Remembrance Sunday 2014
In
the novel and film “The four feathers” on of the characters, a
British
officer,
says “It
ceases to be an idea for which we fight. Or a flag. Rather we fight
for the man on our left, and we fight for the man on our right.”
But
before blood is shed, Governments do not go to war just so people can
have jolly good war. There are
aims which may include the overthrow
of a foreign government, taking
over territory, or
maybe compelling
a government to
change an objectionable policy.
So there are always
two things happening: something
political and something personal...
Around
Remembrance Sunday, the text John 15:13 is often used:
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.” So what were the political and personal things
that were happening in the sacrifice of Jesus. Because Jesus for
sure wasn't just a victim. The
story goes like this.
God
made a good world.
He intended men and women to have authority over that world, to
partner each other in managing and maintaining the planet. It
was meant to be a world without domination,
disease, disasters, demons
and deception.
But
things went pear-shaped –
people rebelled against God. They
tried to do things their own way, and the beautiful world God made
was spoiled. So we live in a world where there are wars and
conflicts, where there is oppression, exploitation, fear, famine and
disease, and where nature itself seems broken. The fall effects every
aspect of life in
our world:
- there is domination: oppression in the way people are treated by other people and by institutions. (including religion... the "law" Jesus and the disciples were breaking wasn't God's law; it was the Pharisees' interpretation of God's law.)
- There is disease. There are disasters. The created order is broken. Our bodies wear out and die. We poison ourselves with legal and illegal drugs, with sugar and fat, with pesticides and preservatives. There are earthquakes, hurricanes, famines as we poison the planet with greenhouse gases.
- There are demons. There is spiritual oppression. It's kind of unfashionable to say that: after all, we're no longer primitive tribes. But there today is a massive concentration on the occult, a fascination with all things weird and spooky. C S Lewis (author of the Narnia stories and one of the sharpest minds of the twentieth century) 70 years ago predicted “The Materialistic Magician, the man … worshiping what he vaguely calls 'Forces' while denying the existence of 'Spirits.'” People do find themselves under the direct and damaging influence of ugly, unclean spirits, demons.
- There is deception and darkness. So the Pharisees were suggesting that Jesus did his work through devil power. They were calling white black. How many of us feel we can trust politicians – of any party? And it's not just politicians: one of the marks of our culture is the exalting of “image” over reality. We love “reality TV” but all TV is made up of carefully crafted images. And we deceive ourselves, we believe our own publicity, even when ti flies in the face of all the evidence.
That
world, the world Jesus entered, is our messed-up world. Where does
God fit into that account of the world? Through OT history, God
promises a time coming when he shall again rule a peaceful, just
world (Isa 2. 2-5)
God's
Kingdom: a revolution.
When
Jesus entered this world, he declared a revolution. Indeed by
“becoming flesh” he entered into enemy territory. It was, after
all, through “flesh” through human drives like hunger that the
fall had happened in the first place. The devil sees the world of
“flesh” as his world; our “flesh” is something that Paul sees
is at war against God. And Jesus became flesh. His incarnation was
a declaration
of war; his baptism was
his
mobilization
to the front
line.
The
whole point of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, was a war.
It all happened – like a war – to alter the balance of power and
establish God's right to rule in his world. It all happened to defeat
the devil and all the domination,
disease, disasters, demons
and deception. All
the
oppression,
exploitation, impurity, and brokenness that he has scattered about to
spoil the wonderful world God made.
So
when Jesus comes, what is he doing? He is healing the sick; he is
driving out the demons; he is cleansing the lepers; he is preaching
the Good News. All
of that is a rebellion, it is warfare against the way things are. We
see that in Matt 12.
- Jesus challenges domination. He declares war on the oppressive legalism of Sabbath keeping; God gave us a “sabbath” as a day of “Rest, Reflection and Relationships” - but extra laws turned it into d day of fear and judgment. God hates all forms of exploitation and oppression.
- Jesus challenges disease. In the synagogue, on the Sabbath, Jesus. shows that disease is as much an invader, that doesn't belong in God's world. The little person with a shriveled hand, he heals.
- Jesus challenges the demons. Verse 22f. One of those Jesus. “helped” was blind and mute because of a demon. Jesus recognized that the man's problem was spiritual not physical in its cause, and drove the evil entities out of the man's life. He didn't heal him, he drove the demons because he understood that they were not the same as “illness”
- Jesus challenges deception. Immediately – as soon as he has driven the demon out, some of the religious people begin to explain away what he has done. (as they have done before: Mt 9. 34) Jesus challenges the deception on logical, intelligent, grounds.
Jesus
deals with these things: he declares war. He begins to win battles.
The
Victor
The
Pharisees (for the first time in Matthew) wanted to kill Jesus (v
14). “There is a clear link between chapter 12 and the passion of
Jesus” (Green, p 148)
Eventually,
Jesus was arrested, tried and put to death. “Greater
love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends”. But
in Jesus.' death, his war-aims were achieved. in
that death, he “bound the strong man”, Satan himself, so that the
strong man's goods could be plundered, so that hell itself could be
plundered, and men and women and the created order could be taken
back from the Devil; the tools of oppression he uses – domination,
disease, disasters, demons
and deception
– are now
the weapons of a defeated enemy. Jesus
conquered death and lives and ruels today.
Paul put it like this: “When you were stuck in your
old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God
brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins
forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant cancelled
and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants
in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them
naked through the streets.”
Colossians 2. 15f,
the Message)
So
Jesus fought to achieve the great war-aim of destroying the works of
the evil one. He fought fopr revolution; for regime change. And he
did that for us. He fought, for the man on his left and the man on
his right – for us.
That
means you and I can live in the good of God's Kingdom today: the deal
is that we quit kidding ourselves, admit that Jesus is who he says he
is – and allow regime change in our own lives as we trust him and
surrender our lives to him.
© Gilmour Lilly November 2014
© Gilmour Lilly November 2014
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