Temptation Resisted

Matthew 4 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture to preach on. In particular, I like the opening chapters of Matthew 4 and the verses that deal with Christ's temptation. Those verses really give a great break down of where temptation comes from and what we do to resist it. But I am going to resist the temptation to comment on those verses (see I learned something). Instead, I want to focus on the message that Jesus preached in verse 17. We are told there that Jesus' message was summarized this way: "Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near."

Jesus' message called for one action on our part. Repentance. We talked about that word yesterday. To repent is to change one's mind and actions. It is to live in a radically different way than we did before. And why is it that we should repent? Jesus says: "The kingdom of heaven is near."

First-century Israelites understood the phrase "kingdom of heaven" without much explanation. For us, the term is a little tougher. Bible scholars have endless (and sometimes fruitless) debate about what this term means. Generally speaking, though, Israelites were looking forward to a time when God would break into the routine, mundane cycle of history. They were looking forward to a time when the world would operate differently. In this age, Israel would be liberated from her oppressors. The Holy Spirit would be poured out into the hearts of men and women. People would have a first-hand knowledge of God rather than being kept back through religious ceremony. The dead would be resurrected. All in all, when the kingdom of heaven came, life would be completely different.

So what was Jesus' message? His message was become a new person because in Me everything is going to change. Matthew is telling his readers that all their expectations for new life and a new age were met in Jesus. Now, Matthew knows that life is still not as Israel hoped it would be. He understands that the ultimate consummation of Jesus' work awaits heaven. But Matthew also believes that even now the Kingdom of God is breaking into the world. Even now, through the work that Jesus did, life is being transformed.

So how do we repent? What should we do since the kingdom of heaven is near? Jesus shows us in verse 22. There, Jesus shared the love of God through the sharing of the word and deeds of compassion. Jesus demonstrated the reality that the Kingdom of heaven is near by extending himself into the world. He sought to help the broken and hurting. Too often, I see my own faith as a private concern. My religious focus can be on me as an individual and my own relationship with God. But Jesus shows me that the Kingdom of heaven pushes me to a more public faith, one that seeks to minister to the hungry and the hurting in very diverse ways.

Part of my goal as I go through the Gospels is to really think about this term "the Kingdom of heaven" (also called the "kingdom of God."). I hope to do some reading and to share some more thoughts on this in future blogs.