10/13/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5.17)

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6.24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

If you think it strange that I have offered Matthew 6.24 as an addendum to the reflection thus far concerning the Beatitudes and their introduction to Jesus’ teaching on “living a life of righteousness,” bear with me. Take hold of the essence of what Jesus says about such service. As I mentioned previously, we are called to “wait upon the Lord.” The life of righteousness is how we “best wait” upon the Lord both in patience and in service. Jesus intimated that He was committed to serve the Lord with gladness 1) all the days of His life which includes eternity and life after earthly passing and 2) with fidelity to the Law and the Prophets of which He could not and would not change, improve or remake. His purpose, statedly so, was to fulfill them. In His words to His cousin John the Baptizer, six months his better by earthly age, as He approached him in the Jordan to be baptized, “Let us do this thing to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus was committing Himself to rabbinic ministry as conferred by Heaven (thus the inclusion of John’s testimony concerning the descending of the dove from Heaven and the confirmation of God who said “This is My Son in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was also committing Himself to the required sacrifice which He would make with His own life on the cross. Only the purest “lamb of God” would suffice. As God had provided a ram to Abraham in lieu of Abraham providing Isaac to God in faithful obedience, so now God was providing the perfect Lamb (a ram, by the way) as the sacrifice for our sins so that we may offer ourselves without blemish by His blood to God. Hear the context of this ceremonial washing and anointing from the dialogue which occurred between Peter and Jesus in the Upper Room. (ref John 13.1-17) The passage is too long to post here but I urge you to read its vital message of “waiting on the Lord” as servant leaders called and anointed to do the work of the Lord. It is the “foot washing” episode where Peter attempts to first hinder then indulge in the “washing” motif. It is a lesson on integrity, humility, purity and determination.

As Peter defers to what seems to be humiliation (the menial task of foot washing usually performed by a servant of the house) becomes an expression on Peter’s part of deepest humility and total surrender. He says, “If I cannot stop You from washing my feet, then don’t stop there. Wash all of me and make me clean.” If you could, I would ask you to listen to an even deeper message which perhaps Peter is expressing. Could it be that there is a foreshadowing of death in his thinking. To “wash the whole body” was either a baptismal experience (coming into the life of righteousness) or a burial ritual (coming into the reward of the life of righteousness.) In Jewish tradition, the body is cleaned from head to toe and anointed for burial. It all happens quickly except if the death occurs on or just before the Sabbath. But, the practice remains the same. We know that Joseph of Arimethea and perhaps Nicodemus the Elder as well as the Marys and Salome, some could say even John the beloved, hastily made preparations for Jesus burial. They didn’t have much time since His death was near 3:00 p.m. and the Sabbath began near 6:00 p.m. By the time Joseph had petitioned Pilate for Jesus’ body, returned to Golgotha with the order to have it removed from the cross and then with as much diginity as possible had it borne to the Garden Tomb, there was little time for the necessities of burial and none of the niceties. Because of this, the Marys and Salome returned the morning after the Sabbath had ended, the Third Day, with the hope that the soldiers would roll away the stone so that they could finish what they had started and longed to do. They would have rewashed the body, perfumed it and rewrapped it. It was a strange thought on their part, however, as they had not yet grasped the fullness of the promise of resurrection. Still consumed by death, they were willing to risk being unclean by touching a body that had been laid to rest for thirty-six hours. Further complicated by the fact of the condition of the crucified body itself and all its woundedness for our transgressions. Yet, they were willing to do this to “fulfill all righteousness” it would seem.

So, now Peter declares that not only was he willing to go to Jerusalem and die with Jesus, confident that he would never betray Jesus, but he was unable to do so unless Jesus cleansed him completely and make his anointing perfectly sanctified. Jesus, however, responds, “Those who have had a bath only need their feet washed; they are clean. You are clean. Yet, I tell you, not everyone is here is clean.” John shares that Jesus knew it was Judas of Kerioth who had already been enticed by Satan long before this to betray Jesus and thus seal his revenge. Jesus meant “cleanliness” not in an outward way but inwardly as the spiritual intent of all people are called into question. For Peter and for Judas, and the other disciples as well, it was a question of “Whom shall you serve?” Thus, I bring the teaching found in Matthew 6 to bear witness to this reflection. Jesus said, “A man cannot serve two masters. He will hate the one and love the other; be devoted to the one or despise the other. One cannot serve both God and money (mammon).” And we cannot forget that money, in and of itself, is not evil. The wisdom literature, which every Jew knew, taught “it is the love of money” that is the root of all evil. Money represents survival and gain in a worldly sense. There is no need of money in the Kingdom of God in Heaven or on earth. Jesus will soon urge His disciples to go out and do ministry taking no money with them. They are to be utterly dependent upon the move of the Spirit and the goodness of God both of which they were committed to to provide. They did and they were. But, looking at Judas of Kerioth we see both the payment for treachery (thirty pieces of silver) and a layered sense of justice (I believe but is a story for another day) for some kind of reparation. Judas is consumed with “payoffs, paybacks and paychecks.” What his real story is, we do not know. But, he is most certainly caught in the midst of “whom shall I serve.” In the end, Judas is captured by that sense of his service to God which comes first. He realizes too late what Jesus’ life truly meant and was to actually accomplish: to fulfill all righteousness. Because of this, he took his own life as a sense of justice. He had not effected the desire of his own heart with wrong intent or false purpose. He had, however, provided the means by which “the Lamb of God” would be slain at the hands of the Temple leadership and the will of Rome. Willingly or unwillingly, it is that sense of “the love of money and service to it” that engulfed them all. All but Jesus, of course. He was the price to be paid for the propitiation of our sins. He filled the debt we owed not to the world but to God. His sacrifice restores us to worthiness to be called children of the Most High God. It is in that state of being that we now live and are called to disciple others until Jesus returns and ushers in the close of the Age of the Church to institute the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.