THE RULE OF GOD IS OFTEN REJECTED
Matthew 13: 53 – 14: 13
INTRODUCTION
Many years ago I was speaking with a retired clergyman. I was explaining
to him my work with Campus Crusade for Christ talking with college students
about how to know Jesus. During the course of our conversation he made
this statement, "It doesn’t matter what people believe, it only matters
that they believe." What he was saying is the majority opinion of
most of the people in the U.S. The average person, if you were to ask
him if it matters to God if you are a Christian or a Moslem or a Hindu
or a Catholic or a Baptist or a Mormon or a neo-pagan, would say no. The
basic understanding of most of our neighbors and probably some of you
is that all of us are worshipping the same God, just under different names.
There is a basic presumption that human beings, by and large, are good-hearted,
reasonable people and that though we don’t agree on the details, we are
mostly headed in the same direction. It is true that for most people there
are some exceptions to this universal optimism about the nature and destiny
of human beings. Few are the people who would say that Adolph Hitler’s
view of reality was correct or that he is enjoying God’s company at the
present. I think you would be hard pressed to find a citizen of the U.S.
that would say that the terrorists were right and are now enjoying fellowship
with God in Paradise because they gave their lives flying the airplanes
into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But apart from these obvious
exceptions, the culture we live in is unanimous in its condemnation of
those who say that God loves certain people and that he is opposed to
others. It strikes our contemporaries as arrogant and evil to make the
claim that certain individuals are going to heaven and others are going
to hell.
Yet, this is a claim that Jesus made all the time. It is a central theme
of the entire Bible. We’ve just seen over the last four weeks in our study
of Matthew 13 that Jesus makes this distinction between people time and
again. Most recently we saw it in the parable in vv. 47-50. "This
is how it will be at the end of age. The angels will come and separate
the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Again, while most people
will acknowledge that there are some really bad, wicked people who will
probably end up in hell, most people in the world believe themselves and
most other humans to be among the righteous.
So, Jesus and all the authors of the Bible have as a main objective to
shake human beings out of this complacent, optimistic view of their relationship
to God. The Bible is intent on convincing us that salvation is not, indeed
cannot be, dependent upon anything that human beings do because the only
thing that human beings can do is sin. The Bible is out to convince us
that what unites humans is not a common love for God but rather hatred
for God. In vv. 44-52 Matthew has shown that the followers of Christ are
those who "understand" Jesus in the way a man who finds buried
treasure in a field and sells all he has "understands" the greatness
of the treasure. He immediately follows his description of what "saved"
people are like with three pictures of the hostility of human beings toward
God. He does this so that none of us will make the fatal mistake of presuming
we understand by our own ability. He is like a prosecuting attorney who
brings forth his witnesses to convince us of our utter helplessness in
the matter of belonging to God. He uses actual, historical people and
situations to demonstrate the universal fact that human beings are by
nature hostile to God.
MAIN POINT
Human hostility to God is revealed by our…
I. Unwillingness to see the glory of God in Christ (vv. 53-58)
We lived Champaign, IL for nine years. Champaign is the hometown of Bonnie
Blair, the woman speed skater who has won more Olympic gold medals than
any other American. When Bonnie came home to visit her parents the whole
town would turn out for a celebration. She was awarded the key to the
city and was adopted as the "mascot" for the police department.
The people of Champaign celebrated her accomplishments as if she were
each family’s daughter. This is how most hometowns treat their sons and
daughters that leave home and make a name for themselves.
If you were to only read vv. 54-56 describing Jesus’ visit to his hometown
of Nazareth it would appear that this is how the people of Nazareth thought
about Jesus. When he was home for a visit and taught in their synagogue
they were overwhelmed with amazement at his powerful teaching and the
miracles he performed. You can almost imagine the people as they talk
about knowing his mom and brother’s and sisters being amazed at how great
he had become. You could imagine people proudly describing how Jesus had
built their tables and chairs. Or maybe boyhood friends would impress
the neighbors with stories about the games they used to play with Jesus
and how many times they stayed over night at his house. But, v. 57 shatters
these romantic notions. Rather than celebrating and warmly welcoming Jesus,
they are offended by him. The Greek word that is used literally means
they were scandalized by him. His teaching and his miracles caused them
to treat him with contempt, not pride. They felt about him the way the
way most Americans felt about Bill Clinton after hearing about his relationship
to Monica Lewinski.
Why are the people of Nazareth so offended by Jesus? The point of all
their questions revolves around the fact that Jesus is a very ordinary
person. He exhibited no special characteristics that they noticed while
growing up. He was the son of the carpenter and they all knew his mom,
brothers and sisters. He had no special training. He was just a common
laborer from a common peasant family. But why would his common origin
and his familiarity with them cause them to be offended? Two things would
cause them to be offended. First, these people, just like us, presume
that when God is present and is working you can’t miss it. God makes his
presence known in dramatic ways. This expectation would be very heightened
among these Jewish people who expected that the coming of the Messiah
would be marked by large and miraculous events. That they could have lived
with the Messiah or with a person who possessed such miraculous powers
for so many years and not to have known it is beyond their comprehension.
The way that Jesus conducted himself was so contrary to what they would
expect. The Messiah would never have lived in such obscurity, in their
way of understanding. So Jesus was offensive because he didn’t fit their
preconceived ideas of how God works in his world.
The second and probably greater reason they were offended by him is summed
up in the cliché, "Just who do you think you are?" We
know from reading the gospel of Matthew that when it says he was teaching
in their synagogue, he wasn’t simply telling nice little "feel good"
stories. He was saying things like this to them: "Do not think that
I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, I have not come to abolish
them but to fulfill them." "You have heard it was said to the
people long ago, do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject
to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother
will be subject to judgment." "You brood of vipers, how can
you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart,
the mouth speaks." Jesus talked as if he were speaking for God, as
if he were God and yet they knew his family and had lived with him for
all those years. "Who does he think he is, talking to us like that?
Who does he think he is acting like he’s some prophet or the Messiah?
We know who you are Jesus. You’re a nobody. You’re a pretender. God’s
not speaking through you. We know you’re not the Messiah because we know
you’re family. So get down off your high horse."
Jesus responds to their taking offense at him in two ways. First he tells
them the reason they are dishonoring him is because this is how all prophets
are treated. People are looking for reasons to not pay attention to what
God says and for those who are personally acquainted with the spokesman,
the reason is close to hand. Familiarity does breed contempt when it
comes to prophets. Don’t miss the fact that Jesus is claiming to be
a prophet. He knows that he is speaking for God and that what he says
is what God says. When they reject him, they are rejecting God. Their
hostility to him is really hostility toward God. By saying this is Jesus
giving them an excuse for not believing? Is he saying, "It only makes
sense you don’t believe me. I understand that knowing my background and
my family makes it hard to believe that I am God’s spokesman?" On
the contrary, He is saying the exact opposite. If anyone should believe
it should be the people of Nazareth. He never gave them any reason to
doubt his sanity or his integrity when he lived there. His teaching has
everywhere been acknowledged as having the authority and wisdom of God,
which they even admit. His miracles, which they acknowledge as amazing,
give final proof that he is the Messiah. It is irrational that they are
amazed at him and his works of power and yet persist in unbelief. Just
as we’ve seen so many times in this chapter, their dishonor and unbelief
is not due to the fact that they have been given insufficient evidence
but rather it is due to their natural hostility to God.
The second response of Jesus to their rejection is that he does not perform
many miracles in Nazareth because of their dishonor of him, their lack
of faith in him. This does not mean that faith is the determining factor
in whether or not God works on behalf of people. Jesus did not do many
miracles in Nazareth because he is not going to dishonor himself by doing
things for people who don’t care about him. He’s not going to do things
for people who don’t want him to do things for them. In other places the
people brought all the sick and demon-possessed to Jesus because they
knew he could help. In Nazareth, they knew he was a nobody and so few
of the sick and oppressed were brought to him. If you treat God with indifference
there is a time coming when he will return the favor.
Many people have told me over the years they cannot believe in Jesus.
They cannot believe that God became a human being and lived as a man on
planet earth for 30 years and that his death on the cross secures forgiveness
of sins. The reason they give for not believing is that there is not sufficient
evidence to believe. They don’t believe the Bible is a reliable historical
document or they know that miracles don’t happen or they know that it’s
impossible for Christianity to be the only true faith. They think about
Jesus the same way my grandfather thought about the planet earth. My grandpa,
until the day he died in 1979 believed the earth to be flat. I don’t know
why he believed it but he did. My siblings and I would bring home pictures
and stories proving that the earth was a globe. He would say it was all
a hoax, that the government was making it all up. When we would try to
argue with him, he would curse at us. He believed the earth was flat because
he wanted to believe it was flat, not because there was not sufficient
evidence that it is a globe. It is the same with Jesus. The reason people
don’t believe is not that the evidence is insufficient; it is because
they don’t want to believe. There is as much evidence that Jesus lived,
died, and rose from the dead as that George Washington was the first president
of the United States. The fact that people believe Washington was our
first president but don’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead exposes
their hostility to God.
The frightening thing about this story is that these people were amazed
at Jesus, they knew Jesus better than anyone else and yet Jesus offended
them. They treated Jesus as if he were a nobody in spite of the overwhelming
evidence to the contrary. Rather than viewing Jesus as a treasure worth
giving up everything to have, they treated him as if he were just an ordinary
person. These people show by their indifference and contempt for Jesus
that they are hostile to God. Your response to Jesus shows the same thing.
You must honor him by depending upon him for all your happiness. If you
do not you simply are displaying your hostility towards the God who made
you and gives everything you have.
Human hostility to God is revealed by our…
- Unwillingness to see the glory of God in Christ
- And…
II. Willingness to believe all manner of superstitious nonsense (vv.
1-2)
In vv. 1-2 we are informed that while Jesus is being rejected by his
hometown, the ruler of this part of the Roman Empire, a man by the name
of Herod hears about Jesus. He gets word that Jesus is performing amazing
miracles and so large crowds are following him around. But then notice
how Herod interprets this news about Jesus. He says that Jesus is John
the Baptist come back to life. This is why Jesus, a.k.a., John the Baptist
has the ability to do miracles.
I want you to notice all the things that Herod believes to be true about
reality. First of all, he is no atheist. He believes that miracles are
being done. Supernatural power is being exercised through Jesus. He knows
there is a spiritual reality that is outside and above the physical reality
we live in. Second, he believes that people don’t simply cease to exist
when they die but that they continue to exist, though in a different form.
Third, he believes in the resurrection from the dead, that dead people
come back to life in their original bodies. Fourth, he believes that John
the Baptist was a significant person in God’s estimation. When he hears
about Jesus’ power he assumes that God would be pleased to raise John
from the dead and enable him to do such things. I think we can also assume,
based upon the story that follows, that Herod has a guilty conscience.
He knows he should not have killed John and so he wants to believe that
somehow God has stepped in to reverse the evil that he did.
Herod has a very "spiritual" view of reality. Some of what
he believes is true. Jesus is performing miracles, God is pleased with
John the Baptist, he was wrong to kill him, and there is a resurrection.
However, most of what he believes about reality is entirely false. God
is working but he interprets God’s work in a bizarre manner that requires
no repentance on his part and no submission to the true God. If Herod
were alive today he would be on Oprah. His explanation of reality is far
more acceptable than the true explanation of reality.
Tim Downs, who is now a missionary, had a syndicated cartoon strip when
he was much younger. One of his cartoons showed three students hanging
out in a dorm room. One of the students says, "I’ve been thinking
about the resurrection of Jesus, what do you think happened to his body?"
One of his friends says, "I believe God raised him from the dead
and then after appearing to his disciples over a period of 40 days he
ascended into heaven where he is waiting to return to judge the living
and the dead." The other friend says, "I believe Jesus was an
alien, sent here to explain to humans how to get along with one another.
Jesus didn’t really die, just before he was put on the cross the mother
ship projected a hologram of Jesus on the cross and beamed the real Jesus
up to the ship. Then after they ‘buried’ the ‘hologram’ Jesus they moved
the stone from in front of the tomb and projected the hologram in front
of the disciples on various occasions. Thus making it appear that Jesus
was resurrected." The friends then look at the original questioner
and ask, "So what do you think?" He says, "I believe the
scientific explanation." I know this sounds funny but I’ve had people
tell me they believe Jesus was an alien.
There are thousands of explanations of reality in the world, most of
them are spiritual. The variety simply reveals man’s hostility to the
truth. We’ll believe anything before we’ll believe what is actually
true. God has given us a final and absolute standard of what is true
in the Bible. Whatever is contrary to what God has said in this book is
false, no matter who says it and no matter how many people believe it.
This book is the only place where God has given us truth about himself
and the world we live in. Millions of people in the world believe that
the terrorists that flew into the World Trade Center are in heaven. They
are wrong. Millions of people in the world believe that spirits inhabit
trees, rocks and animals. They are wrong. Millions of people in the world
believe that dead people are watching over them and they can hear their
prayers and help them. They are wrong. Millions of people in the world
believe they can gain heaven apart from Jesus. They are wrong. These people
are not wrong because I say so but because they do not believe what God
has said in Christ through this book.
God says through the prophet Jeremiah, "A horrible and shocking
thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests
rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way." Jesus
said, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." The apostle Paul
says, "I know that after I leave savage wolves will come in among
you, not sparing the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and
distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them… Such men
are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It
is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness."
The fact is that the world we live in is full of deception. Not everything
you think is true just because you think it. All of us must subject our
thinking to the objective word of God. Do not give in to wishful thinking
and the latest fad. Test your views with God’s word. Make it your ambition
to show that what you believe about reality is what the word of God says.
You need to know this about yourself, you are like Herod. You would rather
believe anything than believe what is actually true because naturally,
you are hostile to God.
Human hostility to God is revealed by our…
- Unwillingness to see the glory of God in Christ
- Willingness to believe all manner of superstitious nonsense
- And our…
III. Unwillingness to repent of our sins and obey God (vv. 3-12)
Matthew now tells us the story of Herod’s murder of John the Baptist.
This is a gruesome story that displays the wickedness of humanity. The
great danger that we all face as we read a story like this is that we
look at the violence of Herod and Herodias and her teenage daughter and
shake our heads and think, "How could people act like this? What
evil people." We naturally presume we are more like John, the innocent
victim than like Herod and Herodias the evil and violent people. We do
this all the time. We hear about Serbians who murder their neighbors and
dump their bodies in mass graves to cover their crimes and we wonder how
people can be so wicked. We see the hatred of many Moslem people towards
us and the violent acts of Sept. 11 and we shake our heads in disbelief.
We read in the paper about the man who sexually molests children and we
act as though we do not understand how people can do such things. When
we think like this, we are ignoring what ought to be the most frightening
thing in the world. We ought to feel afraid for ourselves because we know
that the same hatred that moved the terrorists to attack us has burned
in our hearts. The same lust that moved the child molester has flamed
in us even if over different objects. That’s the point of this story.
Why did Herod and Herodias murder John? Look at vv. 4-5. John repeatedly
told Herod and Herodias that it was a violation of God’s law for them
to have sexual relations. We know from Marks account of this story and
from the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus that Herodias was originally
married to Herod’s brother Phillip. Herod and Herodias became lovers and
then both divorced their spouses and married each other. John the Baptist
regularly told them that they were sinning against God. No doubt he quoted
both the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery" and Lev.
18:16, "Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife."
They believed, as do most people in the world, that what they did in the
privacy of their own home was nobodies business but their own. They believed
that what they did as consenting adults was OK. Who did John think he
was, condemning them? They hated and scorned John because they hated and
scorned God’s law. It was this hatred, this anger that moved them to murder
John. You may not have murdered anybody yet, but you know that you have
hated like this.
However, this story also tells us why murders aren’t going on all around
us, all the time. Did you notice, Herod wanted to kill John but he couldn’t
because as the ruler of Jewish people he didn’t want to create a religious
martyr? He restrained his hatred, not because he wanted to obey God and
love people, but because he didn’t want to end up being murdered himself
by rioting Jewish people. This is why human beings don’t act on their
hatred. We are not restrained by love for God and others but by fear of
harm coming to ourselves if we carried out what we really feel. What is
the reason Herod vowed to give Herodias’ daughter anything she asked for?
The reason Herod made such a rash vow was his lust and desire to impress
others. The reason Herod gave into his wife’s request was because he didn’t
want to lose face in front of his dinner guests. Herod does not once act
out of consideration for God. All of his actions are motivated by his
love for power, sex and prestige. Herod ought to have broken off his relationship
with Herodias and lived a celibate life to the day of his death. Herod
ought to have let John go free. Herod ought to have told his guests that
he was wrong to have made such a rash promise under the influence of lust
and that it would be murder to do what Herodias and her daughter wanted.
All along the way, Herod could have repented and done the right thing,
if he loved God and trusted God for all things. However, Herod loved sex,
power and prestige and so he hated John because he hated God and God’s
demands upon his life. You cannot love God and anything else.
I have regularly told people that we all hate God by nature. Many have
told me, "I’ve never hated God." That’s just not true. If you
deny the Son of God, you prove that you hate God. Jesus said, "He
who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him."
If you refuse to evaluate what you think and believe by God’s revelation,
you prove you hate him. If you do not obey God’s commands, if you are
angry with those who confront you with God’s standards, you prove you
hate God. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey my commands."
Do not read these stories and then shake your head at the foolishness
and wickedness of these people as if you are somehow better. We should
respond to these stories by confessing our sins and crying out for mercy
that God would give us hearts that love him, trust Christ and delight
to keep his commands. Matthew did not record these stories just so we
could win at Bible Trivia. These stories are here for us to see what hostility
to God looks like so that we will face the ugly truth about ourselves
and flee to Christ to be saved from ourselves.
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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