the visit of the Magi it is thought happened about two years after the birth of Jesus. The Holy family were by now living in a house as it says in verse 11 and is also the rationale for Herod’s instruction to kill all boys born in that area who were two or under.

Hebrews is emphatic that Jesus shares to the full, the nature of the human family to which he belongs. We are his brothers and sisters who pray to the same heavenly Father.

He shares fully the experience of suffering. death, fear and temptation.

For the body the mind and the emotions can’t be separated. Jesus was not as some early theologians said simply God walking around in a human body who was impassable – not feeling the trauma of what was happening to him.

Jesus would not only die, he will share the fear of death.

He will not only suffer, he will feel suffering as testing or tempting him.

This is true for all humanity. It is not just the physical fact of death that haunts us, it is the fear of it, as an unknown, that end which casts its shadow back into our lives and mocks it as being ephemeral.

It is not suffering alone that is hard to bear; it is the effect of that suffering on our sense of who we are – we can feel diminished as human beings through it.

Suffering and death are felt as a scandal that prompts people to cry out to God for salvation.

Jesus’ total identification with them offers that salvation.

Because Jesus shares our suffering and death and passes into glory he provides the route for all his brothers and sisters to do exactly the same. Because he shares our death we will also share his resurrection.

Salvation also means that evil itself has been overcome by God, providing an endless spring of hope in the human heart for all who believe.

Hebrews also casts Jesus as our great high priest, again because of his full identification with humanity, as the only sacrifice worthy or necessary to forgive all our sins and present us as righteous before God. A once for all sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus is our brother, who blazed a trail for us to follow in life and showed us that humanity has a future life lived in glory after this physical life ends.

So even when horrors like the murder of the innocents in Matthew’s gospel occur due to the propensity to evil that exists amongst all people we know from the example of Jesus that this can never be the final word because good triumphs over evil and light casts out darkness and as St. John says, Love casts out fear..

Ultimately the church is a community of hope. 

John the Baptist

Isaiah 35: 1-10. More rousing prophetic writing from Isaiah, predicting a dramatic in-breaking of God into the world with the result that cleansing, refining, completeness and joy will result. The word that encapsulates that state is salvation or peace. In Hebrew and Arabic cultures, Shalom and Salaam are common greetings while in our culture that is now only really heard in liturgical blessings and in the celebration of “the Peace” on Sundays.

James 5: 7-10. For James, patience seems to be synonymous with suffering, and actually patience can be experienced as a kind of internalised suffering when you think about it. Patience doesn’t come easily to many people and is more often imposed rather than sought. James implores his readers to be strong during the time of waiting, assuring them that their final salvation is nearer than they think and not to lose discipline in the meantime,

Matthew 11: 2-11. From the fiery and confident John we heard about last week we now meet John in prison suddenly wracked with doubts. Is Jesus really the Messiah? The reason for his doubts is that he is hearing what Jesus is doing. John was a fierce denouncer of sin, and so surely the primary task of the Messiah should also be “to take an axe to the root of the trees that do not bear fruit”, but he hears that Jesus is reaching out to the poor and marginalised and restoring health to the afflicted so John is a bit confused. Jesus is not turning out to be the kind of Messiah John was expecting!

John the Baptist is a strange idiosyncratic figure. The Bible hints very strongly that he must have been a very uncomfortable figure to be around. His very appearance, clothed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey and located in the wilderness breathing fire and brimstone against the sins of the people must have been at once a bit frightening but also as is the way of these things, obviously exerted a strange attraction for his perceived integrity and assurance that he was speaking the word of God.

John drew people out into the wilderness to hear what he had to say because people recognised him as a prophet. And prophets can make us feel uncomfortable.

But today we encounter a different John. He is now in prison because he upset Herod by denouncing his affair with his sister-in-law – another example of his fearlessness and puritanical opposition to sin.

Obviously in his mind, he thought that Jesus as the Messiah should be cut from the same cloth as him, only bigger and better.

But we hear in the opening verses of our gospel reading today that John is receiving reports of a different kind of person, and it is because of this that John is confused and it puts doubts in his mind and some of his disciples are sent to ask Jesus

“Are you the one to come, or should we expect another?”.

What prompts this question?

John hears in prison what Jesus is doing, presumably acts of healing and mercy.

Now to John, a fierce denouncer of the sins of the people, surely Jesus must also be a denouncer of the people and his task should be to carry out the final judgement, cutting down the rotten trees that don’t bear fruit.

What he hears is a man who preaches in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and heals every disease and infirmity.

John is confused because Jesus is not what he was expecting.

But his question gives Jesus the opportunity to reply in referencing two texts from Isaiah (35: 5-6, 29: 18-19) and saying to them. See what I’m doing for the blind, lame deaf and poor.

Yes there is judgement but his primary role is the restoration of the needy and the giving of life to the lifeless.

John has to re-assess his expectations of the nature and will of God.

He and we and all believers are invited to come to a new assessment of God and his purposes, one where judgement is a feature but where the primary concern is to save everyone. Jesus hopes that this new understanding doesn’t upset too many people and says “Blessed are those who take no offence at me”.

Unfortunately, there are many today who think that Jesus’ main concern, like John the Baptist thought, should be the condemnation of sinners, rather than offering a helping hand to the lost.

Then the focus changes to Jesus’ assessment of John. Jesus says that he is a prophet, more than a prophet, preparing the way for him, and yet, one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.

Why? Because when you accept the true nature of God, Jesus and the kingdom, knowledge of the surpassing character of the kingdom is greater than John’s misapprehension of the nature of God.   

This isn’t belittling or disparaging John but is an acknowledgement of the surpassing character of the new revelation of the truth about God.

The sinfulness of mankind is a given, and a cornerstone of Christian doctrine about the truth about humanity, but the hallmark of the kingdom of God is repentance and forgiveness, grace and mercy. God came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

Prophecy

Isaiah 11: 1-10. Jesse was the father of King David, and this prophesy foretells a perfect future king of the Davidic line which Christians have always naturally attributed to Jesus Christ. Matthew’s gospel opens with a grand genealogy charting the line of succession from Abraham, through Jesse, through David, ending with Jesus in chapter one of his gospel via the male line. Although Joseph it is claimed elsewhere by Matthew and Luke, was not the biological father Jesus was nevertheless “of the house of David”.

Romans 15: 4-13. This is affirmed by St. Paul quoting verses in Isaiah 11, and also Deuteronomy, 2 Samuel and psalm 117, with special reference to Jesus’ universal significance (to the gentiles). Paul’s prayer is that we be a people defined by hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3: 1-12. Matthew also quotes a prophesy of Isaiah and applies it to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a “link” between the prophets of old and the coming of Jesus. He was a wild and woolly character and his ministry occurred in the wilderness. This was all meant to evoke the prophets of old and the message was clear. This Jesus may be something “new”, but he is foretold and in the direct path of all that went before in Israel’s history.

A prophecy is either a prediction of the future or a divinely inspired utterance speaking into any given situation and it has a long and important history in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Isaiah is probably the best loved and most deeply mined oracle and in our readings today you have Paul quoting multiple prophetic sources to support his argument and in the gospel reading you have John the Baptist who is presented as an answer to prophesy and one who makes prophetic utterances of his own.

Prophets have had a problematic history of course for no-one can say for sure if a prophesy is true or not. The only sure way of knowing is if the prophecy comes true and when the time gap can be hundreds of years or even thousands of years in the case of end-time prophesy that is not so simple. Tales of false prophets, just saying things they thought people wanted to hear are legion in the old testament as well as people being paid to say certain things.

This is why authority and trust are so important. If we are to trust the prophesies of the Old and New Testaments, we need to trust that the people who have canonised these texts have the authority to do so.

The only thing that all Christians have in common is the Bible. But the reason the Bible consists of the books it does – we trust the authority of the undivided catholic church – which decreed that these books would form our New Testaments and no other readings. They had lots of choice – there were/are hundreds of other documents that could have been chosen.

The Bible didn’t fall from heaven – it is a product of the church and all the prophesies within it carry the seal of approval of the whole undivided church.

That could never happen again, because the universal church is so divided, we long since have been unable to speak with a united voice.

The prophesy that is most important to us during Advent is that all the promises fulfilled in the birth of Jesus will be further fulfilled at the end of time in the final consummation, the final reckoning, the final judgement.

We are promised that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2: 10-11).

The divine utterance of Paul inspired by Isaiah, canonised by the authority of the universal undivided church, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God is the substance of the hope that inspires every Christian.

This prophecy of a blessed, redeemed, glorified future without pain or suffering, where death is no more in a new heaven and a new earth is the vision of the future that sustains Christians and inspires our present.

And as it says in proverbs “Without a vision, the people perish” (29:18)

Advent Sunday

Advent Sunday

Isaiah 2: 1-5. In this well-known piece Isaiah look forward to a future time when people will recognise the Lordship of the one true God, follow his ways and peace will reign in the whole world.

Romans 13: 11-14. Paul says that as time goes on we obviously are nearer the time Isaiah is looking forward to, so as the first-fruits of the new Christian revelation of the truth of God it is incumbent on Christians to embody the ways and morals of God to become signs of this coming Kingdom. The way of God is revealed and modelled of course on the life and way of Jesus Christ

Matthew 24: 36-44. When that final consummation happens no one knows – not even Jesus – only the Father in heaven. But make no mistake when it does happen it will probably take us all by surprise. Jesus counsels us to stay spiritually alert and active in God’s service until that day comes and not get weary of following the way of Jesus in-between times.

Advent is a period of watching and waiting in anticipation of something wonderful that is going to happen.

But watching and waiting for what? The birth of Jesus? Eagerly watching and waiting for something that already happened 2019 years ago surely can’t be the whole story can it?

The content of Advent is certainly linked to the first Advent of Jesus in Bethlehem two Millenia ago but as our Advent readings make clear today, what the church has been looking forward to ever since has been the final wonderful consummation of all things.

What Christians are looking forward to is summed up in our best known and widely used prayer. In the Lord’s prayer we pray;

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

That is the primary Christian content of Advent, allied to and dependent on the first Christmas certainly, but deals with the end-game, the wonderful climax to the chain of events that started with the incarnation of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem all those years ago.

Obviously, this makes little commercial sense so in our secularised world Advent has been conflated to simply looking forward to the commercial celebration of Jesus’ birth, so it is our duty in the churches to re-kindle the sense of expectation and longing for the time when the Father’s kingdom has come, is established, and all sin and twistedness, corruption, graft and injustice, are dealt with and consigned to the dustbin.

This heightened sense of longing also induces feelings of sorrow for the state of the world as it actually is now, when we consider what we are looking forward to.

That is why the liturgical colour of Advent is purple, signifying penitence. In looking forward to and craving the glorious promises of God to be fulfilled we can’t escape the reality of how things are in the world at the present time.

The dominant motif of Advent is light shining in the darkness. This is also a Christmas motif of course. What we are waiting, hoping and praying for is the fulfilment of what started in Bethlehem.

The light shining in the darkness from the crib in Bethlehem we want to see suffusing the entire world, bringing righteousness, judgement, peace and salvation to all things.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

Paul is clear in Romans that he wants the future to inspire our present.

“NOW is the moment for us to awake from sleep” he writes.

Be the change we want to see in the world by emulating Christ in our lives. “Put on Christ” is how he phrases it.  

Not through fear of what might happen to us if we don’t, but because we cannot help but be formed, and our characters moulded by that future promise.

And what we pray for is also a promise.

But here’s the thing. No-one has any idea when that promise will be fulfilled. Not even Jesus himself knows as he states plainly in Matthew’s gospel today. The only one who knows is our Father in heaven.

It is futile, again as the Bible says, to try and predict or deduce from events how or when the final things will take place.

There have been plenty of millenialists, as they are called, down through history, who have predicted the end of the world. There are some, like the Jehovah’s witnesses who have predicted the end of the world 20 times in the last century. They have something in common with every millenialist who has ever lived. They are have all been proved absolutely wrong.

No-one knows when the end will come, which is true both of our own end and the end of history.

Which is why Jesus instructs us to keep ourselves in a state of spiritual readiness for whenever that time comes. That sets us apart from a society that goes on as if nothing is ever going to happen, and He uses the analogy of Noah, building an ark, something people all around him must have been very amused by, while they went about their business.

“Stay awake and spiritually alert” says Jesus. Keep praying for the promise to became reality and for that promise to be made real in our own lives.

Yes, Advent is a time of waiting and watching and anticipation. For Christmas yes, but far more for what that first Christmas ushered in, the promise of God’s acknowledged rule in and through all things;

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.