First Sunday In Lent (A) 2017

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: Matthew 4:7
Theme: Humility Not Force




Dear friends of the Suffering Servant,

Jesus is not an interloper. He’s not some alien supernatural lifeform who swept down to redeem the human race. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, fully God and fully human. His act of salvation was organic with His nature as the incarnate Son of God. So, on this first Sunday in Lent, in which we find Jesus meeting the challenge of Satan in the wilderness, we’re firstly taken back to the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Where Adam succumbed, Jesus withstood. The significance is more than historical or rhetorical. Christ is our Saviour and Lord; He is also our Brother.

Again, we journey through the season of Lent. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, but Jesus wrested the flaming sword from the cherubim1 and opened again the entrance to Paradise. All events that are observed annually become associated with their own rituals. Rituals lend order to observance. But traditions and customs must continually be reviewed lest they end up communicating and teaching exactly the opposite of their intent. The Christian church has for a long time had a custom of foregoing hallelujahs during Lent. Christ is risen; He is living. Yet, the living Christ is also the crucified Christ. Apart from this sacrifice we have no access to the Father. The omission of hallelujahs soberly reminds us of this redemptive act. Yet, the idea is not to restrict joy but to underpin it with a deeper foundation and fertilise it so that it may bloom all the more gloriously when we arrive at Easter.

We don’t have to search too hard for a starting point for our Lenten journey. We are sinners called to repentance. Humility is an inescapable aspect of mortality. We are not divine, limitless creatures. Christians either learn humility or they suffer it. Usually it's a combination. There are no exceptions. A believer cannot go through life without learning humility or being humbled. If we don't understand that humility is the persona of Christ which reflects the very nature of God then we have grossly misunderstood the Scriptures. An unbeliever, of course, can go through life from start to finish in arrogance, being successful, and, perhaps, even well-liked. But the great humbling will then come when it's too late. When the heavens are rent and the Son of Man descends in glory the hour of repentance will be past. The harvest will be reaped, the tares will be separated from the wheat, and the leopard will not change its spots. The ego of the arrogant will be crushed and suffer eternal consequences for its rebellion.

Meanwhile, we traverse through the same landscape of humanity that all generations have. Quoting from Moses St. Paul referred to His age as a "crooked and twisted generation"2. Our is no different. The task of assessing and responding to the challenges of the culture is something we are never exempt from. It can be taxing. Yet it is not a cause for despair but an opportunity for witness. Support for one another is critical, whether in our daily vocations or in our fellowship as members of the body of Christ. Most importantly, we remember God has already promised to resolve we could never accomplish. Therefore, we say with the apostle, “I will come back (or do this or that) if it is God’s will.”3

What a blessing to know that God has revealed His will for our eternal salvation. The will of Christ is the will of the Father. And the will of the Son and of the Father is the economy of the Spirit. There is no dissidence within the Trinity, no disagreement. It was the Father's will to redeem sinners and it was the Son's will to be perfectly obedient to the Father. The Scripture says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”4

The journey of Lent, then, is a microcosm of the Christian pilgrimage. Something happens in the humbling experiences of life, in the traumas and emergencies which are beyond your control; God changes you. He moulds you a little more into the shape of that petition that says, "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." "On earth" means in your heart, your soul, your life. It is His intention for your will to be indistinguishable from His will. No cries of unfair, no veiled secret motives, no shows of false humility, no pretence that we are trying to love our neighbour as ourselves. Rather, the actual struggle of baptismal living. Rather, the confession that apart from Christ we possess nothing of value.

Jesus was tested in the wilderness immediately after His baptism. His baptism, along with all His redemptive work, is what gives our baptisms power. Baptism is no false economy. It's not an investment with diminishing returns. That is, it doesn't claim to put us in God's good graces initially but then fail to carry us through the temptations of life. It doesn't promise what it can't deliver. You are baptized for life and for eternity. It's a simple sacrament of water and word, but it is God's word, His promise. His word silences Satan. His word reconciles sinners. His word breathes new life. His word is the first word, the last word, the eternal word.

In your baptismal identification with Christ you are both cleansed from sin and also removed from the grip of its power. The saving work of Jesus involves both crucifying the sin within the sinner and removing the sinner from the dominion of darkness. The addict must undergo "detox", something which is suffered passively, and be shielded from external temptation. This is the power of baptism. It is also the value of Holy Communion. Where God meets us in this blessing Satan has no power.

The Scripture tells us that Christ did not consider equality with a God something to be grasped. Yet, He already possessed this equality, being the Word which existed from eternity, God of God, Light of Light, of one substance with the Father. Still, in His role as substitute, as sacrifice for the sins of humanity, He did not demand honour. He bore shame. He did not avoid persecution, rejection, slander, and abuse. He did not flee from public humiliation or challenge His unjust trial and condemnation. He spoke only when the truth needed to be confessed. He was silent when the deafening noise of evil raged chaotically…until in the darkness it was hushed. Until…it was finished. The guilt and shame that would condemn you and I to an eternity of hellish torture was laid to rest. Christ breathed His last and the Father whom He had never left received His sacrifice. Life was reborn, renewed, immortalised. Believers in Christ participate in that immortality. This stunning truth is the sum and substance of Christian hope. No death, tears, grieving or pain. No separation. No broken lives. This complete restoration is the destination of Lent. Easter guarantees that it will come to pass. Amen.


+ In nomine Jesu +

First Sunday in Lent
5 March, 2017
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 See Genesis 3:24
2 See Philippians 2:16
3 Acts 18:21
4 Philippians 2:8