I don’t know if you have ever noticed a certain little feature in our hymnal. At the top of each page, in small letters, is a word that describes what type of hymn is on the page. There are categories like Christmas and Easter. There headings like Redeemer, Justification, Prayer, and Commitment. I have here the hymnal from when I was a child.
Have you ever stopped to think about what it must have been like to spend time around Jesus? We have all known that person who seemed like they were perfect. That kid in high school. Straight A’s. Star on all the teams. Great hair. Great personality.
If you had been walking around a shopping mall in the 1990s you would have seen a particularly odd type of decoration lining the walls of the novelty shops. These bizarre posters were normal sized, but they didn’t look like much. No people, no pictures, no slogans, just little bits of color all arranged in perfectly random chaos. You might describe them as a “colorful-static.”
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to say, Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). It is a very simple, no-nonsense petition. In it we simply ask our dear Father to give us enough bread for this day.
I have sometimes wondered if when the disciples heard this, they remembered the stories they would have surely heard about the “daily bread” the Lord had given to their ancestors in the desert under Moses.
We in America are confused. We are confused about “means” and “ends.” What do we mean by that? Well, “ends” are where you want to be. It is the goal. It is the “end.” It’s the destination. A “means” is how you get to your end. For example, when you go on vacation, you don’t climb in the car and yell, “Yay! We’re here!” No. The goal of your vacation is not sitting in the car in the driveway.
About 60 miles off the coast of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea is a beautiful island called Crete. Today tourists flock to Crete for its stunning beaches. Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul made a stop on Crete. He wasn’t there for the beaches. He was there with a young co-worker named Titus. They were there to spread the good news about Jesus. They were engaged in Gospel ministry.
It was Saturday in Nazareth. The Sabbath Day. And the faithful sons of Abraham gathered where they did every Sabbath. They gathered at the synagogue. They were in the right place! Here in the synagogue the scrolls of the Old Testament, what they called the tanakh, were read and expounded. Here they heard the Word of Jehovah. In the synagogue they would hear the prophecies of the Messiah who was to come and bring salvation. Indeed, they were in the right place! Because of the Word of God present there the synagogue was the gate to heaven!
You have all likely heard of “euphemisms.” Euphemisms are nice, polite ways to say things that might sound harsh or unpleasant. For example, companies speak of “downsizing” rather than firing people. A person is said to be “vertically challenged” instead of “short.” Something strange is said to be “interesting.” And one I heard recently: “death” was called “successfully completing retirement.”
In order to appreciate our text this morning, we need to have a little knowledge about the Jewish concept of “sabbath.” The word “sabbath” means “rest.” It is a concept the Lord wanted to deeply impress on his Old Testament people. The Lord gave Israel her calendar with these instructions: Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 20:8-11) Thus the “Sabbath day” was born for Israel.
The last will be first, and the first last. (v. 16) These are the last words of our text for this morning. So, fittingly, we are going to consider them first. The last will be first, and the first last. Just exactly what does that mean? Many people have puzzled over its meaning. Bible commentators have written much trying to explain it. But what really does it mean?
