Violence Against God's Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew 11, for the 3rd Sunday in Advent

 

Verily I say unto you,

Among them that are born of women

 there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:

notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now

the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,

and the violent take it by force.

For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Violence against God’s people is nothing new.  While the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai commanding His people to treat others with justice, love, mercy, and compassion, the serpent who whispered in the Garden so long ago continues to inspire murder, abuse, persecution, fraud, and oppression.  Indeed, it is one of the longest enduring means by which people in this world have discerned the voice of the true God versus the voice of evil imposters:  one voice leads to abundant life, both here and in the world to come, while the others lead to misery and death both here, and in the world to come.  For some crazy, irrational, and delusional set of reasons, the people of this world seem all too willing to submit to the voice of death rather than the voice of life.  But of course, at its root, evil leading to misery and death is always irrational, leading its followers into the same depths of hellish insanity that the devil and his fallen angels plunged into so many eons ago.

In this season of Advent while the Church waits for the coming of her Messiah, we are reminded by Jesus that such waiting is often accompanied by pain and suffering at the hands of wicked people.  Throughout the history of the Jewish people up to Jesus’ time, the Kingdom of God was established as His people gathered around Him through faith in His Word, and was manifest in the physical kingdom of Israel.  That kingdom went through all sorts of persecution over the centuries of its existence; from a more or less faithless and wicked population, to more or less faithless and wicked rulers, to the onslaught of more or less faithless and wicked foreign attackers, the Kingdom of God suffered violence and the violent often took control of its physical manifestation by force.  False prophets, misguided mobs, self-centered clergy, and apostate kings often seized the reigns of power in the Kingdom of Israel, leaving the faithful to suffer at their hands, sometimes for generations.  The pagan kings of foreign nations often oppressed the Kingdom of Israel, sometimes even carrying them into exile, where the faithful waited in persecution and bondage.  Even in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus, the Roman Emperor ruled over the Kingdom of Israel through his puppet vassals who maintained order in both religious and secular matters, leaving the faithful to wait under the tyranny of the Emperor’s boot.

To the people of God in the Kingdom of Israel Jesus spoke His Word, noting that the fate of John the Baptist in prison was iconic of the Kingdom of Israel’s long persecuted past.  King Herod was a wicked and oppressive king, and had arrested John for the sake of his witness to God’s Word against Herod’s adulterous sin.  Later, Herod would have John executed at the request of his illicit lover, so that the witness of God’s Word which came from John’s lips might be silenced with the removal of his head.  Once again, the violent had seized the levers of power in the Kingdom of Israel, and once again, the faithful people of God suffered under their irrational evil.  But Jesus’ Word to the people indicated that something was changing between the era which culminated with John the Baptist’s prophetic witness, and the Kingdom Jesus was ushering in.  While the Kingdom of God was previously mediated to the world through the instrument of Israel’s physical earthly kingdom, Jesus would be wresting control of His Kingdom back into His own omnipotent hands as the only true and rightful King.  Jesus, according to His human nature, was a son of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and David, born of the blessed Virgin Mary.  In this way, Jesus was not just fully human, but fully Jewish—the Son of David prophesied to come, and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  He was the long awaited Messiah, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the whole world, and the One through whom the whole world would be blessed as was promised to Abraham.  Jesus was the eternal and authentic King of the Kingdom of God which spans all heaven and earth, just as He was the authentic inheritor of the Kingdom of Israel.  As Jesus the King of all Creation came to His people, He came to set them free of the wicked tyrants who had abused them, reconcile them to His eternal Father, and bless them with His Holy Spirit.  After Jesus’ Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, the Kingdom of God was no longer bound to a human nation that could be taken by the force of wicked men; rather, it became the fullness of His Kingdom in which the One King, the One Shepherd, ruled His people of every tribe and tongue by His eternal Word, and those people would be gathered together in Him by grace, through faith in Him alone.

For the last 2000 years, the Kingdom of God has continued to be called, gathered, and preserved by Christ’s Word and Spirit, and no one has been able to tear that Kingdom or His people away from Him.  Since the people of God live out their lives and their faith in this physical world, it has sometimes seemed that false prophets, self-centered clergy, apostate rulers, riotous mobs, and even foreign conquerors have tried to take control of it, but none of them can enslave or contain the Word of God.  In the words of Luther’s great battle hymn, “Were they to take our house; goods, honor, child, or spouse; though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day; the Kingdom’s ours forever!”  That which we receive by the hand of Jesus through His Word and Sacraments, His Spirit seals to us forever.  The Kingdom ushered in by Jesus is one that cannot be seized by the wicked, controlled by the faithless, twisted by the fickle, or conquered by the brutal.  It is a Kingdom marked by faith and repentance which receives forgiveness, life, and salvation from every power of death, hell, and the devil.  It is a Kingdom that has received the promise of every good and enduring gift, and offers the blessing of Jesus’ inheritance to all who are gathered in Him.  It is a Kingdom which endures forever, just as the Word of the Lord endures forever.

As you wait in this time preparation for the coming of the King, have you been persecuted, oppressed, and made to suffer at the hands of wicked men?  Have you faced the violent wrath of tyrants, apostates, and the self-centered?  Have you heard evil men spout the lies of devils, that they have taken the reigns of God’s Kingdom by force or subterfuge, and thus demand your servitude?  Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for the promises given to you overthrow every power and lie of the evil one.  You are sealed in the Blood of Jesus by His grace, held in His omnipotent hands, and preserved in faith unto life everlasting.  You are an inheritor of all His good and eternal things, even as the temporary trappings of this temporal life pass away.  You may wait, but you wait in certain hope, knowing that the promise which secures you in Jesus is greater and more enduring than all the stars of heaven.  You, who may sit in this present darkness, have seen the great and saving Light of Jesus, and even now bask in the healing warmth of His eternal embrace.  Hear the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ come to you this Advent season, that you might believe, be gathered in to Him and His Kingdom, and live in Him forever.  Amen.