Date:   12/05/2010

Text:   Matthew 3:1-12

Title:   A Spiritual Journey

Theme: God has invited us to embark on a journey into his presence.

Introduction:

  C.S. Lewis’s “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” begins with two children, Lucy and Edmund spending a holiday with their unpleasant and unfriendly cousin, Eustace. Lucy and Edmund had been to Narnia, but not Eustace. The land of Narnia is a place where the trees walk and animals talk. It is also a place temporarily ruled by the white witch, while all the creatures are waiting for the return of their true owner, Aslan the lion. Eustace is very skeptical of this place as told to him by his cousins.

  On this particular day, while in Lucy’s room, a painting of a ship on Lucy’s wall comes to life. “MOVIE CLIP”.

The children fell into the water and enter the land of Narnia. They are rescued by the ship called the Dawn Treader. Once they are on board, the children are greeted by their old friend Caspian, who now is a king. Caspian is on a journey travelling from island to island in search of the 7 lost lords of Narnia. In this journey, they run into all kinds of hardships and met dragons, dwarves, storms and slave traders. The three children, especially the nasty Eustace are all transformed by this experience.

  In C.S.Lewis’ Chronicle of Narnia, he created a fairly tale world to teach lessons about the Christian faith. In his stories, there is always this lion, Aslan, a great fictional representation of Jesus Christ. This lion is gentle and loving, but Lewis emphasized that it is not tame. Aslan is good, but not tame. In this Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the three children began their journey by falling into the waters of Narnia. Of course the high lights of this and other Narnia stories, is the encounter with Aslan, the good but not tame lion. As we come to think of this, this journey is very similar to a journey described in Matthew’s gospel, the text we read earlier.

  First let’s take a look at John and his message. He is the cousin of Jesus, about 6 months older. For most of his adult life, he has lived in the wilderness, v1, 4, “ 1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,… 4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 那時，施洗的約翰出來，在猶太的曠野傳道 …. 約翰身穿駱駝毛的衣服，腰束皮帶，吃的是蝗蟲和野蜜。 ” His clothing is simple; made of camel’s hair. The diet is plain, consisting of locusts and honey from the wild bees. One can also imagine his very long hair and beard. He must have appeared as a man of another world.

  He is called the Baptist as people associated him with baptism. In the Jewish tradition, baptism with water is part of a ritual to purify oneself. It is also a process of conversion for gentiles into Judaism. But from the context, John’s baptism is similar but different from these two practices of the 1 st century Judaism.

We’ll now take a look at his message. Vs.2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is at hand. 說：“天國近了，你們應當悔改。 ” God’s kingdom is where he rules. I wonder if we were to put up a sign in front of a local Chinese supermarket or restaurant, saying: the Kingdom of heaven is near. How many people would understand its meaning? To many of us, saying there is the kingdom of heaven is similar to saying there is a place where the animal talks and trees can walk. Putting John and his message together, gives the impression that it is foreign, like a fairy tale.

John also further explain the implication of repentance. Vs. 8, “ 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 應當結出果子來，與悔改的心相稱 ” Repentance is more than just saying I’m sorry, but rather includes the change of behavior regarding sin and righteousness.

Who came to John? Vs.5,6, “ 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 5 耶路撒冷、猶太全地和約旦河一帶的人都出來到他那裡去， 6 承認自己的罪，在約旦河裡受了他的洗。 ” this does not mean everyone, but to indicate John’s popularity. They were interested in starting this journey. They were willing to and wanting to change their thoughts and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.

Among the crowd were also the Pharisees and Sadducees, the skeptics of the day. They considered themselves as having entered the kingdom of God because they were descendants of Abraham. But to John this was a moot issue. Entering into the kingdom of God, or this encounter with Jesus has nothing to do with one’s ancestry. vs.7-12, “ 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Entering into God’s kingdom is about a change of mind and attitude resulting in changed behavior. If they refuse to repent and change their behavior, the Christ they will meet is a judge, who will judge with fire. Like Aslan, Christ is good but not tame, for he can be very severe.

So, we can summarize that John is talking about a journey, a spiritual journey. It is a journey from where we are to where God, Jesus Christ is. This journey begins with water which symbolizes repentance and a change of behavior. T o embark on this journey, one must be willing to change one’s way of life as a result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.     

  So what do all these mean to us?

First, there is a spiritual journey that will take us from where we are to encounter Jesus Christ, the lion, that is good but not tame. It is a journey taking us from where we are into God’s rule. This God is good in the sense that he is always gentle and loving towards us. When we fail in life, he is there to pick us up and forgive us. He is the one looking out for our well-being. He provides with us for what we need and empowers us when we are weak. He comforts us when we are disillusioned and discouraged about life. He heals us when we are wounded by the arrows of injustice and unrighteousness. This is the Lord we are to encounter.

  But are we willing to meet him? Who doesn’t want to meet a God, the Jesus who is gentle and loving? Yet, wait a minute, in order to meet him, we have to start with water, like the voyage of the Dawn Treader. Yes, it means baptism with water. However, there is more than just the water. For this water signifies repentance.

Repentance is more than saying sorry. When our children are young, we teach them to say sorry when they are wrong. But we also tell them sorry must be accompanied with behavior change. Just saying sorry is easy, kind of. And when we have said too many sorry’s, it would mean nothing. Saying sorry must be accomplished by behavior change.

  When I was in WZ this past month, I met several individuals in their 50’s and 60’s. they told me they are fifth generation Christians. Then they went on to say that their children are the 6 th , and the grandchildren, the 7 th generation. I think most of us are just the 1 st generation, some maybe 2 nd or at the most 3 rd generation. So how do we go and meet this Jesus? Can I say, I am in his kingdom already because I am the 2 nd , 6 th or 7 th generation Christian? I don’t think it works this way. In God’s economy, we say, to meet this Jesus, to enter this kingdom, we first have to be willing to change our thoughts and attitudes. Not just some behavior change such as going to church or even reading the Bible. We have to be willing to say sorry to what we have done, and willing to change our thoughts and attitudes. In order words, we are willing to change our very core value system.

  Now, what is there to change? To the first century listeners, the only books they had were the OT books. They knew Moses’ laws, the 10 commandments well. When we look at the 1 st 4 commandments, its about our relationship with God. He is the one totally beyond us. He is the to be the only God in our lives. We do not ask him to help us materialize our dreams and desire. But we are to be submissive and obedient so that his will be done in our lives as it is in heaven. Before this God, all we can see is our sinfulness and worthiness. In Lewis’ chronicles of Narnia, one of the values that the children often had to change was that of recognizing their unworthiness before Aslan, the lion. When they saw Aslan’s gentleness and caring, they saw their own shortcoming. Likewise, as we come into this God’s presence, we need to see our sinfulness, how we have come short of his standards in words, thoughts and deeds.

Now, the next 6 commandments deal with our relationships with those around us. We are commanded not to steal, kill, commit adultery and covet others’ belongings. In other words, we are not to take anything that does not belong to us. We are not to harm another person’s reputation. These commandments mean we are to respect life in its entirety. Moreover, later on the writings of the prophets, especially in the book of Micah, we are told, “ 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? “

What does God want of us? Our lives must not be self-centered, but to be God and other centered. We are to love God and men with all our hearts, will, mind and strength. These are the fruits of righteousness.

When God is my center, then, I would not dare to ask him to do this and that for me, instead, I want to be obedient and submissive to him. I will be his servant doing what he desires. Instead of telling him what to do for me and my family, I want to ask him to help me and my family members to be obedient to him in all areas of life.

After all these years, the words of St. Francis of Assisi still help me to best understand the meaning of being other centered:

Eternal God, make us instruments of thy peace; where hate rules, let us bring love; where malice, forgiveness; where disputes, reconciliation; where error, truth; where doubt, belief; where sorrow, joy. O Lord, let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted; to understand others more than to be understood; to love others more than to be loved! For he who gives, receives; he who forgets himself, finds; he who forgives, receives forgiveness; and in dying we arise again to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In short, previously my value was all about of me, me and me. I want you to comfort me, encourage me, understand me and serve me. But now, it is different. I am to comfort, understand, encourage and be a light to others.

This is what repentance is all about. I am deeply sorry for my sins against God and men, especially those that closest to me. Having expressed my remorse, I am also determined to change my attitude towards sin and priority in life. I am to love God and men.

Conclusion:

This is our spiritual journey. It begins with where we are to travel to meet this Christ. We all want to meet this good Lion, Jesus Christ. We do want to come under his care and love for us. This journey starts with water, meaning repentance. We are to be sorry for our sins and asking him to forgive us. We are also willing to change our attitudes and behaviors regarding righteousness.

Yet, by now, we all know how difficult this is. In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace, the skeptic, found himself giving in to his greediness. He filled his pockets with gold and turns into a dragon while he was sleeping. But as a dragon, he discovers how bad he’s been and he repents. He tries to peel off the dragon skin on his body. As he scratched deeper, the whole skin came off. As he steps into the water to take a bath, he notices that his body is already covered by another layer of skin, just like before. So he repeated the procedure but to no avail. He was utterly disappointed and discouraged. At this time, Aslan came to him and said, “you have to let me undress you.” So Eustace lied down quietly. Eustace said, “the very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I have ever felt.” Aslan removed the entire skin off Eustace and his body was like that of a baby again.

We by ourselves cannot get rid of those sins and old ways of thinking. We are to let God do this for us. We are to humbly come to him and tell him how sorry we are for offending him and others. We are to tell him that we are willing to change our attitudes and behaviors with his help.

We also need to let him and his paws take away those sinful and self-centered attitudes and behavior. It is not easy and often painful. But in the midst of such pain, He is Good.