1. Temptation in the desert

Last week, we reflected on the Resurrection by reading Matthew chapter 28. The essential of Matthew’s message was, “Do not look for Jesus among the dead in the tomb. Because he has risen and is living.” And “He is going into Galilee. There you will see him."(see Matthew 28:5-7)

His disciples then set off from Jerusalem to go Galilee. They met living Jesus there. And the very miraculous meeting made them worship Jesus as the son of God.( see Matthew 28:16-17)

Galilee was the place where Jesus and the disciples started and developed preaching ministry. Furthermore, it was there that resurrected Jesus was waiting for them. And we recognized that we should have our own ‘ Galilee,’ the meeting place with living Jesus.

Today is the first Sunday after Easter. We will lecture again on the opening scene of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. The reading portion is Matthew chapter 4. Though Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea the family moved into Nazareth in Galilee. He grew up there. When he arrived at approximately the age of 30 years old, he heard about a religious movement of John the Baptist.

John was preaching to people by saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (see Matthew 3:1-2)
And John’s activity moved Jesus so strongly that he came to Judea and was baptized by John. We can consider the event as the opening stage of Jesus’ ministry. We also begin our spiritual life with baptizement, although physical life starts at the time of birth.

After Jesus’ baptizement, Matthew reported, a voice came from heaven and said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."(see Matthew 3:16-17)

Exactly at that moment Jesus recognized his authentic identity. He is the son of God sent to the world by God himself. Then he went into the desert to seek and find what he should do as the son of God. Matthew interpreted the fact this way, ; - Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.(Matthew 4:1)

It implies that all temptations are given by God. Therefore, even if we undergo hard trials, we can overcome them and be led to blessing. However, at first, we must reflect on signification of harsh experiences. Then we understand that God makes us bear burdens in order to educate us, not to destroy us. That is the blessing!

Jesus passed temptation tree times in the desert. Each time the tempter, the devil proposed him a lure which concerned fundamental factors of human life, needs, health and reputation. At first the devil said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Bread symbolizes material needs of humans. And the devil meant, ” Don’t you think that humans can be happy with abundance of food?”

Jesus answered, “Man does not live on bread alone” ( see Matthew 4:2-4) Because humans eat bread to live, they do not live to eat. Food was a mere meaning of living.

Then the devil said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the highest point of the Temple. God will command his angels to lift you up in their hands"(see Matthew 4:5-6)
It instigates Jesus to show miraculous works to people, for example, healing acts, in order to prove his divine power.

Jesus said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’(Matthew 4:7) Even if the sick or the disabled were healed the result is temporary because all humans dies someday. Therefore Jesus compels us to look for eternal life beyond the death, the salvation, instead of physical health.

The last one was this, “I will give you all the splendid kingdoms of the world, if you will bow down and worship me."(see Matthew 4:8-9) The evil tried to convince Jesus that earthy power must be necessary to achieve the object, even missions.

This time Jesus ordered, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."(Matthew 4:10) Secular happiness and satisfaction cannot be eternal. So much so Jesus teaches us to worship the Lord your God, our Creator. The act makes our life spiritually eternal.

Please remark that all suggestions of the tempter begin with, ‘ if you are the son of God.’ It shows us that the temptation was aimed to lead Jesus to find what he should do as the Savior. Through those spiritual and crucial experiences, he grasped his mission as the establishment of the kingdom of God.

2. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near

The time has come for Jesus to begin his own ministry, independently from John. Matthew wrote ; - When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. (Matthew 4:12)

John was put in prison by Herod Antipas, one of Herod the Great’s sons. Antipas was the ruler of Galilee and Perea then. And John’s acting place was in Perea. So Antipas was afraid that John’s movement would provoke messianic uprising which required political restoration in his ruling lands. Because Herod family was not considered to be enough faithful Jewish teachings. Thus Antipas arrested and imprisoned John.

The news pushed Jesus to get back to Galilee where he should begin the ministry. However Jesus moved to Capernaum, in stead ofremaiing in Nazareth where his family lived. Because he was rejected in Nazareth. (see Luke 4:14~) Then Capernaum, a lakeside town of the Galilean Sea, became home base of Jesus’ activities.

Matthew explained the location of Capernaum, ‘by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali.’ Those two proper names are referring to the prophesy in Isaiah 9:1-2 ; - In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan - The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

That way Matthew implied that Isaiah’s words were fulfilled through the opening of Jesus’ ministry.
According to the Books of Genesis, Zebulun and Naphtali were original territories named after two tribes of the Israelite Tribe. ‘He humbled the lands,’ indicates that the area near boundary were occupied and dominated by Assyria in the time of Isaiah, around BC.732.

Since then Galilee continued to be occupied foreign powers. ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light,’ means that Israel, which suffered longtime from state of subordination to others countries, would be emancipated and see its glory.

Jesus ministry in Galilee was summed up in the slogan, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’
‘The kingdom of heaven,’ is the same as the kingdom of God. That way, Jesus declared that establishment of the kingdom of God started in Galilee. Isaiah’s prophecy ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned,’ was accomplished, emphasized Matthew.

* Herod Antipas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Antipas
** Zebulun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebulun
Naphtali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtali
Assyrian occupation http://www.ccmanitowoc.org/Library/Guglielmo-Joe/Studies/HOL/HOL1076.htm

3. Light into darkness and shadow of death

Today’s invocation verses are Isaiah 53:4-5 ; - Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

The back ground of the verses is the return of Jewish people from Babylon. Israel had been defeated by Babylonian army and Israelites brought as captures to Babylon. But the time of getting back to the Judea has come. A leader was raised by God to carry our the returning journey. He was called ‘The servant of the Lord.’ His mission was to persuade reluctant persons to go back together. Because they had been used to Babylonian life and preferred to remain there. However the servant of the Lord successfully achieved the mission of bringing people to the homeland.

Nonetheless they found the country unfamiliar to them. Their houses were already occupied and their fields were cultivated by unknown people. Therefore the people blamed and accused the servant of the Lord. Without home nor land, they felt betrayed by him. Due to harsh blame and accusation, the servant of the Lord gat severe illness and died desperately. Isaiah 53 is the portrait of the hopeless servant.

Facing the death of on the Cross, his disciples and followers despaired. They were sure until the execution that he was the very Savior. Despite such a belief, Jesus was killed seemingly powerlessly. So they thought that he was not the son of God. Those disciples became again zealous believers after the Resurrection by meeting living Jesus. Their faith became completely firm at that moment, not fragile any more. And they found in the Hebrew Bible the passage Isaiah chapter 53, today’s invocation verses. They thought it was explaining why the son of God must die on the Cross. Thus they understood that thanks to the death of Jesus they were saved to live in peace of God.

Now we reflect on how Jesus acted practically to save people in details. For the beginning, Jesus had compassion to the man of leprosy, reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “Be clean!” Thus the man was cured.(see Mark 1:40-45) Jesus did it though touching persons with leprosy was prohibited then.

Or, seeing a crying widow at the burial of her only son, he also filled with compassion. So he raised the man from death by touching the body. (see Luke 7:11-17) It was also prohibited to touch persons because they were considered to be impure. He performed healing acts on Sabbath day, the act which was Strongly prohibited. Naturally, all those behaviors were severely criticized by formalists as blasphemes. (mark 3:1-6)

Jesus’ seemingly challenging conduct reveals that he was willing to share sufferings regardless of social and religious prohibitions. In consequence, Law teachers and Pharisees hated and killed him. They needed to punish him to respect social moral of the time. It means Jesus healed people in exchange of his life, as exactly Isaiah 53 tells .

And, after the Resurrection, his disciples recognized that Jesus died on the Cross because of love, not because of powerlessness. The recognition made them proud of Jesus. We also should have the similar experience to his disciples, from the darkness to the light.

Our present life is enclosed inside darkness and the shadow of death. Because we are still egocentric and concentrate only on personal happiness. And that way of living comes necessarily into conflict with other egocentric existences. Consequently, we live all time in hurting each other. And such conflicts, or sins make the world dark. As I tells you last week, in Japan around 32,000 people were found dead by their unknown persons. It means that the deceased had no warm relationship during their last days. Besides, about 3,000 suicidal case are reported every year. In total, more than 60,000 persons died sadly. Furthermore, more than 300,000 pregnant women choose abortions. So many human lives are being lost every year in Japan! For that reason, I say that we are in the darkness.

In the dark we try to ignore the fact that we all must die someday. But, as aging or certain illness advance, the shadow of death becomes denser and denser. Our life is filled with fear though we want to deny. But Jesus came to us. And the Cross freed us from sin. The Resurrection saved humans from the shadow of death.

Now we should find ourselves in the light, not in the darkness. Therefore Matthew compelled to repent by recognizing the fact. Repentance is to convert the direction of our vision to the reality that we are in the darkness. At that moment the path to the light opens before us.

Once, I talked about a book titled ‘ Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity.’ The author is Gerd Theissen*, a German Protestant theologian and New Testament scholar. He analysed sociologically how the arrival of Jesus changed the world.
He wrote: Jesus showed the vision of love and reconciliation for human life. Some appreciated it but many of them were killed because of the faith in Jesus. Nonetheless the vision continues to obtain dynamism through the history energetically . And, though still being minority, more than more of people live in following in footsteps of Jesus. They were the foolish in Jesus!

Theissen says that the arrival of Jesus Christ generated such a minority. It was crucial and the most important turning point. The foolish in Jesus are those who try to response to God’ grace, accorded through Jesus. They are willing to serve the world instead of merely grumbling about the existing world. In short, words of the Gospels create those small groups and our congregation is one of them thanks to the calling.

* Gerd Theissen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Theissen