“Getting Water Out of a Rock”
Matthew 21:23-32
Exodus 17:1-7
In our Old Testament Lesson, that Sherry read earlier, we see that the people, the Israelites in the desert, are thirsty. They are standing around Moses and they are demanding water.
Nothing had changed. The people had been fed, and they had been traveling in the wilderness, as God had commanded.
They had been slaves in Egypt, now they were free; God had performed many miracles for them from the parting of the Red Sea to feeding them with Quail and Manna, still they complained incessantly, this time about water.
This was not Moses’ first, nor last moment of frustration…
…so he did a little complaining of his own to God: “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
We are told that the people were testing the Lord saying: “Is the Lord among us or not?”
And the answer comes from a hopeless barren rock.
For out of this hopeless barren rock God produces what the people need in order to live—cool, refreshing, life-saving water!!!
Out of the rock comes life.
Out of the rock comes proof that the Lord is, indeed, among His people.
God could bring water from a rock, and thereby, bring life out of death.
Was not Christ’s body entombed in a cave behind a great rock?
And as we are told in Mark’s Gospel, on the Day of the Resurrection of Jesus the two Marys were on there way to the tomb in order to anoint Jesus’
body when they asked each other: “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
“But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.”
Jesus was no longer in the tomb.
Out from behind the huge rock, God had brought forth life—the Life which is necessary for the salvation of us all!!!
Some have said that the threshold of the Christian faith is at that point where the thirsty soul stands squarely in front of the hopeless barren rock, the seemingly impossible—and finds that, through Christ, there is no such thing in life as an impossible situation.
We see this as well in our Gospel Lesson.
Jesus, speaking to the chief priests and elders of the people, says directly: “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
Who would have imagined such a thing as this?
Weren’t the tax collectors and prostitutes a lot like hopeless, barren rocks?
Who would ever expect any life to spring forth in them?
Tax collectors and prostitutes were two very despised groups of people in Jesus’ day.
Tax collectors were hated agents of an oppressive foreign government, who were amassing private fortunes at the people’s expense.
They were considered to be so untrustworthy that they weren’t even allowed to testify in a court of law.
And prostitutes were the prime example of immorality.
The religious authorities, especially, looked down on these groups and ostracized them from the community.
Yet Jesus said, because of their faith, they were entering God’s Kingdom ahead of the ‘respectable’ religious leaders who condemned them.
Could there be a connection between Moses striking the hopeless barren rock and God bringing forth the life saving water, and hardened folks such as tax collectors and prostitutes being struck by the Spirit of God, then believing and repenting, and thus being made new?
I think the connection is that God commanded Moses to strike the rock, Moses obeyed and the water came…
…and God is commanding us to strike the lost with the Gospel of Christ…
…and if we obey, God will bring forth new life in the form of salvation!
We will see God perform miracles right before our eyes, miracles we never could have dreamed of.
We may very well look about our world and see the hopelessness of it all…
…war, drugs, poverty, racism, immorality, apathy…
We may feel like Ezekiel, who in the middle of a valley saw nothing but dry bones, but the Word of the Lord said to the bones: “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.”
Yes, if God can bring forth water from a rock…
…if God can put flesh on dry bones and breath in them the breath of life…
…if God can do all these things, there certainly is no such thing in life as an impossible situation!!!
There is no such thing as a person who is beyond the reach of God’s saving grace, no matter who they are…
…no matter where they are on life’s highway!
The world may look at the ostracized, the outcaste, the marginalized, the delinquent and proclaim: “What can we hope to get out of these people…Nothing!!!”
Jesus says otherwise.
And as the Church of Jesus, we are to say otherwise as well.
One of the most fantastic things about the Church, if it is functioning as it should, is that no matter one’s social status on the outside, in the world—when persons walk through these doors we are all the same—sinners in need of a Savior!!!
The religious leaders, the prostitutes, the tax collectors in Jesus’ day were also all in the same boat.
They too, were all a bunch of sinners in need of a Savior.
The problem was that one group knew the condition they were in, and therefore were eager for help…
…the other group, thought that they were just fine the way they were, and saw no need to repent and believe!
A colleague of mine, who is preaching on the same Gospel Lesson this morning, told me earlier this week that he is naming his sermon: “Are We Too Good To Be Saved?”
Are we more like the chief priests and elders of Jesus’ day, or the prostitutes and tax collectors?
Kind of throws the normal way of looking at things on its ear, does it not?
Now, I am in no way saying that we should purposefully sin…
…we can do that with little effort anyway…
…all I’m saying is that we must realize our sinful situations, repent and believe the Gospel in order to be transformed from being hopeless barren rocks so that we can become hope-filled water gushing fountains!!!
I am in fairly frequent contact, through email, with one of my friends…or to put it a bit more honestly…one of my acquaintances from high school.
I say acquaintances, because although this person had a lot going for him in high school, I don’t think he had a lot of ‘real friends.’ He didn’t allow people to get very close.
I remember, we were on the basketball team together, and another kid had to be excused early from practice because he had to be at church.
This person, I’ll call him John, shocked me by making fun of the other player: “You have to go to Church? Only wimps need God!”
John was also a Kleptomaniac. He couldn’t be trusted as far as you could throw him.
He would brag about being at another classmates house, and when the other classmate left the room, John finding $20.00 in the kid’s dresser drawer, quickly pocketed the cash.
I made a mental note to never let John out of sight in my house…
…or even in my house, for that matter.
I remember a time that a bunch of us were riding in someone’s car, when out of the blue, John asked the driver to stop at a stereo store.
We waited as John went into the store and then immediately came back out and got into the car with a brand new stereo he had stolen by reaching behind a glass cabinet when the owner’s back was turned.
I could tell you many more stories like these…but you get the point.
Four years ago, John sent me an email saying: “I have found the love of God through Jesus Christ.”
I could hardly believe it! This was about the last person on earth from whom I would have expected to hear this most wonderful news!!!
In my mind, I had always thought of John as a hopeless, hard, barren rock.
Obviously, this is not how God had viewed him.
Instead, beyond that tough devil may care shell, God saw a person who was hurting…
…God saw a person who had potential…
…God saw a person who, like the “son” in our parable for this morning, would begin life by answering “I will not” work in the vineyard, but would then later change his mind and do what God wanted.
Four years later I am still in contact with John, and am inspired by his commitment to Christ.
He has a wife whom he loves and four children whom he has vowed will not grow up not knowing about Christ, as he did.
He is very active in his church, and recently wrote to me: “Our pastor has been preaching some great sermons on love. Currently, I’m studying the Book of Judges, and my wife is in charge of the children’s ministry at our church. There is nothing more important than getting children into church so that they can hear about Christ.”
To the chief priests and the elders of the people who came to Jesus and questioned His authority…
… “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
There is a connection between Moses striking the rock and seemingly hardened folks who are saved.
When the thirsty Israelites were giving Moses a hard time Moses cried out to the Lord: “What am I to do with these people.”
God’s answer?
“Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”
When we look out at our community, our world and see nothing but hopelessness…
…nothing but dry barren rocks…
…we are to trust that the Lord is among us and will stand there before us as we go out and witness to the world of His wonderful life giving salvation through faith in the Resurrected Christ!!!
And as we do this, as we invite folks to come work in the Lord’s vineyard with us we will find many, who, although they told the Lord long ago: “I will not work in your vineyard,” they have come to the point where they are now ready to change their minds and enter God’s Kingdom.
When Jesus walked the earth as a man he went through the towns and villages, teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom. When he saw the crowds of people, “he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
That means they were just waiting to be ripped to shreds and devoured by the enemy.
So Jesus said to His disciples, that’s you and that’s me: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
How true.
How many folks are there in our community who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd…
…and how many of us are out there in the community, in the field, working to bring in the harvest, working to bring point these folks in the direction of the Kingdom of God?
We live in a thirsty world.
People are standing around, demanding water.
God provided water from a rock in the desert for the Israelites.
And through Christ our Rock, God has provided living water and salvation for all who will believe!!!
Will we share this living water with our thirsty world?
Let us pray: Gracious and giving God, quench our spiritual thirst. Fill our hearts with the knowledge that you are always present as we wander through the wilderness of life. Help us to share this belief readily with all those who thirst. In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray. Amen.
