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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to
hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them
you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue
from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has
been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah
son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I
tell you, all this will come on this generation.”
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to
you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left
to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say,
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Matthew 23:33-39
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Israel was a mess as Jesus entered into His
final days before being brutally beaten and crucified on a cross. Of course,
the nation always seemed to have a love-hate relationship with the very God who
chose them to be His people. Over and over again, He delivered them from harm
and always provided what they needed when they needed it. And in return, the
Israelites too often responded with disobedience, complaining, apostasy, or a
combination of all three.
Yet despite their sinful, woeful behavior,
God still wished to save them. He had provided advance word through the
prophets that He would send a Savior Messiah for His people to deliver them
once and for all.
How did the Israelites respond to God’s goodness,
grace, and generosity?
They rejected God’s very own Son, Jesus,
and didn’t stop there. For they decided to completely eliminate Him, an action
Jesus fully knew as He finished up His venomous condemnation of the Jewish
religious authorities. Look again at His words here as we wrap up the 23rd
chapter of Matthew:
“You snakes! You
brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am
sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and
crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And
so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you
murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come
on this generation.”
“Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I
have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For
I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the Lord.’”
First, Jesus provides a summation of how
wicked Israel had become. They had become evil, slithering around like snakes
and vipers while looking for people to attack and poison with their sinfulness.
God tried to communicate with His people. Like in the parable of the tenants
where the landowner had sent servant after servant to try and get the tenants
to provide what they were expected to produce only to find them get abused or
murdered, God’s servants sent to the Israelite people to provide guidance and
direction were all rejected, flogged, or killed. Jesus made sure the present
generation knew that the weight of God’s judgment would be upon them for their
wicked behavior.
In the second paragraph, the tone of Jesus’
words shifts to remorse. He uses the word Jerusalem here but He is really to
speaking to Israel at large and it’s obvious He held love for the nation and
its people. This only added to the sadness Jesus felt in His heart over how
spiritually dead the people were, so spiritually dead that they could not even
discern that He was who He said He was, the prophesied Messiah who had come to
save them from judgment. In fact, you’ll recall that Jesus actually wept before
He entered Jerusalem for what He knew would be His last time (Luke 19:41).
Like a mother hen loved and labored hard to
protect and raise her chicks, so too did Jesus love the people of Israel but
unfortunately, the feelings weren’t mutual. For while Jesus entered Israel’s
capital city for His final week to the cries of “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is the
King of Israel!”, many in Jerusalem would be demanding He be crucified just five
days later. The Israelites were about to do the unthinkable. They were about to
murder the very Son of God.
Now, that could have been the end of God’s
plan for His people I guess. God could have just said, “I offered you salvation
through my Son. You rejected it. You have no place with Me.” But that’s not
what happened. For the people of the world, both Jew and Gentile, would not see
the last of Jesus on that fateful day at Calvary as Jesus drew His last breath
while nailed and hanging on a cross.
For we know the rest of the story. He rose
from the tomb three days later, made numerous appearances so that people would
know He was very much alive, and then He ascended to the heavens where God
placed Him in a place of authority over everything in heaven and on earth
(Matthew 28:18).
The life of Jesus never ended and neither
does the life of anyone who places His faith and trust in Him. That is what we
call the good news of the Gospel. For their will be a return, a time when Jesus
comes back to the earth and when He does, it will be as the Judge of all
people. Every person will be held accountable for the way they lived and there
will be two possible outcomes:
1. Those who placed their belief and hope
in Jesus will be saved and ascend with Him to the new heaven and earth to abide
in a new city. What city? You guessed it, Jerusalem, a new Jerusalem where the
new residents would ever proclaim praise for Jesus saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord.”
2. Everyone else, those who rejected Jesus
and His offer of salvation will earn eternal damnation. They will live forever
in torment and agony, wishing they could die but never perishing.
Now, I don’t know where you stand today as
you read this but I pray you are counted in the number of the redeemed, those
who have committed their life to the only person, Jesus, who can save it. If
you’re not in that number and have turned away from Jesus in your life up to
now, please do not be counted in the number of those who will receive eternal
suffering on the day Jesus returns. Make your decision right now to turn from
your sins and receive the Savior who died to cover the cost of them, the very
Savior ready to receive you into the family of the saved with loving, open
arms.
For as Paul writes in his letter to the
Romans, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans
8:1).
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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