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sepiph305
My
All to God I Yield Rogers Hi-speed
Text:
Matthew 4:12-23
Date: Epiphany III 
1/23/05
The
Epiphany Light, the beginnings of the manifestation of the Divine
Light of salvation, continues to break forth in the early days of
Jesus' earthly ministry. It would be one thing if the purpose of
our Lord's mission and ministry were only to come to fulfill the
Law, to die, to be raised, and to ascend back into heaven as victorious
Lord of all. That would be fine for the twelve, the seventy-two,
the number of those who had heard him, been healed by him and believed
in him back then. But if that were all, the Book of Acts or the
rest of the New Testament would not have been written, there would
be no need of the Day of Pentecost and this “Church” he kept talking
about would have been but a brief light, a blip on the screen of
world history, dying out and extinguished as soon as those first
believers died like so many radical religious sects and movements
have done [cf. Acts 5:34-39!], and what about our fate?
It
wasn't the purpose of his coming, however, for Jesus to just show
us the way, to give us an example and then to leave us on our own
as if the Gospel consisted in nothing more than a spiritual advice
column under the theme, “If at first you don't succeed, try, try
again.” Our need is deeper than that—more real than that. Our spiritual
malady is more severe than that. The purpose of God's salvation
is more than to just give us a little tune up or a cosmetic make-over.
It is to release us from our sins, liberate us from death and to
restore and recreate all people to what God originally intended,
namely, to live forever in fellowship with him.
How
does the salvation Jesus brought come to be applied to people? Well,
how about this? I suppose that, after Christ's bringing the light
of salvation, after his ascension to the right hand of the majesty
on high, he could have, then, come back and set up a Central Salvation
Agency in Jerusalem, maybe with branches in New York and Beijing,
London and Pretoria, South Africa where people could go to receive
forgiveness, life and salvation. Or maybe he could have set out
on a perpetual, world-wide, Billy Graham style crusade, or like
Pope John Paul II regularly making the rounds, meeting the people
of the world in stadiums, malls and town squares to continue his
healing, teaching, preaching ministry giving altar calls in the
words, “Come follow me”—background music supplied by Cliff Barrows
to the tune of “Just As I Am,” or maybe the Vatican boys choir.
All
of these crazy ideas are to emphasize the real significance of what
we hear in today's Gospel. The salvation Christ came to bring for
the life of the world is for all people of every time and ever place.
It is God's plan, however, that his gift of forgiveness and life
should come to all people through the people he has called into
his service, made his own, and sent as his representatives, his
Church. “How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are
they to preach unless they are sent?” [Romans 10:14-15 (ESV)]. So
what we are hearing today is the beginnings of his establishment
of what would become the Church and the Office of the Ministry.
Of
first importance, however, is to proclaim Who this is that is said
to be the Messiah, the Christ and Savior of the world. The testimony
of John the Baptist still rings in our ears as, on this day, we
hear that he had been arrested and thrown into prison. John was
the voice sent by God to prepare the way for the Lord. We heard
him call Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
With this image of the Lamb he already was foretelling the Savior
as the sacrifice for sin. Though his sacrificial death would not
happen until he willingly allowed it to happen, it would come as
a result and at the hands of the forces of evil. It was these forces,
this opposition to the Light, that John's imprisonment signaled
to Jesus' mind. And he then began his relentless journey to the
Cross in Jerusalem.
That
journey took him, first, through the region called Galilee. Saint
Matthew emphasizes that even this detail was not mere happenstance,
but was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah, “The land of Zebulun and
the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee
of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great
light….” With John silenced, Jesus takes up the mantle, preaching
the very same message as John had, with one important difference.
Both preached repentance. Both announced that the kingdom of heaven
was “at hand” [Matthew 3:2; 4:17 (ESV)]. John's preaching, however,
pointed his hearers beyond himself to the coming One. Jesus' preaching
drew his hearers to himself. For in him the kingdom, the rule of
God's grace was already there.
This
then is the main message everyone needs to hear, and so our preaching
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