Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: aThe first verses emphasize that no person, including John, is sinless. Remember the greatest of prophets, Moses, could not look upon the face of God. God cannot abide evil; and to look upon His face, if one has any evil in him, means immediate death. (See Exodus 33:17-23) Like Moses, John is the most righteous of men, and Christ extols him; yet, he falls short of the glory of God; and like all men, John will require Christ’s sacrifice to be forgiven and enter heaven. The sentence about the kingdom of heaven suffering violence is difficult to read and understand. A similar passage occurs at Luke 16:16 — The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. Jesus and Angel in the Garden of Olives The concept of violence, and forcing one’s way into the kingdom of heaven, encompasses a range of meanings with a common root: people who believe that they can gain salvation by their own will, by their own belief, or by their own actions. This is not possible; we gain admission to the kingdom of God only by God’s grace. Under the Old Covenant, people believed that they could gain righteousness by their will and their actions: they could follow the law. But Christ brings a new covenant, and when Christ is resurrected, John will be the new prophet, the “Elijah who is to come.” In the meantime, the world was undergoing a period of upheaval, and people were doing (and would do) all kinds of crazy things. Actual physical violence would be done to John, to Christ, and to many of their disciples by those clinging to the Old Covenant and/or political power. The Luke citation emphasizes that others would have faith in Christ, but deny the law. There is a famous heresy called “Antinomianism” (which Paul refutes repeatedly, e.g. in 1 Cor. 6:9-20 and Galatians 5:16-25), a doctrine that, since all sins are forgiven by Christ, a believer can sin with impunity. To a lesser degree, many people crowded around Christ, looking for a miraculous entry to heaven, without really wanting to change their hearts. As another example, the zealots sought to expel Rome by force of arms; they anticipated a Messiah similar to David, a mighty political and military leader, who would establish the kingdom of God in Israel. These factions were all mistaken. The kingdom of God is ours only by the grace of God. We cannot, by our will or actions, force our way into heaven. We must have faith, but in the end, it is God who comes to us. In most Western churches the season of Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday, and lasts for forty days until Easter. If you look at your calendar, you will notice that the period is actually 46 days long, not 40; that is because Sunday is always a day of celebration in Christianity, and so the six Sundays do not count. (If you thought your parents were cheating when they broke their Lenten pledges on Sunday, they weren’t!) The length of Lent refers to the fast Jesus undertook before He began his ministry. This is a point of confusion or ambiguity for many people, because Christ’s fast occurred at the beginning of his ministry, right after he was baptized by John the Baptist, not in the days leading up to His crucifixion. The Lent we celebrate is thus a combination of two different things: preparation for the celebration of Christ’s death, and preparation to emulate Christ’s ministry. First, we observe a period of solemnity leading up to Good Friday. The three traditional practices emphasized during Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of some sort. Today, most Christians pledge to give up some specific earthly pleasure; alcohol and sweets are common. We prepare ourselves for the tragedy of Christ’s terrible suffering by engaging in a token self-denial of our physical appetites. We endure minor physical discomfort, to remind us of the agony Christ will suffer on our behalf. Secondly, we emulate Christ, who fasted for 40 days before going out into the world. Just as he tempted Christ, Satan constantly tempts us. He would have us immerse ourselves in desiring the things of this world—and so, to thwart him, we take a break. We step back and remind ourselves that all of the delicious food or glittering objects of life are not the real point. Although our sacrifice during Lent may be small, it is a moment when we demonstrate, physically, that we belong to God.