6 January 2014 - from that time on

6 January 2014 - from that time on

Light rises in darkness.  The shadow of death is broken.  Jesus is in our midst "teaching" and "proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people."

We see in how Jesus carries out his mission that we do "receive from him whatever we ask" from him.  All who are "sick with various diseases and racked with pain," the "possessed, lunatics, and paralytics" are all cured.  But we get the sense that even the most impressive healings are a secondary priority for Jesus, ordered toward the proclamation of the kingdom.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

We do not read that we receive whatever we ask from Jesus without qualification.  We read that we receive "because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."  There are no gifts which Jesus holds back if they are for the building of the kingdom.  To truly be open to these gifts we have seek his kingdom first. We have to ask for blessings according to his priorities.  This is why there is the proximity between this verse about receiving in the next section on discerning spirits. 

Not all spirits come from God.  Not all of them suggest us to ask things according to his will.  We need to learn to listen to the spirits which acknowledge "Jesus Christ come in the flesh".  If we make our requests to God in accordance with these spirits then we do "receive from him whatever we ask".

This is the built in mechanism that ensures that the kingdom is never subjugated to priorities which should be secondary.  Its power only operates according to the will of its king.  After all, what good is a healed body and a lost soul?  What good to gain the whole world but to lose one's soul?  Jesus embodies the priorities of the kingdom.  It isn't that he asks anything from us which he himself does not exemplify.  Hence Jesus does not turn back from now on.  Not the definitiveness of the passage: "From that time on", we read.  From now on he is moving inexorably toward Jerusalem.  He knows what awaits him, as Isaiah prophesied:

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

But nevertheless his preaching is from now on without hesitation.  He knows from where his help comes:

Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

Let us also live for the kingdom from now on.  Let us never turn back.  Let nothing frighten us.  Let nothing silence our proclamation of the Gospel.  After all, the evil spirits which are trying to thwart us are already defeated.

You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.

We need to claim this truth as our own.  We read that the one in us is greater than the one who is in the world.  But do we internalize it?  Do we truly believe.  Let us make this verse our prayer.  Let us realize God's victory is not just 'out there' but, first and foremost, within us.  This is how we receive "all the nations for an inheritance."  We live his victory when we seek first his kingdom.  We seek it in the way his Spirit tells us.  His victory is only through the Cross.  But it is also the victory of the resurrection.  When we seek his kingdom according to his will we receive everything else as well.

And now, O kings, give heed;
take warning, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice before him;
with trembling rejoice.