Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Aug 30 2019 - Joel 2:1-17 – Rend your heart

Joel again warns the people of the coming "day of the Lord". He is not talking about the final judgment when God holds the whole world to account, he is speaking of invasion by foreign powers that will sweep God's people into captivity and leave the country a "desolate waste" – just as clouds of locusts would leave the land dry and bare.

But Joel brings this warning not because he likes to bring bad news or delights in speaking of God's judgment; he brings this message to call the people to repentance:

‘Even now,’ declares the LORD,
    ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’
Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and relent. (vv. 12-14)

The Lord does not delight in judgment. He could well have turned his back on us all and left us to face judgment and destruction, but he sent his own beloved Son into the world to endure that judgment in our place. Jesus told us that he is the one who shows us what God is truly like, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Jesus said, "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47). The living God created this world and made it for himself. He is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love."

So God calls not only his rebellious people, but the whole world to turn to him in heartfelt repentance and faithful trust. God is not fooled by an outward show of religion and by outward demonstrations of sorrow over wrongdoing. Joel calls on the people to "Rend your heart and not your garments" (v.13). Jesus told us that the living God looks for people who will "worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). Our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, longs for us to be reconciled to him and to worship and serve him from a heart filled with love for him.

And this is God's longing not only for us but for the whole world. Joel calls for trumpets to be blown in Zion to summon the people back to God. We also are called to be heralds, blowing the gospel trumpet with a summons for all to hear the good news:

God was bringing the world back to himself through Christ. He did not hold people’s sins against them. God has trusted us with the message that people may be brought back to him. So we are Christ’s official messengers. It is as if God were making his appeal through us. Here is what Christ wants us to beg you to do. Come back to God! (2 Corinthians 5:18-20, New International Reader's Version)

Many around us would say that they do not believe in God, but in their inner being there is a conviction that life has some sort of purpose, they just cannot fathom what it is. We can tell them why they were created and open their eyes to see the world around them in a new light. Others might say that they believe that there is some supreme being or force behind the universe, but they do not know what that being or force is like. We can tell them of the Lord Jesus who shows us what God is like. Others have a distorted view of God as a great Victorian headmaster in the sky who watches to see when we are out of line so that he might come after us with thunderous judgment. They also need to come to Jesus Christ and learn of the loving compassion of our God. All manner of people need to hear the wonderful message of the gospel – God's good news for a lost world.

Father God, help us to worship you in Spirit and in truth – to worship you from a heart that has felt the fire of your love in the Lord Jesus. Help us then by your Spirit to tell others the good news of the gospel, and to do so with grace and love that mirrors that of the Lord Jesus.

Aug 30 2020 - Matthew 8:1-17 – He ... bore our diseases

The passage we have been reading this morning is packed with accounts of Jesus healing the sick. It begins with a man with leprosy who knelt before Jesus and declared "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean" (Matthew 8:2). The leper has no doubts about Jesus' ability to heal, but is Jesus willing to make him well? Is a poor leper worthy of Jesus' attention? Jesus answer is immediate, "I am willing. Be clean!" (8:3). Jesus is willing to heal him, and he is healed.

The second story concerns the servant of a centurion who is sick and in pain. The response of the centurion to Jesus' offer to come and heal his servant underlines Jesus' power to heal. The centurion is a man who has power to direct his soldiers and servants and they must obey him. He recognises that Jesus also has similar but far greater power; Jesus can command sickness to leave and it will do so. Jesus acknowledges this insight and heals the centurion's servant with a word of command without coming into the centurion's house.

The third story concerns Peter's mother-in-law whom Jesus healed from a fever with a touch. Then, in the evening he drove out demons from many who were possessed simply by his word of command and healed all of those who were sick.

Together these stories emphasise that Jesus is willing to heal, Jesus has power to heal and that Jesus heals all who are brought to him. Matthew tells us that in this way Jesus fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah, "He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases" (Matthew 8:17, cf. Isaiah 53:4).

These accounts paint a wonderful picture of the power of Jesus to transform the lives of those he touches. Yet it remains a puzzling picture. If Jesus is the same yesterday, and today and for ever, why are Christians today not always healed? It is a plain fact that we are not; no Christian has ever been saved from the ultimate fate of death (even Lazarus eventually died, for he is not still around today). The passage we have read seems to close off all possible responses; Jesus is both willing and able to heal.

Matthew links Jesus' work of healing with the prophecy concerning the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. Jesus suffering and death upon the cross were on our behalf. He has broken the power of death and of sickness. And by his resurrection he gives life, life in all its fullness. But, for us, the fullness of that victory is not yet. It is only when Christ shall return and our bodies are transformed or raised from the dust of death that "the saying that is written will come true, 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'" (1 Corinthians 15:54 – note the context). Jesus' miracles of healing were signs of the kingdom, anticipations of the day when the very fabric of creation will be transformed through his resurrection power.

Meanwhile we live in a world still subject to sickness, pain and death – and injustice, tyranny and oppression. Praise God we do experience healing in response to prayer – the gracious touch of the Saviour's hand bringing tokens of the future into the present. But such healing is not always granted and it always remains incomplete. We look for and long for the day when all things shall be made new; a day when God himself shall wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus had compassion on the crowds and went around healing the sick. Thank you that we see in him your purpose to mend a broken world. Thank you that, through his cross and resurrection, Jesus has broken the power of death and that he is the beginning and hope of the new creation. By his risen power, enable me to bring healing to a hurting world.

Peter Misselbrook