SERMON Dennis Evans 10-7-2018
“The Battle Primeval –
Till all the World is Gained”
Scripture readings:
Revelation 7:9-10; Matthew 8:5-13
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| Walking near Lower Crab Creek North of Desert Aire/Mattawa WA September 2018 |
It’s an
ongoing battle that we see, and fight within ourselves, and within our families
and friendships. We see and fight the battle in the world around us in every nation, tribe, people, and language.
We may
see and fight the same battle in the one holy church around the world, and
maybe within these walls. We can see, in the centurion in Matthew’s gospel, how
Jesus fights his spiritual warfare to beat us, and win us, and make us, and
keep us his own. We are called to join him in this fight for ourselves, and for
others, and for the world that God so loves and plans to save.
The
pictures of the first disciples are there. Our pictures are there. The pictures
of Christians in North Korea, and China, and India are there. The pictures of
our brothers and sisters in Latin America, and Africa, and Europe are there.
We all
fight together for Jesus. We all fight for love. We fight to bring the Kingdom
of Jesus for the healing and for the recreation of the world, wherever we are.
We fight with Jesus against the kingdom of the Devil, who is already defeated,
however much that dark kingdom refuses to admit it.
Jesus
defeated the kingdom of Satan on the cross and in the resurrection, but the
kingdom of darkness fights on until Jesus returns and mops them up. The Bible
tells us that one of our greatest weaknesses in this warfare is that we don’t
have the weapon of patience. Peter says this about the Lord’s tactics: “He is
patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
The
patience of the Lord is so great, just on this planet, that people “from every
nation, tribe, people, and language” will be liberated and come home. Our
friends, Jim and Carolyn Mudge, along with groups like the Wycliffe Bible Translators,
are still hard at work using the weapon of the Lord’s patience.
Jesus was
patient. He waited patiently for someone to show up who would also show up the
people who were so proud of their faith. The pagan centurion was ready for
Jesus without knowing it.
The
Romans had a myth about being descended from two boys, twin boys who were
abandoned at birth and raised by a she-wolf. This she-wolf suckled them (nursed
them) with her own milk, and so the Romans believed that they had wolf’s blood
in their veins and they loved to be ruthless. They loved to watch people kill
each other in their stadiums. But the Roman centurion, with his faith so hidden
that even he didn’t really know about it, was more of a sheep in wolf’s
clothing: not a real wolf at all.
Romans
thought it was weak to see slaves as humans. The centurion called his sick and paralyzed
slave “his boy”. Instead of Roman pride, he claimed to be unworthy of Jesus
come to his house.
The bath
of Jesus’ blood is filled with compassion and humility, because God became
human to die for us in compassion and humility. This is his blood in which the
uncounted crowd washes themselves.
How disgusting
it sounds, to wash in a blood bath, but that is what Jesus’ sacrifice on the
cross is. It disgusts us, the thought of accepting our blame for some great
hurt in another person’s life, or in our family. It even disgusts us to think
of surrendering some bitterness, or anger, or hurt that we carry in our hearts.
Even if it promises to make us whole,We will do anything but that, and the terms
of surrender that we set by insisting on our “anything but that” has no
humility or compassion in it.
The
people dressed in white for victory are the ones who surrender so absolutely
that they stop to wash in the blood that is their only hope for life. The Roman
centurion was ready for that bath. He believed that Jesus would love his slave
as much as he did. He believed that Jesus would do more for that slave than his
owner could.
When we
wash in the blood of Jesus, we may win the victory because we hardly notice our
own hurts and wounds, because we are bloody already. So much has been done for
us. So much has been given for us.
In the
end, the victory will bring us a shepherd, someone who guides us to the living
water, which means a life that is refreshed and renewed all the time. The
victory will bring us someone who wipes our tears away. That will be our everlasting
joy.
This is
not only the reward of the victory that is promised to us in the future. It’s
the victory that we have now.
We have a
shepherd now, who leads us always. He’s the good shepherd. He always refreshes
us. He always wipes our tears. Jesus does this now. Jesus does this now in his
patience, and in ours.
The Lord’s
Supper is one of those places where people of every nation, tribe, people, and
language gather. Jesus and the Centurion represent nations, tribes, people, and
languages who are enemies who have no reason to love each other. They have no
understanding, no compassion, and no humility toward each other.
The Lord’s
Table is a place where the haters and the fearful, the safe and the vulnerable,
become friends. The Lord’s Table is a place where we become one in Jesus.
