I once asked a friend who had been reading Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace what the book was all about. And he replied to me “Well, it’s about… war and peace really.” Ask a silly question…
In the same way the Gospels are basically about the gospel, meaning good news. But in Matthew 24.14 Jesus didn’t call the gospel “the gospel”. He called it the gospel of the kingdom. If ever you read the four Gospels looking out for what it says about the kingdom of God you see immediately that it is a major, major theme.
It was, in fact Jesus’ first ever message. At the beginning of his public ministry Matthew 4.17 says “Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, [do a U-turn in the way you’re living your life] for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”
It wasn’t just his first ever message, it was also Jesus’ favourite subject of all. In Matthew 13.34 it says “Jesus… did not say anything to them without using a parable.” And those parables began with these words: “The kingdom of heaven is like… a net, buried treasure, a mustard seed, a sower, a pearl, two sons…”
When the disciples asked him how to teach them to pray he said, “Pray this; Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.”
How do you get into the kingdom of God? Well, he told us. He said it is easy if you are humble and have simple faith. “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom.”
What stops you getting into it? He talked about that too. He said that the kingdom is tricky to get into if you are consumed by wealth and possessions. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
So the kingdom of God was Jesus’ first message, his favourite subject - and his last word. In Acts 1.3 it says this; “After his suffering, [Jesus] presented himself to [his disciples] and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about… the kingdom of God.”
If the kingdom is important for Jesus it better be important to us too.
The kingdom of God basically means wherever God reigns, wherever God rules. Where God’s will prevails, his kingdom is present.
Where God’s standards are upheld his kingdom is present.
Where society is blessed by Christians living like Jesus bringing justice and healing and peace the kingdom has come.
Two Kingdoms, Not One
But what today’s reading tells us is that there is not just one kingdom, but two – and that one is much more powerful than the other. There is a kingdom that is just and that brings life to the dying and release to the oppressed. And there is another kingdom, or realm, that is evil and dark and which is implacably opposed to God. These kingdoms are in opposition to one another, they clash and collide.
Next weekend Kathie and I are going down to London for a memorial service for the vicar who married us; Owen Thomas. He was a really godly man and he went to be with the Lord in December.
We had a friend for supper on Friday who we know from our time in London. We were talking about Owen and she told us a story that remains the most vivid memory she has of him. Her flatmate’s parents had been to the Far East on holiday and had brought her back a religious charm, a prayer wheel, as a gift.
It became clear to them quite soon that, for reasons they couldn’t explain, the room in which the prayer wheel was placed began to have the feel of a cold, evil presence. They were both intelligent, rational trainee doctors. But there was a feeling of oppression and darkness which quite scared them.
They phoned Owen to ask him to come and do something – and to show you that it wasn’t just a whim, it was 11:30 at night. You don’t phone someone to come out at midnight unless you’re sure something is serious. Owen picked up the phone, said he was in bed but awake and would come as soon as he could.
When he arrived he was shown to the room. He knew immediately what it was, picked it up and said “This is nothing. The blood of Jesus is stronger than all other spiritual authority and power.” He opened the prayer wheel and took out a small parchment on which something was written.
He burned the parchment, prayed around the room, and immediately the sense of the presence of evil lifted. He put the prayer wheel back on the mantelpiece and said “that’s just a wooden object now, nothing more, nothing less.” My friend and her flatmate never felt that evil, cold, oppressive presence again.
I’m telling you that story because it shows quite eloquently that evil spiritual forces are not just in the imagination; they are absolutely real. We can become quite sceptical about the paranormal – and it’s true that there are plenty of dubious frauds out there. I mean, think about it, why do you think you never see the headline Psychic Wins Lottery?
But the Bible teaches that evil spiritual powers are quite real. I don’t think you can adequately explain the horrors of paedophile rings, human trafficking, black magic rituals or tragedies like the school siege in Beslan or Jamie Bulger’s murder any other way.
I’ve personally witnessed several cases of demon possession and deliverance in my time as a church leader - five since I’ve been here - and unless there are some really talented amateur actors in the general public, it is all absolutely authentic.
The Incident with the Pharisees
Nevertheless, when we read passages like the one in Matthew 12 it seems strange to us doesn’t it? What does it mean when it says “a bruised reed he will not break”? Who’s Beelzebul? What’s all this about Satan driving out Satan?
It is strange to us. We are separated by 2,000 years of elapsed time and 2,500 miles distance; we have a vast cultural gulf (even today between the Middle East and Middle England there’s not much in common) and some things get lost in translation because this has come to us from Aramaic to Greek to English. No wonder it feels a bit otherworldly.
So let me try and explain the context here so we can understand the situation better.
We’re following Jesus through the Galilee region, surrounded by crowds wherever he goes, and heading south towards Nazareth, the town where he grew up. His twelve disciples have been with him a while now and you’ve got to feel sorry for these blokes. I bet when Jesus said in chapter 4, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men and women,” they probably thought, “Oh, fishing; this sounds good.”
But it didn’t take long for them to realise that Jesus’ idea of a fishing trip is a bit different to theirs. They’ve had little but confrontation, trouble and danger and now there’s a dispute about demon possession and who’s allowed to do what.
This might surprise you but exorcisms were quite common in the Holy Land in the 1st Century. It wasn’t just Jesus and his entourage who cast out evil spirits. There were Jewish exorcists who successfully drove out demons too.
Historical research shows that they used incantations, or formulas of words, that featured the names of illustrious or revered people. So they never did this under their own authority. The Jews, for example, sometimes used Solomon’s name or Jonah’s name when they dealt with incidents such as this. (That’s probably why Matthew quotes Jesus comparing himself to both Jonah and Solomon later in this chapter - affirming that he is greater than both. It’s worth reading up on that when you get the time).
Anyway, in the culture of Jesus’ day, to act directly against evil spirits without invoking the name of someone illustrious or revered, greater than yourself, was considered to be witchcraft or sorcery. The punishment in the Law for witchcraft and sorcery was death.
So when it says in v14 that the Pharisees started to plot amongst themselves about how they might assassinate Jesus you can see that this whole dispute was part of their conspiracy to get Jesus killed; they were falsely accusing him of a capital crime.
Why were they so ticked off with Jesus? They can see the writing on the wall. They are agitated because Jesus is such a threat to their system; he isn’t like anybody else. He’s pulling crowds that are no longer listening to them very much. People are listening to him and not them because he speaks with authority and they don’t.
So they accuse him publicly of being an agent of the devil and of working counterfeit miracles. Jesus easily exposes the deficient logic of their argument.
Verse 25: Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom [there it is, Satan has a kingdom too] stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, [that is, another name for the devil himself] by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
What does that mean? Let me try and explain by telling a little joke that will make you groan. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were getting cold, so they lit a fire in their boat. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
All right, terrible pun, but Jesus is making the same point really. Why would anyone light a fire in a boat they are sitting in and thus sink it? Nobody! And why would Satan, dull though he is, shoot himself in the foot? By attacking his own troops he’s only weakening his army. What would be the point of that?
“But,” says Jesus, “if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come among you.” Or, in the Message version, “if it's by God's power that I am sending the evil spirits packing, then God's kingdom is here for sure.”
1 Corinthians 4.20 says that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. The kingdom advances with power when God brings healing, deliverance, when he unties the bonds of sin and oppression and sets people free. The kingdom of God does not advance by endlessly talking in circles in committees.
Bruised Reeds and Smouldering Wicks
But the might and strength of the awesomely great kingdom of God are not just about power encounters against strong forces of evil.
Verses 18-21 show that the way the kingdom comes in power, not talk, is sometimes surprising. Verse 20 says this about Jesus:
“A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.”
A bruised reed is a picture of brokenness and powerlessness – it’s about people who have been beaten up and damaged by the effects of sin. They are broken by life, crushed in heart and mind; hopeless and lost in their own wrong choices and traumatised by the sins of others.
Jesus doesn’t just say “there, there, cheer up” to bruised reeds. He doesn’t break bruised reeds, he mends them. Because the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
Sin slowly saps the life out of us. In the end it separates us forever from the love of God. That is Satan’s agenda for your life and mine. A bruised reed is a picture of something that is not just fragile but beyond repair. It is useless. You can’t make music with it. You can’t build anything with it. You can’t bind it and hope that it will grow solid again.
Jesus doesn’t just say “look, you’re beyond the pale now” to bruised reeds. He doesn’t break bruised reeds, he restores them. Because the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
The bruised reed is a picture of damaged lives – but it’s also a picture of each and every one of us apart from Christ. All of us, without Christ, were lost, broken, and without hope. We cannot repair ourselves or save our own souls.
The second picture is of a smouldering wick. A candle wick that smoulders is not completely dead, but it is dying. A smouldering wick no longer produces much light. The flame it once held is almost gone. What is left is only a pale reflection of the glory it once had. A little smoke and a faint flicker of light are all that remain.
It’s an image of a heart that has lost its passion, a soul that was once glowing with faith, a life that was burning brightly with the radiance of Christ – but now that first love for the Lord has dimmed.
The smouldering wick is someone who has become sidetracked by the business of life and has drifted away from God. All that holiness and devotion of young faith has diminished and now the full flame has all but gone out. Now there’s doubt and discouragement.
Smouldering wicks can burn again, but they need a bit of attention. They need a re-kindling. They need the breath of the Spirit to blow once again upon them to fan into the flame the light that once burned more brightly.
Jesus doesn’t just say “look, this candle has had it” to smouldering wicks. He doesn’t snuff out dying lights, he rekindles them. Because the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
Ending
Every person we meet in the street also could be described as a bruised reed or a smouldering wick. Life beats you down, and sin snuffs out the life of God. Some of us here this morning feel that they are bruised reeds and smouldering wicks.
In fact, in a sense, we all are. Everyone starts out lost in their sins and dead to God. And all of us who have put our trust in Christ battle sometimes against a diminishing of the flame of our faith. These verses are about you and about me.
And Jesus will not break a bruised reed. He comes to bind up the broken hearted. He will not snuff out a smouldering wick. He comes to bring new life and spiritual renewal.
It is not a matter of talk, but of power. So why don’t I stop talking and let’s make plenty of space for prayer ministry after Communion…
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 27th February 2011
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