Month: February 2021

Mark 8:34
If any desire to follow behind me, let them disown themself, lift up their cross and let them follow me.

            Again the season of Lent, living the life of a Christian. Now a question, have you ever thought you knew someone, then later find out you were wrong? A friend who disliked you, an enemy who became a friend. You thought you knew who they were, what they wanted, then something happens; you see them in different circumstances, they say something; and you see you were wrong. This is just what has happens to Peter. Immediately before our reading today, Jesus asks who people say He is and Peter replies, You are the Messiah! (Mark 8:27-29) Finally, after all the times the disciples fail to understand, particularly in Mark’s account, finally they get it! Jesus is the Messiah, Christ in Greek, the one anointed to save the Israelites and all the world!

            But Peter didn’t really understand, he saw the truth but only in blurry vision, like the blind man Jesus healed earlier in the chapter (Mark 8:22-25). Peter still had his own idea of who the Messiah was and what He would do. Throw out the Romans, conquer the world, bringing all people to worship God the Jewish way at the second temple in Jerusalem, Israel.  And yet Jesus openly tells them what He is going to do, what will happen. The Jewish leaders will reject Him, cause Him to suffer, Jesus would be killed and after three days rise again. But Peter doesn’t like that; he thinks he knows who the Messiah is, better than the Messiah Himself. No, says Peter, you’re wrong! Jesus turns to the disciples, No Peter, you are wrong! Get behind me Satan/enemy, you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

            A good question for us. Are you like Peter? Do you have in mind the things of God? Or do you fill your time and focus on finances, politics both state and street, gossip, worry, the things of this world? As we asked last week, do you treasure the things of this world or the things of God? Do you listen to Jesus, as God commanded at the Transfiguration (Mark 9:7)? Or do you think you know who God is without His help? Do you know better than the one who made you? Trying to bring Him down to your level to serve you like a cheerleader, a schoolmaster, a genie. Do you try to make God fit the things of this world, the things of men? Or do you let God be God and tell you who He is? Do you let Him love you as He has promised? Do you have in mind the things of God, or the things of men?

            This Lent, as we hear God’s Word, as you meditate on it and as you pray; what is he telling us about what a Christian is? Who is Jesus, what is this Messiah? A conqueror crowned with gold, beloved by all His own people, all Australians and all people across this world? No! He tells us who He is. He shows us who He is. He is crowned with thorns, rejected by His own people, ignored by most Australians, and even rebuked by many across the world. And yet, He took up a cross, that horrific tool of public, excruciating torture. He took up His cross, suffering that ridicule, rejection, even regret, on top of all the lashes and heavy nails. He took up our fallen humanity (Hebrews 2:14-18), He took up your sin (Isaiah 53:6), your guilt and failures onto that cross. And, just like every disease stops afflicting the person at death, there in His death, sin dies with Him. But sin does not rise from the grave.

            And this He has done for you 2000yrs ago, He has promised this for you in your Baptism, and He promises that you participate in this in every Holy Communion. He disowned Himself, took up His cross, and died for you. This is His way of life, life everlasting. And Jesus tells His disciples, even His enemy of a moment, Peter, to get in behind. And for all who desire to live His life, to walk His way, to follow Him; deny yourself, take up your cross and follow the Messiah. The gifts God has given you, union with Christ Jesus, separation from sin, and life despite death; cling to these things of God, have them in mind as you continue through Lent. As we say of the Baptismal life in Jesus; die daily to your sin, rise daily and live with Him.

            And the peace of God which surpasses all our understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, now unto the Final Resurrection. Amen.

Pastor Joseph Graham.

Mark 1:12
And immediately the Spirit threw Him out into the desert.

            Welcome to Lent, the traditional time of temptation in our church year. When we look at ourselves, our way of living, and try harder to live as Christ’s Baptised people, in that New life He has given. When we focus on treasuring the things of God and not the things of this world. To hear the Word of God and other Christians’ reflections on it, in song, speech or written; and hear less of the unending worries of the world. Yet, as you try to live here in the life Jesus has given you, the devil attacks. I mean, if our King suffered demonic temptation, don’t think you won’t.

            After Baptism the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, and if you think that sounds harsh, in the Greek it says the Spirit threw Him out. After that wonderful declaration from our Heavenly Father, of who Jesus is, ‘my beloved Son in whom I am pleased.’ (Mark 1:11) The Spirit throws Him away from the people, the cities, into the desert and the demons. By Himself, alone with the stones, with dust and His own thoughts; and if you’ve ever been alone like that you know how bad it can be. Fear, regret, and sometimes those dreadful thoughts from the devil. There’s a reason ancient people thought demons lived in deserts. So why, after Baptism, does God send His Son out into the desert, forty days of temptation and suffering?

            Why after your baptism, after you became a Christian, adopted and drawn into the Body of Christ; why do you now suffer? When you try hard, when you focus on living the Christian life, the life of Christ; why is it so hard? Why do we feel attacked? Why those stray thoughts of doubt or sin? Why, O Lord, do we suffer? How long O Lord, until you hear us and have mercy? (Psalm 13) We have these hard questions, yet God has not given an answer; instead as the letter to the Hebrews declares and as we hear today, God is with us in it (Hebrews 2:12-18). Jesus suffers temptation with you. In Baptism your old life died, and you were given a new life, the life of Christ. This life where, after Baptism we are promised suffering, persecution and temptation (Matthew 10:16-23; John 15:20; 2 Timothy 1:8, 3:12; 1 Peter 5:8). Yet you are not alone, the Holy Spirit is leading you, Jesus is suffering alongside you, and the Father loves you and is pleased with you. As the psalmist prays, Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs the sinners in the way, He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble His ways (Psalm 25:8-9).

            So now we have that call, to live the life you have been given, the way of God, relying on Him, listening to Him, treasuring the things of Heaven not the things of this world that is passing away. To treasure, Love, Joy, Hope, Life, these Holy and wonderful gifts God has given (Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Ephesians 2:8; 1 John 4:8). And to remember your Baptism, death and resurrection in Christ; to remember our union in the life of the New Creation with our Lord and all our siblings in the faith across this world, who suffer with us. As Luther and the Catechism put it, to die daily to sin and rise daily with Christ. This is what Lent is about. Baptism, our dying to sin and rising with Christ, is not just something in the past; it is our daily life as Christians. St Peter tells us that the flood points to what baptism is; those forty days when evil was drowned and destroyed, and God’s people were saved (1 Peter 3:20-21). Now some of you might like boats, but surrounded for forty days by animals and floating on a sea with bloated corpses certainly sounds like suffering to me. Forty days to cleanse the Earth, forty days to prepare for the New world, forty days for evil to die; we could even say as Peter did, forty days of Baptism. Baptism is the death of sin and the beginning of our union with Christ.

            And so we have, Baptism before our temptation, suffering during our Baptismal life, and what is at the end of these forty days of Lent? That traditional day of Baptism, even the truth of what Baptism is; union with Christ’s life, His death to sin, and His Resurrection to New Glorified Everlasting Life (Romans 6; Mark 9:2-3; Matthew 28:3; Philippians 3:21). I was Baptised, I am Baptised, and I will see my Baptism finally and fully revealed at the end of time; just as we say, “I was saved, am saved, and will be saved, in Christ”. You are Baptised, remember what that means; dead to sin, alive to Christ; having the Holy Spirit leading you through suffering and temptation; but most importantly, as we look past these Lenten days of preparation to what comes after, Baptism is God’s promise of complete and everlasting union with Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

            So live, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds against temptation in Christ Jesus and unite you to Him. Amen.

Pastor Joseph Graham.