Do you remember last week, when Roy was relating the story of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones, how he pointed out that although much of what Ezekiel prophesied came true in the years immediately following the return from exile, it didn’t all come true.
Let’s just briefly revisit the passage at the end of Ezekiel 37. "I will make them one nation in the land,... and one king shall be king over them all. ... 24My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. 25They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. 26I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. 27My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28Then the nations shall know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore." (Ezek 37:22-28 NRSV)
It’s a far-reaching prophecy. One king, David; one shepherd - the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (Ezek 34, Jn 10)); a place of blessing where God’s people will live forever; an everlasting covenant of Peace; God will dwell with them; God’s Sanctuary, that is his Temple, will be among them forevermore. All that, following on from the prophecy of the dry bones being filled with the breath of God. It’s a great picture, isn’t it? But it has just one flaw. Have you seen the flaw in the picture? Roy actually pointed it out last week.
The flaw is that the people of Israel were the same then as they were before the exile. The priests are still fallen human beings some of whom will use their position for personal gain. The kings who’ll arise when they return from exile will be just as bad as the kings they had before. Even if they happen to get a good king his reign will only be temporary. Before long he’ll die and be replaced by someone else who’ll probably turn out worse than those who came before. So at first glance this prophecy appears to be doomed.
But then, that’s the interesting thing about prophecies. Sometimes looking at a prophecy is like looking at a mountain range. When you approach the mountain range from a distance you can see the mountains very clearly outlined against the sky. But then, as you get closer, perhaps climbing up into them, or flying over them, you realise that beyond the first row of mountains is another; and another and another.
At first glance this prophecy looks like it’s all about the return of the nation from exile; but then as you go along in history another possibility arises. The prophets begin to speak of a remnant of Israel, a small percentage who remain faithful to God, around whom God will rebuild his kingdom. As we come to the New Testament, Luke records for us the stories of Simeon and Anna, two people who are recorded as waiting for the consolation of Israel, for the redemption of Jerusalem. Just two of a tiny minority who were ready when God finally acted to fulfill that prophecy of Ezekiel; ready when John the Baptist came to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy of one crying out in the wilderness: ’Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight;’ as John came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mk 1:3-4) And what happens, "People from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." A remnant was ready.
And so Mark begins his gospel account with these words: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Now we miss the significance of that through over-familiarity. First, ’Good News’ is code. It’s a phrase that jumps out of Isaiah’s prophecy of the Servant who would come announcing good news to the oppressed, whose feet are beautiful upon the mountains because he announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
Then we gloss over the word ’Christ’ as though it were Jesus’ surname, perhaps forgetting that it actually means anointed one; that is, the one who comes as God’s anointed king; who comes as the new David, and like David, anointed by God long before he’s anointed by us as our king.
Finally, this Jesus, the anointed one, is not just a human being who’s to be made king, like Saul and David and Solomon; he’s also the Son of God. If Ezekiel’s prophecy called for a king who would reign forever, here he is. Here is a king who will never die because he’s more than just human. Here’s a king who will never let us down, who’ll never fail to honour God or to act righteously. And this king has what it takes to reign in his own power, his own authority over the whole earth. He has God’s own power.
But notice that long before he begins to exercise that power, long before he takes up the role of king, he begins to identify himself with ordinary human beings. John is in the wilderness baptizing people, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and along comes Jesus. Now John has just been telling people that the one who comes after him is so much greater than him that he isn’t even worthy to act as a servant to him. His baptism with water is nothing compared to what Jesus will do. He’ll baptise them with his own Holy Spirit. And then Jesus appears, not to take over, to supersede John, not to start his own ministry of teaching, but to submit himself to John’s baptism. He’s come to identify with all of us sinful human beings.
Can you see how counter-cultural this act of Jesus is? Can you imagine John Howard asking to sit in on a lecture that Peter Costello was giving on the economy, just so he can learn a bit more about how to run the country? Can you imagine Kevin Rudd asking to observe from the sidelines while Julia Gillard meets with big business to discuss industrial relations. Can you imagine Geoff Dixon asking the Aircraft Maintenance union to come and tell him how to run Qantas? It just doesn’t happen in our world does it? The big boss is always the big boss. But here Jesus puts off his power and authority and submits to the humiliation of being dunked by John in the muddy waters of the River Jordan.
And as soon as the baptism is over, what happens? God’s Spirit immediately drives him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Again, he’s being identified with us even to the extent of experiencing the full force of temptation. The difference of course is that, unlike us, he doesn’t succumb to the temptations thrown at him. He resists. He remains faithful to God his Father. He shows himself to be the personification of humanity remade.
All those types of behaviour foretold by Ezekiel come true in Jesus. He refuses to defile himself by worshipping anyone other than God. He faithfully follows God’s law. He waits for God to provide him with the things he needs to sustain his life. He believes God word, even if God isn’t there with him, even when Satan appears trying to trick him into distrusting God’s goodness. And in the end, Jesus succeeds where Adam and Eve failed.
When the temptations are over Jesus comes into Galilee proclaiming the gospel, calling on people to repent and believe the good news. He says "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near." What time is fulfilled? Well, the time foretold by the prophets, by Ezekiel for example. The time when God will send a king to reunite the nation; to save them from their sins, to cleanse them. The time when God will re-form his people to be the way he meant them to be; when he’ll put his Spirit within them so they can live. We’re told Jesus has come to bring a baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Our first reading today, from Jeremiah 31 tells of a time when God will make a new covenant with his people; a covenant that’ll be different from the first covenant. How? Well, this time he’s going to write his law in their hearts. They won’t be dependent on priests teaching them, or failing to teach them, because they’ll know for themselves what’s right. This time everyone will know God personally. Jesus’ coming with the baptism of the Holy Spirit will mean that we’ll come into a personal relationship with God. So again, this time is fulfilled. The things that God had promised through the prophets are about to take place.
One of the things you may have noticed as we went through the Old Testament was that so much depended on the faithfulness of the priests and kings in teaching and leading their people. If you had a bad king you were in trouble. If you had faithless priests you didn’t know how to behave. But now, that was all about to change. Now there’s a new covenant about to be proclaimed.
So Jesus begins to call out people to go with him, to form the nucleus of a new covenant people of God. Mind you this group of disciples isn’t meant as a replacement for Israel. Rather they’re to be Israel re-formed. There’s a continuity between the old Israel and the new and that continuity is found in Jesus Christ himself. He’s the new David, promised by the prophets. And as time goes on we find him teaching his disciples to live the way God always intended his people to live.
Do you remember how John, in particular, emphasises Jesus’ teaching about the need to love one another just as he loved us. Why is this so important? So people can see we’re his followers. This close knit band of believers were to demonstrate to the world the possibility of living life God’s way, supporting one another, encouraging one another. And of course following the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost this mutual support spread to all those who became Christians as a result of the Apostles’ preaching.
As Mark goes on to recount Jesus’ life, he gives example after example of Jesus’ power over evil spirits, physical ailments, leprosy, death. We even discover he has the power to forgive sins. He heals on the Sabbath to show that his understanding of the will of God overrides the petty rules of the religious leaders of the day. And finally he shows he has power over nature by calming a storm at sea.
The picture that emerges from Mark’s account of Jesus is of someone who has power and authority beyond normal human expectations. This is not just the son of Joseph and Mary. This is someone who can lay claim to being in truth the Son of God.
But something else comes out in these accounts. What we see in Jesus’ life is that he fulfills everything that God had asked and expected of his people Israel. He lives the way Adam and Eve were expected to live.
Think about the diagram we had at the start of this series.
Jesus behaviour towards God is one of obedience and faithfulness.
His behaviour towards others is one of love and care; healing,
encouraging and building them up.
His relationship with the earth, with nature, is that of a sovereign, of someone who’s been given authority over it. In other words Jesus embodies all the attributes that Adam and Eve started with and lost in their rebellion.
And part of his aim in choosing the twelve to be his disciples, and in sending them out as apostles to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom is to constitute them as the new Israel, with the aim that they’ll do what Israel failed to do. Their task is to demonstrate in their life together the blessings of being God’s people, in God’s place, living under God’s command.
Let me finish by pointing you to Ephesians 3 where Paul outlines his understanding of the reason the church was brought into being: "Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him." (Eph 3:8-12 NRSV). What is the wisdom of God there in v10? It’s that Jew and Gentile can be united as one with Christ as their head. It’s that Christians can love one another even if they come from diverse, even opposing, backgrounds. It’s that all people can now enjoy the blessing God has promised to his people, that is, the promise of eternal life with him.
Now clearly this new state of God’s people living in perfect unity still hasn’t come to completion. We still experience the frustration of seeing disunity in the church, of seeing the effects of sin in our lives. But we do see God at work within us. We do see God’s Holy Spirit indwelling us and changing us to be more like him. Next week Garrett will bring to us the events of the first Pentecost, of the pouring out of God’s Spirit on his people and the implications that has for our lives today. In a few more weeks we’ll read in Revelation 21 & 22 the promise of God’s plan completed. But in the meantime we live in the between time, knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ personally through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We experience, already, the Kingdom of God at work in us and in those around us in the Church even if that work is still incomplete. We know Jesus Christ as our eternal King and we look forward to a hope that will not let us down.
Our task for now, as God’s People, is to live out the Kingdom of God in our relationship with God and in our relationships with one another, and to work to see the kingdom grow as we demonstrate by our lives together the blessing of being God’s people and as we share with others the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life.
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