“HE SPEAKS FORGIVENESS INTO THE EARS HE’S GIVEN YOU”
Saint Matthew 11: 12-15
The Festival of the Reformation [Transferred]: 1 November Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
The kingdom of heaven is The King Himself. The kingdom of heaven is Jesus. The kingdom is also all that The Lord has taken into Himself—His beloved brethren, children, disciples, and friends.
The kingdom suffers violence. It always has. Jesus suffers violence. Before His incarnation, nativity and visible ministry in Palestine The Lord suffered violence when His beloved sheep were preyed upon by the great dragon and its wolf demons. When Eve listened to the serpent and began hating God, husband, and self—all of her human seed—suffered great violence. You experience the fall-out of said violence today in your pain, sadness, aging, disease, and losses.
When Abel was laid into the ground, the same earthen sepulchre from whence his father had been created, the same soil soaked in his blood, crying out for deliverance, the Deliver Himself, the Redeemer, felt the violence in passionate love and desire to atone and restore.
Hebrew scripture is replete with God’s kingdom suffering violence. From Abram’s family being kidnapped to Joseph being betrayed by His brothers; from Israel’s long captivity in Egypt to the constant attacks upon God’s people once they arrived in Canaan. But the most tragic violence was committed against The Lord’s Word. It was rejected, disobeyed, mocked, and persecuted—and sadly, so were its heralds, sowers, preachers, and Prophets. The devil then, and now, is not just the devouring wolf or lion, but also the thieving carrion bird that plucks the seed off the ground and flies away laughing in infernal imbecility.
Moses taught God’s word and the people rose up to rebel—they wanted to stone the Law-Giver, because they wanted to kill God and enthrone their own wills as supreme. The minute a Judge got old, infirm and then died the Hebrews backslid into apostasy and violent depredations against The Lord’s Word. The greatest Prophet besides Moses himself, Elias, was set upon by evil Jezebel and persecuted violently—because she and Ahab were in reality trying to do violence to God and His Word.
You, your old-Adam original sin nature, attacks God’s kingdom daily in what it thinks, says, and does. Your “will” your “way” your desire to be “gods” takes your neighbor by force when you should be loving him as yourself.
The adversary is not the “other” works-righteous person or sectarian heterodox, the adversary is the sinner you are: Repent! Moses was done violence by people like you and, due to his own fallen violence, was not permitted into the “promised land.” Elias was done violence by people like you. These two men stood with the ultimate victim on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Law and the Prophets, the Law and Gospel bore testimony to He Who was in the middle of that trinity: Jesus the God/Man—the paschal victim. Look at a crucifix to see the violence you have done to Christ!
He Who breathed His life and light into Adam when He formed your first father, came to re-form all His children by breathing into them His Holy Spirit at their watery re-births, their re-formations in His Body given and in His Blood shed! Christ did this for you when you were re-formed at the font, when you were re-formed receiving Holy Absolution from your pastor, and when you will be re-formed by receiving His Eucharistic Meal of Mercy—His Body and Blood.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now”…until 1 November Anno + Domini 2015 “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence” by your transgressions, and “the violent” your weak faith and your self-righteousness, “take it by force.” But take heart dear Saints—for you are now dear Saints in He Who is the Saintly One—The Holy One. All the prophets and law prophesied until John. John is the end and points to the beginning: “behold the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world,” and your sin. Jesus allowed His precious Body to suffer violence—scourging, crucifixion, and death, so that you would suffer no punishment or pain in the “kingdom of come.” Elias ascended in a fiery chariot and whirlwind of angels to be with Christ in body and soul. John was the Elias to come martyring to all the New Testament people: The New Testament Himself.
Jesus gives you his present day angels—both guardian spirit beings that have been with His flock since creation but also evangelical-catholic presbyters (pastor-angels) that point you to Himself the way John did. Jesus gives you Himself, for He is The Angel of The Lord. You truly do see “another angel fly in the midst of heaven—heaven on earth: font, pulpit, confessional, altar & rail—having the everlasting gospel to preach unto you.” Your sins are loosed and your death-fetters are taken off; your prison has had its doors sheared off the very hinges; and the stone of the cave—the Law—has been lifted off of you. In Christ, you fear God and In Christ, you give glory to Him. The hour of His judgment is come—you are innocent In Christ. The fountains of waters—red and pure—flow into you and you are re-formed.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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