11:7-19
The
Kingdom that Suffers Violence
Rev.
Daehyun Shin[2005/11/6]
The Lord's day Morning Service
Sierra Vista United Korean Presbyterian Church
John the Baptist! We all know him very well. He was the baptizer. Is that all that we know? Do we really know him? As Jesus said, as far as people on earth are concerned, “among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (v 11). What was his distinct life-style? He lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel (Luke 2:80). He was the true man of ‘Arizona’. He could have lived in a town, a city, or as an ordinary person. But he chose to live in the desert. He called the people out of their towns and cities. He pulled them out of their ordinary world to the desert. It was like God who called the suffering Israelites out of Egypt to the Mt. Sinai in the Sinai desert. His calling was like the ‘God’s Exodus calling’.
God’s Exodus calling of the Israelites from Egypt to the Sinai desert and from Sinai to the Promised Land was the calling to urge the people to begin a new history with God. Like the God at the Sinai desert John the Baptist lived in the desert to call God’s people out of the earthly life into the life in the kingdom of God. So as to become God’s people you got to go out to the desert first. In the desert you got to learn a total dependence on God. The new beginning cannot be the movement from one city to another one. But there must be the desert between. Come out of your familiar way of worldly life to the totally committed life to God in the middle of nowhere. ‘Then’, you can head for the new life that God provides.
Our church is like John the Baptist. Consecrated from the world and standing in the desert the church is proclaiming towards the world to come out of there, to leave there, to get rid of old life, to turn to God and trust in Him. As the people in John the Baptist’s time came to him, people who hear the church’s calling are coming forth to the church. Some may listen, stay, change their lives, but others may refuse, go back, and criticize. Whatever the reactions may be, the church cannot be pleased just with the fact that people are coming to the church. The fundamental question the church should raise is, “What did you go out into the desert to see?” “What did you come to the church to see?” ‘Going out’ is the people’s eager expecting action with determined will and great effort. Why did they make such a willing effort?
“To see a reed swayed by the wind?” (v 7) The reed was the commonest element of the desert where John the Baptist lived in. The reeds were everywhere in the desert. It is like McDonald’s everywhere in the world. It is nonsense that you spare a special time to go out to Canada to eat Big Mac. You don’t have to go out that far. You can stay where you are, and still buy the Big Mac. Thus, it is likewise nonsense to go to church to ‘see’ people, for people are everywhere. If you want to see people you don’t need to go to church. Just go out to any places. You will see people full of activities.
“If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes?” (v 8) Either a man dressed in a fashionable designer’s clothes in the desert or a man who goes out to the desert to see such fancy clothed man must be mad. Those who wear fine clothes are in king’s palaces. Going to the church to meet intelligent people? They are in Harvard. Going to the church to hear rock and roll style hymn? Just buy CDs in Hastings.
“Then, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes” (v 9). John the Baptist was “the messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you” (v 10). Do you go out to the church to see a preacher proclaiming God’s words? Yes! The church is the place where God is preparing your way before you by His messenger.
But against God’s will to prepare our way before us “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force” (v 12, KJV). The violence is neither the character of God, nor of God’s people, but the character of the unfaithful (Prov 13:2), that is, “this generation” (v 16). This generation does not let the kingdom of God go on its way. They try to lay hold of it forcefully in their control.
They want the church to follow their demands. If they sing a dirge they want the church to mourn (v 17). If they play flute they want the church to dance (v 17). According to human right they want the church to accept gay-marriage. They want the church to be rocked by hard rock music. They dislike a pastor preaching about tithe. They think it so annoying and old-fashioned. They do not want to hear warnings of the Bible. They want to be comforted and hear jokes. They totally disregard the fact that the church has its own unchanging truth only on the basis of which it acts.
Demanding congregation and unauthoritative custom-tailored church! Judging crowd and judged church! When the church keeps the truth all the way through the world violently try to lay hold of it by their demands. Why can’t follow the church its own standards? It can do fasting or feasting according to its own decision. But as the church does fasting they say it is demonized, stuck to the ancient concepts, inflexible and uncooperative. As the church has feasting they criticize that it wastes money.
However, the church cannot be pulled into the world by their demands. On the contrary, the church should stand firm in the desert and call the world coming out of their arbitrary life-styles. The church should attract the people by the unchanging truth rather than being attracted and dragged by the changing demands of the world. God’s people should fight with God’s spiritual power against the world’s violent force. As we are asked what we come to the church to see we need to be able to answer with confidence that we come to the church to see Jesus and His authority and to humbly bow down before Him and worship him. “Wisdom is proved right by her actions” (v
19).
