Sunday Morning Greek Blog

December 14, 2025

Advent Joy: Jesus Breaks the Power of Sin and Suffering (Matthew 11:2–11; Isaiah 35:4–6)

Filed under: Advent,Adviento,Christology,Christology,Eschatology,Evangelism,forgiveness,Isaiah,Joy,Liturgical Calendar,Matthew Gospel of — Scott Stocking @ 5:21 pm
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Good morning! The Lord be with you!

As you know, today is the third Sunday of Advent, where we focus on the Joy for what Christ brings to our lives. I’m sure most of you know that there’s a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness comes from the things that happen around us. The word comes to us through the Middle English word hap, which in that time meant luck, fortune, fate, or one’s lot in life. The word had either a positive sense (“good fortune”) or a negative sense (“hard times” or a “hard lot” in life) depending on context. In modern English, of course, it’s been entirely infused with the positive meaning “happy as a lark.” It may be more of a surface feeling as well. It’s a feeling that can come and go depending on life’s circumstances.

Joy, on the other hand, is happiness on steroids if you will, at least according to Merriam-Webster. Their dictionary defines it as “a feeling of great happiness or pleasure; delight”; “a state of great happiness”; and “a source or cause of delight.” It comes from a Latin word that means “rejoice.” No surprise there. It does imply something much deeper than happiness, as the definitions suggest, something intangible, something you can’t quite put your finger on.

I experienced this feeling of joy recently, and I’d like to share it with you. Jill’s daughter Rebecca moved in with us almost three years ago when she was struggling trying to find her way in the COVID mess. Within about a year, she managed to land a job working for the Hilton Hotel downtown scheduling reservations for large events at the hotel or downtown. As it turned out, she found her niche. This past year, one of her biggest projects was working with teams and large fan groups coming for the College World Series. She was feeling the success.

In the meantime, she also rekindled her love for singing and performing by auditioning for and joining the River City Mixed Chorus, the largest chorus of its kind in the Omaha area. Last Saturday they had their annual Christmas/Holiday concert at the Holland. After the concert I paid attention to how family and friends of the chorus were excited about the evening. That really touched me to witness that. The evening was extra special in that Rebecca found out just before the concert that her bid on a house was accepted. That was the icing on the cake for the evening.

As you might imagine, when Jill and I first got together 12 years ago, it was a bit of a rough go for me and for her two teenage girls at the time. But as a man of God, I was determined to prove my mettle and stay the course by showing them just how much I loved their mom and how willing I was to support her girls in their various pursuits. Today, I have a great relationship with her grown-up and fully employed daughters. I told Rebecca last Saturday night how proud I was of her success, and I got choked up trying to get the words out of my mouth. To me, that was true joy. I felt in my heart, and I could see it in Rebecca as well. For me, that was a real moment of joy.

In our gospel passage this morning, Jesus’s cousin John the Baptizer was looking for a “sign” or a reason to be joyful in the midst of his struggles in prison. He already knew Jesus was the Messiah but he still, apparently, didn’t understand what that would look like. He sent his own messengers to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah, and Jesus’s answer did not disappoint. John may have had the same expectation others had about the Messiah when he came, that he would overthrow Roman rule and restore the theocracy.

But when Jesus offers up the “evidence” that he wants John’s disciples to take back to John, none of it has to do with political power. It has to do with restoring joy and hope to oppressed people or those gravely impacted by life’s circumstances. Think about the emotional reaction of the people who benefited from Jesus’s ministry.

The blind receive their sight: Imagine not being able to see anything, then all of the sudden one day, Jesus shows up in your town and gives you back your sight. This would be more than just a “happy” moment: you would be filled with joy to discover all that you’ve been missing: the blue sky; the beauty of the human form; the colors of flowers and birds; and so forth. You would be leaping for joy! Our neighbor when we lived in Aksarben had a color-blind son. A company called Pilestone developed a series of lenses that allow color-blind people to better distinguish colors, and he happened to get the glasses. His mom posted a video of him experiencing the vividness of color for the first time wearing these glasses. That was truly a joyful moment for that young man and his family.

How about the lame walking? A few chapters earlier in Matthew, we see Jesus tell a lame man that his sins are forgiven, and to prove that he has the power to forgive sins, Jesus also heals the man and tells him to pick up his bed and walk away free of his disability. Not only was the man overjoyed, but the text in Matthew 9 indicates “the crowd was filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.” We see this early in the book of Acts as well, when the apostles effectuate God’s healing: Peter speaks healing to a lame beggar in Acts 3, and the man “jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”[1]

Jesus had healed 10 people with leprosy at one point. The Bible commanded that people healed of leprosy show themselves to the priest to be declared clean. The 10 did that, but for whatever reason, only one was joyful enough to return to Jesus and give him thanks. This story is certainly relevant today: how many of us miss out on joy by failing to realize or acknowledge that God himself is the source of that joy. Even joy, though it tends to affect us deeper in our souls and lasts longer, can fade if we don’t recognize the everlasting joy we can have from our heavenly father.

The deaf hear. Just like the blind man; being able to experience any of your senses for the first time as an adult. Imagine being able to hear and understand words you’ve only experienced by sight on a page. Think about that for a minute: if you were completely deaf and suddenly could hear someone speaking for the first time, how would know what sounds go with each letter? If you can read lips, that might help you make the connection. That challenge would pale, I think, when compared next to the joy of hearing again.

The dead are raised. Lazarus wasn’t the only dead person Jesus brought back to life. He also raised Jairus’s daughter. I’ve come close to experiencing that several times in the past few years. My friend Jim contracted hepatitis at a family Thanksgiving meal a few years ago and his liver began to fail. He had gotten to the point where he was asking me to do his funeral. But something divine happened to him to change his mind about getting a liver transplant, and he’s still with us today. My sister Lindee recovered from her complicated liver issues after a liver transplant as well this year. She still has a couple challenges left to navigate, but she’s well on the road to full recovery. Another Jim who’s a good friend was at death’s door in the first year of COVID. His wife had talked to me about funeral arrangements. But he’s recovered now and still leads our men’s group study today. I and the families of these friends are glad to still have them around. Each in their own way represents what joy is all about.

The final thing Jesus mentions to John’s disciples is that the good news, the gospel, is preached to the poor. All these things are a direct reference to the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 35:4–6:

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady the knees that give way;

4 say to those with fearful hearts,

“Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come,

he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution

he will come to save you.”

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert. [2]

John the Baptist understood why Jesus responded the way he did. The passage from Isaiah is the precursor to the messianic sections of Isaiah that speak of a suffering servant. John was beginning to understand what Jesus certainly already did: Jesus would ultimately die for the sins of the whole human race. Jesus didn’t come to break the power of Rome. He came to break the power of a corrupted religion that enslaved people to a legalistic, punitive view of God. The power of religious leadership was in holding this threat of the judgment of God over the heads of the people.

But Jesus turned that on its head. John realized that Jesus came so people could have their sins forgiven, not to be judged for them. The “vengeance” Isaiah speaks of is not against all mankind generally, but against those who had corrupted the message of the Bible. God loves us. That was Jesus’s message as well. But not only that God loves \us, but that God wants us to spend eternity with him in a glorified state. He wants us to experience true healing and true joy for all eternity.

In the last part of our gospel passage this morning, Jesus asks the crowd about John the Baptist: why did you come out to see him? What did you expect? The answer was straightforward. John the Baptist wasn’t a sharp-dressed man who gave pep talks. He was the one who preceded Jesus to prepare the way for him. He was the first prophet in 400 years, except instead of prophesying to and about the kings of Judah and Israel, he was prophesying about the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The people flocked to him because John had the courage to stand up to them and tell them what many Jews to that time had been harboring in their hearts: “Your ways, O Pharisees, sap our strength and rob us of hope. Someone is coming who has a much better way than yours.”

Let me flip this question around and ask it in the context of our world today, December 14, 2025. Many people come to church at Christmas (and Easter) that don’t come to church regularly. What are they looking for when they come to church? Being with family may be part of that, but are they perhaps coming because they want to hear that message of hope and joy for themselves? Are they coming because they think Jesus as a baby and the whole manger scene is cute and not in the least bit threatening? Or are they coming because they want to experience awesome, transformative power of forgiveness from a risen Savior who has conquered death? Are they coming out of a sense of obligation, or are they coming because they want to experience a vibrant and encouraging fellowship with other Christ-followers? The Christmas season isn’t the only time of the year where we consider why and how Jesus came to dwell among us. Many Christians look for that weekly and practice that weekly year-round. Why? Because they find a continuous source of joy, help, hope, and strength in their church communities.

This Christmas season, reach out to those who need to know and experience the fellowship of the body of Christ. Let us go forth from here and be beacons of hope and light. May God richly bless you this Christmas season, and merry Christmas to all! Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

My views are my own.

Scott Stocking

August 24, 2025

Keeping the Sabbath Holy (Luke 13:10–17)

Filed under: Hebrew,Isaiah,Luke Gospel of,Sabbath,Ten Commandments (Decalogue),Work — Scott Stocking @ 7:09 pm
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I preached this message on August 24, 2025, at Mount View Presbyterian Church in Omaha, NE.

God has a sense of humor sometimes, especially when it comes to us preacher-folk. This month is the absolute busiest month of the work year for me every year, because I have to review all 89 of our standard operating procedure documents. I also have the additional task this year of moving all those documents into a new template, and of course, the documents aren’t formatted to make that easy. I can’t just copy our three- and four-level outline steps from one document to the other, because somewhere in the last six years, somebody played around with the format I had made consistent across all documents six years ago, and they’re not even numbered correctly when I open them. Go figure.

But that’s not indicative of God’s sense of humor. His sense of humor lies in the fact that today, the gospel passage is all about, you guessed it, the Sabbath, our day of rest. I didn’t think I’d have much of a sabbath this weekend, but we already had tickets to go to the Sunflower Festival at Nelson Produce Farms yesterday and, in spite of feeling the pressure to stay home and get things done, I went. I told myself I needed it, because the Spirit was nudging, no shoving me, to take that needed break. Afterwards, we hung out with my sister, ordered some Casey’s pizza, and played a game. So now I don’t feel the conflict preaching this message today that I would have had I not taken that needed rest.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s look at something much more important than my hectic schedule, shall we? In our gospel passage this morning, Luke 13:10–17, we read about the story of Jesus teaching in a synagogue on his way to Jerusalem and healed a woman who’d been crippled for 18 years. It’s interesting to note here that in this passage, which is unique to Luke’s gospel, Luke never tells us that the woman made any attempt to ask for healing. One might fairly assume she was hoping for that as news of Jesus’s miracles was spreading around the region.

She never asked Jesus for healing, and Jesus never asked her if she wanted to be healed. He just called her to the front of the synagogue and proclaimed, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Verse 14 is the “hinge” verse in this passage, and it reveals quite a bit about the attitude of some who think the stricter rules of the Sabbath can’t be broken for broken people. You can always keep the Sabbath holy by doing good on the Sabbath.

Most of us know that the Sabbath started way back in Genesis 2, after God finished creating the heavens and the earth. Genesis 2:2–3 describes it poetically this way:

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.[1]

The important thing to note about this passage is that the words for “seventh” (שְׁבִיעִי šeḇî·ʿî, from שֶׁבַע (šě·ḇǎʿ) “seven”) and “rest” (שָׁבַת šā·ḇǎṯ) derive from a cognate Hebrew root word that is used to translate the word “Sabbath” (שַׁבָּת šǎb·bāṯ). In other words, God considered the idea of a Sabbath rest so holy that he built it into the fabric of creation. First of all, he created us last as the crowning gem of his creation. We were made in his image. But this doesn’t just mean a physical image. We’re not just robots.

The other thing about this verse is that it closes the creation narrative that began with Moses telling us that “the earth was formless and empty.” “Empty” doesn’t mean “nothing” of course. There was apparently a thick watery vapor, sort of a giant greenhouse effect, surrounding the dark planet. If you and I were in that kind of setting, we might feel anxious, discombobulated. In other words, it was chaos. No order to anything. But in God’s work of creation, we begin to see how he starts to bring order to the planet: marking out the limits for the waters below and the waters above; then bringing forth the land and the vegetation on the land. The first signs of visible life. Then, after populating space with the heavenly bodies that bring us light, he spends the next two days creating all the living creatures of the earth, finishing off with man. God has brought order out of chaos. Declaring a Sabbath is essential to maintaining that order.

God gave us the raw materials on earth (and in space) to manifest the creative ability that he himself demonstrated in creation. Granted, we can’t make something out of nothing like he can, nor can we create new laws of physics or thermodynamics or tectonic plate movements, or any other physical or chemical laws that govern the created order. But we do have the ability to understand these laws and use them to manipulate our environment for survival, like how to plant and grow crops, how to build structures that endure, and how to treat sickness and disease.

Of course, he also gave all living things the ability to reproduce and perpetuate life on earth. The psalmist can say we are fearfully and wonderfully made because of the incredibly detailed composition of our being, right down to the unique DNA profile each of us possesses. In fact, did you know that our DNA can survive long after we’ve died? That’s a fascinating fact about God’s creation that I believe theologians have glossed over when it comes how that affects our place in eternity. Is our DNA the “seed” Paul talks about that is translated into our heavenly bodies at the resurrection? Many people ask, “Will I be able to recognize loved ones in heaven?” If our DNA has a role in that, you have your answer.

One other thing about being made in God’s image. God understands our need for this Sabbath rest as well, because he did quite a bit of work not just to create the natural environment, but all the rules, laws, and principles as well that hold his creation together. He knows that we need rest as well, which is why he laid out some rules to help us get that rest. God laid out these rules primarily so we could get the rest we need, NOT for the sake of the Sabbath day itself. According to Exodus 20:8, the Sabbath day is already holy: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

This was probably the original commandment, one of the two “positive” commandments in the Decalogue. The rest of this command about working six days and resting on the seventh was likely too large to fit on the stone tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. Many scholars believe that Moses probably added that bit to the commandment as he wrote all this down as they traveled through the wilderness to the Promised Land. The word for “work” in Exodus 20 and elsewhere in the Old Testament usually refers to some kind of manual labor. The religious leadership over the years had likely added a lot of “oral” and “cultural” tradition to that command, thus leading to all the legalism around it we see among the Scribes and Pharisees in the New Testament and surviving Jewish writings from that time.

Another key passage from on the Sabbath comes from one of the other verses in the Lectionary today, Isaiah 58:13–14.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the Lord’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,

and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. [2]

This concept of the Sabbath is connected with the idea of fasting in Isaiah 58, which is where we get the tie-in to our gospel passage today. The Sabbath not only referred to the seventh day of the week, but also to any solemn day where the people would be commanded to fast and pray.

The connection to fasting important because it shows the kind of fasting God expected, and that sounds very much like our Gospel text this morning. Here’s Isaiah 58:6–9a:

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness v will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. [3]

The ministry we have as Christ-followers is not just for our own advantage. As Ephesians says, we can walk in good works because that’s why he has redeemed us. Not only do we invite friends and family to join us in worship on Sunday morning, but we also have ministries that reach outside our four walls, like the quilting ministry. The quilts are gifts typically for those who’ve been displaced somehow by life’s unfortunate circumstances. I’m sure they bring comfort and peace and perhaps even a measure of security to those in difficult times. Gifts for the food bank do the same. They help break the oppression that often accompanies poverty.

In the New Testament, Mark records Jesus’s words on the Sabbath in his Gospel, 2:27: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Interestingly enough, this comes right after a passage on Jesus being questioned about fasting. I think that’s probably intentional on Mark’s part. Jesus says there that he is Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus is referencing King David, when they entered into the “house of God” and ate consecrated bread. and ate grain from the field on the Sabbath in response to the disciples eating heads of grain from the edges of the fields they passed by. They were just trying to survive.

When we come back to our gospel passage this morning, we can see how Jesus’s action of healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath fit with the Old Testament description in Isaiah 58 of fasting and keeping the Sabbath holy. The Sabbath gives God’s people permission to take a break from work and focus on God.

It is amazing how even something as simple as a Sabbath day of rest can be problematic for those who are not Christ-followers, even to the point of persecuting the church. The French Republican calendar was an attempt during the French Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th century to replace the Gregorian calendar with three 10-day “weeks” in each of the 12 months. According to an article on the Encyclopedia Britannica Web site, they replaced all the “Saint So-and-So” days and Christian festival days with names of things primarily from the natural order.[4]

Even in our culture, companies like Chik-fil-A and Hobby Lobby get a bad rap from secularists for being closed on Sundays (admittedly, there are probably a lot of Christ-followers who do wish Chik-fil-A was open on Sundays). But these companies have a firm belief in the concept of the Sabbath for their employees. But even they will make exceptions at times. In 2016 when the shooting happened at the gay night club in Orlanda where 49 people were killed and 53 more injured, Chik-fil-A showed up on Sunday with a food truck to feed the investigators as they processed the crime scene.

God understands that we all need rest from the pressures and worries of life. Make a point to plan that rest into your schedule, especially if you feel like you’re running around like a chicken on its way to the frying pan. For most people who work, that day might be Saturday or Sunday. If you don’t work, pick any day that works for you as a “God and Me” day. Know the rest that God intends for you hear on earth until that day when you enter into his permanent “rest” in his heavenly kingdom. Peace to you. Amen.

Scott Stocking

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The 12 Months of the French Republican Calendar | Britannica, accessed 08/23/25.

April 6, 2025

Giving Our Best for the Savior (John 12:1–8)

Filed under: Chronology,Courage,Faith, Faithfulness,Giving,Isaiah,John Gospel of,Lent,Passion,Psalms,Repentance,Resurrection,Thanatology (Death) — Scott Stocking @ 7:44 pm
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I preached this message on April 6, 2025, which was also National Tartan Day. I wore the standard Gordon family kilt (great-great-grandfather through the maternal line) and the necktie is Gordon Red (purchased in Scotland). I’ve included a few pictures. Now I can say I’ve preached in a kilt! :-)

The Lord be with you.

Before I get to my main message, I want to go back a few months when I preached on Psalm 126, our Old Testament reading this morning, because it was also our reading on October 27. At that time I said that we should consider verse 4 a prayer for this congregation: “Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev.” That continues to be my prayer for this congregation today, and I hope it is yours as well. I heard recently that church attendance is starting to pick up again, so I pray we can take the opportunity to tap into that resurgence.

Our gospel passage this morning, John 12:1–8, is one of the few stories of Jesus’s ministry that all four gospel authors included, probably because Matthew and Mark both said that what she’d done would be told wherever the gospel was preached. Matthew and Mark both include the story after the time of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and two days before the Last Supper. Luke places it much earlier in his gospel, and he emphasizes that the woman’s sins were forgiven because of what she’d done. We can’t be sure why Luke has the story so much earlier. He may be “borrowing” it from the future in his gospel so he can tie it in with the story of the response to forgiveness based on the depth of one’s sins.

But in our passage this morning from John, he places the story just before Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This event may serve to bring to mind the anointings that the Israelites were commanded to do for their priests and kings. Listen to what David says in the very short Psalm 133:

1 How good and pleasant it is

when God’s people live together in unity!

2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron’s beard,

down on the collar of his robe.

3 It is as if the dew of Hermon

were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing,

even life forevermore.[1]

This refers to Leviticus 8, where not only was the oil poured on Aaron’s head for consecration, it was also used to consecrate everything in the newly assembled tabernacle. Matthew and Mark do not name the woman who brings in the alabaster jar. Nothing in those accounts suggests they know who the woman is. Luke says the woman lived a sinful life and suggests she shouldn’t even be there.

John is the only one who names the woman in his gospel. The woman is Mary, Lazarus’s sister. We do know a bit more about Mary and Martha than other people mentioned in passing in the Gospels. At the end of Luke 10, Martha is frustrated with Mary because she is sitting at Jesus’s feet listening to his teaching while Martha is busy preparing a meal. This probably isn’t the meal John mentions, and it’s nowhere near Luke’s account of the foot anointing. In the previous chapter of John, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead to prove he was the “resurrection and the life.” Lazarus’s death seems to have hit Mary the hardest in that story, as she is the one who seems most disturbed by Jesus’s delay in coming to see Lazarus. It makes sense, then, that Mary would be the one who wanted to anoint Jesus’s feet for resurrecting her beloved brother.

John is the only one who doesn’t indicate that the container for the nard was an alabaster jar, but the alabaster jar was considered the most appropriate container for nard or perfume at that time, so I think we’re safe to assume it was. Alabaster was made from gypsum, so it was somewhat delicate and finely textured. Breaking the seal probably meant that the neck of the jar had to be broken to pour the thick nard out and apply it. It wasn’t a very big jar either. We know it was about a pint, and it would have all had to have been used at that moment; otherwise it would spoil or lose its aroma. Matthew and Mark say the woman poured the nard on Jesus’s head, much like it would have been for the OT priests mentioned above, while Luke and John say the woman poured it on Jesus’s feet, perhaps an acknowledgment of Jesus’s servant attitude.

Although the details of this story vary among the gospel accounts, a couple themes of the story do stand out across the board. Many of those present at the dinner, especially Judas Iscariot in John’s account, view this as a wasteful act. This perfume was not cheap; Judas, along with other players in the parallel account, are concerned that such a valuable commodity could have been sold so the money would be given to the poor. John reminds us though that Judas’s concern was more selfish than compassionate. Judas had been helping himself to the till.

What this tells us, I think, for our walk with Christ today is that it’s okay to be a little extravagant when giving to the Lord’s work. Now obviously we don’t need to prepare Jesus for another crucifixion as the woman was doing in that day. But just as Jesus turned the water into the best wine served at the wedding at Cana for his first miracle, so we too can dedicate our excellence in whatever we do for or offer to the body of Christ and the work of the kingdom.

A second principle at work here is that, while the work of helping the poor is noble and a never-ending ministry of the church, there will be times when we have to take care of our own, and I’m not necessarily referring to when we die. It’s not selfish when we do that. It’s a necessary part of taking care of our family. While our loved ones are alive, we buy thoughtful gifts for them. When they pass, we pick out a nice coffin or urn. The ancient Jews used an ossuary, basically a stone box, to store the bones of a loved one once the flesh had decayed and often would put some sort of inscription on it. When the Jews brought Joseph’s bones out of Egypt, it was most likely in an Egyptian mummy case. That’s a little odd for us to think in those terms today, though, so we find other ways to memorialize our loved ones.

Unlike the pharisees and Judas Iscariot then, we should not look with judgment on those who do nice things for their loved ones at death. How we choose to remember a loved one is an important part of the grieving process. But I have to wonder here: Mary had already witnessed Jesus raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. Did she, or any of the other disciples for that matter, have any inkling that Jesus’s impending crucifixion might be followed up by his own resurrection? Judging from the disciples’ reaction in the gospels when Jesus spoke of his death, I’m pretty sure they hadn’t put two and two together yet.

Our gospel passage this morning has focused on what Mary did to prepare Jesus for his death. But what was Jesus doing to prepare his disciples for his death? We’ll address some of this after Easter in the Sundays leading up to Pentecost, but for now I think it’s important to see that, although he was speaking somewhat figuratively at times, he did not leave his disciples without reason for hope after his death.

The next event after our gospel passage this morning is Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem: Palm Sunday as we’ve come to know it. Chapter 13 is the Last Supper, where Jesus imparts his final teachings to his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion. John recorded five chapters worth of Jesus’s words, longer than the Sermon on the Mount. In those final hours he has with his disciples, he:

  • Models servanthood by washing their feet
  • Predicts Peter’s denial
  • Reassures them that he’ll come back to take them to the place he’s preparing for them
  • Promises the Holy Spirit will dwell in them and guide them in all truth
  • Encourages them to stay connected to the vine, to Jesus, so they can bear fruit
  • Reaffirms the coming, indwelling power of the Holy Spirit
  • Predicts that they will be scattered, but they will also eventually know peace
  • Prays for their unity so that the kingdom can move forward and their faith will be unshakable.

That must have been quite the emotional and gut-wrenching after-seder gathering. Most of what John records in those chapters was unique to his gospel. None of the other Gospel come close to the depth of this teaching. Luke and Matthew have passing references to receiving the Holy Spirit without too much detail to describe it. As a gospel writer, John seems to have had special dispensation to capture these final teachings. He, after all, was the only one who shows up at the cross on crucifixion day.

This is not to discount the other teachings of Jesus prior to his triumphal entry. His whole ministry was about preparing you and me for the new way God would work among his people. The Sermon on the Mount and the parables in Matthew; Luke’s sermon on the plain; and Mark’s emphasis on the urgency of Jesus’s ministry are all signs in their own way that Jesus was preparing ordinary people to extraordinary things for the kingdom of God.

Isaiah looked forward to this new time in 43:18–19:

18 “Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.[2]

The final two verses from our OT reading this morning hint at a future sorrow that will end with joy as well:

5 Those who sow with tears

will reap with songs of joy.

6 Those who go out weeping,

carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,

carrying sheaves with them.[3]

As we continue toward Easter, you and I know how the story ends. We do not need to fret like those first disciples. We know we have the victory. We know we have forgiveness. We know we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Let us go forth from here boldly and confidently in that knowledge and be shining lights for the Savior! Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

March 23, 2025

Bearing Fruit…and the Cross (Luke 13:1–9; Psalm 63)

Filed under: 1 Corinthians,Courage,Evangelism,Faith, Faithfulness,forgiveness,Isaiah,Lent,Luke Gospel of,Prayer,Psalms,Repentance,Soteriology,Spiritual Warfare — Scott Stocking @ 11:41 pm
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I preached this message on Sunday, March 23, 2025, at Mount View Presbyterian Church. I dealt with all four passages for the Lectionary for this Sunday.

Bearing Fruit…and the Cross

Lent is typically thought of in the Christian world as a time of sacrifice. Some people give up meat only to crowd into the numerous fish fries around town. Others might give up chocolate or coffee or caffeinated beverages or shopping or any number of other things that we might consider “vices” personally, but most of those things are not innately spiritual and may in fact make us a bit more difficult at times to live with if we haven’t had our morning cup of Joe. I’m teasing you a bit, of course. But if Lent is supposed to bring us some spiritual benefit, then shouldn’t we be giving up things that can damage our relationship with God? Why not give up greed, pride, selfishness, and other such things?

That seems to be the underlying theme behind our passages today. They might be summed up by John’s exhortation when he was preaching in the wilderness in Luke 3:8: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, bear fruit while you’re bearing the cross. In our passage from Luke 13 this morning, Jesus seems to be addressing the thought that some had that bad things only happened to bad people. But the circumstances of our demise do not determine our eternal destiny. In spite of the untimely and unfortunate deaths of the Galileans and those in the tower of Siloam, Jesus says the important thing is to repent and be ready.

Jesus switches to talking about the fig tree that won’t bear fruit in the next few verses. The owner of the fig tree wants to cut it down because it’s unproductive. But the vineyard manager said “Give me another year and I’ll have it bearing fruit.” But the connection here with the previous verses and John’s statement about producing fruit in keeping with repentance is unmistakable. If we’re not bearing fruit, that could affect our salvation and our relationship with our Savior. Jesus said in Matthew 7:20: “By their fruit you will recognize them.”

Paul talks about the quality of our works in 1 Corinthians 3:12–15, but he doesn’t use the language of “fruit.”

12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.[1]

God, being full of grace and mercy, leaves us a way out when we fall short. That’s what he accomplished through Jesus in his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. But instead of focusing on these warnings for the rest of my message this morning, I want to turn the focus around to the theme I mentioned earlier: How do we bear fruit while bearing the cross? That would have been my sermon title in the bulletin if I had remembered to click send on my e-mail to Judy!

I want us then to look at the other three passages from the lectionary today in addition to our gospel passage I touched on at the beginning. In Psalm 63, we’ll look at seeking God in worship. In Isaiah 55, we’ll look at seeking God for our wellbeing. And finally in 1 Corinthians 10, we’ll look at standing firm in our faith to recognize the way out of temptations that can drag us down.

Let’s look at Psalm 63. For a long time our country has been turning away from church attendance and, by implication, from God altogether. A trusted, unbiased Web site called Statista has this summary of church attendance: “According to a 2022 survey, 31 percent of Americans never attend church or synagogue, compared to 20 percent of Americans who attend every week. Despite only about a fifth of Americans attending church or synagogue on a weekly basis, almost 40 percent consider themselves to be very religious.” A 2024 survey by Gallup puts the number of weekly attenders at 20%, with another 9% at “almost every week.” On the flip side, 31% NEVER attend church or other religious service. We could talk about the reasons for this 24/7 for a week, but we’d probably never get anywhere. Psalm 63 tells us why this shouldn’t be, though.

We should be able to come to church to find God. Granted David, who wrote this psalm, had a special relationship with God that enabled and empowered him to be a great leader of his people, but this doesn’t mean that you and I don’t have access to this same relationship in the New Covenant era. David claims to have seen God’s power “in the sanctuary.” It’s not clear exactly what he “saw,” whether it was some physical manifestation of light, a divine presence, or if he’s using the word “see” to describe what he experienced in worship. Regardless, it was clear at least in David’s day, one of the best places to be to encounter God was the sanctuary in the Temple.

In the New Covenant era, God has given his Holy Spirit to each of us who believe. You don’t have to be a king or a prophet any more to have exclusive access to the Holy Spirit. When we come together to worship, to sing praises and hymns, to read God’s word and hear it explained in such a way that it’s relevant to our live and our situations, the Holy Spirit works among us to build and shepherd that unity we have in body of Christ. When we pray together as a congregation, we let God know that we still trust in him to work in our lives and provide for our needs while at the same time letting those whom we’re praying for know that we will support them however we can. When we come together as a worshipping community for projects and collection for the poor, we show and shower God’s love upon those who are truly in need.

But our worship doesn’t just happen in the church building. Verse implies that wherever David is at, he is earnestly seeking God. Later in vs. 6, he say he remembers God in his bed and while he’s keeping watch on the battlefield at night. He sings to God and he clings to God, knowing that God’s presence is always with him through the Holy Spirit. We have that same assurance. Jesus even promised that at his ascension: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Seek God and you will find him, and as you draw closer to him, others will come to see him at work in your lives as well.

As we seek God, we can also know he will provide for our basic needs and do so generously. That is the message of Isaiah 55. Verses 1 & 2 go like this:

“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare. [2]

God wants to richly bless us. God’s goodness is genuine and original. God isn’t giving us yesterday’s leftovers. Jeremiah says “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:22b–23). Sometimes we spend a lot of effort and money pursuing things that don’t bring lasting or eternal satisfaction. God wants us to focus on him and what he provides for us. Later on in Isaiah 55, the prophet says this:

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.[3]

You heard in that passage the idea I suggested earlier about giving up the things that tempt us to turn from God. But Isaiah also says we need to get rid of the “stinkin’ thinkin’” as well. This is complete repentance: not just changing our behavior but changing our minds and our ways of thinking as well. That’s were the worship comes in from Psalm 63: setting our hearts on Christ.

One of my favorite passages occurs a few verses later in Isaiah 55:

My word that goes out from my mouth…

will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

12 You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;[4]

I believe this is one of the greatest passages on evangelism. I love that it says God’s word accomplishes the purpose for which he sent it. When I was preaching early in my career, I was never in a church that followed the lectionary or the liturgical calendar. I could preach on what I wanted or I could pick out a theme or a particular book and prepare a sermon series.

But following the lectionary puts these two verses from Isaiah in a new light for me. Now I don’t know who decided on the three cycle of passages to read, but the lectionary is a “reading plan” adopted by many churches and denominations around the world, so it carries a lot of weight and, aside from the denominational differences and nuances that work their way into sermons on these passages, many churches are on the same page when it comes to what their congregations are presented with each Sunday. Because so many churches have agreed to use it, I believe it’s something that God honors. I think there’s something divine about the spiritual foresight those responsible for developing it, so I honor that.

Occasionally I’ll look at the passage for the day and wonder, “How am I going to preach on that?!” But I trust that there’s some component of God’s timing there, that is, some spiritual benefits he has in mind for sending out his word in this way, and I want to be faithful to communicate that in a way that’s relevant to you and my larger audience on the blog. I genuinely believe the lectionary is one way that God’s word gets from his mouth to our ears and that preachers who follow the lectionary are in many and diverse ways fulling the purposes for which God sends it out in that structure.

Finally, I want to look briefly at 1 Corinthians 10. Paul concludes in the first half of chapter 10 that that the written history of God’s people is intended for our encouragement and exhortation to faithfulness. Here’s what vv. 11–13 say:

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.[5]

Paul warns us that we shouldn’t rest on our laurels. Faithfulness is an active, ongoing process in the life of the Christian. There is nothing passive about it. Continue seeking God in worship; continue reading his words to hide them in your heart. Continue loving your neighbor as yourself so they too can see the love of God. Continue putting on the armor of God each and every day so you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

May the power of the Holy Spirit go with you this week as you serve our Lord and Savior. Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

January 26, 2025

Jesus and the “Good News” of Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:14–21)

Filed under: Acts,Baptism of Jesus,Biblical Studies,Christology,Christology,Ecclesiology,Ephesians,Eschatology,Evangelism,Isaiah,Luke Gospel of,Prayer,Soteriology,Thanksgiving,Theology, Biblical,Theophany — Scott Stocking @ 10:22 pm
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Message preached at Mount View Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, January 26, 2025.

What do you remember about your first day on the job you wound up loving the most? Was it the people you met or the other new hires you were onboarded with? The excitement of doing something new and different? The thought of accomplishing the tasks that lay ahead of you, either on your own or with a team of people? I’m sure many of you have some fond memories of your first day on the job you loved and beyond.

How would you like to have Jesus’s first day on the job of being Messiah. “Um, son, before you get to the preaching and teaching, which I know you love to do, you’re going to have to spend a few days in the wilderness. Forty days to be exact. Oh, and you can’t eat while you’re out there, so you’ll be hungry. But some guy called the devil will ask you to use your powers to make bread and feed yourself, but you can’t eat it. You’ll know why, and you’ll tell the devil why you know why. He’ll offer to make you king of the world, but you’ll turn that down too, and don’t forget about being hungry. He’ll tempt you to use your superhuman powers, but you’ll turn those down too, aaaand you’ll still be hungry. But don’t worry; I’ve got your back.”

Of course, we know Jesus survived his temptation in the wilderness. But amazingly, after going through all of the temptations and not eating for 40 days and being completely famished on the last day, the one thing Jesus did NOT lose was the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. The temptation passage begins in Luke 4:1 with “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.”

It shouldn’t surprise us then that when Jesus’s time in the desert had ended, our Gospel text this morning says: “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.” This was Jesus’s first recorded sermon (he had already presented many other times according to his “custom” v.16), so he wasn’t new to this. But this was, apparently, his first message in his hometown of Nazareth, so this was a big deal. After spending 40 days fasting in the wilderness, I think most of us would need the power of God’s Spirit to get us anywhere, even just a few steps! Like Mark’s gospel, this suggests an urgency to Jesus’s message and preaching as well as his eagerness to do so. After all, this is what he had come to say and do.

The passage Jesus quotes is from Isaiah 61, part of the “final countdown” in Isaiah 60–66 as Isaiah begins to preach about the glory of Zion and work his way to a discussion of the new heavens and new earth, most likely part of the source material for the Revelation to John. So in one sense, by reading this passage, which was probably just the next one up in the reading schedule, Jesus was signaling it was the beginning of the end of the old way of God dealing with his creation.

Jesus, then, is not just speaking about his own ministry that he’s embarked on, but about the final consummation of history at his second coming as well. So even though the hope of his first coming has now been realized, he almost immediately sets the table to establish that there will be a second coming as well. The Jews had been thinking the Messiah would overthrow Roman rule, but in reality, Jesus is bringing a message of salvation for all to hear because he wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

Let’s break down this statement. First of all, he says “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.” Jesus can say this because in the previous chapter, 3:21–22, Luke tells us of Jesus’s baptism and heavenly acknowledgment that he was in fact God’s son. That’s pretty direct and easy to understand.

Related to that then is the “anointing” that is mentioned, which is nothing more than the infilling of the Spirit, or in Jesus’s case, the visual representation of that infilling that happened at his baptism. But there is a deeper level of meaning here in that this could also be a reference to the anointing that a priest or a king would receive upon taking one of those offices. Those anointings typically involved olive oil to represent the Spirit, but in this case, since they would have seen “the Holy Spirit descend[ing] on him in bodily form like a dove,”[1] there would be no need for the symbolism of the oil. It’s possible the author of Hebrews is referring to this chapter when he writes the following about Jesus in 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”[2]

“Proclaiming the good news” is an action (i.e., a verb) that we see throughout the Scriptures, but often, we’re left with just that phrase, and we don’t get an idea of the “content” of the good news. It’s like saying, “Read the New York Post,” but then never seeing any articles to read. I did a little digging through Scripture and found several places where we get an idea about what the biblical authors thought about the content of “the good news.”

In Luke’s gospel and his sequel, Acts, he mentions “the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43, 8:1, 16:16; Acts 8:12). Scattered through the rest of the New Testament, we see other qualifiers for the good news. Acts 5:42 speaks of “proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah,” the redeemer promised in the Old Testament. In Galatians 1:23, Paul is described as the one “now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” In Ephesians 2:17, he “preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.” Acts 10:36 mentions the “good news of peace” as well. In Luke 2:10, the “good news” the heavenly host refers to is the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem.

When the noun is used, it’s almost always translated as “gospel” in the New Testament, regardless of author. The noun also carries some of the ideas of the verb: “gospel of the kingdom,” “gospel of peace,” and so on. Occasionally, though, it’s categorized more personally. Paul refers to “my gospel” sometimes, not that he had a different one from Jesus but that he had a distinctive message and ministry. Several times it’s called “the gospel of Christ,” indicating the ultimate source of the gospel. In the Thessalonian epistles, Paul also adds references to “the Gospel of God” and “the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.” In other places we read about “the truth of the gospel.” Ephesians 1:13 takes that a bit farther by calling it “the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”

In a nutshell, then, the gospel or the good news is that we can have a new kind of relationship with God. It’s not like the sacrificial system where everyone had to bring a sacrifice for themselves; the good news is that Christ was sacrificed once for all and invited us into his kingdom of peace that he now reigns over. We are citizens in a heavenly kingdom, the heavenly realm, even while we are struggling through life on earth. That is the glory, joy, and promise of the gospel!

For Jesus, at least in this passage, his target audience seems to be the “poor.” The “poor” appear several times as the target audience for his preaching. In today’s passage, the poor seem to be broken out into three groups: the imprisoned, the blind, and the oppressed. Generally speaking, the poor may not necessarily be those who have few possessions. In the Beatitudes, we have the familiar opening statement, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (note the kingdom talk there). That may be supported by the OT version of the passage (Isaiah 61:1), where Isaiah puts these words in the servant’s mouth: “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” The gospel writers also remind us that the poor will always be with us, but that’s not an excuse never to help them. Both passages have the line about proclaiming “freedom for the captives,” but Isaiah says, “release from darkness for the prisoners” while Luke understands that as “recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” The first part of that last phrase is a pretty strong parallel to Isaiah’s “release form darkness,” but it would seem Jesus is using “oppressed” to embrace all three groups, or at least that he considers the oppressed to live in a similar type of darkness.

If we continue to take our cues from comparing this passage with Isaiah’s, we see that “The year of the Lord’s favor” most likely refers to “the day of the vengeance of our God.” In other words, Jesus is hinting at the end of the story in his first public appearance.

If you were to go on through some of the following verses in Isaiah 61, you might be surprised to find additional parallels to the Beatitudes. At the end of 61:2, we see the purpose statement: “to comfort all who mourn.” Sounds like one of those beatitudes, right? And what about “Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will filled” compared to 61:3: “They will be called oaks of righteousness.” Even the final verse of the Beatitudes has its parallel. Compare “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven”[3] to Isaiah 61:7:

Instead of your shame

you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace

you will rejoice in your inheritance.

And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,

and everlasting joy will be yours. [4]

If all this wasn’t enough for people to be perhaps a little shocked at the claim he was making about himself, Jesus puts the exclamation point on it as he’s closing the scroll: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” If they would have had the “head exploding” emoji back then, he probably would have gotten a ton of those on his live stream when he said that.

Jesus’s opening sermon as recorded in Luke was not a bunch of braggadocio or promises made but never kept. Jesus lived out all that in his ministry by healing the blind and the lame; stopping the bleeding of a woman who’d had that condition for over 12 years; and exorcising the satanic demons of those so oppressed. Jesus was indeed the son of God, worthy of our praise, honor, and attention. He would show and has shown us a path of “least resistance” to draw closer to God. As we draw closer to him, we build up that strength of character that enables us to persevere even in the most difficult times. May the gospel of Christ bring you peace and assurance this week. Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

August 25, 2024

Courage for the Battle (John 6:56–69; Ephesians 6:10–20)

Filed under: "I Am" Statements,Biblical Studies,Courage,Ecclesiology,Ephesians,Evangelism,Greek,Isaiah,Jeremiah,John Gospel of,Life of Christ,Miracles,Prayer,Psalms,Spiritual Warfare,Theology, Biblical — Scott Stocking @ 6:31 pm
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Historical Note: Preached at Mount View Presbyterian Church on August 25, 2024, Omaha, NE.

Related Articles:

I Am the Bread of Life

Take Heart! (θαρσέω tharseō, Matthew 9:2, 22)

Helmet of Salvation (Isaiah 59:17; Ephesians 6:17)

Spiritual Warfare in Ephesians

When I was here last month, I spoke about the feeding of the 5,000, one of the seven miracles that John records Jesus performed during his ministry to go along with the seven foundational “I am” statements that Jesus makes about himself. It is interesting that another one of those seven miracles, Jesus walking on water, which apparently has nothing to do with bread, interrupts John’s account of the miraculous provision of bread at the beginning of John 6 and Jesus’s testimony “I am the bread of life” and what that means for his followers.

There are some “clues,” let’s call them, in John 6 that I want to highlight, because they will be important when we look at the other New Testament reading from the lectionary this morning, Ephesians 6, in a few minutes. The highlight of Jesus’s walking on water, which appears in three of the four gospels, is not Peter getting out of the boat and walking on water himself to Jesus, which only Matthew records, but Jesus’s own comforting words to his frightened disciples as they see him walking across the stormy sea: “Take Heart!” “Take Courage!” “I am. Don’t be afraid!”

This is the second time in John’s gospel where Jesus declares “I am.” The first was with the woman at the well in John 4, his first formal declaration (at least in John’s gospel) of who he is. In that context, that simple declaration, that he was the Messiah, brought incredible freedom to a woman who was haunted by and ashamed of her own past, which in turn gave her the courage to run back to her village and declare that she had indeed discovered the Messiah.

There is no doubt that Peter experienced that same kind of freedom when Christ reached out to him and saved him from his lack of faith as he began to sink into the stormy sea, perhaps a type of what Paul would later say about baptism in Romans 6, that the old man is buried and the new is raised up in the life of Jesus.

This leads into the context of the Gospel passage today. Jesus begins to discuss what it is the disciples are really looking for: food that endures to eternal life. In other words, just as Jesus walking on the water was a supernatural miracle; just as Jesus’s knowledge of the history of the woman at the well was supernatural, so too will our relationship with him have a supernatural quality. In 6:35, Jesus makes the first of his seven foundational “I am” statements that describe who he is: “I am the bread of life,” and he begins to “flesh” that out, some might say literally, as he continues to teach his disciples the significance of that statement.

He connects that statement with the miraculous provision of manna in the desert while the Jews were wandering in the wilderness (v. 41): “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” He is the one who will sustain us if we “feast” on him. He drills down even deeper (v. 51): “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” The manna sustained them for day. Jesus, as the bread of life, sustains us eternally, something he demonstrated in the feeding of the 5,000. Now I think we all understand that when Jesus starts to sound a bit like a cannibal here, we understand he’s speaking figuratively of himself. He is eternal; therefore he’ll never dry up; he won’t melt away with the morning dew when the heat of the day beats down on the wilderness. He’ll keep providing continuously.

It’s pretty obvious at this point that Jesus is setting the stage for the Last Supper, which is only a few chapters later in John’s gospel. At that supper, Jesus will take the bread and say, “This is my body.” He’ll take the cup and say, “This is my blood.” That’s the zero hour. The next day, day one if you will, Jesus will have his body beaten and shredded with a cat-of-nine-tails before being hung on a cross and crucified for our sins. On the third day, he rises again and fulfills what he said in John 6: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” He can say this because of the resurrection.

Now a few weeks ago when I took a quick look at the passages for today in the lectionary, I saw this passage and the Ephesians 6 passage. I knew immediately I wanted to preach on Ephesians 6, because that’s my favorite book in the Bible. At first glance, it was difficult to see an immediate connection between these two passages. But as I started to write out my thoughts and analysis of the gospel passage, I began to see more clearly what the connection was, and it comes from Jesus’s words as he walked on the stormy sea: “Take Heart!” It’s easy to say that, but Ephesians 6:10–20 puts meat on the bones of those encouraging words. Listen to the words of Paul:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. [In other words, “Take Heart!”] 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. [1]

The world around us is pretty crazy right now. Almost like being in a ship that’s getting tossed around by the waves. But the living bread who came down from heaven has granted us power and authority “in the heavenly realms” to “stand” (Paul says this four times) and stand firm in the power of God that dwells in us by virtue of the Holy Spirit. Peter warns us that “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith.”[2] As we break this down, we’ll see that the armor of God is the armor that God is said to “wear” (as if he needs to wear any) in the Old Testament. It’s not a copy; it’s the armor that belongs to God.

So here we go. The first piece mentioned is the belt of truth. Isaiah says of God in 11:5, “5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.”[3] The primary use of the belt in the Old Testament was for holding up your tunic or robe so you could run into battle or run to get help. Having the belt of truth around our waist helps us move more efficiently in the battle. Since they didn’t have “pants” in the OT, we could make the analogy in today’s world that without the belt of truth, some of us might get caught with our pants down!

Jeremiah speaks of a linen belt that God told him to buy in chapter 13 of his prophecy. At first he wears it around his waist as a belt should be worn, and God commands that it should never touch water. But a few days later, God tells him to take the belt and hide it in the crevice in the rocks near the Euphrates river. Several days later, God told him to go dig it up, but by that time, the linen belt was ruined and good for nothing. We’ve been given God’s truth in his word, the Bible, and if we neglect it, if we fail to “gird up our loins” with it, if we fail to proclaim it when we know we should, it has no value to us. Just as God’s truth holds this world and this universe together, so his word in our lives through the Holy Spirit holds us together and helps us to stand firm.

Let’s look at the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation together, because Isaiah speaks of both in the same verse in chapter 59 of his prophecy, a chapter about sin, confession, and redemption, but also about the justice of God, which was so rarely practiced in his day. Hear his words beginning in the last half of vs. 15:

The Lord looked and was displeased

that there was no justice.

16 He saw that there was no one,

he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;

so his own arm achieved salvation for him,

and his own righteousness sustained him.

17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate,

and the helmet of salvation on his head;

he put on the garments of vengeance

and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. [4]

This passage is the transition that Isaiah makes from talking about our life on earth to revealing to his readers what the future will look like from chapter 60 on. The language in those last seven chapters of Isaiah at times reminds us of the Book of Revelation, almost as if John had copied sections verbatim into that final book in the Bible. It’s important to note in this context, God is ready to go on the offense.

The breastplate and the helmet are arguably the two most important pieces of the soldier’s protective gear, because they protect the heart and the head, respectively. The heart is the vault of God’s truth in our spirits; the head is where we experience and recognize God’s presence in our lives and distinguish evil from good. We use our minds to speak God’s healing and encouraging words and to cry out for justice. We use our hearts to love and show compassion for the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden.

You will also notice that Paul mentions “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” in conjunction with the helmet at the end of the description of the heavenly armor. The helmet no doubt has its defensive function, but it, along with the rest of God’s armor, give us the confidence to advance against the gates of hell that Jesus promised would not be able to withstand God’s army of faithful followers (Matthew 16:18). The sword looks back to Isaiah 49:2, where the prophet says, “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me.” Hide his word in your heart so that when times of trouble come, you can recall it with ease.

Finally, we look at the shoes and the shield. The one who had to gird up his loins and run to spread the news of victory needed a good pair of shoes to make the difficult run to spread good news or to call for more help. Isaiah 52:7 puts it best: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.”

The shield of faith is the final piece of armor to look at. A Roman shield typically had a leather cover, and the soldier would soak it in water for the express purpose having some defense against real flaming arrows the enemy would use to attack. But the shield also had an offensive purpose as well in that if the Roman soldiers stood side-by-side with their shields touching, it made a nearly impenetrable moving wall that could push the enemy back or circle and surround them. Psalm 91, the one about God being our refuge and fortress, says that God’s “faithfulness will be your shield and rampart” (vs. 4).

In the final part of the Ephesians text, Paul uses a “pray” word five times. It’s as if Paul is saying that everything he’s just been encouraging his readers to do in the last three chapters must be undergird with prayer. A few weeks ago, the pastor at my home church had a pretty convicting message about prayer, and it really got to me, especially with all the family stuff we’ve had going on lately. I needed to be more intentional with my prayer life. Needless to say, it’s been amazing. I can’t go into detail, but I started with some small stuff, at least it seemed small to me, but I started to see answers, mostly positive answers, happening more frequently. Prayer connects us to the “heavenly realms” where the spiritual battle is being fought. When we fight on our knees, or for those of us with bad knees, in whatever position, by asking God to meet our needs and heal our loved ones and give hope to the lost, God moves mightily.

So let me close with a prayer for Mount View this morning, because that’s what ties all this together. Lord, open our hearts to welcome those who are seeking hope and healing in this world and the next; open our hands to be a giving and generous congregation that demonstrates the love of God in our service to others; and open the eyes of those around us to see how mightily you are moving in this congregation and in the lives of the faithful who call this home. In Jesus’s name, amen!

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Scott Stocking. My views are my own.

March 24, 2024

Rigged Trial; Real Redemption (Luke 22:54–62)

Filed under: Biblical Studies,Christology,Easter,Isaiah,John Gospel of,Lent,Life of Christ,Luke Gospel of,Mark Gospel of,Matthew Gospel of,Passion,Psalms,Resurrection,Spiritual Warfare,Trial of Jesus — Scott Stocking @ 7:16 pm
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I preached this sermon Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024, at Mount View Presbyterian Church.

Click here to save 10% on various Logos Bible Software packages and get five free digital books.

“Lawfare” may be the political “term du jour” but it is hardly a new concept. The first known use of the word has been traced back to 1975, and at the time it referred to actions of an aggressor designed to try to declare military actions against them illegal by using human shields or other uses or misuses of the law to achieve military objectives. It has also been used to describe the attempts of some to question US military actions taken against terrorists, especially after 9/11. In the current climate, it refers to frivolous or unfounded legal action against those who’ve either committed no crime or whose actions did not deserve the level of retribution “the law” has thrown at them.

This doesn’t just affect political candidates or others who go against an “approved” narrative either. Some of you may have heard last week about a woman who was arrested in New York because she changed the locks on the doors of a house she owned to try to get rid of a squatter, someone who had illegally invaded her home and attempted to take possession of it by fraudulent means. The process to eject such people from a home you legally own can take up to two years in some places, and the owner is responsible for spending the money to prosecute the squatter and prove they legitimately own the home, all the while being denied access to their home. “The process is the punishment,” even if you’ve done nothing to deserve it.

As we come to our passage this morning from Luke, Jesus is being arrested after being betrayed by Judas and a violent confrontation in which Peter (at least according to John’s gospel) cuts off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Malchus. Jesus, even while under arrest, reaches out to heal the servant. Peter follows the crowd at a distance to the high priest’s home late that night. Our passage focuses on Peter’s actions outside the residence, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Luke doesn’t give us as much insight into what happened inside the high priest’s home, but other Gospel writers do. It’s there that we see some of the “lawfare” waged against Jesus.

Matthew puts Jesus before the Sanhedrin that evening, while Luke records the concluding element of the all-night trial happening the morning after. The High Priest and the rest of the council sort of back into prophesying that Jesus is the Son of God, especially with Jesus turning the tables on them in Matthew 26:64: “You have said so.” Basically, Jesus is saying that just by them entertaining the possibility that he is the Son of God, they themselves have committed the blasphemy they are accusing Jesus of. In John 11:51, we’re told that the High Priest had unwittingly prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, so he’s again unwittingly confirming Jesus’s true nature and purpose.

Another element of their lawfare was the apparent illegality of the trial. The very judges that condemned Jesus were the same one who bribed Judas to betray him. Technically, they should have been disqualified from judging him. Jewish custom of the day, as recorded in their other writings at the time, forbade capital punishment trials from taking place after sunset. Furthermore, their customs forbade such trials from beginning on the day before the Sabbath, because their custom did have an element of compassion to it in that you couldn’t decide a capital punishment case in one day, and a unanimous verdict was considered possible evidence of conspiracy. Jesus was never given any chance to have an advocate for his defense, either, which was another violation.[1]

All of this was done to fulfill the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 53, especially vss. 7–8, which said:

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.[2]

One last thing about the trial of Jesus that night. Jesus quotes the Messianic Psalm 110 about being seated at the right hand of God. Psalm 110 is the most-quoted psalm in the New Testament, especially the first four verses:

1 The Lord says to my lord:

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet.”

2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,

“Rule in the midst of your enemies!”

3 Your troops will be willing

on your day of battle.

Arrayed in holy splendor,

your young men will come to you

like dew from the morning’s womb. j

4 The Lord has sworn

and will not change his mind:

“You are a priest forever,

in the order of Melchizedek.”[3]

Psalm 110 was also a popular psalm to discuss among the early church fathers in their writings in the first four centuries of the Christian era as proof of Jesus’s messiahship and, especially as used in later parts of the New Testament, proof of his resurrection. Most Jews were not keen on having the Messiah sit at the right hand of God in heaven. They simply saw that as a reference to the authority of the human descendant of David who would sit on the throne. However, at least one prominent rabbi and his followers did use this passage and another one in Daniel to argue that the Messiah indeed was divine in nature. (For an in-depth study of this passage in relation to its use by early Christian writers, see Ronald Heine’s excellent book Reading the Old Testament With the Ancient Church (Baker, 2007) available from Logos Bible Software if you have an account with them or in ebook format through Christian Book Distributors.)

Now we know that at Jesus’s arrest, the disciples scattered, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy in 13:7: “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” Mark’s account of the arrest has a detail none of the other gospel writers have, that of a young man fleeing naked from the scene of the arrest. Some scholars have suggested that this was Mark himself, the author of that gospel. Even though the gospels say all the disciples scattered, we do know that Peter was able to follow the crowd that had arrested Jesus at a distance, which is where we pick up our main gospel passage this morning.

Now Peter knew from the Last Supper that Jesus had predicted he would deny knowing him three times before the rooster crowed but leave it to bull-headed Peter not to take heed to that, or at least, not to worry about any possible fallout from that. Or maybe it just went right over his head, thinking “Of course I won’t deny him!” The very fact that Jesus predicted that means Jesus knew his trial would be conducted illegally at night. If Jesus had predicted something like that about me, I might have been inclined to go shut myself in a cave somewhere and not speak to or be seen by anyone. But then, wouldn’t that in itself have been a form of denial? Even though Peter was arguably the most well known and the most vocal of the apostles, and thus the most recognizable, he still tried to conceal himself in a crowd outside the high priest’s home.

Sure enough, several in the crowd recognized Peter, first for his appearance and second for his Galilean accent when he protested and denied knowing Jesus. Each time someone called him out as one of Jesus’s followers, the rooster cleared its throat for that fateful crow. Had Peter somehow hoped Jesus’s prediction would be wrong? Or did Peter not realize that roosters always crow around sunrise? I don’t think the crow of the rooster was really a surprise to Peter, though. I believe he knew in his heart his denials, his lack of strength of character to acknowledge that he was a Christ-follower, were piercing his soul and conscience. Two weeks ago, when I spoke on the passage about being ashamed of Christ, I covered this, so I won’t go into again here.

However, I want to look forward a bit to see how Peter came out on the other side of this. Peter apparently had no idea what was going on with the trial of Jesus inside the high priest’s home. If he had been inside the house and had seen how the Sanhedrin was treating him, I wonder if Peter would have spoken up at that point, especially since there was no love lost between the Sanhedrin and the apostles at that point. If two people could have spoken in his defense, the whole thing might have turned out differently. But we know it wasn’t meant to end that way, because as Jesus had been telling his people and as the high priest had predicted, Jesus would have to die for our redemption.

Therein lies the irony of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. A rigged trial ultimately led to our real redemption. Not only was the trial rigged on the Jewish side, but once the Sanhedrin had wrongly convicted Jesus of blasphemy, they knew they couldn’t be the ones to put him to death. Only Rome had the authority to do that. So when they turned him over to Pilate and Herod, did they do so under the charge of blasphemy? Of course not! The Romans didn’t care about their religious disputes. Instead, the Sanhedrin changed the charges to usurpation, that Jesus was claiming to be the king of the Jews. That, they knew, would earn him the death sentence “In the Name of Roman Injustice” (INRI, get it?). The Sanhedrin had to stir up the crowd before Pilate to the point of making him fear a riot in order for Pilate to pronounce the flogging and the death penalty on Jesus, even though the gospels reveal some hesitation on his part to do so.

Jesus was crucified shortly thereafter. The typical method of crucifixion involved breaking the legs of the crucified so they could not push themselves up to breathe, but by the time the guards had gotten around to Jesus, he had already suffocated, according to John’s account (19:31–37). The fact that they only pierced his side but didn’t break his legs[4] was a fulfillment of two prophecies (Psalm 34:20; Zechariah 12:10). The water and blood that flowed from his side was a medical indication that Jesus was in fact dead.

Hebrews 9 gives the ultimate treatise on why blood needed to be shed in order for purification to take place and a covenant to be established. In vs. 19, we’re told that a diluted mixture of the calves’ blood and water was sprinkled on all the people to sanctify them for the new covenant under the Ten Commandments. Verse 22 says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Jesus was the perfect, unblemished lamb of God because he never sinned. Although his body had been thrashed by a cat of nine tails whip, he had no bones broken, so he met the qualifications for the Passover lamb, which happened when God delivered the Jews from slavery in Egypt.

Here’s another connection you may not have considered. In Leviticus, Moses says that certain types of sacrifices, both meat and grain, could be eaten by the priests. When Jesus instituted communion at the last supper, he identified the bread and the wine as his body and blood. When we take communion, that is our way of connecting with the body and blood of Christ, not in the Catholic sense of the elements becoming the body and blood of Christ, but in the sense that we, like the priests, are partaking in the sacrifice first-hand. That’s why we consider communion a “sacrament,” because if we understand its true meaning and the reality behind it, we know that such an act has redemptive power for us. As one Scottish Presbyterian minister in the 18th century said when a woman who was not a member of his congregation asked if she could take communion, the minister replied, “Tak’ it; it’s for sinners.” There’s a spiritual benefit for each of us when we take communion, especially with a proper understanding of its meaning.

Getting back to Peter: he experienced real redemption in several ways after Christ rose from the dead. Jesus appeared to the disciples the very night of the day he was resurrected, and they all received the same blessing and commission from Jesus. John records his encounter with Jesus at the Sea of Galilee after Peter had apparently returned to the life of a fisherman. He asked Peter three times, once for each denial, if he loved him, and Peter emphatically said he did. Peter would go on a few weeks later to deliver the Pentecost sermon that started it all, the birthday of the church. History (or is it tradition?) has it that Peter was eventually crucified upside down on a cross because he didn’t feel worthy of the same kind of crucifixion Jesus suffered.

As Lent comes to a close this week and we embark upon the Easter season and look forward to our birthday celebration of Pentecost, let us not forget the sacrifice of our savior on the cross, and the provisions he made for us upon his resurrection and in the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost. We have a great Savior who has done great things for us, so let us not be ashamed to proclaim his name and his salvation to the world. Amen.

My thoughts are my own.

Scott Stocking

[1] See, for example, 10 Reasons Why the Trial of Jesus Was Illegal – Bible Study (crosswalk.com), BibleResearch.org – Twelve Reasons Why Jesus’ Trial Was Illegal, and The Illegal Trial of Christ | Christ.org, accessed 03/22/24.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The leg bone of the Passover lamb in Exodus was not to be broken either (Ex 12:46).

Postscript: I want to include the study note from Mark 14:53–15:15 from the 2011 version of Zondervan’s NIV Study Bible, because it contains a harmonization of the various Gospel accounts of Jesus’s trials.

Jesus’ trial took place in two stages: a Jewish trial and a Roman trial. By harmonizing the four Gospels, it becomes clear that each trial had three episodes. For the Jewish trial, these were: (1) the preliminary hearing before Annas, the former high priest (reported only in Jn 18:12–14, 19–23); (2) the trial before Caiaphas, the ruling high priest, and the Sanhedrin ([Mk] 14:53–65; see Mt 26:57–68; Lk 22:54–65; Jn 18:24); and (3) the final action of the council, which terminated its all-night session ([Mk] 15:1; see Mt. 27:1; Lk 22:66–71). The three episodes of the Roman trial were: (1) the trial before Pilate (15:2–5; see Mt 27:11–26; Lk 23:1–5; Jn 18:28–19:16); (2) the trial before Herod Antipas (only in Lk 23:6–12); and (3) the trial before Pilate continued and concluded (15:6–15). Since Matthew, Mark, and John give no account of Jesus before Herod Antipas, the trial before Pilate forms a continuous and uninterrupted narrative in these Gospels.

February 4, 2024

Teaching With Authority (Mark 1:21–28)

Filed under: Biblical Studies,Ecclesiology,Epifanía,Epiphany,Evangelism,Isaiah,Life of Christ,Liturgical Calendar,Mark Gospel of,Miracles,New Testament,Old Testament,Women in Leadership — Scott Stocking @ 5:44 pm
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I preached this message January 28, 2024, at Mount View Presbyterian Church. It’s based on the Gospel passage for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany in Year B of the Liturgical Calendar.

When was the last time you were in a hurry to finish up a task? Sometimes, we have deadlines to meet and need to ensure everything gets done just right. Those who like working under that kind of pressure may feel like they’re more focused and some extra adrenaline kicks in to help them get the job done quickly. Others may not like being in a hurry so much. They get flustered and may make mistakes or miss important items they need for whatever they’re preparing for.

The Gospel writer Mark gives us the impression that Jesus is the kind of person who was always in a hurry, and he seemed to thrive on the urgency of the situation. Now some of you might say, “Come on, Scott, how could you know Jesus was in a hurry?” Well, I’ll lay it out here for you.

The verses at the beginning of Mark’s gospel set the theme for Mark’s gospel. Listen to Mark 1:3, quoting Isaiah 40:3:

3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.’ ”[1]

The Greek adjective for “straight” means what it says: a straight road unhindered by obstacles, the shortest distance between two points. What is of note for us today is that the adverb form of that verb, often translated “straightaway” or “immediately” in older translations, is used another 41 times in Mark’s gospel, with 10 of those occurrences in Mark’s first chapter alone, and three times in our passage this morning. Mark is letting us know that Jesus is wasting no time in embarking on that straight path, and he has no intention of stopping any time soon.

A quick recap of Mark up to our current passage will help set the stage for talking about Jesus as an authoritative teacher, and how that translates to you and I teaching with authority. Jesus’s cousin John is in the wilderness preaching about the coming of the Messiah when who should show up but Jesus himself. John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan and “immediately” as Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirt visibly descended on Jesus. Mark then gives just a brief statement about Jesus “immediately” going out into the desert and being tempted by Jesus.

After Jesus returns from the desert, he begins preaching a simple message in Galilee, “Repent and believe the good news!” His reputation begins to grow to the point where, in vv. 18 and 20, Simon, Andrew, James, and John all “immediately” leave their fishing boats to follow Jesus. His new followers give him a sense of legitimacy (not that he needed it) in the eyes of the Jews. His “official” ministry had begun.

So now that Jesus has laid the groundwork for his ministry, he returns to his hometown Capernaum, and “immediately” at the next Sabbath synagogue service begins teaching the good news. “Immediately” upon finishing, a man with an unclean spirit cries out that Jesus is the Lord’s Messiah, and Jesus casts out the unclean spirit. In the last verse of our passage today, we see that the end result was that news about what Jesus had done and his teaching with authority “immediately” spread throughout Galilee.

So what does it mean that Jesus “taught with authority”? Aside from being the Son of God and having a direct line to his father, we can be pretty certain that he was a regular at synagogue service growing up, so he’d heard the stories and wisdom literature of the Old Testament and the priest’s or rabbi’s exposition of those scriptures. He grew up in a carpenter’s home (probably not in poverty), so he certainly learned a trade like all other Jewish boys would have, and he had friends that he interacted with. Even as an adolescent, he had already begun to understand and empathize with human condition so that he was no stranger to our sorrows.

The synagogue was also the center for education, at least for males, in the local communities, so Jesus would have likely had a solid education as well, including some Torah training. But he had to bide his time, because 30 was the age a male was considered fully qualified to teach of his own accord in that day.

What Jesus did NOT apparently have in that day was a connection to any of the rabbinic schools who would have trained rabbis to go out to the local synagogues to teach. Nor did he have any letters of recommendation from the Pharisees or Sadducees of his day to further bolster his legitimacy. But that was okay, because he challenged all of those groups to reconsider many of their legalistic interpretations of the Old Testament and, being an outsider, he couldn’t get stripped of any of the privileges or prestige enjoyed by those groups. He was his own man. He knew what his father wanted of him, and he knew how to get there.

In those days, it was important for a teacher to have both an aura of authority and a group of followers. Without followers, people would not give him a second look as teacher; they’d think he and his message were irrelevant. And without authority, especially the authority of his miracles, it would have been easy to dismiss him as a phony and charlatan.

The difficult part of that combination is maintaining authority, because this was a huge barometer in a culture built on the principles of honor and shame. You’ve probably noticed in the Gospels that when someone tried to challenge Jesus’s authority or trap him in his words, he has a couple different ways he responds. With the average person, he tends to be more compassionate and sympathetic with his response. He knows what kind of religious legalism they live under and how that makes them feel inferior.

We see this especially in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus starts with the Beatitudes and transitions to challenging the “authorized” teaching of his day. “You have heard it said that,…but I say to you….” This is speech seasoned with salt, if you will, speaking the truth in love and compassion.

With most of the Pharisees and Sadducees, however, it’s a completely different attitude. At times he comes across as downright snarky and perhaps even a little belligerent, at least from our own perspective, when he challenges their legalistic platitudes and nitpicky “requirements” they claim to discern from God’s law. Why did Jesus, whom so many see as a man of peace, respond in this way to the religious leaders?

In a culture of honor and shame, if someone challenged your authority or demonstrated apparent hypocrisy in your teachings and you couldn’t defend yourself against those charges, that usually meant you were done for as a teacher or as an advocate for whatever it was you were promoting. Jesus knew that, of course, so when he responded, he made sure that he not only got his point across but that he also destroyed the argument of those challenging him. After all, he was calling people to follow him, so he needed a compelling reason for them to abandon their current teacher if they weren’t on the up-and-up and a compelling reason to follow him instead.

Jesus employed not just words and wisdom in his teaching, in his defense of his ministry, and in his rebuttals against the religious leaders of the day, but wonders and miracles as well to back up his authoritative words. Like the famous baseball player Dizzy Dean said, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it!”

We see, then, that Jesus’s authority as a teacher comes not only from being the Son of God, something that was not necessarily obvious to anyone who saw him, but also from the wisdom and knowledge he gained from a human perspective and his ability win over followers. But being the Son of God, he had an advantage that you and I typically don’t have when it comes to authority. He could do the miracles.

So how does that impact us today as we live out the witness of our faith and teach others about the Word of God? If you’ll remember when I was here a few Sundays ago, I said that Epiphany was a time for us to introduce people to Jesus. How can we do so with conviction and authority as the body of Christ?

One of the first things I heard about Bible colleges when I went to seminary after getting a degree from UNO was that, for all intents and purposes, a Bible college education was essentially equivalent to having grown up going to Sunday school every week and paying attention along the way. You and I are long past our Sunday school days now, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t learn from the Word of God. Regular study of God’s word, individually and collectively in groups, will always help us “be prepared in season and out of season”[2] to share the hope and encouragement of the Gospel.

I don’t know of any Bible colleges, seminaries, or churches in general who require preachers or members who want to join to fast for 40 days and nights as Jesus did! But there is value in practicing such spiritual disciplines as fasting for a short period, as you are able,[3] and prayer. Such disciplines, when done regularly, give you the spiritual “muscle memory” to develop a Christlike mind set and worldview. You will find that not only will you recognize God’s voice more clearly than ever, but that deciding to do the right thing or avoiding the bad thing will become a more natural choice for you.

You and I may never do anything close to what Jesus did when it comes to miracles, but believe or not, Jesus did give us a means of working miracles in the lives of others. It’s a little verse that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Of all the ways people turn their lives around when coming to faith in Jesus, I can say with great certainty that it’s not just our words but how we made others feel. You’ve heard the saying: “I may not remember what you said, but I remember how you made me feel.”

One of the best stories in the Bible that makes this point is the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8. The religious leaders had brought her into the temple courts and stood her up before the crowd Jesus was teaching to. They were adamant that the woman must be stoned to death for her sin. Jesus takes his time to answer. John says Jesus bends down to write something on the ground, what we don’t know. Then Jesus stands up and says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.[4]” Then Jesus bends down again and continues writing. That was it. Jesus won. With one simple statement, he destroyed the logic behind the action the religious leaders wanted to take and telegraphed a clear message of compassion and forgiveness to the woman caught in adultery. I’m sure those religious leaders never forgot how Jesus humbled them, and some of them may have genuinely had a lasting change of heart. The woman, of course, was relieved that she was spared from the stoning, but Jesus was clear that she should not continue in her life of sin. She seems to have had a change in heart as well, as we see here later on in the gospel story. That’s the miracle of love and speaking the truth in love.

Finally, your ability and authority to teach has nothing to do with any of your innate biological makeup. The New Testament is clear, when read in the proper cultural and biblical context, that men and women could and did have teaching responsibilities in the early church. I don’t believe anything has changed in 2,000 years of church history to overturn that precedence, in spite of what some have proposed at times. I have studied this quite thoroughly and have written about it elsewhere if you’re interested. (Qualifications of Male and Female Leaders in the Church (1 Timothy); The Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians as Background for Understanding 1 Timothy 2)

We can have confidence to speak and teach the Word of God with authority as we invite people to church and introduce people to Jesus. As you go out the doors this morning, the world is your mission field. Let’s let the world know that Jesus lives and reigns in our hearts. Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] 2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV).

[3] Disclaimer: Please consult with a medical professional to ensure this would be appropriate for your health situation.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

December 31, 2023

Praising the Savior (Luke 2:22–40)

Filed under: Biblical Studies,Birth Stories,Christology,Christology,Epifanía,Epiphany,Hebrews,Isaiah,Luke Gospel of,Soteriology — Scott Stocking @ 3:51 pm
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I preached this sermon at Mount View Presbyterian Church, Omaha, NE, on December 31, 2023, the First Sunday After Christmas on the liturgical calendar year B. I was on the back end of a cold, so I sound a little different.

Last Sunday, Christmas Eve, I had the privilege of baptizing my half-sister at my home church. Thirty-three years and day before that, December 23, 1990, I had been present at her dedication and baptism at the Lutheran church on N. 30th Street. My dad and her mom wanted me to be her “sponsor” or “Godfather.” It was a distinct honor to come full circle like that on a commitment I quite frankly had little influence on in her early life because I lived 500 miles away.

Lindee’s story parallels my own faith journey as I’ve shared with you in past, but our stories both parallel the life of Jesus in this regard as well, and we see the first part of that story in our passage today. Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple to go through the Jewish purification rites. Mary had to wait 40 days to be purified from giving birth, which as we all know involves some blood. But because Jesus was also a firstborn son, he had to be dedicated to the service of the Lord as the Israelites were commanded in Exodus. That involved a sacrifice as well, as we see in the final “plague” of the Exodus. And of course we know that Jesus was baptized as an adult “to fulfill all righteousness,” as Matthew records. The Western church recognizes that event the day after Epiphany next week.[1]

Now when you and I dedicate ourselves to raising our children in the Lord, whatever that looks like from your perspective, I would venture to guess none of us has any idea what our kids are going to be like some thirty years later. But Mary and Joseph encountered two people in the Temple that day of Jesus’s consecration who seemed to know quite a bit about what Jesus would be doing thirty years later.

Simeon’s prophecy about Jesus is both encouraging and haunting. On the one hand, he is saying that Jesus is the light to the Gentiles Isaiah spoke of in Chapter 9 of his prophecy. But then it takes a darker turn, speaking of the rising and falling of many and that he would be a sign spoken against. The final part of his prophecy to Mary is the most haunting of all: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” That little word “too” at the end of the prophecy reveals that Jesus is destined for incredible suffering at some point in the future, which we now know was the cross. Mary witnessed that event as well, so you can imagine the pain she must have felt.

Anna also had what at least on the surface appears to be an encouraging prophecy as well, giving thanks to God, but she mentions the redemption of Jerusalem. Now I know we may tend to throw around these $20 religious words like “salvation” and “redemption” without thinking more deeply about what they imply, but the Jews would have understood from their sacrificial system that “salvation” and “redemption” both required blood sacrifices in the Old Testament. So even as Simeon and Anna spoke over the infant Jesus, their words prefigured in some way, subtle or not, that Jesus would suffer death at some point.

It’s hard to say what the son of God knew or understood as an infant when he heard these words. His human side would not have understood them, but his divine nature surely would have, and how those two natures worked together will perhaps forever be a beautiful mystery to us. But the text in Luke goes on to say that Jesus’s parents took Jesus to the Passover every year in Jerusalem, so Jesus, as he grew older, began to understand that the Temple wasn’t just a place of worship, but his own spiritual home, because the Temple was his Father’s house.

It’s a fair extrapolation, I think, to assume that Jesus and his family were regulars in the local synagogue as well when they weren’t in Jerusalem for the Passover. Luke gives us just a glimpse of Jesus as a preteen with the story of him staying behind to school the teachers of the law in the Temple courts. Now if he was doing that with the teachers in the Temple, can you imagine what he must have been like in the local synagogue? We don’t see Jesus begin his ministry until he was thirty years old, but what was he like as a young adult? Did he give the synagogue leader some pointers after each message? Surely he didn’t live in isolation as a young man. Were the women oohing and aahing about his theological prowess? I’m guessing not. He was probably a Nazarite like Samson, except he knew how to behave himself, which is why we never read about him getting married. He was off limits to women, because he was laser-focused on preparing for his ministry as the Messiah.

All of what I’ve said up to this point is more or less an intellectual exercise, examining the history and background around the birth and dedication of Jesus and the times he lived in. But what are some takeaways for us? What are some things we can do to help our kids and grandkids raise their own kids so they can take ownership of their faith and understand God’s purposes for them in this day and age?

The most obvious takeaway for us is the importance of gathering with God’s people in God’s house. For the Jews, that was primarily the local synagogue, with the Temple being a special destination, one to three times a year depending on how often people could make the journey. For us Christians, we really don’t have anything akin to the Temple, so it’s the local church that’s important.

I’ve often had people tell me, and perhaps you’ve experienced this as well, that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian. I would beg to differ. As believers, we are part of the body of Christ; we may be set apart from the world in God’s eyes, but we are not set apart from our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are united essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally in God’s eyes through Christ. Wherever God has a child, we have a sibling in Christ. Hebrews 10:24 and 25 puts it this way:

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.[2]

Most of us who have grown up in the church recognize this distinctly. We recognize the power of connection and the shared purpose and goals that develop from such a connection. The local church is not just a place where we come to be uplifted and encouraged, but where we can also uplift and encourage others. It is a community with bonds that are not easily broken.

Related to this is the idea of service. Some churches have signs above the doors that exit out of their sanctuaries that say, “You are now entering the mission field.” In Acts 6, we see the apostles were concerned about the Hellenistic Jewish widows who were being overlooked in the distribution of food. They gathered everyone together and quickly worked out a solution and appointed capable people to handle that specific ministry. That couldn’t have happened if everyone was doing their own thing.

Another takeaway for us comes from the responses of Simeon and Anna. Granted, they had some prophetic insight into who the baby Jesus was and how he fit into God’s plan for salvation and redemption, but we now have the hindsight to know exactly what that looked like. Just as Simeon and Anna praised God for who he is and what he was doing through Jesus, so to can we praise God for who he is, what he has done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and what he is doing in us through the work of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Our reading from Psalm 148 gives us some hints about how we can praise God:

11 kings of the earth and all nations,

you princes and all rulers on earth,

12 young men and women,

old men and children.

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted;

his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. [3]

Like attending church, praise is not just an individual effort we make to show our gratitude to God. Praise also flows from our experience together as a community, especially as we see the fruit of our mutual and collective labors. It also flows from reading and hearing about God’s great works in the service. Psalm 148 also has several references to God’s wonderful creation that is available to all mankind, not just to those of us who believe.

One final thought about Luke’s passage here: Simeon especially indicates that following Jesus is going to cause people to take sides. We see more and more in our world today the antagonism toward the good news of Jesus. This is all the more reason for us to maintain community on the one hand, so there’s strength in numbers. But also we can take a unified stand for righteousness and truth and send a powerful message of unity and steadfastness to the world.

As we look forward to the new year, then, let us resolve and recommit ourselves to serving and praising God and meeting together as body of believers to carry out the various ministries he’s called us to. Together, we can be shining lights in a world of darkness, a beacon of hope amidst the signs of fear and despair. Amen.

[1] I removed the following because I didn’t want the sermon to get too long, and I didn’t want to dive into the topic of adult baptism with an older congregation.

But the parallel doesn’t stop there. I think most of us recognize that next week is Epiphany, where the Western church celebrates the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. But how many of you know that the day after Epiphany is the recognition of Jesus’s baptism by John? Even though John knew he needed to be baptized by Jesus, and even though Jesus knew he was the son of God and sinless and had no need to “repent and be baptized” as John was preaching, still Matthew records Jesus’s desire that he be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.”

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

March 12, 2023

A Woman, a Well, and Worshipping God (John 4; Romans 5:1–11)

Filed under: "I Am" Statements,Biblical Studies,Christology,Courage,Ecclesiology,Isaiah,John Gospel of,Life of Christ,Old Testament,Romans,Soteriology,Theology, Biblical — Scott Stocking @ 8:53 pm
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I preached this message on March 12, 2023, Third Sunday in Lent, at Mt. View Presbyterian Church. The Gospel text was pretty much the entire chapter of John 4, so instead of reading all that, I showed a clip from The Chosen, Season 1, Episode 8, where Jesus encounters the woman at the well. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the message, so I do not have an audio file to share with you at this time.

Someone might think John was trying to create scandal from the very first words of his Gospel. In the first couple verses, he claims Jesus is God and was present at creation. The Jewish leaders would have considered that blasphemy. John the Baptizer, who is NOT the same John who wrote this gospel, goes on to claim he is the one sent to prepare the way for the Messiah, and upon Jesus’s baptism, John declares him to be the Son of God.

Then, instead of picking the leading religious rulers of his day, Jesus chooses a few fishermen and other average, everyday men to be in his band of disciples. After that, instead of his first miracle being a healing or exorcism, he decides to make about 180 gallons of premium wine so the party can keep going at the wedding. Then John throws in a story about Jesus cleansing the temple of the money changers and about how he’ll be able to rebuild the temple in three days if it’s destroyed. In John 3, he declares that belief in him ensures eternal life. Again, probably grounds for blasphemy if he were just an ordinary man.

And so we come to John chapter 4, and the scandalous behavior continues. How dare he travel through Samaria! His disciples would have rather walked the extra distance around Samaria rather than soil their sandals with the dust of that land. How dare he talk to a Samaritan woman, let alone ask her for a drink from Jacob’s well, especially when the rest of his followers aren’t around. Don’t you know, Jesus, that we’re not supposed to even touch the Samaritans let alone eat and drink with them?

Many of you know that the Gospel of John is unique in that it has many stories about Jesus’s ministry that are not reflected in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Many think that John may have organized his Gospel theologically rather than chronologically. For example, the story of Jesus clearing the temple, which is found in chapter 2 of John’s gospel, is placed in the last week of Jesus’s ministry. It’s not clear whether this is the same story, or if there were two different episodes when Jesus cleared the temple.

Jesus is in the land of his ancestors, so it seems fitting, at least to John, that Jesus would want to reveal himself first to his ancestors.

For the sake of argument, then, I’m going to assume there’s a theological message John is trying to get across here: He establishes Jesus is fully divine and that God is his Father. Since he’s God’s “only begotten” on Earth, Jesus then is the primary authority in the Temple, which the Jews believed was home of God’s presence. Finally, Jesus, having been established as the authority for the Jewish religion, essentially abolishes the long-standing prejudice against Samaria by going to the place where his ancestor Judah’s father, Jacob (renamed Israel) first established himself in the Promised Land after returning from Laban’s home. I think this aspect of the story lends to its credibility and to the principle of worship he puts forth.

One of the most important things to note about this encounter with the woman is that Jesus actually takes the time to have a real conversation with the woman, although he slowly reveals that he knows more about her than she thinks he knows. Jesus is in the land of his ancestors, so it seems fitting, at least to John, that Jesus would want to reveal himself first to his ancestors. That would be like me going to the Stocking Township, named after my great, great, great grandfather in the Wahoo area, or perhaps even to the historic site of the 12th-century Stocking Abbey in England, where my ancestors likely came from and ministering to a congregation in either of those places.

So what can we learn from the encounter between Jesus and this woman? The first thing is that Jesus did not recognize the ethnic boundaries that existed in his day and age. The Samaritans followed only the Torah, the five books of Moses, but not the prophets who came later. So they were a people who had deep Jewish roots, but because the Northern Kingdom had been conquered within a couple generations of rise of the prophets and the prohibition against intermarriage had been abandoned, they had little connection to the prophets and they were no longer considered “pure” Jews. The Jews considered them unclean. That didn’t matter to Jesus, though. He wanted the Samaritans to know that a “prophet” had returned to the area after some 700 years,

Because the Jews considered Samaritans unclean, they weren’t permitted to eat or drink from any of any of their plates or vessels. And the fact that she was divorced several times, well beyond what Jewish law would have permitted to remain in good standing, added to her social stigma among her own people not to mention the Jews. This is another barrier that Jesus would shatter: that it was okay to eat and drink with “sinners” and other outcasts like tax collectors.

The other New Testament text from today’s lectionary reading is Romans 5:1–11. Verses 6–8 say this:

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.[1]

Did you catch that? This is really important to understand. When we cry out to God for help, does he say “Quit your womanizing! Quit lying! Quit getting drunk! Then you can come to me and I’ll consider your request?” By no means! That passage doesn’t say Christ died for those who’ve cleaned up their lives first. It says Christ died for the ungodly, while we were still sinners! That sounds like we can have a great weight lifted from us so we can see more hope and more light at the end of whatever dark tunnel sin has led us through. God loves us even before we realize that his love is the greatest gift of all, even when we think we may not be worthy of it. That’s grace!

The offer of “living water” is the centerpiece of the story. Parts of this story hearkens back to Isaiah 49:6 and 10, a prophecy about the Servant of the Lord and the restoration of Israel:

5 And now the Lord says—

he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

and gather Israel to himself,

for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord

and my God has been my strength—

6 he says:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

to restore the tribes of Jacob

and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

…

10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,

nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.

He who has compassion on them will guide them

and lead them beside springs of water. [2]

This woman seems to have been suffering for some time because she felt like she needed to draw water in the heat of the day. We don’t know very much about her personal life aside from the divorces; no indication she had any children or what her current relationship was like. This leads us to another principle at play here: Don’t be afraid to speak to someone about whatever it is in their life that is holding them back from a full and vibrant relationship with God. Now Jesus had some special knowledge of her situation here, so he holds the advantage, but it’s for her benefit ultimately. Once he discloses what he knows about her marital status, she understands not only that Jesus is a prophet, but she also believes his claim that he is the Messiah and shared that convincingly with many people in her town.

Don’t be afraid to speak to someone about whatever it is in their life that is holding them back from a full and vibrant relationship with God.

Jeremiah mentions a couple times (2:13; 17:13) about how his listeners have “forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.” But Zechariah, when prophesying about the second coming of Christ and the consummation of history, says this in 14:8:

On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.

9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.[3]

This is the ultimate and absolute promise of fulfillment we can look forward to when we humble ourselves before God and accept his free gifts of reconciliation and salvation. God will be in total control. No more crying, pain, or grief, just living eternally in the glory of God’s light.

Turning back to Romans 5 for a moment, Paul describes what happens when we come into that justification, and the woman seems to have experienced that, especially with respect to addressing the own suffering she had experienced for so long. Listen to verses 1–5:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. [4]

The final takeaway from this passage is how Jesus is overturning the traditions (and exclusions) about worship. The woman was upset about how the Jews thought the Temple in Jerusalem was the only place you could really worship God. In fact, it seems like she’s trying to use that to get out of talking about her marital history. But Jesus assures her that a new way of worship has arrived. The place no longer matters; what matters is expressing her true feelings and emotions from her heart, soul, and mind to praise God for all he’s done for her. It’s that joy that causes her to leave her water jars behind and hurry back to her people proclaiming, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”[5]

John notes that the woman at the well was responsible, by virtue of her testimony, for many in her town believing, and they had that testimony confirmed by Jesus himself, because he stayed there a few days preaching and teaching. They knew the joy of personal justification and reconciliation with God. They also found the hope of eternal life as well. Listen to Romans 5:9–11:

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.[6]

My prayer for you this Lenten and Easter season is that you know the salvation of God and receive it with joy just as the woman at the well did. Let us hold fast to our faith and hope and continue to reach out to those who need to experience God’s love, forgiveness, compassion and grace. Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[6] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

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