St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Helen preached this sermon on Wednesday 20 March 2024. Here it is for you again:

There are so many times when I have been preaching and you look at the passages and think oh great what are we going to do with this one. That was pretty much my though when I saw todays gospel but… I am not going to shy away from it, as I’ve said myself from this spot, we can’t avoid what Jesus says just because it’s a bit difficult but I’m not going to start with it!

I did however look at the reading from Daniel because, not to sound like a broken record, but I do love this book especially the court tales and I think this one is my favourite Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel’s three friends who were taken to Babylon with him) all three of them are thrown into a furnace for refusing to bow down to a golden statue of King Nebuchadnezzar (which I think is one of the best names in the bible) and they are thrown into a furnace which is turned up to full power. Think we can all agree not a pleasant way to go but three men are joined by another who protects them, one who is described as having the ‘appearance of a God’. It’s a good story isn’t I, just put yourself in the position of the kings and his advisors and imagine…wow! It ends with Nebuchadnezzar realising their God is real, however the lectionary does omit the line that says Nebuchadnezzar has all his advisors who spoke against the three men thrown into the furnace and…well you can use your imagination if you wish but needless to say they didn’t come out of it again.

And there is also a bit of editing done with this passage from John 8, it finishes at verse 42 and picks up tomorrow at verse 51, with quite good reason. Jesus is debating with the Jews in the temple and they are talking about being descended from Abraham, how Jesus can take away their sin and free them, he then tells them that they are not true children of Abraham as if they were they would not be trying to kill him or test him and  it finishes with, if God was really your father then you would love me as God is my father and sent me, it then cuts out the bit where Jesus says their Father is the Devil and if they do not listen to him they are sinners and unsavable and they respond saying Jesus has a demon or possessed (it does get a bit unpleasant at this point and hard to hear). So what do we do with a passage like this? Well when I was at theological College they would have told me to use three words to understand what is going on here, context, context and context. So let’s have a look at the context and I think there are two key things we need to remember when reading this.

The first is that the Jews are currently under Roman Occupation and have also a lot of Greek influences around there. These are both cultures with a lots of different gods (something the people of Israel have seen a lot over the years), some of them are questionable in morality and other things, especially the Greeks. The head of the Greek gods Zeus had a habit of going round and having children with mortal women disguised as birds, golden showers and several other forms then these children going onto do questionable things, people like Hercules and Perseus, probably all very pagan and blasphemous to them. So put yourself in this story, you have this man, the son of a local woman and carpenter who is saying actually his father really is their God and because of this they should obey and listen to him, not the best way to start is it? I was also reading a commentary on the New Testament by Jewish scholars and that makes another valid point as to why this would have been difficult for them and it was referred to in last Wednesday’s gospel (don’t worry I’ll remind you), Jesus was calling God his father and making himself equal to God. Jesus is saying he is God he is contravening the monotheistic nature of the Jewish faith (that there is only one God not many like the polytheistic pagans around them). Now I hear what you will all be getting ready to shout at me, Christianity is monotheistic and we have accepted Jesus as Messiah, true but Christianity says that there is one God with three parts which is the trinity so God has three bits but is one God. Christians have debated how this works for 2,000 years and I’m not going there today I’ll leave that to the preacher on Trinity Sunday. So you can see why those listening would receive what Jesus said and his behaviour negatively, he’s been very vocal in his own views and to really rub salt in the wounds done it on the sabbath, I think he’s lucky they only threw stones at him.

So what can we get from this passage that’s positive? What does it tell us about Jesus and his actions here? Well we do know Jesus like a debate with anyone who didn’t agree with him and we see many examples of this in the bible, the debated with the Roman Governor Pilate, chief priests and scribes, the Samaritans (the woman at the well who’s story we heard a couple of weeks ago), the rich and wealthy. Jesus testified who he was and the message he came to deliver against all odds and he didn’t hold back at all, didn’t he tell the rich man it was harder for him to get to Heaven than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, look at this narrative context of the bible Jesus would debate and put down a lot of different people and you can’t accuse him of holding back.

What I would bring out of this story is the message, which is that being a follower Jesus isn’t going to always be easy. He speaks out against the norm which is what the other liberation Theologians who comment on this passage do. Let us not forget Jesus said some controversial things, taking away his messianic message, he taught to love each other, to treat everyone equally, to forgive those who hurt you and that wasn’t popular then and in the individualistic and self-centred world we live in I don’t think it would be a popular message now. However Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stayed faithful knowing what it would cost them, that didn’t matter, so did Jesus and he was also executed for it. Jesus told us that it wouldn’t be easy for us to be his disciples, this is from Matthew’s gospel ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves…for they will hand you over to councils and flog you and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them…Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego endured to the end and were saved, so did Jesus and there is no reason why we shouldn’t do the same. We see Jesus give his testimony despite the odds and so should we, despite what may come, as he will be with us, just as he told us. Amen