The Mouth of Christ
Deuteronomy 8:1-10
Luke 4:1-4
March 19, 2006
One of the things that I have learned over the years of being a pastor is that some of the most important committee work of the church doesn’t occur in meetings. Sometimes, some of the most important decisions we make, some of the most significant insights we have, some of the most valuable lessons we learn, come from the meeting after the meeting.
The meeting after the meeting is informal and usually takes place in the parking lot as folks are making their way to their cars. More questions are asked, alternative options are discussed, or further information is offered.
I would like to ask you today to think about the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament as the meeting after the meeting. The original meeting has been comprised of history up to this point. It includes the creation stories, the flood, the lives of the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the enslavement of the Children of Israel in Egypt, the Exodus from slavery led by Moses, and the forty year wandering in the desert.
These events and stories are recounted in the first four books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.
The book of Deuteronomy finds the Children of Israel at the very end of their wandering as they are preparing for an attack across the Jordan from the east side of the river. It is sort of the farewell address of Moses to the people. He reminds them of what they had been through and how God has been with them through it all. Then he reinterprets their history for their contemporary times by telling them how it all fits together to make sense.
Deuteronomy is the meeting after the meeting. Moses is telling the people what they need to remember, what was important of their history, and what God desires as they go forward to carve out a new homeland. They are standing in the parking lot and Moses climbs up on a tree stump to take one last opportunity to help them understand all that has happened, just in case there has been some misunderstanding.
In the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people to remember that God led them in the wilderness for forty years, fed them with manna from heaven, provided them with clothing that did not wear out, and prevented their feet from becoming lame. More important than all of those things, is the teaching that, as dependent as they have become on the physical sustenance provided by God, it is the Word of God which provides real and lasting life. “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3). Just a short time before this, Moses recited for them what was to become their confession of faith. To this day, Jews still recite this.
Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:4-9).
It is the Word of God which provides life. These are people of the Word. Without the Word, they would have nothing. Without the Word, they could accomplish nothing. Without the Word, they could be nothing. It was the Word of God that spelled out for them what it meant to be God’s people. It was the Word that formed them, corrected them, counseled them, empowered them, protected them, taught them, and set them on right paths. They were people of the Word. And they would remain people of the Word.
Skip ahead now a couple of thousand years or so in history. Jesus has come on the scene. He was born in Bethlehem, spent his boyhood in Nazareth, learned the craft of his earthly father, and was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Following that baptism, he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for a time of trial and preparation for his ministry and mission.
He was fasting during those days in the mountainous desert in order to clear his mind and help him focus on God. When he was most vulnerable, the Devil appeared to him and offered him a deal. The Devil acknowledged his hunger, but said not to worry about it because he could fix it. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
Jesus replied, “One does not live by bread alone.” It was a reference back to Deuteronomy. Because the Devil can quote Scripture with the best, Jesus didn’t need to finish the saying; didn’t need to repeat the whole thing: The Devil knew the whole sentence. “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
It is the third Sunday of Lent and we are focusing today on the mouth of Christ, for out of his mouth comes the very Word of God. The ministry of Jesus revolves around his words… around the Word of the Lord.
That is the way his ministry began. Remember the day, early on, when he was in the synagogue in Nazareth. The fourth chapter of Luke records the story. They asked Jesus to read the Scripture for the day. He took down the Isaiah scroll and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and to announce the acceptance of the Lord.” Jesus came to preach, to proclaim, and to announce. Through his preaching and teaching, he brought the people to God so they could experience God up close and personal. Surely his actions and miracles pointed the way to God, but we cannot forget his words which opened up new ways of thinking about God and new insights into God’s will for humanity. The mouth of Christ is so important because out of it came the words of God himself.
Out of his mouth came words of judgment. He said that anyone who caused one of the little ones of the kingdom to sin would be better off to have a millstone tied around the neck and cast into the sea. As he cast out the moneychangers from the Temple, he announced that they had made the house of prayer into a den of thieves. He pronounced woe on anyone who betrayed the Son of God, saying that it would be better if that person had never been born.
Out of the mouth of Jesus came words of prophecy. To Peter, he prophesied that he would deny the Son of God three times before the rooster crowed. To the disciples, he prophesied that he would be handed over to be crucified at the Passover. At the last supper, he told his friends that he would not drink wine again until he could drink it in the Kingdom.
Out of his mouth came words which demonstrated his power over nature. In the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee, he spoke to the wind and the waves, and the storm ceased.
Out of his mouth came words of healing. He spoke to a paralyzed man, to a woman with a hemorrhage, to two blind men, to Peter’s mother-in-law suffering with a fever, to lepers, and to people with all sorts of infirmities. The words of his mouth were enough to bring healing.
From his mouth came words that showed his power over evil. He spoke and a deaf and mute spirit came out of a boy. He spoke and rebuked the demon in another boy. He drove demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs, all by the words of his mouth.
From his mouth came words of graciousness. “Let the little children come. Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.”
From his mouth came words of forgiveness. To the paralytic he said, “Your sins are forgiven.” To a sinful woman, he said, “You faith has saved you.”
From his mouth came words of life. With a word he was able to raise people from the dead. He spoke to the son of the Widow and he rose from his death. He raised the daughter of Jairus, a religious teacher. He spoke to Lazarus, and even though he had been dead for four days, he walked out of his tomb still wrapped with his burial cloths. To us all, he spoke words of eternal life when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die will live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
The words of his mouth taught us not only how to live, but also how to die. As he was on the cross, he cried out to God, “Into your hands, I commit my Spirit.” It now doesn’t matter if we live or if we die, as long as we remain in God’s hands.
Finally, from his mouth came words of hope. He reminded his disciples, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Moses knew, Jesus knew, and God’s people throughout the generations have known that there is more to life than food, shelter, clothing, friends, livelihood, wealth, status, or wisdom. Those things may be important, indeed they are, but they are not essential for eternal life. We do not live by bread alone. We do not live by those things that make for a physically comfortable life, but by the words that proceed from the mouth of God.
As we continue our Lenten journey, I hope that we will remember the mouth of Jesus and pay attention to the words that come from it. They are words of life. They are words of grace. They are words of forgiveness. They are words of peace.
I hope that we will teach our children to pay attention to the mouth of Jesus and to his words. Teach them as we talk, sit, walk, lie down, and rise with them. Let us write the words of his mouth on our hearts, so that we will never be alone.
