January 22, 2006

Epiphany 4

            Boy, I’m glad I went to church today!  Hi, my name is Joel.  Joel is a good Hebrew name, because I come from a good Hebrew family.  I was named after the Joel, the prophet of old, just like all my brothers and sisters were named after important people of God.  My mom would have had it no other way.  You see, my Father and Mother are hopelessly religious.  God and church are a way of life in my family – always have been, always will be, I guess.  We go to the synagogue every Saturday and listen to the service.  We give our tithes.  We make our sacrifices.  We have the shema, the little scroll of the Law, fastened to the door of our house in Capernaum, where we live.  And we try to keep the Law as best we can to live a good life.

            That’s why we were at the synagogue today – the same place we are on every Sabbath day.  I pretty much have the routine down.  Help mom get my little brothers and sisters dressed, walk across the village, and try to get inside the little building as early as possible so we can get a seat in the back.  You know why?  Because it is the same old routine every week.  It’s boring!  And I’ve found that the only way I can deal with it is by getting a seat right in the back where the shadows make it impossible even for my mother to see that I am sleeping through the whole thing!  I hate those days where we wind up in the front and I have to fight to keep my eyelids open while everyone is watching me.

            Why is it boring?  Because it’s the same old stuff from these Rabbis week after week!  They have this elaborate procession where they get the Torah, the scroll of the Law, out of its container, then read a passage from it in Hebrew.  Now, I remember a lot of Hebrew from school, but let’s get real, we all speak Greek now, so sometimes I already get lost there.  But when he switches back to the language I am more familiar with, it actually gets more boring.  Rather than just teaching us what the Law actually says, they try explaining it like a lawyer would try explaining what someone else’s law says we can or can’t do. Whichever Rabbi is speaking will go on and on about how we should obey the Law of God.  We are told that in order to give our tithe, our ten percent, we need not only to bring 10% of our money, but also of everything in our house!  That’s right, 10% of our canned goods, what’s left in our cereal boxes, pasta bags, bread drawers, and even 10% out of our salt shakers!  Then he’ll start talking about how we shouldn’t be working on the Sabbath day, and we will be told how many steps we can take, how many words we can speak, and how many trips to the bathroom are permitted!

            You know what?  I end up leaving there every week just feeling guilty!  Because I can’t do any of that stuff the way he says we should!  I always am probably a little too active on the Sabbath day, and I really don’t understand why the Lord would want 10% of our leftover cereal anyway!  But that is why the Rabbi tries comforting us each week by reminding us that the Messiah is coming.  This guy we have been waiting a thousand years for was still supposed to be coming, and he is going to come on one of these Sabbath days to be this big political ruler and war hero.  He is going to deliver us from the Romans and make life here on earth better for us.  But somehow, I have a hard time believing any one person could deliver us from the Romans right now.  And I also have a hard time seeing what this has to do with anything else we talk about at church.  It doesn’t connect me with God at all, and it really just leaves me feeling pretty guilty week after week.  So I just try to sleep through it.  It’s never presented in a very convincing way.  It’s like they are just going through the motions.

            So today I got to the synagogue, doing my part, making my parents happy, and as I am making my usual dash to the back, I notice that there’s a new guy there today.  Some guy from Nazareth.  Cool!  Maybe I won’t fall asleep!  But just in case, I’ll sit in back.

            He starts teaching us about the Law.  And just as I began to think, “Here we go again…” He looks me right in the eye!  Looks right through me!  I shivered!  I’ll have to wait to fall asleep later.  “The Law, God’s will for our lives,” He tells us, “means that your Heavenly Father wants you to be PERFECT!”  Hmmmm…nothing about striving to do well.  Nothing about giving us some method by which we can keep the Sabbath day correctly or remember to tithe everything we are supposed to be tithing.  “Be perfect!”  He said, as if the Law He was telling us about was His!  He wasn’t telling us about the Law, He was preaching the Law right into our hearts!  “Love others,” He said, “Don’t hate, don’t lust, don’t look the other way when people need your help.  Help them!  Be a neighbor!  Love them!  Give to God and give to people generously!  Don’t stop with ten percent!  Give your all!  Give God your heart, soul, and mind!  Put Him before your family itself!  Love your enemy!  When someone strikes you, turn the other cheek – don’t take revenge!  Keep your actions, your words, and even your thoughts pure!  The Lord knows your thoughts, and those are just as important to Him as the things you do.  God always looks at your heart.  Love God perfectly.  And love your neighbor perfectly.”

            OK, I wasn’t falling asleep today.  To say that his preaching was powerful was an understatement!  I couldn’t take my eyes off Him, and it seemed that He couldn’t take his off me, either.  His words hit home hard.  And so far, they made me feel guilty too, really guilty.  I mean, I was always good at giving my tithes and doing what the Rabbis said to do, but having the right thoughts?  And I could just tell He could read mine!  He had my attention.  And my heart was cut open and bleeding with how bad I felt because of the way I had been living.

            But then He said, “Repent and believe the good news!”  What good news could this be, I thought… don’t tell me about some political hero coming.  He didn’t.  “The kingdom of God is here!” He said.  “I’ve come to set you free from all your sins!”  He looked at me again.  “I have come to give you forgiveness – as a free gift from God!  You have been held captive by your sin and I have come to release you from that.  I have come to replace that guilt and slavery of yours with joy and gladness and the eternal rest that your Heavenly Father can only give!  Come to me, and you will receive that rest!  Believe in me!  I am the way, the truth, and the life!  No one comes to the Father except through me!  Your sins are forgiven!”  Again He looked at me.  Not only were my eyes open.  My mouth was too.  This WAS different!  I had never heard anything like it!  This hit home hard!  I felt REAL comfort!  Real joy!  Somehow, I knew I was forgiven and on good terms with God.  I have never felt that way before!  And like I said before, it wasn’t like this guy was reading someone else’s stuff, He was speaking with authority, like the words He was quoting were his very own.  I had never heard such powerful words, and they made me want to jump right up and start loving God and loving people just like He told us to!

            Oh, but my little story is not over by any means.  I still shudder when I think about this part.  A guy was at the synagogue today who was usually there, and everyone knew something was not quite right with him.  Anyway, all of a sudden, he jumps up, has a spasm, and cries out in a blood-curdling voice, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”  The whole room is silent, as “Jesus,” I guess his name is now, looks at him and he just stares back wildly, panting and foaming.

            Besides being scared out of my mind along with everyone else, these are the thoughts that race through my mind:  First of all, this strange guy was obviously possessed by a demon.  That explains a lot.  Second, the demon knows who this guy who has been preaching to us is!  None of us even knew that his name was Jesus and that He was from Nazareth.  But the demon lets out his little secret – a little secret that has changed my life!  This Jesus is the Holy One of God!  Somehow I don’t think the demon was lying!  Because third, this demon, who is also concerned about his other fellow demons, does not like this Jesus, and is very scared of Him!  That’s good.

            And he had reason to be, because Jesus sternly says with complete authority: “Be quiet!  Come out of him!”  And with an awful shriek I will never forget, the man shakes and convulses, and the demon leaves with a scream.  Because all of a sudden, this poor guy is sitting on the floor crying and happy, and acting like a whole new person!  Do I even need to tell you how amazed everyone in that room was?  Jesus had our attention!  The amazing power He just showed really backed up the authority we sensed in his words.  I knew right then and there, that Jesus was no ordinary man.  He was, as the demon said, the Holy One from God who was to come into this world and save us, not from Roman persecution, but from ourselves and our sinfulness!  He was coming to make us right with God so we could go to heaven some day!

            I think I also understood why Jesus didn’t want the demon to be talking about Him, why He told the demon to be quiet.  You know why?  Because that is OUR JOB!  It is your job and my job to tell others about Jesus of Nazareth!  And we don’t fear Him like the devil did because He had come to destroy the devil.  We love Him because He came here to love us!  So instead of walking out of church today and rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I went tearing out of there and began telling everyone I could find about this Jesus of Nazareth!  I started by finding my friends and cousins who weren’t there.  Then finally, I was just telling people right in the streets.  I couldn’t help it!  I was telling them about the amazing authority Jesus showed – with his words and his actions.  I told them about Him throwing out the demon.  I told them that this was the Messiah – the Savior we had been waiting for!

            And that is why I am here right now talking to you!  If you don’t already know about Jesus, you need to know about Him!  If you haven’t heard Him speak, then you need to listen to Him!  His words will change your life!  I guarantee they will, just as they have changed mine.  He certainly lays your heart open before God.  You will no longer trust in your ability to live a good life after you listen to Him for a while.  God’s standard of perfection that Jesus lived is unreachable for us.  But then He will set your heart free by assuring you that all your sins are forgiven!  He will convince you that He is the Lamb of God who came to take all your sins away!  He came to destroy the devil!  He showed his power over the devil – I saw it with my own two eyes! 

He will defeat the devil’s hold on your life.  You see, Satan and his angels are smart enough to get to us in all kinds of ways.  Even if you haven’t been possessed by a demon, their power is on display in the world all around us.  Wherever people are attempting to explain away God’s Word, or undermine his promises, the devil is at work.  False teachings, cults, pagan religions, and any science that rejects Scripture are all the work of the Devil.  But this guy, Jesus, has more power than all of that put together!  That’s because He is the Holy One of God – He is God Himself!  And the Devil can’t get you when Jesus is in your life!

I’m glad I went to church today!  I can’t tell you how glad I am that I went to church today!  I’m finally convinced that because of Jesus, my sins are forgiven, and that I am in good standing with God.  In fact, I am one of the children He loves so dearly, and He is preparing my home in heaven with Him right now.  That’s why I just had to tell you that your sins are forgiven too!  You are God’s child!  And He is preparing your home in heaven right now!   Amen.

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