I wonder what the best meal you have ever had was. I don\u2019t really remember one particular meal as the best I\u2019ve had. I remember a couple of dishes that I really enjoyed. A pea and parmesan risotto that I had at one restaurant. An Eton mess made with caramelised pineapple instead of strawberries. Really good. I wonder what would be on the menu of a feast if you were planning it, no expense spared.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s messenger, Isaiah, seems to have a pretty good idea what he would like at his dream feast. There would be rich food, something for everyone. Aged wines \u2013 well decanted. The best cuts of meat, prepared to the highest standards. And who\u2019s the chef? The Lord Almighty is the chef \u2013 God is the one who is going to prepare and provide this feast. <\/p>\n
Where is this feast going to take place? On this mountain. <\/p>\n
Which mountain?<\/p>\n
Well, if we look back at the end of the previous chapter, we discover that we are on Mount Zion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem is built. This is more than a geographical location, though, it is the spiritual heart and focus of the people of God.
\nIt is used throughout the Bible, in both Old and New Testaments to symbolise God\u2019s good rule and reign over God\u2019s people and over creation. <\/p>\n
On one level, Isaiah was looking forward to the return of God\u2019s people to the physical Jerusalem, but more than that, he was looking forward to the end of the ages, when God\u2019s kingdom will be fully established and seen in all its fulness and glory. <\/p>\n
We know this, because of the other things that Isaiah says that God will do on that mountain. He says that God will destroy death, and wipe away all tears. Even allowing for some prophetic poetic license, it doesn\u2019t seem to me that this is what Isaiah was expecting God to do when the people of God returned from exile. This is a hope and promise for a time beyond that, when God will bring all the nations into God\u2019s kingdom. <\/p>\n
One of the ways of understanding Jesus\u2019 ministry and life on earth is as the breakthrough of God\u2019s kingdom. <\/p>\n
Jesus is King, and he came to begin the establishment of God\u2019s kingdom. He talked about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, a lot.
\nHe taught about what it looked like, what the signs of it were, how the citizens if it should live. But he didn\u2019t just talk about it, he showed us what it looked like.<\/p>\n
One of the times that he did this was described by John in his eye-witness account of Jesus life, that we just read. <\/p>\n
Now, we did jump into the middle of the story a bit, so let\u2019s rewind a minute. Jesus\u2019 friend, Lazarus, fell seriously ill. His sisters sent word of this to Jesus, and asked him to come, presumably hoping that he might heal Lazarus. But Jesus decides to stay where he is for a couple of days, until Lazarus has died. Then he sets out. As he approaches the village where they live, Martha comes rushing out and asks him why he didn\u2019t come sooner. Jesus asks her to trust him. Then Mary comes out as well, and that is where we pick up the account. <\/p>\n
Jesus is moved by the sisters\u2019 grief, and joins them in weeping for Lazarus, before heading for the tomb, which he asks them to open.
\nThey are reluctant, there\u2019ll be a bad smell, but again Jesus asks them to trust him. They do as he says, and he prays and calls Lazarus out, and he emerges, alive. Then what happens?<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus said to them, \u2018Take off the grave clothes and let him go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Does that sound familiar to anyone?<\/p>\n
What did Isaiah say that God would do on the mountain?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people \u2026 he will swallow up death forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what is the outcome in Isaiah?<\/p>\n
The people say, \u201cSurely this is our God, we trusted in him, and he saved us.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is the outcome in the story of Lazarus? <\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t actually read it, we have to go to the next verse for that,<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems to me that this is Jesus showing us what the kingdom of God is like, what it actually looks like for shrouds to be destroyed, and for death to be swallowed up.
\nBut, it is only a sign, a foretaste, a demonstration, it isn\u2019t yet the fulness of the kingdom. Lazarus was returned to life, but that return was only temporary. One day he died again. <\/p>\n
Unlike Jesus. In Jesus\u2019 own death and resurrection we see the fulness of the kingdom come even closer. What did Simon and John find in Jesus\u2019 tomb on Easter Sunday? Graveclothes, Jesus\u2019 shroud, his winding sheet, no longer needed, because Jesus had defeated death. Rather than being swallowed up by death, he had swallowed up death. <\/p>\n
We remember and celebrate this in communion. This is another sign of the kingdom, a foretaste, a down payment. I\u2019m not sure that many of us would have picked a sip of wine and a little bit of bread as our dream feast, but if we stop and think for a moment about what they mean, then what could be a more costly feast than the fine meat of Jesus\u2019 body or the aged wine of his blood? <\/p>\n
At the moment we live in the time between times. God\u2019s kingdom has been inaugurated by Jesus, but we do not yet see it in all it\u2019s reality. There continue to be signs of it, foretastes of it, as we see God at work in our lives, and the lives of those around us, but we don\u2019t experience the fullness of it yet. We know that people do still die, and that there are still tears and grief. We remembered that last Sunday at our Service of light, as people gathered to remember those who had died, and who we miss. But that wasn\u2019t all we did. We lit candles to remember people, but also to remind ourselves of hope and light, the hope and light that we find in Jesus, and in his defeat of death.<\/p>\n
The images that we found in Isaiah, of the final triumph of God, on the holy mountain, are picked up by the writers of Hebrews and Revelation.<\/p>\n
In Hebrews 12 we read,<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly\u201d<\/p>\n
And in Revelation 14 we find this,<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father\u2019s name written on their foreheads.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the time of year when we celebrate All Saints day, or All Hallows, as it is sometimes called. The world tries to distract us with the flim flam of All Hallow\u2019s Eve, of Hallowe\u2019en, but the real cause of celebration at this time of year is the celebration of All Saints. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s two reasons that this is such an important celebration. One is that we celebrate all the saints. It reminds us that there have been people following Jesus for centuries, and around the world. The scope of \u201call the saints\u201d is absolutely huge \u2013 in time and space. We are part of something world encompassing and world shaping. It connects us with other believers from every place and time. <\/p>\n
The second reason is that it reminds us that we are all saints. Every single one of us who follows Jesus has been made holy \u2013 hallowed \u2013 by Jesus, and we are counted as one of his people, citizens of his kingdom.
\nThere are no special Christians who are saints. We are all saints, by the grace of God and the death and resurrection of Jesus.<\/p>\n
Because of this, we can trust that those who have gone before in the faith will be raised to life in Jesus, that we will see them again on that mountain where death is no more, where the angels sing in praise for ever, and where we can enjoy the life of God\u2019s kingdom in all it\u2019s freedom and glory for all eternity. <\/p>\n
This is a massive privilege and responsibility. As saints we are citizens and ambassadors of Jesus\u2019 kingdom. We have been commissioned to show the rest of the world what it looks like, to share our hope and faith, to be agents of holiness and authenticity. We are the visible signs of the Kingdom now. This might feel overwhelming, but we aren\u2019t doing it on our own. God sent the Holy Spirit to equip, encourage, and empower us to fulfil this commission, and to keep our eyes on the hope we are moving towards.<\/p>\n
So, as we look forward to that, even when, like Martha we\u2019re wary of the stink of the tomb, let\u2019s choose to trust and to say, with Isaiah, \u201cSurely this is our God; we trusted him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wonder what the best meal you have ever had was. I don\u2019t really remember one particular meal as the best I\u2019ve had. I remember a couple of dishes that I really enjoyed. A pea and parmesan risotto that I had at one restaurant. An Eton mess made with caramelised pineapple instead of strawberries. Really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[431],"tags":[1360,1361],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wellington","tag-isaiah-256-9","tag-john-1132-44"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1069,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/1069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}