Psalm 38; Lam. 2:8-15; 1 Cor. 15:51-58; Matt. 12:1-14
Jeremiah is often known as the weeping prophet and in verse 11 he says that his eyes are spent with weeping, his stomach churns, his bile is poured out on the ground because of the situation on the ground in Jerusalem. He does not romanticize the situation in any way, Jeremiah is clear that this was deserved but it is nonetheless a terrible sight. Jeremiah is immersed in the misery of the people even though he prophesied these things, he was a righteous man in an unrighteous time and place. He could now self-righteously stand apart and say, “I told you so, but you wouldn’t listen to me, you would only listen to those who prophesied good.” That he does not take this attitude tells us much about the man himself and why God chose him for this work. He empathizes with those whom he formerly denounced, a rare quality indeed.
Here are two of the man-made laws I mentioned yesterday as unreasonable burdens tied up by the religious leaders. The disciples, walking through grain fields, stretch out their hands, gather handfuls of grain, rub them in their hands to extract the edible from non-edible portions, and then eat. This is deemed to be work and should not be done on the Sabbath. They were hungry and they did what was necessary to satisfy their hunger. Mankind doesn’t stop being mankind, our needs continue and there is no requirement to fast on the Sabbath. Meals were prepared the day before and eaten on the Sabbath. This itinerant band of men simply ate some grain but that required some effort that was defined as work. Jesus had little time for such silliness and used the example of David and his men eating the sacrificial bread in 1 Samuel 21 as justification for his action. This would certainly have been an offensive comparison to the Pharisees, but when Jesus said, “the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” it would truly have rankled. It is hard to believe that healing would have been a questionable activity for Sabbath but it became the basis for the conspiracy to destroy Him. The leaders have no empathy for the people, they, unlike Jeremiah, have distanced themselves physically and emotionally from those they are to lead.
Victory! Jesus has won the victory and will win the victory over death. That is the central truth of Christianity. In our worship using the Kenyan liturgy we say of the Lord’s Supper, “This is the feast of victory” and the response is an exuberant, “The Lamb who was slain has begun His reign, Hallelujah!” In the burial service we say, “All we go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.” That service is indeed a declaration of a particular worldview, one that accepts these words from Paul concerning Christ’s victory over death and we turn what the world sees as finality into a celebration of this victory. That is our faith, a faith that denies what the world believes is reality, that death is final. We know that because Jesus was raised from the dead and that his death was sufficient sacrifice for our sins, the cross is the way to the tree of life from Genesis 3 and that if we believe in Him we will receive His reward, resurrection to eternal life. The final word on all things is, like the first word, always God’s word to speak.
O quickly come, sure Light of all
For gloomy night broods o’er our way;
And weakly souls begin to fall
With weary watching for the day.
O quickly come, for round Thy throne
No eye is blind, no night is known.
No comments:
Post a Comment