The Spirit’s Way of Transformation

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

Our Faces Unveiled to God’s Spirit and to Each Other

Last week we saw the whole life of God working by the Spirit in our lives to transform both the way we live now and as the creative power of new creation in the resurrection. Following Jesus, Paul reflects a lot on how he had seen the Spirit working in the lives of believers, even when they are manifesting difficult problems. His experience with the Spirit’s work has given him great confidence and boldness with all kinds of people. In 2 Cor 3:16-18 is a vision of that transforming process set in a meditation on scripture. But look at the image. A community of people, all engaged with God’s Spirit, who gives them freedom and boldness before God and with each other. Their faces (their whole person, identity, image) open to God and each other. They’re focused on seeing the reality, the glory of the Lord Jesus, who is the face / image of God and the true human. As they see it they are transformed into that image, ever increasing in the way they experience that reality/glory. But what’s in front of them is the mirror of Jesus in each other as the Spirit works in those lives to shape, challenge and embolden them toward the life given in Jesus.

God’s Spirit and the Power of Resurrection

Romans 8:9-17

Resurrection and Pentecost

Jesus forced weeks of waiting between his resurrection and the first public proclamation of the Good News. He did not allow his disciples to begin immediately. He was not beginning a political, social, or religious movement, though any human group has those aspects.

This was to be a new reality of God’s participation in the life of humans. It began in Jesus’ incarnation, consummated in his resurrection that joins physical life with the life of God in a new way. Now it was empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to bring ordinary humans into a transforming, growing experience of God’s life and love now, drawing them into the very life of Jesus by the power of his Spirit, embodying Jesus’ life of service, love of enemies, forgiveness, healing, trust in God, deep peace ... preparing for their own resurrection.

Sealed Tombs

Matthew 27:50-66; 28:11-15

A Deep Mystery without Suspense

Matthew takes us into the mystery of Jesus’ cry – the human cry as one abandoned. God takes it into God’s self as Jesus bears human sin and alienation. He knows the absence of God.

We watch in astonishment as no one understands. The disciples don’t anticipate his death and certainly not resurrection, even when Jesus was explicit. The bystanders don’t understand. But Mt doesn’t leave us in suspense. He describes amazing signs pointing to resurrection.

He’s describing something that cannot happen in the ordinary course of events. He is not trying to explain it or document it as an ordinary event, but to give us means to grasp the meaning of this in-breaking of God’s life and future, God’s kingdom, into human life, into our life.

The Cadence of Remembering

Exodus 12:1-17

God establishes a cycle of festivals with the nation of Israel as annual touchstones to remind them of foundational moments in His relationship with them. These moments serve to establish and nurture His children's identity in Him and His love. Similarly, there are foundational moments in the New Testament and in the working out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that form and nurture our identity as Christians. As Jesus is born, lives, ministers, preaches, teaches, and ultimately gives his life within a Hebrew context, the working out of the roles of culture and Gospel as the great news is shared with other nations results in a freedom of observance and expression. Returning annually to salient points in Jesus' ministry, most notably in His incarnation and death/resurrection, establishes a cadence of remembering that works deeper into our hearts and spirits our identity as children of the King. 

The Dark Light of the Cross

Matthew 27:41-54

Into the Darkness
Everything in Mt come together to this point. The scripture anticipation, the teaching, ministry, healing, temple confrontation. It come to this moment, this event. Mt puts it before us with brevity and mystery, challenging us to look deeply. Here is the heart of God. 
Jesus has moved from celebrated prophet, king to one abandoned by all, disciples, leaders, crowds. We watch it happen: betrayal, denial, mocking. But we know who Jesus is. We’ve seen his birth, baptism, transfiguration, authority, power. He’s the very embodiment of God.

“He Saved Others, He Cannot Save Himself”

Matthew 27:32-44

The Skull of Death – The Missing Horror Matthew leads us to the crucifixion of Jesus itself.
We watch as they take him to Golgotha – “Skull” – symbol of death’s finality and hopelessness. We observe Simon of Cyrene, evidently later a disciple. We see the wine and gall. The clothes divided, the casting lots. But where is the crucifixion itself? One word in a subordinate phrase. No nails or thudding hammers, no bloody, weak body, agonizing pain, deep groans, labored breathing. What would I have written? Think of The Passion of the Christ (2004). Mt counts on his readers to know the horror, degradation, and prolonged torture of the cross. See N. T. Wright (*below). Mt leaves out so much and includes such strange little things: Simon, the wine and gall, the clothes, the lots, the watching, the head wagging, the multiple mocking insults. Mt expects a lot of us. So much that he says depends for its power on us knowing the scriptures. He highlights little details in the often-told story that point us to scriptures (esp. Ps 22 & 69). Mt is not writing for history, or even to move us emotionally. He juxtaposes scripture and mockery to force a quandary. What do you see? What’s happening? What would you say?

"What Shall I Do with Jesus?"

Matthew 27:11-31

A Silent Jesus – King, Messiah, Fool?
Mt. lead us through the swirl of events of Passover. The chief priests “handed Jesus over” to Pilate (Roman Prefect for 4 yrs, hated by the Jews, but worked with Caiaphas). This Passover has already seen one insurrection led by a man named Barabbas, charged with killing (a Roman), sure to be crucified with others (Mk 15:7). Now here’s another threat. Really? Caiaphas asked Jesus if he was “Messiah (Anointed king), Son of God,” in Scripture language. Pilate asks the same question in Roman words: “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus gives the same reply, but then silence. It’s the core question. What does God’s King look like; do?

“I Don’t Know the Man!”

Matthew 26:63b – 27:10

The Mystery of Jesus
Mt carries us from the night hearing at the High Priest’s house to the capital trial before Pilate. He shows us people who in various ways can’t grasp Jesus, his identity, action, or aim. The HP & council, sure, but also his disciples, Judas and Peter. Jesus is handed over & over, but none know him. Mt wants us to learn. Each interaction challenges knowledge & reflection. Peter’s denials are bracketed by hostile chief priests, despairing Judas, & prophetic judgment. For all, Jesus posed a basic challenge: to imagine and trust a God whose kingdom, power, action are profoundly different from all the ways we humans know & expect power to work. The High Priest and the Remorse of Judas

Is He the One?

Matthew 26:45-66

He’s the One. Seize Him!

In this time of Passover, Jesus has been with his disciples and with God. Things are coming that the disciples can’t yet conceive. Mt wants to help us see reality through the fog of false understanding. Jesus gave his disciples a meal to help them look back on the astonishing events. Among the olive trees he grieved and prayed before the need to drink “the cup”– God’s wrath at sin’s enslavement when humans push God out and live in God’s absence. Now there is misunderstanding and irony at every turn. Who is Jesus? What is happening? On one level it’s just an arrest leading to a Roman cross. We know there’s more. But what?

Coming to the Garden with Jesus

Matthew 26:30-46

The Disciples’ Walk in the Dark
It had been a strange Passover. Jesus told them that one of them would hand him over. He described the bread and wine as his body and blood. After they sang a Passover psalms they left Jerusalem to walk in full-moon night across the Kidron valley. Judas disappeared.
The night was more inside them. Jesus matter-of-factly told them they would all stumble (skandalizein) because of him and cited Zechariah’s words about God striking the shepherd. But he also assured them that he would get up from the blow and lead them to Galilee!

“What will You Give Me for Jesus?”

Matthew 26:6-22

Seeing Jesus’ Crucifixion and My Place There
Matthew’s final sections focus on the supreme moments of the Gospel: Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Mt doesn’t approach them as doctrines but a events that were complex, astonishing, life-transforming. The whole NT is a quest to grasp their impact and meaning.
These stories were told thousands of times in many forms by eye-witnesses and new believers. Mt (using Mk) leads us through, selecting details to focus on, to help us see, be grasped by what happened. We’re his concern, with a priviledged view, watching many characters.
Jesus is clearly at the center, challenging, mysterious, inviting. We’re behind the scenes too with chief priests and others. We see one-time individuals like the woman whose actions or words reveal something significant. Especially we watch the disciples as they learn, falter, grow. But Mt often challenges our feeling superior to the disciples as the events unfold.

The Difference an End Makes: Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 9:1-18

A Surprising Voice in Scripture – Ecclesiastes / Qoheleth
Last week we focused on Jesus urging us not to be anxious about our lives. This week we hear from one who is deeply anxious about life’s circumstances and meaning. A Teacher (Qoheleth), he speaks sometimes in the character of Solomon, an ideal of wisdom, wealth, and power – and says “Vapor!” His image is not so much that everything is meaningless or absurd but that it is passing. There’s nothing substantial, lasting: Life goes round without clear pattern or reason and then you die.

A New Year’s Message from the Prince of Peace

Matthew 6:24-34

The Challenge of Mammon and Human-size gods
The Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6; Lk 2:14) speaks on a mountain to crowds of poor laborers, farmers, sick people, about the in-breaking of God’s rule. Seek God’s kingdom now! (Mk 1:15; Mt 6:10)
Israel’s ancient prophets attacked idolatry. It was about the people’s desire for human-size gods they can bargain with, get stuff from. It was also about reality. Serve Baal to get fertility and you serve nothing. Self-deception. The one living God is already there freely creating that fertility. But no bargain. God’s purposes are larger than fertility.
Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” Mammon is Aramaic for ‘stuff,’ ‘money,’ ‘what you trust.’ Jesus personifies it as the god who offers to supply all that. Matthew and Luke leave it as a god’s name. Mammon is the practical, powerful, human-size god who promises to provide all and secure all who serve him. He is money, power, sex, intellect, control, family, race, violence, war, progress, greed, etc. He’s the default god of humanity. We anxiously serve without realizing. (David Foster Wallace, “This is Water” 2005).