Jesus and Elijah: A Meditation on Luke 9 for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

And it came to pass, when the time was come

that he should be received up,

he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

And sent messengers before his face: and they went,

and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

And they did not receive him, because his face

was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said,

Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven,

and consume them, even as Elias did?

 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said,

Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives,

but to save them.

And they went to another village.

 

1^st Kings records the various stories of Elijah, including the reference made in Luke 9 above.  Elijah was a prophet made powerful by the Holy Spirit to testify to God’s people in his time, bearing His Word of repentance and faith.  The northern tribes of Israel had become so corrupt that instead of hearing Elijah or believing God even after tremendous miracles (such as the fire which descended on Mt. Carmel, proving the impotence of Baal and the almighty power of God alone,) the political leaders sought to murder him.  Rather than turn and repent and live, many of the people in power chose instead to fight against the Word of God, eventually bringing about their own destruction.  Over 600 years later, as Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God came to Samaria, many rejected Him, too.  Jesus’ disciples were so incensed that they suggested calling down fire like Elijah to consume them, but Jesus reminded them that this was not why He had come.  Elijah was sent with the Word of God for the salvation of His people, and Jesus was sent for the same purpose.  The reaction of the people to that Word would determine whether it brought them healing or harm, justification or judgment… not the subjective thoughts or emotions of those who bore that divine Word.  Elijah did not call down fire to consume evil king Ahab and his monstrous queen Jezebel, but He did preach the Word of God to them.

 

I think this is important for the people of God to remember in our own day, as well.  As St. John recorded Jesus’ teaching, God has not sent His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  Thus the ministers of His Church, the servants of His Word, carry that message of Law and Gospel into the darkness all around them, and let the Word of God do what He has sent it out to do.  Sometimes, people will hear the Word of the Lord, repent, believe, and live.  Sometimes, they will reject that Word, bringing upon themselves the just condemnation they have earned under the Law.  And sometimes, people will become so perversely angry with the Word of God that they will attack and kill those who bear it, somehow convincing themselves that if they can silence the messengers, they can escape from the Word.  Yet the Word of God is not dependent on mortals to accomplish its purpose, as if lumps and bits of clay can overthrow the Potter at His wheel of creation.  That God chooses to speak His redemptive will to His creatures is a marvelous grace toward us, and that He uses fallen men to carry His Word to others is grace upon grace.  We are unworthy of the Word of God, let alone to be keepers and proclaimers of it, yet He comes to us with this priceless divine gift anyway.

 

Knowing that we have received the Word of God freely, and that by it the Holy Spirit has worked faith in our hearts to believe and trust in Jesus for eternal life, there is nothing we lack in heaven above or the earth below.  As saints of the Living God, the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus washes us of our sins and His Holy Spirit indwells us to walk according to His Word, reconciled to the Father forevermore.  That Word and Spirit gives us the mind of Christ to battle against the sinful inclinations of our fallen flesh, that we might always live in contrition before the Law which we know we have not kept, and in faith before the Gospel which raises us up to new and eternal life in Jesus alone.  We become sons and daughters of the King of the Universe, grafted into Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, knowing that wherever our Lord is, there we will be also.  The Word of God has sought us out, given us grace by faith in Christ alone, taken away our guilt and blessed us with eternal life.  What are the baubles of this world compared to such riches?  What is the space of time we walk in this world, compared with eternity?  What are the halls of power, money, influence, and pleasure in this world, compared with the infinite and unending Kingdom of Almighty God?  As inheritors with Jesus of His Kingdom, we lack no good thing, not only in the present moment, but for all time.

 

This is a truth beyond the reach of those who reject His Word, and it is why the demonically inspired world will not only attack the Word, but its messengers, as well.  This should not surprise us.  Which of the Prophets were not attacked by the world for carrying the Word of the Living God?  Elijah certainly knew what it meant to be rejected by the powers of his own day, and even to be hunted into the wilderness by those who thought themselves righteous for persecuting him.  Jesus fulfilled this image and foreshadowing of the ancient Prophets by being rejected and persecuted and murdered by the powers of His age.  Yet what Elijah knew in part, Jesus declared in full:  fellowship with God by His Word is a blessing beyond any earthly treasure.  There is nothing to compare with communion in the Most High God, to be reconciled to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be a citizen of His Eternal Kingdom.  The Word of God has come to call all people to repentance, faith, and life in that Kingdom, knowing that apart from Jesus as our Savior and King, there is nothing left for us but the fires of eternal judgment which we have so fully earned.  Judging the world is easy, because people have already brought that upon themselves.  Bearing witness to forgiveness, life, and salvation through the Word and Work and Spirit of Jesus Christ—that’s the divine work which saves us, and desires to save all who will hear and believe.

 

The world will continue to respond to the Word and Spirit of Christ in a variety of ways, but we remain the messengers of that life-giving Word, because we ourselves have been enlivened by it.  There is nothing which should terrify us in our witness to Christ, because nothing can overthrow the Word of grace which He has sent to us; not riotous mobs of anarchists, murderous factions of political zealots, nor the devious intrigue of global power brokers.  The Word of God which brought the universe into being, which has come into this fallen world to seek and to save the lost, is not weakened or diminished by the flailing machinations of wicked men or twisted demons.  The Word of the Lord is the Everlasting Gospel which secures you forever in Jesus, and which sends you out as fearless witnesses to the salvation which Jesus alone offers to everyone who will repent and believe in Him.  Hear that Word as it comes to you today.  Be filled with the Spirit of the Living God, conformed to the mind of Christ, and shine forth like the sun into every darkness of our age.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Before All Things: A Meditation on John 8 for Holy Trinity Sunday

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day:

and he saw it, and was glad.

Then said the Jews unto him,

Thou art not yet fifty years old,

and hast thou seen Abraham?

 Jesus said unto them,

Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Before Abraham was, I am.

 

It is fitting, I think, that we enter into the long season of Pentecost with a festival to the Holy Trinity:  the divine Name into which all Christians are baptized, sealed, and sent into the world.  While the term Trinity is not specifically used in Scripture, it was used by the early Church Fathers to declare truths which Scripture makes undeniably clear.  Specifically, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, and yet there is only One God.  The three Persons of the Holy Trinity are not emanations or modes of each other, but discernable in their presence and work, even as they work together as One in the Creation, Redemption, and Preservation of His people.  As is attributed to St. Athanasius in the Creed bearing his name from the 4^th or 5^th century, there is only one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Spirits; yet there are not three gods, but One true God.  We confess this mystery because it is what God has revealed about Himself through His Word, beginning with the mysterious Tetragrammaton transliterated from ancient Hebrew into English as YHWH, or Yahweh.  It is this Name that Jesus claimed in John 8 when He said, I AM, which is the literal meaning of the Name Yahweh; it is a verb of being that includes all past, present, and future, revealing God as the very ground from which all reality and all creation emerges.  The Father and the Son share this indivisible divine essence, as does the Holy Spirit, without confusing their Persons or violating their unity.

 

Beyond the clear testimony of Scripture which should be more than enough to demand our faithful confession, without the doctrine of the Trinity, the Doctrine of Justification is made meaningless.  If the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not One God in three Persons, then the Holy Baptism which Jesus established is rank idolatry and a violation of the 1^st Commandment to have no other gods besides YHWH.  To declare Jesus is Lord would violate the same Commandment, and Jesus would be made a liar.  Yet in reality, Jesus proved that He and the Father are One by living a life without sin, teaching and prophesying about the redemptive work He would accomplish through His life, death, and resurrection, and then doing what He said He would do.  No one in all of human history has ever done that—prophesied their own death and resurrection, and then accomplished it in the presence of countless witnesses.  And it is Jesus who promised the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost after His Ascension, sent to His people by both the Father and the Son, to convict the world of sin and draw them to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures, because He alone was the Word made flesh to dwell among us—He is Immanuel, God With Us.  The Father, the Word, and the Spirit are inseparable yet distinct, and their revelation to us in our redemption is a blessed glimpse into the unfathomable mystery of the King of the Universe.

 

Yet even beyond this, the very act of the Vicarious Atonement promised by Jesus and so well explicated by St. Paul in his Epistles, would become nothing if Jesus were not fully God and fully man.  If Jesus were not fully God, he could not satisfy the sins of the whole world, but rather would die in his own sins.  If Jesus were not fully man, His sacrifice would not be on our behalf as human beings.  Without the divine Son who gives His life for the sins of the world, there is no Gospel of grace.  Instead, as most heretical deviations from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity have evidenced across the centuries, any system that denies the full divinity and human of Jesus, falls into some form of legal system that demands mankind raise himself up by his own merit to be worthy of eternal life and fellowship with God.  Without the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, we are left in our sins to work in vain toward a summit we cannot climb, and goal we cannot reach, for our fallen nature precludes us from the perfection we know the justice of God must demand.  Apart from the Gospel of Grace in Jesus Christ alone, life becomes a mire and mixture of cabalistic attempts to win divine favor, to justify oneself above one’s neighbor, to gain some secret knowledge presumed necessary to ascend into the heavens, or to wallow in the depravity of violence, greed, and debauchery.  The world is full of these religious systems, hawking their wares and empty promises to every ear that will hear them, luring the ignorant into rituals and rites and ceremonies and secret societies that add greater bondage to darkened minds, and deeper despair to sorrowing souls.

 

Yet Jesus’ Gospel is pure, simple, and made known to all by His Word and Spirit.  By His Word we know that the Father so loved the world that He gave His only Son to save it, that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.  By His Word we know that Jesus’ work upon the Cross finished our salvation, that by His stripes we have been healed, and that to know Him is to know the Father.  By His Word and Spirit we are taught to walk in His righteousness for His Name’s sake, to aspire by faith and repentance to the good works of the Law, and to trust by faith and repentance in the free gift of Jesus’ gracious forgiveness of our failures.  The Way of Jesus is not a mystery in the sense that it is hidden from the world, for the Word and Spirit of God go out into every corner of creation, calling all people to eternal life and reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus Christ.  The Law and Gospel of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are published plainly for all to read, to hear, to inwardly digest, and to understand, just as the divine Wisdom of Proverbs 8 declares:  He stands in the gates, in the doorways, in the thoroughfares, in the city squares and the humble hearths of home, calling in love to those who would be saved from the perversity and destruction of evil.  As God has loved the world and sought to save it, He does not hide His grace in a corner, under a basket, or in some secret society, but rather He declares it from the mountain tops of Sinai, Carmel, and Calvary.

 

It is the love of God that sends His Word and Spirit into the world to seek and to save the lost, so that all people might have the opportunity to know Him as Savior and Lord.  The festival of the Holy Trinity is more than a remembrance of the doctrinal mystery declared by Scripture about the God whom we serve, but also a celebration of the mystery of love which pursues us through His power, grace, and mercy.  The mystery of the Holy Trinity is not an irrational contrivance of theologians, but rather a confession of the divine mystery which seeks and saves us from sin, death, hell, and the wiles of the devil.  To confess the Holy Trinity is to confess the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has done all things well, fulfilled every promise, and sent His Word and Spirit to seal you to Himself for all eternity.  Glory be to God alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

 

Raising Up Witnesses: A Meditation on Acts 2, for the Sunday of Pentecost

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,

they were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven

 as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled

all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues

like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,

and began to speak with other tongues,

as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 

While there are those who describe Pentecost as the birthday of the Church, I do not think that is quite accurate.  The Church, a phrase in Greek that means a gathering of people, or a group of people called out and called together, is something found all the way back to the beginning.  The first Church are Adam and Eve, called into being by the Word and Spirit of God, and gathered together into a fellow both between themselves and with their Creator.  That fellowship was soon fractured by their sin, but down through the ensuing centuries, God never stopped calling people together by His Word and Spirit.  When people tried to call themselves together with evil intentions apart from God, as the story in Genesis 11 recounts the Tower of Babel, God mercifully confounded their evil hearts and barred them accomplishing a united wickedness, just as He had mercifully preserved Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life lest their fallen lives be sealed forever in evil like the demons.  Yet the Church of God—His people gathered together in Him by His Word and Spirit—has never departed from the earth.  It has certainly gone through risings and fallings, through prosperity and persecution, through covenants and commitments and promises.  While Pentecost may have been the ushering in of a new era, with the Word and Spirit of God falling upon the people without measure in the testimony of Jesus Christ as Savior of the World, the Church continues to this day, and forever.

 

What is unique about our celebration of Pentecost, is the fulfilment of God’s Law and Promises in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  What was prophesied for centuries had fully come to pass, and Jesus now ascended, sits at the right hand of the Father, in the communion of the Holy Spirit, indivisible and victorious over every enemy of mankind.  That imagery of Jesus at the Father’s right hand communicates Jesus’ total authority, as the Word of God made flesh must always and everywhere reign without equal.  There is only One God, and He alone speaks the Words of eternal life—the words that call His people away from evil and into his grace.  What happens at Pentecost is not the creation of a new community, but the perfection and expansion of that community made possible by the Cross of Christ.  The Holy Spirit who fell on the Apostles that day nearly 2000 years ago, did not bring miraculous powers, signs, and wonders to testify to Himself, but rather that the Apostles might be raised up as witnesses of what Jesus had already done.  That divine power which infused the Apostles and empowered them to speak in tongues they had never studied, was a power to testify of Jesus in words others could understand.  The Holy Spirit was not bringing confusion to the Church on Pentecost, but rather, He was bringing focus and completion:  Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word who fulfilled in Himself the Word of the Old Testament Prophets, now became the central Word His Apostles would preach among themselves and into the whole world.  It was Jesus who both established and fulfilled the Law of Moses, and Jesus who gave His life that we might live in His sacrificial grace by faith, forgiven of our failures and empowered in His Spirit.

 

I think at times many Christians, myself included, have looked back on Pentecost with a kind of sadness or wistfulness, as if only we could rebuild the faith of the Apostles in ourselves we would see a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit like they did.  But this is to misunderstand both Pentecost, and the enduring power of God among us.  The Apostles did not bring about the coming of the Holy Spirit through their own works, merit, or righteousness.  It was Jesus who promised He would send the Holy Spirit to them, that they might not think themselves orphans after His Ascension to the Father.  The Apostles received the Holy Spirit by the Word of the Living God, and thus in that Word and Spirit they were raised up to be powerful witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  When the Church today looks back on Pentecost, we should no more expect God to repeat this particular event than we should expect Him to repeat the Ark of Noah, the giving of the Law to Moses at Mt. Sinai, or the building of the Temple under King Solomon.  These great events are all part of our patrimony as Christians, but they are what the Lord worked in those times and places, so that the fullness of His revelation might be brought forth in Jesus Christ.  All of the ages of man from the dawn of time moved forward toward Jesus’ Incarnation and Vicarious Atonement, and since then, all ages shall press forward to His triumphant return at the end of time.  Between Pentecost and the Eschaton, the Church moves forward in the testimony of Jesus Christ, empowered by His omnipotent Spirit.

 

Once we see our history for the wondrous testimony that it is, we find ourselves back in our own present moment, knowing that it is God who will raise up His Church today, just as He has always raised up His people:  by His Word and Spirit.  While the day of Pentecost is centuries behind us, and the Last Day is an unknown time before us, the promise of Jesus is right here among us—right now, right here.  The power of Almighty God has not waned across countless generations, even though peoples in every land and culture have seen the rise and fall of many empires.  Mankind will have seasons of greater or lesser faithfulness to God, but God is not increased or diminished by the works, words, or beliefs of man.  God will always be God; the Father will always be the uncreated Creator of all things, Jesus will always be the uncreated Savior of the World, and the Holy Spirit will always be the uncreated breath of life.  Which of course means that God has not now, nor ever shall, abandon His Church—His people—called together in Him by His Word and Spirit.  Our generation is not able to live in a past generation, anymore than it can live in a future generation yet unborn, for to each person in each generation is given their time and calling.  The Church’s calling today is to abide in the Word and Spirit of God Almighty by grace through faith, and in that divine power to rise up and bear witness to the saving Gospel of Jesus.  Thus we remember our past, celebrate our saints, and live in the power of God today, as we prepare to pass on our witness to the next generation.

 

The promise of Jesus today is the promise we live in.  And while the miracles of the past might echo into the future, we should brace ourselves for the miracles God has ordained for our time.  For this present life is our challenge, in our time and our place, to abide in the Word and Spirit of God and to be raised up in Him, that we might also give witness to the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation only Jesus can give.  Today, in every place God has gathered His people by His Word and Spirit, He is raising up witnesses to stand boldly forth in His power and conviction, that the testimony of Justification by Grace through Faith in Christ Alone might ring forth in every deafened ear, and enliven every dying heart.  Today, the Word and Spirit of the Living God come to you, that you might be conformed day by day to the image of your Savior, reflecting His life, light, love, joy, peace, and reconciliation to everyone around you.  Today you are called together with the saints of every age, into a Church that sings triumphantly across all time and space, of the saving grace of Jesus.  Today, the Word and Spirit of the Lord God Almighty falls upon you, that you might be raised up in Him, and shine forth forever.  Lift up your eyes and see:  you live in the power and blessing of Pentecost today.  Amen.