#40: Sunday, 5 April, 2020.
Sunday, 5 April The Messiah Claims His Kingdom on Earth. Matt. 26:30–35
A very short reading today – I know, there have been some very long ones! Why did Jesus have to warn the disciples that they would all become deserters because of me this night?
Peter would not have felt half as bad about his subsequent betrayal if he had not been drawn into that rash declaration, after Jesus insisted that they would all deny him. Would not a good teacher have discussed the possibility of failure, and given them some strategies on how to avoid it? Instead, he seems to just be saying, ‘You will not pass this test’.
But always we must assume the best of Jesus, as of God. Scripture sometimes records actions or thoughts of God that we find hard to accept. Always we must make the foundational assumption that God (and, therefore Jesus) always does what is right and best. If we can’t quite see that, the problem is ours, not God’s. We must always regard God on the throne, never try to put him in the prisoner’s dock for questioning by us!
What Jesus knows and the disciples do not know is that Jesus is about to undergo the most titanic struggle the cosmos has ever seen. The biblical fact is that there is a supernatural being who personifies evil, and who possesses great power – and Jesus was about to do battle with him, as a Man.
However much it might sound like an episode of Star Wars, this evil spirit had been permitted great influence in the universe – or at least on planet earth. This evil being is described as the ruler of this world (John 12:31), and the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient (Ephesians 2:2). The apostle John declared: the whole world lies under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). This spirit is known in scripture variously as the devil, the Accuser, Satan (which is just the English transliteration of the Hebrew word for adversary or accuser), Lucifer, and the serpent.
Jesus’ task is now to destroy the Source Power of evil in the dust of earth. This had been Adam's task and glory, but he had failed. The dust of Adam’s flesh had now been entered by Jesus as the incarnated (i.e. enfleshed or embodied) True Man. Within that body of flesh, on the plane of the dust of this planet, Jesus was about to fight a battle of incomparable terror and power. This battle was critical for the survival of humanity.
No human creature (such as the disciples) could be expected to grasp the elemental power of this struggle. But we must not be deceived into thinking it was a battle of equals. Jesus is God. Satan is an angel. The battle was to be titanic, but its outcome was inevitable. Never, ever think of a battle between Jesus and Satan as a battle of equals. Satan and the archangel Michael would be more a battle of equals. Jesus is God, not a mere created angel.
Satan was arrogantly confident that he might win this battle, if he engaged it on his own turf – in the dust of earth, with his own weapons: suffering and death.
Jesus’ warning of the disciples’ impending failure to stand with him was not a taunt at their weakness, though a careless reading might read it in that way. It was, rather, an explanation of the awesome supernatural dynamics of this coming event – the ultimate, determining battle between Good and Evil to be fought at a supernatural level.
We ended the previous reflection with these words:
So now the King has claimed Jerusalem. He has claimed the Temple. He has claimed the people of God. He has claimed the Grand Narrative of the Wedding Banquet of God with Israel. Now he has claimed the most important Festival of the Jewish nation. There is just one more element to claim.
Now we are in a position to understand this final element. Let’s go back to the Old Testament (not surprising that we go there yet again to understand the New Testament!).
When Moses was recounting for the Israelites the story of how he had climbed the mountain in thick darkness and smoke to receive the tablets of the Ten Commandments from the very hand of God at Mt Sinai, he reminded them that he took this journey alone:
When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; and you said, "Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to someone and the person may still live. So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive? Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then tell us everything that the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and do it." (Deut. 5:23–27)
The final element that Jesus had to claim as the Messiah was the mantle of the Leader who alone would deliver Israel from its mortal enemy into the Promised Land. The similarities between Jesus and Moses are striking. Here are just a few, but there are many more:
· As babies, they faced the threat of destruction from a jealous and powerful King.
· They both delivered a kingdom manifesto from the top of a mountain.
· They both began their quest of deliverance of the people at Passover.
· Both interceded directly with God the Father for their people.
· Both were born into poverty, but emerged into royalty.
· Jesus was born of a virgin honoured by God; Moses was adopted by the virgin daughter of Pharaoh.
· Moses hid in the cleft of the rock, but Jesus is the Rock of Ages.
Jesus now claims his right as the new Moses to lead his people out of a far worse slavery than mere Egypt. He will lead them out of the power and control of the Prince of Darkness himself. He will defeat that great enemy of humankind, Death. He will conquer both the death-dealing power and the guilt of sin, and forgive the sins of the world, thus creating a people free and holy, able to worship and serve Him as King for ever and ever.
Moses told the people of Israel: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: "If I hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore, or ever again see this great fire, I will die." (Deut. 18:15–16)
In this short passage, Jesus completes his Claim on his Sole Right to be King. Tomorrow we will have a new heading on our Reflection, as Jesus advances on his journey.
Prayer: Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, Save me from its guilt and power. Amen.