Working Backwards

The Baptism of Jesus (Matt 3:13-17)

So in the Gospels, when Jesus comes on the scene, he announces that the kingdom of heaven has arrived.

Matthew tells us in chapter 3 of his Gospel that Jesus comes up from Nazareth and is baptized.

Now John the Baptizer was there baptizing people, and when Jesus goes to him, John objects, saying that Jesus ought to be the one baptizing him.

But Jesus says to John, “Let it be so for the time being; for it is good for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

And Matthew tells us that “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’”

The voice from heaven is quoting two passages of scripture.

Psalm 2:7

“I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;

    today I have become your father.”

–Isaiah 42:1

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him,

    and he will bring justice to the nations.”


The Temptation by Satan (Matt 4:1-11)

But then Matthew tells us that “The Spirit” immediately sends Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days and nights.

Now, in the Bible, the number 40 is almost always associated with times of trial and testing (e.g., Moses as a shepherd for 40 years, Israel wandering the wilderness for 40 years, Elijah in the wilderness for 40 days, etc.) and this is also where we get the 40 days of Lent. It is a time of testing… of suffering and self-denial.

And Matthew tells us that Jesus fasted this whole time out in the desert, and that by the end of it… he was very hungry.

Now the devil comes to Jesus and he says to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

And Jesus responds by quoting from the Law-Book of Deuteronomy, saying, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

This passage of scripture from the Law-Book of Deuteronomy explains how God led his people Israel into the desert in order to make them hungry and to teach them to rely on him for everything. We must rely on him for everything.

Then the devil took Jesus to the great city of Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

He said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.”

And the devil justified this command by quoting from the Bible himself. He quotes from Psalm 91, saying:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

    and they will lift you up in their hands,

    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Now, this was actually a really stupid thing for the devil to say, because if he had gone on to read the rest of that verse he was quoting, he would have read the following: "You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent." And we know that the devil is often described as what? As a lion and a serpent… so he was actually quoting from a psalm that was speaking of his own destruction by the Messiah.

But Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy again, saying, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

He said, “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus again quotes from Deuteronomy, saying, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

HOPE! - Working Backwards

There is an enemy at work against us whose desire is to pull us away from union with God out into the void of nothingness. The enemy has been known by many names – the devil, Satan, Apollyon, and so on…

He is seen as the great enemy of God and all who follow Jesus. But sometimes we talk as though the devil were God’s equal – as if good and evil were equal powers fighting to gain the upper hand… like the Force or something. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The devil lost a long time ago. He was never really much of a threat. Oh sure, he seems all big and scary… especially when we begin to behave the way he does. But really, there is nothing big or great about the devil. He is consumed in himself… and anything consumed by itself isn’t so great. It may trick you into appearing powerful and explosive initially… but it quickly burns out.

And we’re not that much different than the devil, really. Like him, we can be consumed by pride and we can lock ourselves away inside of ourselves and devoid ourselves of all that is good. That’s what the devil did. And that’s what we do too. And isn’t that really where hell begins? In being so consumed in ourselves that we become isolated from all that is good?

But the kingdom of heaven has come… and it has come ahead of schedule. When Jesus drove out demons, they accused him of coming to torture them before the “appointed time.” You see, the kingdom of heaven works backwards. The goodness of God and the sacrifice of Christ transcend time and space, so that the glory of the future travels backwards and becomes the reality of the present. The kingdom is… and is yet to come.

Throughout biblical history we see a protoevangelium – a gospel in advance. We see this from the beginning when God promises that a descendant of the woman will crush the head of the serpent – the enemy.

This type of imagery is seen in other places in the Old Testament, where the enemy of God who is described as having serpent-like qualities receives a crushing head wound. One example would be Goliath, whose armor is described as having the appearance of “scales” like a snake. And David defeats Goliath with a blow to the head. Another example would be the story of Jael, who drives a tent peg through the head, or temple, of the snakelike General Sisera. This kind of language pops up all over the place in the Old Testament. Pictures of the Gospel show up before the Gospel itself arrives.

You see, salvation works backwards. So that the final redemption starts in the here and now.

Damnation works the same way, too, though.

In his book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis speaks of heaven and hell beginning in this life, and that the next life will be the continuation of what we have chosen in this life.

He describes a group of people living in a grey town who take a bus to the outskirts of heaven. When they arrive, they find themselves in a beautiful, wide open country, full of grass and trees and streams, and they are eventually greeted by messengers who come to them from Deep Heaven, and they are invited to journey with them together into Deep Heaven – to go further in and higher up.

Most of the travelers are eager to journey inward… bit they begin to run into obstacles along the way.

One woman whose husband had died, wants to know if her husband will be there. When she finds out that he is there, waiting for her, she is pleased, because she says she has a long list of things she would like him to do for her. She is quite convinced that he has been sitting around doing nothing this whole time since he arrived, and she is keen on getting him back to work. She says he’s probably been sitting around working on that stupid novel of his, and she will soon make good use out of him once again. But… she is told that in order to survive this journey into Deep heaven, she’s going to need to leave some things behind… she will need to let go of her desire for control. And she gets angry… and she argues with the messenger. And she spends the rest of her life arguing and trying to prove that she is in the right.

Another man, who spent his life being an actor, is greeted by a woman he once loved. And he dramatically declares that his love is all that this woman would have ever needed. And he pretends to be jealous when he learns that she’s found something better than his love. …But it’s just an act. He cared for her once, but now all he cares about is drama. And he can’t survive the journey into deep heaven without letting go of his mask.

Another woman arrives who wants to know if her dead son is there, because she wants to go see him. She wants to go be his mother again, and she says that the only thing she cares about is seeing her son again. She will do anything to see him again… even if it means trampling over others… even if it means killing someone. Her desire to see her son appears to righteous and noble, and even justified… but her dead son has become an idol to her… and until she can let go of her son… she cannot see her son.

Another man is greeted by the guy who murdered someone he knew. And the man just can’t believe that they would let a murderer into this place. The man who committed the crime confesses his sin, and he tells him that he has been forgiven by the King. But the other man decides that he doesn’t want to make this journey after all… not if he has go with the man who murdered his friend. He would rather continue murdering the murderer in his own heart… than forgive him and find life.

Another man arrives on the outskirts of heaven… and he shows up with a lizard on his shoulder. And a messenger greets him and invites him on this journey into deep heaven with him… but the lizard speaks… and he whispers lies into the man’s ear…what would you do without me?... you are nothing without me … you would die without me… what would people think if they found out about me?

And the messengers offers to kill the lying lizard and remove it from the man’s shoulder… and the man says he would like that… but he’s grown so accustomed to it… he’s not sure if he can ever be any different than what he is right now… there can’t really be any change… the lizard has become a part of his own identity… if the lizard dies… he will die, too.

And the messenger asks him again if he will let him kill the lizard… and the man says he loves the lizard… and he hates the lizard… he has no life without the lizard… he has no life with the lizard… and he screams and he curses the lizard… but the lizard stays put… and the messenger asks again, will you let me kill it? and the man says yes… kill it quickly. And the lizard is killed. …and to the man’s surprise… he’s still alive… and the corpse of the lizard is transformed into a beautiful horse on which he can ride in freedom into deep heaven.

Eventually, one of the messengers takes us to down to a little blade of grass on the ground, and beneath that is a small little crack in the ground, and he tells us that… last time he checked, anyway… hell is somewhere down in that tiny little crack in the ground. Because heaven is so much bigger than hell.

He says that those who are in heaven at the last will look back on their life on earth and say that they had always been in heaven… and those who were in hell at the last would look back on their earthly life and say that they had always been in hell… and both would speak truthfully.

Those who are in hell, then, lived life on earth in a weird sort of anticipation of ultimate damnation; and those who are in heaven, lived life on earth in anticipation of salvation. Both the damned and the saved experienced the end results of their choices before the end results were finally brought about. This is how, Lewis says, heaven and hell “work backwards.” He says that heaven works backwards from the future to the present in the life of the believer, making even the worst trials and persecutions bearable through hope and joy; and that hell works backwards in the sinner, contaminating even the most pleasurable of sins with the stain of the anticipation of damnation.

Just as it is important to view the kingdom of God as “is and is yet to come,” so it is also appropriate to view the kingdom of the devil in this way. Though, hell would work in the opposite way of heaven. When heaven comes to earth, there is no more room for any traces of hell to remain. If heaven is the presence of God and hell is the absence of God’s presence, then the fact that heaven would come to earth would mean that hell would no longer have any place or hold here.

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God has arrived.” But there is still more to come…

The hope of a future heaven where no good thing is destroyed means that we will be able to see our lost loved ones who died in the Lord. They will be raised in the Lord along with us, and there will no longer be any stupid and hateful death that takes us away from our loved ones, destroying God’s good creation, and defying God and the image of God. We will be together again and it will be wonderful. The creation will be reconciled… and our bodies will be restored. For God will restore all things, and death will be damned forever.

John writes in the book of Revelation that death and hades and the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire. Fire is meant to purify, but they will be in this fire forever, indicating that there was nothing in them that could be refined. There was nothing gold about them that could emerge from the flames. They all melted away like wax in everlasting destruction. And through this final destruction, we will be rid of all our enemies forever.

This belief in a future hell is one of the ways in which we are reminded of the surpassing greatness of the glory of Christ Jesus that will be revealed in us – a greatness that is greater than all of sin and death. A belief in hell helps us to realize that we need God. We need salvation. We need to live in a healthy fear and love of the holiness of God. A belief in heaven gives us hope that there is more to this life than what we currently see, and that in the end God will restore all things and be all in all.

Jesus says, “The Kingdom of heaven is near you”… it’s so close… it’s inside of you. That’s how close it is. The Kingdom of heaven starts right now.

So What’s a Samaritan?

So what’s a Samaritan?

We sometimes throw around the title “Good Samaritan.” And right now we’re looking in the Gospel of John where Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman at a well.

But what is a Samaritan?

Israel Exiled Because of Sin

A long time ago, the nation of Israel split into two separate nations – Judah in the South and Israel in the North.

The capital of the southern kingdom of Judah was in Jerusalem.

And the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel was in a place called Samaria.

But the kings of Israel and Judah were evil and both kingdoms eventually fell – Israel to the Assyrian Empire, and Judah to the Babylonian Empire.

Now the last king of Israel was a guy named Hoshea, and he was really only a puppet king.

A few years back, the Assyrians had invaded most of the north and forced Israel into being one of their vassal states – or puppet state.

But Hoshea was an idiot… and he refused to pay tribute to them, and he even made an alliance with King So of Egypt – who happened to be a personal enemy of the Assyrian King.

And so Shalmaneser, the King of Assyria attacked Israel, and he put Hoshea in prison.

 And The Assyrians invaded the entire land and laid siege to it for three years.

Shalmaneser deported all the Israelites and relocated them to places in Assyria, Holah, Gozan, and Media.

And the writer of 2nd Kings says that, “All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

“The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets…”

“But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the LORD their God.”

“They made golden calves to worship…”

“They worshiped all the starry host…”

“They worshiped Baal…”

“They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire…”

“They practiced divination…”

“Therefore the LORD rejected all the people of Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until He thrust them from His presence.”

“So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.”

Samaria Resettled

“Later, The king of Assyria brought different groups of people from places like Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites.”

But God sent lions to attack the people who had replaced Israel because of the evil things they did.

The king of Assyria sent back one of the captive Israelite priests to teach the new people in the land how to worship the God of that land.

The people, who came to be known as Samaritans, worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped other gods, and they sacrificed their children in the fire.

Return from Exile

Now eventually, the Persian King Cyrus, let the Jews go back to their home land and rebuild their temple, and when they got back they discovered their cousins, the Samaritans, still living in the north between Judea and Galilee.

Bad Blood

Now the Samaritans were, of course, half-breeds, being the descendants of Jews who’d intermarried with non-Jews. They continued to honor God, but they were banned from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem because of their lineage. So, they followed the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but they treated Mt. Gerizim, in Samaria, as the place of the true temple.

Now back when the Jews overthrew the Seleucid rulers and were independent for about 100 years, they destroyed the Samaritan temple — not a very neighborly thing to do.

And so, when we come to Jesus in John’s Gospel, and the Samaritan woman starts up a conversation about the proper place to worship — this question would have been a hot topic to most Jewish rabbis, many of whom believed that God should only be worshiped in Jerusalem!

But Jesus declares that in the new age that he is ushering in, it will no longer be about worshiping in a particular place. Worship won’t be a matter of geography. Rather, the true test of worship will be whether it’s “in spirit and truth.”

This is extraordinary that Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, would even be talking to a Samaritan woman.

For most observant Jews, the Samaritan branch of Hellenistic Judaism—which recognized only the Mosaic Torah, and not the Prophets or other biblical writings as binding Scripture - was little better than a Gentile cult.

The Jews and the Samaritans had a lot of bad blood between them.

The Conversation with the Samaritan Woman (John 4:1-42)

And so John writes for us in his gospel that…

The Pharisees learn that Jesus is baptizing more people than John the Baptist, although the text says that "...in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples."

And when Jesus learns this, he leaves Judea, and returns to Galilee.

He then goes to the Samarian town of Sychar, and rests at Jacob's Well.

And John says that he had to go to Samaria… which isn’t exactly true.

Jesus was going from Judea to Galilee, and the normal route would take him up the Jordan River. But instead of going the normal route, Jesus takes the long way through Samaria.

Most Jews would go way out of their way to avoid going through Samaria… but Jesus goes there intentionally.

His disciples go into town to get food.

And While Jesus is waiting for them, a Samaritan woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her for a drink.

The woman is surprised and says that Samaritans and Jews do not associate.

Jesus responds that if she really knew who he was, she would have asked for the "water" that Jesus was offering.

He says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman asks for this "water" and Jesus tells her to go and find her husband and bring him back.

The woman states she has no husband, and Jesus says that in fact she has had five husbands and is now living with a man who is not her husband.

She then believes that he is a prophet.

Jesus then teaches her about worshiping God, how it has been done in the past, at certain locations, and how it will be done properly in the future.

He says, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

The woman then says that the messiah will come some day and explain all.

And Jesus declares that he is the messiah.

When His disciples return, the woman goes back to town, and tells people that Jesus knew everything  about her, and she wonders if he is the messiah. And the people decide to go and see for themselves.

The disciples meanwhile, who are right now feeling a little too awkward to ask Jesus why he was being so friendly with that foreign girl, try to give Jesus some food but he refuses, saying that his food "...is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

The people from the town come, and Jesus talks with them and they convince him to stay for two more days and teach. And His words convince them that he is "...the Savior of the world."

Love My Neighbor? Other Rabbis

Around the time of Jesus the Jewish rabbis taught that God wants us to love our neighbors… but then the people wanted to know… who is my neighbor? Who counts as my neighbor and who doesn’t?

And the people would ask, is my brother my neighbor?

And the rabbis would say, yes, of course, your brother is your neighbor. The members of your family are the closest neighbors you have. You must always love your family, for they are your neighbor and God commands you to love your neighbor.

And the people would ask, well, what about my in-laws? Do they still count as family?

And the rabbis would say, yes, of course, you must love your whole family, not just the ones closest to you. They are all your closest neighbors, and God commands you to love your neighbor.

And the people would ask, well, what about the people who do business with me in the market or around town? Are they my neighbors, too? You know, some of them aren’t very honest.

And the rabbis would say, yes, of course, you must love your fellow Israelites with whom you interact. For they are both your brothers and your neighbors, and God commands you to love your neighbor.

And then the people would say, well, what about the God-fearing Greeks and other Gentiles, non-Jews. Do we really need to love them, too? They say they believe in our God, but they’re not true Israelites after all. Do they count? Do we really need to love them?

And the rabbis would say, yes, even though they are not Jews like you, they still worship the same God that we do and they are your neighbors, too. You must love them, for God commands you to love your neighbor.

And the people would ask, well, what about the foreigners and immigrants living in our land, non-Israelites. They’re not the chosen children of God, so they wouldn’t really count as my neighbors, too, would they? We don’t need to love them, right?

And the rabbis would say, no, the immigrants and the foreigners living in your land are also the children of God, and God has called you to look after the foreigners and to take care of them for you were once foreigners yourselves living as slaves in Egypt and God had compassion on you. So too you must love the foreigners and the immigrants living among you, for they are your neighbors, and God commands you to love your neighbor.

And then the people would say, yeah, but what about the Romans? They’re not really are neighbors, right? I mean, they’re an occupying force here. They’ve taken over our land, the land that God promised our father Abraham for his descendants. They tax us and oppress us, and they’ve killed many of us. These are our enemies and they hate our God! Surely these Romans – these pagans - don’t count as our neighbors, right? We don’t have to love them, too, right?

And the rabbis would pause… and they would think long and hard… and finally they would say. No, my children, even the Romans are your neighbors. And though they oppress and kill you, you must love them, too, for God commands you to love your neighbor.

And then finally, the people would ask, and what about those Samaritans? Those half-breeds? They also claim to worship our God. Are they our neighbors, too? Do we need to love them as well?

And without hesitation, the rabbis would say, oh, no!, of course not! you don’t need to love the Samaritans! Of course they don’t count as your neighbor! They’re not even human!

Love My Neighbor? Rabbi Jesus

And then Jesus comes along. He is also a rabbi, and he also teaches that you must love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And how do you love God? By loving your neighbor! And the people say, preach it, Jesus! God wants us to love our neighbors!

And Jesus tells them to forgive their brothers, their fellow Israelites who sin against them, and to love them for they are their neighbors.

And the people say, how many times should we forgive them? Seven times? And Jesus says seventy-times-seven.

And Jesus goes to his home town of Nazareth and preaches in the synagogue from the book of Isaiah, claiming that Isaiah was talking about him when he said: 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

The Nazarenes love his sermon, but then Jesus makes offensive statements at the end 

Jesus compares himself to the prophets Elijah and Elisha, but in his comparison he points out how Elijah helped a foreign woman and how Elisha not only healed a foreigner but one who was the commander of the enemy army. The Nazarenes were angry because Jesus claimed that Israel’s God wanted to rescue Israel’s enemies. 

The Nazarenes try to throw Jesus off a cliff, but he escapes 

Samaritan Opposition (Luke 9:51-56) 

On a later occasion, in Luke’s Gospel…

Jesus sends his disciples on ahead of Him to prepare the way.

However, when they come to a Samaritan town, and the Samaritans find out that Jesus is on His way to take care of business in Jerusalem, the Samaritans say that He and His disciples are not welcome.

When the disciples report this news to Jesus, James and John (the sons of Zebedee) ask Jesus if He would like them to call down fire from Heaven upon these Samaritans.

The disciples would have known the story of Elijah calling down fire from Heaven to consume the commander and soldiers when they came from Samaria to arrest him.

James and John believed that if Elijah would call down fire to destroy unbelieving Samarians, then Jesus would certainly do no less.

However, Jesus rebuked the two disciples for saying such a thing.

Jesus did not come to destroy life, but to save it.

Jesus had compassion on the Samaritans, and Jesus came not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well.

Jesus says that salvation is for all people.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) 

Another time in Luke’s Gospel, A Torah-Teacher, a Pharisee, approaches Jesus and he asks him, “Rabbi, What is the greatest commandment?” 

The answer is obvious: the priests, the Levites, and the Pharisees, all of Israel’s great teachers of the day, had always taught the greatest commandment is The Shema! – or to love God with all of yourself – heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And how do you love God with all of yourself? With the second greatest commandment! Love your neighbor! 

But the man wants to know, “Who is my neighbor?” 

Jesus says: 

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

And then what does Jesus say next?

Does he say a Pharisee came along, saw the half-dead guy and had compassion on him?

No!

He says, But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’” 

Why does the priest avoid the man lying for dead on the road? Because he’s a holy man. Because he knows the Law that says “Don’t touch dead bodies!” 

The priest believes the laws of cleanliness are more important than the law to love ones neighbor. 

The Levite does the same, walking clear over on the other side of the road (practically walking off the edge of a cliff to avoid loving his neighbor) 

And the Samaritan is the only one that knows how to love his neighbor!!! The Jews didn’t even think Samaritans counted as human! 

So Jesus says: Go love the person who despises you! Go love the person you hate! Be like the Samaritan in the story and love the Samaritans! – Love your enemies! 

The Point

Remember how James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to burn up the Samaritans?

Well, they had a change of heart. In fact, John made sure to include the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well when he wrote his account of the life of Jesus – what we call the Gospel of John.

You see, Jesus changed John’s heart. He replaced the hate with love.

And when John was a very old man, he wrote these words:

“We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

Jesus changed John’s heart. And Jesus can change our hearts, too, Church. The living water he offers is available to all of us.

So who is your Samaritan? Do you have enemies? Do you have any bad blood? What group of people do you find repulsive? That bug you? Or that you just don’t get?

Do you know what Jesus says? He says, “I don’t want to hear about your bad blood any more. Go love them!”