Living the Real Miracle of Christmas Today - Looking for the Priest Messiah

The Third Sunday in Advent
December 14, 2008

The Reverend Tony Barnard

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We are trying to discover and understand what I have chosen to call the ‘Real Miracle of Christmas.’ Thinking together not so much about the Virgin Birth or the mystery of the incarnation, what St John describes as, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us,” but that this child, Mary’s first-born, became the longed for Messiah, who saved and saves the world. ‘Longed for,’ as we saw on Advent One, when the people fastening on the words of the prophets, which said that God would come to his people, ‘God with us’/’Emmanuel,’ and would send a messiah, a deliverer, a king like David, cried out “O that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down.” And Jesus came. Not so much as the Messiah they longed for, challenging their enemies in judgement, blessing the righteous and establishing a kingdom of power, but challenging them to return to God, change their way of life and so establish a kingdom of love.

So, we are daring to ask ‘how did this come about?’ And I have suggested that we should note that Jesus pondered the Scriptures, questioned the tradition and that so his mind was formed, and he came to see the Scriptures as the key to life and as the pattern of his Messiahship. And last week, picking up the reply of the disciples to Jesus’ question, at Caesarea Philippi, ‘who do men say that I am?’ and John the Baptist’s pointing to one greater than he who was coming, knew that, like the prophets of old, sent by God in every generation, he needed to challenge the people to change; he had to recall them to their right relationship with God.

We asked at the end, however, are we ready to be challenged, as we celebrate his birth once more; challenged to change; challenged to reassess our way of life, individually and corporately? Can we recognise the things that might hinder us from being God’s servant people, working for the Kingdom of Love? And can we face the cost of change, and the cost of service, that Christ’s coming may demand?

These are tough questions for any established Christian community. However, Jesus did not just challenge the people and walk away, he worked with them, and in so far as this is true, it seems to me that he discovered the need not only to be the Prophet Messiah, but also the need to be the Priest Messiah.

Let’s look at an example of Jesus in action, and then go back to the Scriptures, once more, and look for clues, which may suggest how his mind was formed and he behaved the way he did. We will start from another story, the story of the woman taken in adultery. It occupies a strange position in the NT. It could be the first 11 verses of chapter 8 in John’s Gospel, or, some say, be better placed at the end of the Gospel or in Luke (21.38 on). It does not really matter. It is what Jesus says and does in this story that should interest us. The Scribes and the Pharisees (the authorities) bring a woman to Jesus, caught in the very act of adultery. ‘The Law of Moses is clear, they say, she must be stoned, but what do you say?’ They were hoping, of course, that he would disagree, and that they could then charge him with contravening the Law. Jesus is too clever for them. He delays answering, which must have been annoying, and then says ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone’. They all, we are told, beginning with the oldest, drift away. So Jesus does not simply apply the Law, he acts with love and concern. He makes the authorities think, and the woman? Well, he does not applaud her act. “Neither do I condemn, he says, go and do not sin again.” Why is this so significant? I think because we can see that Jesus has gone back to the Scriptures and reassessed, in the light of his pondering, what the Law is really about.

The people of his time were constrained and dominated by the Romans, but even more they were constrained by their own laws. For very many years, perhaps more than 400, they had been scrupulous in their observance of this law, with the Scribes and the Pharisees exercising enormous power over their daily lives. Their aim was to strive to perfect the community, in the hope that God would bless them for their righteousness, and the perfection of the community lay in their keeping the Law -- strictly -- undergoing the correct rituals and sacrifices etc., to bring them back from error. They also ensured that only true-born Israelites were numbered in the community of the elect. So, the literature of the time (the apocryphal books, for example) emphasise that heroes, like Tobit and Judith, are true descendants of the 12 tribes and they are assiduous in keeping the Law. The evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls backs this up. The people of the Scrolls Community moved into the desert to found and preserve a pure community, hoping that God would come to them in blessing.

So what did Jesus discover that led him to challenge this established way of life? We look at three things: First, the Ten Commandments. Even within the biblical literature, the laws and rituals governing the lives of the people grow more and more complicated. We seldom read Leviticus in church, but a quick dip into it can be most revealing. Whether it is the laws governing incest or borrowing or Sabbath keeping or whatever, the material is complex and 4-500 years later it is not any simpler. Think of the controversies within the Gospels over action, even healing, on the Sabbath. However, go back to Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments. Cease worrying about whether God wrote on the stone or Moses took a chisel with him, and look, instead, at the thrust of their teaching. Most of the ten are rules that should govern any civilised society. Honour your elders, do not kill or steal or covet ... but note that they are absolutes. “Thou shalt not...” They are ideals set before the community. Note also, that they are prefaced by three commands that have to do with humanity’s relationship with God. From the beginning, it is clear that within the covenant relationship, which God establishes with his people, there is the requirement that, in return for the blessing and care of God, his people are to love and trust him, unreservedly, and strive to live in a caring community, loving their neighbour as themselves (Lev.19.17). At the heart of a united kingdom community there must be love for God and love for all.

Of course, the Law has to be applied, but it must never lose its primary quality as an expression of love. Was that the conclusion of Jesus? What else might he have discerned?

Very often in the Scriptures, the prophets criticise the priests and leaders of the people. Jeremiah does it extensively, although he is from a priestly family. And so does Hosea. Hosea is, as we have seen before, critical of the way of life of the people, but at one point he seems to say that the basic problem is that there is ‘no knowledge of God in the land’. The people simply had not been taught about God and what he asked of his people. No doubt the priests were quick enough to encourage the people to sacrifice. The story of the sons of Eli, the priest, in 1 Samuel, suggests that they were quick to take advantage of the system and get the prime cuts of lamb! But where was the encouragement to meet the care of God with justice and mercy, living the law of love? Surely he might conclude this was all important. After all he would also see that Hosea says of God ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.’

And thirdly, and positively, I would like to think that Jesus pondered the example of Ezekiel. Ezekiel had to deal with the people at a very tender time in their history. The Babylonians had sacked Jerusalem and carried many off into exile in Babylon. When Ezekiel tells them that it is because of their failure to live the sort of life that God needed from them, and that they must, even in their exile pain, turn to God in trust, they refuse to acknowledge the need for change. They rallied round the prophet, angry at his accusations, and they shouted, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” It is not our fault -- it’s theirs! God is unfair to punish us. In response, Ezekiel patiently tells them that God is just and loving. ‘When a righteous man turns away and commits iniquity, that person shall die for it; when a wicked person turns from iniquity, then that person shall save their life.’ Ezekiel goes on, ‘so, you say, O house of Israel, that the way of the Lord is not just, but it is your ways that are not just. Turn -- cast away your transgressions -- get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord’ (Ezek.18).

And we could go on, but perhaps that is sufficient to see how Jesus, pondering the Scriptures, might conclude that the priestly role, the patient, loving nurture of the people of God was also an important part of the messianic role. He had to be a Priest Messiah, and take care to educate and nurture the people of God in the service of love. For this is what we see in his ministry, is it not? This is what lies behind his treatment of the woman caught in adultery. She has sinned but love says that she should have a second chance. Tradition says that she became a changed woman, like Mary Magdalen, and like Zacchaeus: changed through meeting Jesus, being accepted and shown creative love. And there’s more! “You have heard it said, says Jesus, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ (Matt. 5.38 cp. Exodus 21.23-4), but I say to you ‘turn the other cheek -- walk the extra mile.’” ‘Put your hand on the shoulder of the lonely, rejected and excluded,’ he might have said, ‘and let God use you to draw them into the Kingdom of love.’ The patient, priestly work of healing and renewal, the building up a new life of love, lie at the heart of his work.

And so to the readings for today. I make no apology for changing the Gospel reading in the light of the Scripture reading from Isaiah 61. There are many prophetic passages, which look ahead to the coming judgement of God and the coming of a kingly messiah. There are also several passages, which picture the coming kingdom as a place of reconciliation and love; a time when ‘good news will be proclaimed to the oppressed, the broken hearted will be healed, liberty will come to captives and release to prisoners, and the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations -- all nations!’ As we heard in the Gospel, Jesus reads that passage and then sits down in the synagogue and says “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” It was happening!

What an impact his priestly ministry of love made! And, of course, he trained disciples who continued it. Look at the mission of the 70(2) in Luke 10. And think on this. If the Messiah who came is to continue to come -- to come into the lives of people and draw them along the path of healing and into the Kingdom of Love- to make a difference! Then we, too, have to be able to say ‘Today this scripture is being fulfilled.’

This means, surely, taking every opportunity to grow in love, to sharpen our discipleship, to deepen our faith and commitment, on the one hand, and, on the other, seizing every opportunity to share that love, the love of God, and so bring healing, reconciliation and renewal to a needy world. That is what the Messiah did, that is what the disciples did, and that is what we must do.

I have spent some time, in the last week, in the American Indian Museum, studying the native beliefs and customs, so lovingly and beautifully recorded. One idea which particularly struck me was that you should see everyone whom you meet as, potentially, your guide through life, your healer for life, your instructor in life: of infinite value, that is to say, to you as you make your way through life. And this must surely be mutual. God can use each one of us in those roles, both within our community and in the wider community of which we are an intimate and integral part, as the People of God.

Christmas, like the Prophet Messiah, challenges us to change: to ask, I suggested last week, not what God can do for us, but what we can do for God. Jesus showed in his ministry that the Messiah must also exercise a priestly ministry, educating and nurturing the People of God, so that they become a loving community, which can be used by God to heal the world. So may Christmas also challenge us to be growing in discipleship, and constantly alert to the opportunity of loving others into the Kingdom.