Easter Sermon: The God We’ve Been Waiting For

The God We’ve Been Waiting For

Isaiah 25:6-9 NRSV

25:6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

25:7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.

25:8 Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

25:9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Waiting For Someone

Americans spend a lot of time waiting. So much so, that according to a Zogby poll —

“Time spent waiting for in-home services and appointments cost American workers $37.7 billion in 2011.” And guess whom we wait the most for? You guessed it: the cable guy.

So, we’re not strangers to waiting. According to the same poll, the average American will spend 4.5 hours, at least 3 times a year, waiting for someone to come do something in their home. Which, again according to the poll, adds up to $37.7 billion dollars.

But, waiting half a day for the cable guy is nothing compared to what the nation of Israel had to do. They had to wait 600 years for someone – and then most of them didn’t recognize him when he showed up.

Of course, we have the advantage over our Hebrew friends who lived 2,400 years ago – we know who Jesus is, which is why we’ve gathered here today, on this Easter Sunday. But in Isaiah’s day, not only did they not know who Jesus was (because he hadn’t shown up yet), but they didn’t even think that God was present with them.

Waiting For God To Return

Isaiah the Old Testament prophet, carried out his ministry about 600 BC. Parts of Isaiah’s ministry overlap with the Babylonian captivity.

You remember that story – in 587 and 586 BC, the Babylonians overran the tiny nation of Judah. Judah was all that was left of King David’s unified kingdom that at one time had included the northern tribes of Israel, and the southern tribes living in Judah. David lived and reigned about 1000 BC, and his son Solomon followed him on the throne. After Solomon the united kingdom was divided by internal fighting and strife.

The separate kingdoms of Israel to the north, and Judah to the south were split apart, and governed by separate kings and governments. Jerusalem was located in Judah. That’s important, so hang on to that for just a minute.

In 722 BC, the northern kingdom was invaded by the Assyrians, and the northern tribes were dispersed throughout the Assyrian empire. That’s why they’re called the “lost tribes” of Israel. They literally were lost forever as a nation.

Less than 150 years later, the southern kingdom, Judah, was invaded as the Babylonians became the dominant military power in that part of the world. The Babylonians did what the Assyrians had done – they took most of the population captive, including the king and his court. They were all carted off to Babylon.

Oh, the most important thing that happened was that the Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem, and along with the city, they destroyed the temple that Solomon had built.

So, the people of Judah, in exile in Babylon, were heart-broken. They interpreted their captivity, and the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem as punishment from God. And they were right.

The prophets, at least those faithful to God like Isaiah, had warned the nations of both Israel and Judah, that God was going to judge them, and punish them for their unfaithfulness to God.

What had they done to deserve God’s punishment? Well, for starters they worshipped other gods, which if you remember the 10 Commandments, was strictly forbidden. They also worshipped idols, and if you remember this story from a few Sundays ago, they even worshipped the bronze serpent that Moses had made in the desert to save them. The short version of it is – they were continually unfaithful to God.

But they looked like they were doing all the right stuff. “After all,” they said, “we have the Temple of God in the midst of the city of Jerusalem. God will never let anything happen to that Temple.”

Right here we have to stop for a minute and think about the Temple in Jerusalem. Now we know that God doesn’t live here at church, even though we might call the church “God’s house” sometimes when we want to convey why this building is different. But we don’t believe that God lives here and only here.

But in the Old Testament, that’s exactly what they believed. And, they had good reason to believe that. When the Temple was dedicated, the presence of God filled the Temple, and everyone there knew that God was pleased that Solomon had built it, and had built it according to God’s instruction.

The Temple, you see, was a permanent version of the Tabernacle. God had commissioned Moses to built a moveable tent – a very fancy tent, but moveable nonetheless – and to set it up in the middle of the camp as they nation of Israel moved toward the Promised Land.

We don’t have time to go into all the details of the Tabernacle, but all of the design, materials, furnishings, and function of the Tabernacle had theological significance. In other words, the Tabernacle was a giant theological object lesson for the nation.

And, most importantly, the people of God believed that heaven met earth there in the Tabernacle.

They would think the same thing about the Temple. And so when God allows the Babylonians, not only to invade Judah, but to enter into, defile, and ultimately destroy the Temple, they were stunned.

The devastating effect the destruction of the Temple had on God’s people cannot be overstated. Do you remember how excited everyone got back in the 1950s when Madeleine Murray O’Hair sued to exclude state-written prayers from schools? And do you remember how that rumor that she was going to get all religious programming on TV banned just wouldn’t seem to die?

Well, if you take the outrage that Christians in the United States felt about that decision, and multiply that about 1,000 times and you might start to get some idea of how horrible it was for the nation of Judah, God’s people, to lose the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, and their homeland all at once.

They felt that God had abandoned them, that God was gone, and they wanted desperately for God to return to the nation, to God’s people.

But, even after they returned from Babylon about 70 years later, things weren’t the same. Even after they rebuilt the Temple, it was a pale version of the one Solomon had built. Even after they were resettled in their land again, they still pleaded for God’s return. For you see, not long before the Temple had been destroyed, God’s Spirit had left the Temple, just as dramatically as it had come when Solomon dedicated it.

The Promise of God’s Return

So, when Isaiah writes this passage, he is prophesying that one day, not only will God return, but when God does return, it will be glorious. It will be like a king coming home, Isaiah said.

God will throw a big party, an elaborate banquet. At this banquet there will be all the food you can eat, rich food, and great wine, fitting for the occasion. The best wine there could be, the best wine saved for last.

Okay, let me stop right here and give you a little preview of what I’m talking about. For that we turn to John’s Gospel, and the wedding at Cana of Galilee. This is the first thing that Jesus does, according to John. You remember this story – Jesus, his mother, and probably some friends are at a wedding of another friend. During the wedding, Mary realizes that the hosts have run out of wine. This, of course, would have brought disgrace on their family in the community. So, she approaches Jesus and says, “They’ve run out of wine.”

Jesus acts as though this does not concern him, but his mother realizes that Jesus is going to solve the problem. She instructs the servants attending to the food and drink to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.

Jesus has them fill 6 jars, which hold about 25-30 gallons each, with water. Then, without any fanfare or hocus pocus, he tells them to draw some out, and give it to the steward, who is the person in charge of the wine.

The steward tastes the wine, and is astounded. He doesn’t know where it came from, but he brags to the host, “Most people serve the good wine first, and then bring out the cheap wine when everyone is drunk, but you have saved the best til last.”

Now, do you see it? What Isaiah said about God throwing a big party, and serving great wine comes true in the wedding at Cana. Now I think that the wedding at Cana is not the final big party that Isaiah talks about, but I do think the miracle of Jesus turning water into great wine is just a little miracle to say to us, “Just wait, here’s a little preview of what God is going to do for everyone one day.”

But back to Isaiah:  Not only is God going to throw a big party when God returns to the nation of Israel, God is going to do away with the pall of death that has overshadowed the nation for far too long.

And for that we have to think back to how God gets the nation of Israel out of Egypt about 1000 years before Isaiah. Remember that God calls Moses, then God sends Moses to demand that Pharaoh release the Hebrews? Cecil B. DeMille made a great movie called The Ten Commandments about the Exodus, and the journey to the Promised Land.

You remember that God sent plagues on the nation of Egypt, one after another to pressure Pharaoh to let God’s people go. There was the plague of boils, the plague of blood, the plague of gnats, flies, locusts, and the plague of darkness. But the final plague was the worst of all – the death angel would pass over Egypt and take the life of the first-born from each family. To protect themselves, the Hebrews were to take the blood of a lamb, smear it on their doorposts, and the angel of death would pass over them.

This night would be commemorated as the greatest story in the Hebrew faith – the story of the Passover.

But Isaiah has that story in mind when he says that when God returns, God will remove the shroud of death from the nation of Israel. Because the very people God had spared in the exodus from Egypt, had been punished by God. They were humiliated before the nations of the world because of their disobedience.

But when God comes back, Isaiah says, God will lift the death-shroud. Not only that, God will dry every tear from their eyes. There will be no more cause for mourning.

John picks that thought up in the New Testament book of Revelation, when he says,

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place^[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,^[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.^[c] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Rev. 21:1-4 NIV

So, when God comes back to God’s people, death will be swallowed up, the shroud of death lifted, every tear dried, and their reputation restored. In other words, when God comes back, everything will be as God intended. God’s will will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

The God We’ve Been Waiting For

You can see where I’m going with this, I’m sure. Six hundred years after Isaiah said, “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up,” God comes to his people.

God comes to his people as one of them, as Jesus. And in Jesus everything that Isaiah promises to the nation of Judah 600 years before comes true.

Now for a while it looks like it might not come true. Jesus isn’t well-received, even in his hometown of Nazareth. The religious leaders who should have recognized him didn’t. The people whom he teaches, and feeds, and heals, also turn on him in the end.

By the time we come to the end of his short three-year ministry, it looks like Jesus is another failed messiah, another empty promise, another revolutionary who doesn’t live up to his billing.

And to top it off, the Romans crucify him. If there was ever any doubt that Jesus was a failure, his public humiliation and death at the hands of the most efficient and brutal Roman empire should erase that doubt.

The empire had done what it does best – it had enforced its rule by force. It had terrorized its subjects by the threat of death. It had made an example of Jesus by killing him publicly, viciously, and ignominiously.

But Isaiah wasn’t wrong. And Rome hadn’t counted on a god like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A God who could raise the dead. A God who would swallow death itself, and spit out life in its place. A God who would burst the burial shroud that held Jesus, and by doing so, strip away the culture of death that hung over Judea and Jerusalem in the first century.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that Isaiah was right – God did return. And when God returned in the person of Jesus Christ, death was vanquished, once and for all.

In Oscar Wilde’s play, Salome, Herod Antipas hears about Jesus. He hears that Jesus is going around doing remarkable things – healing and feeding people. Herod Antipas is intrigued, and wants to meet Jesus, but then he hears the Jesus also raises the dead.

Oscar Wilde, certainly not a committed Christian, nevertheless understands the significance to King Herod of Jesus’ ability to raise the dead. He has Herod Antipas ask –

“He raises the dead?” and the servant replies, “Yes.”

Herod goes into a bluster, “I do not wish Him to do that. I forbid him to do that. I allow no man to raise the dead. This man must be found and told that I forbid him to raise the dead.”

Herod knows that death is the last weapon he possesses. The Roman empire believes that death is their best threat to keep their subjects in line.

N. T. Wright puts it this way – “Now it is because Jesus has been raised from the dead that he was Messiah and Lord, the true King of the Jews, and the true Lord of this world.” (The Resurrection of Jesus, Kindle edition, location 392.)

This, then, is the God that Israel has been waiting for. This is the God we have all been waiting for.

Oh, we’ve allowed ourselves, just like the Jews did, to become distracted by other gods, gods that entertain us, gods we think will make us rich, gods that we pray will make us comfortable, gods that we make in our own image.

And just like those who came before us whether they lived in Jerusalem or in Chatham, we’ve seen all of those gods of our unfaithfulness and impatience fail us.

The god we’ve been waiting for is the God who saves us. The God who vanquishes death, not just once, but once and for all. The God who gives an only son to die, so we might live.

This is the God we’ve been waiting for, and his name is Jesus.

Podcast: If You’re Going Down To the River, Choose The Right One

When Naaman is told by the prophet Elisha to go and wash himself in the River Jordan seven times to heal his leprosy, Naaman is outraged. He prefers the “rivers of Damascus,” his home town. But if Naaman had not obeyed Elisha, he would have missed out on something wonderful. Just a reminder that not any old river will do, and 2 Kings 5:1-14 tells us why. Here’s the link — http://traffic.libsyn.com/chuckwarnock/02_If_Youre_Going_Down_To_the_River_Choose_The_Right_One.mp3

Sermon: I Believe in The Life Everlasting

I Believe in the Life Everlasting

John 6:53-68 NIV

⁵³Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?⁶²What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. ⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

⁶⁶From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

⁶⁷“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

The Last Line of the Apostles’ Creed

We’re almost there!  Today we look at the last line of The Apostles’ Creed — I believe in the life everlasting.  And so the Creed that began with Creation — I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth — now ends without an end.  We affirm our belief today that this life is not all there is, that there is a life that extends beyond our ability to see or know completely and that is the life everlasting.

You will remember that last week we spoke about the resurrection of the body.  We discovered that we are not disembodied spirits — that’s Greek or Roman thought, not Christian theology — but rather we are given new bodies, changed bodies, spiritual bodies unlike anything we can imagine.

Some scholars speculate that this line of the Creed was added at a later date, and that is entirely possible.  The reason it was added, some think, is because in both Greek and Latin the word for “resuscitatation” and “resurrection” are the same.  But there is a big difference in the two ideas.

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was resuscitated.  Jesus brought him back from the dead — and he really was dead and everybody knew it.  But Lazarus died again.  So, perhaps some of Jesus’s followers were confused at the idea of the resurrection of the body.  It’s great to be raised from the dead, but were they going to die again?

This last phrase clarifies and expands on the phrase we looked at last week — “I believe in the resurrection of the body.”  So, not only are we going to be raised from the dead, we aren’t going to die again.  That’s the whole point of “resurrection” — resurrection is the defeat of death and the triumph of life, and this phrase in the Creed affirms that the resurrection life in Christ goes on forever — everlastingly.

But what of this life everlasting?  The renowned skeptic and atheist, Bertrand Russell, said that the worst thing he could think of was an eternity that did not end because it would be incredibly boring.  I must agree with Russell in the sense that I do not look forward to eternity either if it’s going to be boring.  Fortunately, the life everlasting is not boring.  Let’s take a look at what we can find out about it from the passage we read today, and from others as well.

The Life Everlasting Is Given by Jesus and Sustained by God

Jesus is teaching at the synagogue in Capernaum, the city he went to after he was rejected in his hometown, Nazareth.  There is some support for the ancient belief that Simon Peter’s house was in Capernaum, and that Jesus stayed there while in the city.  In Capernaum the ruins of a 4th century synagogue were found about 1900.  But, it was almost 100 years later that archaeologists discovered that the 4th century synagogue had been built upon the foundation of a much older structure from the 1st century.  That foundation was most likely the foundation of the synagogue in which Jesus delivered this “Bread of Life” message.

This is very early in Jesus’s ministry, and his references to eating his flesh and drinking his blood are totally lost on the disciples.  His hearers still don’t get it even when he says —

“This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

They do understand the reference to manna in the desert.  This of course was the way God provided, the way God sustained the lives of the people of Israel during the 40-years they spent wandering from the captivity of Egypt to the promise of the land of Canaan.

You know the story — because they are nomads, pilgrims, they cannot stop to plant and harvest.  God provides from them each day an amount of manna which was sufficient for that day’s provision.  On the day before the Sabbath, God provides two days’ worth so they do not have to do the work of gathering on the Sabbath.

Now flash forward to the New Testament, to Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray.  We call it The Lord’s Prayer, and in it Jesus tells us to pray for God to “give us this day our daily bread.”  Just as God had sustained Israel in the desert one day at a time, Jesus reminds us to pray that God will do the same for us.

And, that daily sustaining comes from God, both now and in eternity.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, and God sustains us in eternity through the work of Christ on our behalf.  In other words, the life everlasting is a life provided by Jesus and sustained by God.  The life everlasting is similar to God’s provision for Israel, but something greater and more lasting than the manna.  After all, those who ate the manna all died.  Those who partake of the life of Christ all live.

The Life Everlasting Is a Difficult Idea

Some of those who heard Jesus had real problems with what he was saying, and John says “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”  They turned back to what?  To their old beliefs, to their old way of life, to their old ideas and old fears.

• They turned back because they could not believe that anything greater than the Exodus experience could ever happen to the people of God.
• They turned back because they could not believe in life that goes on forever.  After all the first century was a difficult time.  Life was hard, conditions were rough, mortality was high, hope was in short supply.  This business of another life, a life eternal, a life everlasting was too mystical for them.
• They turned back because they missed the real work of God.

And, here’s where we need to spend some time.  Here’s what most of us have heard and believe:

• God created and loves us, and God has a wonderful plan for our lives.
• Sin has separated us from God.
• God sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise from the dead to bring us salvation.
• Trusting in Jesus is the way to gain eternal life.

Basically, what I have just outlined for you is “The Four Spiritual Laws” or the plan of salvation, as it was called years ago.  And, that’s what we believe.  That’s what I believed when as a 6-year old Primary boy I gave my life to Jesus.  That’s probably what you believed, too, when you accepted Christ and became a Christian.

And, there’s nothing wrong with that.  But there is a more complete way to look at what God is doing, and why we have or need eternal life.

First, eternal life isn’t an after-thought, as in, “Oh, now I’m saved, and so I guess part of the deal is I get eternal life.”  Eternal life is the main thought.

The only problem with the Four Spiritual Laws approach is its like looking through a microscope at a tiny part of the universe.  You can see that part really well, but you really should be looking through a telescope to get the big picture.  Here’s the telescope view of what God is doing and why we need and want life everlasting:

• God did create us, but God also created the world, the universe, the Garden of Eden, all the plants, animals, the earth, the sky, the oceans, the fish, the air, all living things, and us — human beings.  So, we are part of and one of God’s creations.
• Everything is going along just fine in this new world that God has created.  So well, that God sees everything God has made and says after each and every creative act — “That’s good.”
• And when God creates humankind, Adam and Eve, we are the high point, the culmination of creation.  We are uniquely made in the image of God, and God breathes into us the breath of life.  The word for breath and spirit in Hebrew are the same, so in essence God breathes the Holy Spirit into us this new creation we know as mankind.  So far so good.
• God places Adam and Eve in a lush, wonderful fully-stocked garden.  They have to do a little caretaking, but basically all their needs are met, including companionship with God. Everyday, God meets them in the garden.
• Until one day, Adam and Eve don’t show up to walk with God.  God goes seeking for them, finds them hiding because they are ashamed at their nakedness.  God knows what has happened, but God leads Adam to confess that he has sinned, he has disobeyed God.  Adam confesses that he sought to be god himself, rather than obey God.  Of course, Adam tries to lay the whole business off on Eve, but God is having none of it.
• So, everything God has done is messed up.  The Garden of Eden is now off-limits to Adam and Eve.  They whole deal is thrown off track because of the sin of disobedience to God.
• So, God sets about reconciling creation back to God.  God calls people to help accomplish this task.  God calls Noah to save enough of creation so God can begin again.  God calls Abraham to be the father of a great nation.  God calls Moses to lead God’s people out of bondage in Egypt.  God calls David to be king of Israel, and on and on.
• God also calls prophets so God’s voice is always heard, even when the people disobey.
• Then God sends Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, Immanuel, God-with-us to reconcile creation.
• Jesus lives, dies, God raises him from the dead, Jesus ascends back to heaven, and sends the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus calls followers to help proclaim God’s new creation, the new people of God, the new Kingdom of God.  Jesus teaches the disciples to pray “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
• God is clearly reconciling creation back to God.
• And then, God plans for all of creation to be back in fellowship with God — to be in God’s presence as Adam and Eve were in God’s presence in the Garden of Eden.
• So, we get a glimpse of eternity in several passages of scripture, and one of the more interesting is in Revelation.

“So, what’s the difference in the Four Spiritual Laws, and this?” you ask.

Just this — the Four Spiritual Laws approach focuses the microscope on us — God loves us, our sin is the problem, God sent Jesus for us, God will save us.  And that’s true.

But, a better perspective is the telescope view — Here’s what God is doing.  God is creating, reconciling, and redeeming.  God is at work on the whole of creation, not just us.  God is putting everything to rights again.

Jesus says in the Book of Revelation, ”  Behold I am making all things new.”  Jesus doesn’t say, “Behold, I am making all new things.”  No, Jesus is making all things — all of creation — new again.  Just as it was in the Garden, just as God intended.

Our own personal salvation is a microscopic part of God’s greater plan to fix everything that went wrong.  And we find ourselves being invited to get fixed, and get in on what God is doing for all of creation.

So, I’ve said all of that to say that eternal life doesn’t start when we die.  Eternal life started when God created the world.  We did not exist before our birth, but when we make our appearance on God’s stage, that is when eternal life begins.

The Life Everlasting Isn’t Just About Time

But, the life everlasting, eternal life, isn’t just about time.  We tend to think that eternal life is just about life going on forever.  But it’s more than that.

Eternal life is about life with God.  In Revelation 21:22, John says, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”  In other words, God is right in the middle of his people.

And, this is the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and the New Earth.  This is creation made again into what it is supposed to be.  But this time, we’re not in a Garden, we’re in a city, a gigantic, three-dimensional city that sings!

And, in the words of the Isaac Watts’s Amazing Grace —

When we’ve been there ten thousand years

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days, to sing God’s praise,

Than when we’d first begun.

No, everlasting life isn’t about time, it’s about life with God.  It is everlasting because God sustains it.  It is everlasting because the giver is The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End.  It is everlasting because His Kingdom shall know no end.  It is everlasting because there is no place else to go, and nothing else to do.  When you’re in the presence of God, there is no other place to be.

And so we sing with the saints who have gone before us —

Come and go with me to that land,

come and go with me to that land,

Come and go with me to that land where I’m bound.

No more crying in that land,

no more crying in that land,

no more crying in that land where I’m bound.

Come and go with me to that land,

come and go with me to that land,

Come and go with me to that land where I’m bound.

Sermon: Seeing Greater Things

Here’s the sermon I’m preaching tomorrow from John 1:43-51 about Jesus calling Nathanael.  There’s a great story from David Augsburger’s book at the end. I hope you have a wonderful Lord’s day!

Seeing Greater Things

John 1:43-51

43The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

 44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

 46“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. 
      “Come and see,” said Philip.

 47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

 48“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. 
      Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

 49Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

 50Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” 51He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

A Skeptic Gets The Call

In today’s passage, we read the story of the second group of disciples that Jesus calls to follow him.  The first group according to John’s account, consisted of Andrew who immediately found his brother Peter saying, “We have found the Messiah.”  

The next day, Jesus finds Phillip, who like Andrew and Peter is also from the fishing village of Bethsaida.  Phillip in turn runs to find Nathanael.  The exchange goes like this:

Phillip to Nathanael: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Nathanael (with a scowl on his face): “Nazareth! Can any good thing come from there?”

Phillip: “Come and see.”

Nathanael, who is called Bartholomew by the other gospel writers, follows Phillip reluctantly.  When they approach Jesus, Jesus himself calls out so that all around can hear:

“Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing to hide.”  

To Nathanael, this sounds like a sales pitch.  Like someone is trying to butter him up.  Like a very insincere greeting.  It must have because Nathanael doesn’t say, “Thank you.”  Or “Please, don’t go on so. I’m just a fisherman.” Or anything.  Instead he asks Jesus a question that is loaded with skepticism:

“How do you know me?”  Now let me translate this from the original Greek for those of you who might not get the exact meaning.  Nathanael is really saying, “You don’t know anything about me, why are you flattering me?”

For Nathanael it was kind of like meeting someone at a party whom you have never seen, who starts telling you about your house, and your kids, and your job, and what the neighbors are saying about you.  How do you know me?  Where did you get all that?

I am sure Nathanael expected Jesus to be caught off guard.  After all, who doesn’t like a compliment?  And, most people are polite, even if the person praising them is overdoing it a bit.

Not Nathanael.  He puts Jesus on the spot.  But he’s not prepared for Jesus’ answer.  Rather than stumbling around, Jesus says, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Phillip called you.”  

(“Oh.  Oh, wow!”)  Because about that time, Nathanael is remembering that he was stretched out under the shade of a gigantic fig tree, taking a nap when Phillip interrupted him.

Nathanael’s brain is now working overtime.  Quickly he calculates all the people he remembers passing him as he rested under the fig tree:  

(“Well, there was an old woman with a water jar.  A noisy kid with a stick running and hitting rocks on the path.  An old man shuffling back to his home.  That was it!  No one else could have seen me.  How in the world does this Yeshua guy know I was under the fig tree?  My own family didn’t know where I was.  Wait.  No.  Yes.  NO!  YES!  The Holy One, blessed be his name, told him.  Wait.  That makes Jesus…what?….the Messiah!”)  

And all of a sudden without thinking further, Nathanael’s skepticism falls from him like a cast off coat, and he blurts out, “Rabbi….you…you are the Son of God, you…you are the King of Israel!”  

Now the tables are turned.  Jesus is clearly in charge of this conversation now.  He speaks to Nathanael, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree.  You shall see greater things that that.”  

Then, after a pause, Jesus adds, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

One Story Leads To Another

End of story.  Except what in the world does it mean?  What could Nathanael see that would be more amazing than Jesus telling him where he had been only a few hours before?  And how had Jesus done that?  It had to be God, so at least Nathanael had settled that question.  

But now Jesus is saying, “You think that was amazing? You haven’t seen anything yet.”  And then Jesus says three very interesting things.  

Jesus could have stopped at any one of these sentences —

• “You’re going to see heaven opened.”  That would be amazing, but he keeps going.
• “And angels ascending and descending.” Remember angels?  Every time they appear people are afraid and fall down.  That’s amazing, but he keeps going.
• “On the Son of Man.”  Jesus here means himself, but how can angels ascend and descend on him?  

Here’s where Nathanael has us beat.  Remember when Jesus said of Nathanael, “Here’s a true Israelite in whom there is nothing to hide?”  

I don’t think Jesus ever calls anybody else an “Israelite.”  There was no Israel anymore.  That was Old Testament.  The northern tribes, gone since 721 BC.   Now they all lived in Judea.  Or Galilee. Or Samaria.  But, not in Israel.  

But, remember where the name “Israel” came from?  God gave it to Jacob after Jacob wrestled with God one night.  Okay, stay with me now because the payoff is coming.

Jacob, remember, was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham.  That’s how God always identified himself.  “I am the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

But Jacob, before he wrestled with God, had a dream one night.  He had cheated his brother, Esau, out of his birthright, and had fled from his homeland to escape Esau’s anger.  Actually, Esau wanted to kill him.  

One night as Jacob is on the run, he stops to make camp.  He takes a stone and using it for a pillow, falls asleep. Which if you used a rock for a pillow might make you have strange dreams, but the dream Jacob had was a doozy.

He dreamed that he saw a stairway, a ladder, with its feet planted on the earth and the top reaching into heaven.  The angels of God were ascending and descending on it in his dream.  Then, God appears standing at the top of the ladder or staircase saying, “I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac.”  But not of Jacob.  

Then God makes the same promise to Jacob that God made to Abraham and Isaac.  “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and I’m going to give you the land on which you are lying.”  Now, at that point, God becomes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because God has now made the same covenant with Jacob that he made with Abraham and Isaac.  

Jacob wisely, and fearfully, recognizes that God is in that place.  He takes the rock that was his pillow and uses it to make an altar.  He pronounces the name of the place, Bethel, which means “house of God.”  And, he worships God there.  

Jacob is so overcome he remarks, “This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”  He had seen heaven opened.  

The New Jacob’s Ladder

When we were in the youth department at our church, we sang,

“We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,we are climbing Jacob’s ladder, we are climbing Jacob’s ladder, soldiers of the cross.”  

And that’s it.  The new Jacob’s ladder, the new connection between heaven and earth is Jesus.  The angels will ascend or descend based on the word of Jesus.  The will of God will be done “on earth, as it is in heaven” because of the work of Jesus.  The connection between heaven and earth that was severed with man’s disobedience has been restored in Jesus.

No longer is heaven off-limits, or earth a struggling chaotic mass.  Now heaven and earth are again joined.  And they are joined by Jesus.  

The cross that is planted so firmly on Calvary’s hill reaches into the heavens.  God meets his people on that ladder which only Jesus can climb.  God meets his people in person.  Renewing the covenant, embracing the fallen, choosing the scoundrels, the outcasts, the tricksters, all of whom have no chance at seeing into the gates of heaven without someone to bridge the gap.  

The Ladder At Work Today

So, how does this new Jacob’s ladder, a.k.a. Jesus, work today?  Most of us haven’t seen any angels coming and going, or had any dreams of stairways to heaven.  

In his wonderful book, Dissident Discipleship, Dr. David Augsburger tells this story:

David Shank, a pastor in Belgium, followed a translator into a room filled with Greek, Spanish, and Serbian miners.  At a minute’s notice, he was to tell the Christian story. 

“Fellows, would you agree to play a game with me?” he asked. “Let me try to tell you about yourselves.  If I am wrong, you stop me.  But as long as I tell the truth, you let me go on.  Agreed?”  They nodded in skeptical consent.

“You’ve never had a real chance to get ahead in life until now, so every day you risk your lives to go down into these dirty Belgian mines to give your children a better chance, right?”

“Yes, that’s right, go on.”

“So you work like a slave, day after day, so your kids won’t have to do the same.  That’s your ideal. You get paid on Saturday. You stop at the cafe for a drink or two, a few hands of cards and a couple bets, and when you get home your wife looks at what’s left of your pay and says, ‘Not enough for the week.'”

“Yeah, go on.”

“When she criticizes you, what’s even worse, you know she’s right, you get mad at her; and you lose your head and hit her?”

“Right, but how did you know?”

“Then you feel ashamed, and you ask yourself, ‘Why did I do that?”

“True.”

“Then you can’t sleep and you lie there thinking ‘My kids are no better off than before, I’ve failed them,’ And you get mad at yourself, at the filthy job, then at your wife, your kids, the whole world.  After you fume for awhile you say, ‘Next week will be different.’ So you go back to the dirty mine.”

“Yes, that’s about right.”

“And when you’re a mile or two under the earth, you start to wonder, ‘What about all the gases down here? What if there’s an explosion? What about a cave-in? What then? What about the wife and kids? What about me?’ But there’s no one to talk to about this.  You’re alone and you feel rotten.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Do you know how I know all this?”

“No, that’s what we want to know.  You’re no miner. How did you get to know about us?”

“I got it out of this book.”

“What book?”

“It’s called the New Testament.  It tells about our hopes and God’s hopes for us.  Do you want to hear the rest of the story?”

“Yes, tell us the rest.”

“It says that at the very point  where we fail, where we betray our ideals and we are guilty and afraid, God wants to help.  And if we accept that help, there’s hope for our children.”  (Dissident Discipleship, p171-173.)

To see hopeless lives connected to the throne room of heaven by Jesus himself is a far greater thing to see than where some skeptic is taking a nap.

We follow Jesus sometimes because we’re amazed at the mystery of God.  We should follow him because we are amazed at the miracle of God’s love.  

When Jesus Invites Himself To Your House for Dinner

When Jesus Invites Himself To Your House for Dinner (mp3)

Luke 19:1-10

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’ ”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:1-10 NIV

A Great Story and A Couple of Songs

Isn’t this a great story? When I was in the Beginner Department, I learned this song:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

And a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree,

For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Lord was passing by,

He looked up in the tree,

And he said,

Zacchaeus, come down,

For I’m going to your house today!

This is one of those Bible stories that has something for everyone. If you’re short, it’s the story of the perserverance of a short guy, Zacchaeus, and the difficulty he had trying to see Jesus. Short people, like myself, are still smarting from Randy Newman’s hit song, Short People back in the 1980s. The lyrics went like this —

Short people got nobody,

Short people got nobody,

Short people go nobody

to love.

I am told that Randy Newman wrote that song to show how wrong prejudice of any kind is, but as you can imagine, not everybody got the joke and lots of people were offended by it, short and tall. Apparently, being short still has it’s difficulties. I found a website, Short Person’s Support, that among other things, has the Who’s Who of Short People, listing 300 famous short people in history.

If you’re a kid, you know exactly how Zacchaeus felt. You’re too short to see over adults, so you’ve got to get a good vantage point, preferably higher up than anybody else, so you can see what’s going on. So, Zacchaeus climbed a tree, which always has appeal to little kids.

But if being short wasn’t bad enough, in this story, we not only have a short man, we have a short man who was a tax collector. Double-whammy. Short and a cheat — not a good combination.

But there was something different about this short guy. He wanted to see Jesus. Despite his stature, despite his shady dealings, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus.

Why? We don’t know. Maybe Zacchaeus had heard that Jesus healed people. Maybe Zacchaeus heard that Jesus fed people. Maybe Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was standing up to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders, and he thought Jesus was taking up for the underdogs of society like himself. Maybe Zacchaeus heard that Jesus said some really unusual things about the kingdom of God — how the kingdom of God was right here, right now. Zacchaeus, for whatever reason, wanted to see Jesus.

If you’ve ever been in a crowd that was not well organized or managed, you have some idea of the crowd that Zacchaeus tried to make his way into that day. The word was out that Jesus was coming. Maybe some boys or young men had come running down the road shouting, “Rabbi Jesus is coming!” Today, that probably wouldn’t gather a crowd, but you’ve got to transport yourself back to the first century.

Life in Jesus’ day was hard. Days were long, people worked hard and diversions from the drudgery of work and the difficulties of everyday life were few. Villages were small and everyone knew everybody’s business. The woman at the well is an example of that. So, when the word spreads that Jesus is coming, I’m sure that many stopped what they were doing to catch a glimpse of this man, this enigma, who might free them from the oppression of the Roman system and the corruption of their leaders. After all, that’s what messiahs did, if he was the messiah.

The Significance of the Sycamore Tree

Here’s another interesting thing: the sycamore tree. This tree was probably ficus sycomorus, a rather large fig tree. This type of sycamore grew to be about 60-feet tall and had a canopy about 18-feet wide. So, it was a big tree. The tree was cultivated for its fruit (although not as good as some varieties of fig); and its timber (Egyptian mummies were buried in coffins of sycamore). This type sycamore is called The Queen of Trees in Africa because it provides shelter and food for creatures as large as the gray hornbill, Africa’s largest bird, to small wasps who help polinate the trees, and who in turn are sustained by the sycamore fruit.

The sycamore tree is mentioned a couple of other times in the Bible in Amos and Jeremiah. The Amos passage is particularly interesting, and has shadows of the coming of the messiah in it. It’s the story of God reaching out to save the people of Israel, despite the difficulties that are coming their way. Here’s what Amos says:

1 This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

3 So the LORD relented.
“This will not happen,” the LORD said.

4 This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

6 So the LORD relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign LORD said.

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Do you hear the portents of Jesus and Zacchaeus there? Amos pleads for God to forgive Jacob, meaning Israel, because “He is so small!” And God does forgive, but places a plumbline in the midst of his people to show them what is straight and true. Then, God promises that the high places and sanctuaries where improper worship is carried on will be destroyed. In 70 AD, the Roman legions will overrun Jerusalem, destroy the city and the Temple, and leave it desolate. The nation will again go into exile, not to return until 1948 when the political state of Israel is established. And all this prophesied by a keeper of sycamore trees, Amos. Now, I’m not saying there is a point-for-point parallel in the story of Amos and the story of Zacchaeus, but Jesus knew the Amos story and all the elements in the story of Zacchaeus, shadow the Old Testament prophet Amos. Those with “ears to hear” would understand and relate the two stories.

In the Zacchaeus story, then, there is a warning and a connection with the Old Testament prophets. And, remember where Jesus is headed — to Jerusalem to fulfill his destiny, to make his sacrifice, to redeem the nation.

Dinner Conversation with Jesus

But there’s more to this story, too. I really like the part of the story where Jesus says, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus had not planned on dinner guests, especially Jesus. But he quickly responds, swings gingerly down from his perch in the sycamore tree, and leads Jesus to his house.

We have what they call in the film industry a flash-forward. Actually, I don’t know if they call it that, but the point is the scene changes and Zacchaeus is talking, perhaps after they’ve had dinner. Perhaps after he’s heard Jesus talk about the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps after Zacchaeus has had the chance to ask Jesus a lot of questions, like — “Is there any hope for me?” or “Everybody hates me, what should I do?” or “How can I help you?”

We don’t know what the questions were, but we know Zacchaeus’ answer. “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

“Here and now” — Zacchaeus isn’t waiting, he’s acting. “Here,” in his own home. “Now,” while the crowd is still peering in the windows. Not later, not tomorrow, not after he calculates what he can afford to give. “Here and now, I give half my possessions to the poor.” But wait, there’s more — “…and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” If? Of course he’s cheated people. Of course he’s overcollected. Everybody knows that, even Zacchaeus. It’s the way the system works. It’s expected, anticipated, complained about, but ultimately complied with. So, there really is no uncertainty in Zacchaeus “if.” This is Zacchaeus’ way of saying, in a very eastern manner, “Okay, I’ve cheated a lot of you, but today I’m going to make it right.”

And there it is — real repentance — a turning around, a change of direction, an embrace of the kingdom of heaven here. Zacchaeus is caring for the poor. Jesus said when you do that — feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned — you do it to Him. It’s the new kingdom ethic, the new way to live life. And, the rest of it is — Turn the other cheek, treat others as you want to be treated, love your neighbor as yourself — all of those things that perhaps Jesus and Zacchaeus had a chance to talk about over dinner.

Entering the Kingdom

And so after Zacchaeus publicly repents — because repentance is the first step in embracing the kingdom — Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Salvation has come to this house — this house owned and occupied by a sinner — because Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham, too. And what makes him a son of Abraham? Not just his birth, although that is the physical reason Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham. No, it’s his rebirth. It’s Zacchaeus willingness, like Abraham, to follow God into a new kingdom. A land, like Abraham, that he’s never seen. A kingdom that is not like this world, but for now is in this world. Salvation came to Zacchaeus’ house because it is now an outpost of the kingdom of heaven, managed by kingdom ethics, and one more piece of the puzzle where God is making all things new.

What happens when Jesus invites himself to dinner at your house? You get the opportunity to repent, to turn around, to embrace the kingdom, to become a son or daughter of Abraham. Because Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost.

Jesus Has Invited Himself to This Dinner Table

Today we gather around the table to which Jesus invited himself 2,000 years ago. It is the table of fellowship. And if there were crowds looking in these windows today, as surely they must have looked into Zacchaeus’ windows with great curiosity, the people in the crowd would say, “Jesus is sitting at the table with sinners.” For we are all sinners, lost like Zacchaeus in a world that is the polar-opposite of the kingdom of God.

But as we come to this table today, we can say with Zacchaeus — “Here, now I’m turning around.” “Here, now I embrace the kingdom of heaven and will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, minister to the prisoners, treat others as I want to be treated, turn the other cheek, love my neighbor as myself.” All part of loving God and loving each other. All part of the kingdom of God. Here. Now. In this moment.

And we will hear Jesus say, “Today, salvation has come to this house for these are children of Abraham, too!”