A Most Unexpected Gospel

After Jesus was crucified and had risen from the dead, he appeared to his disciples several times. On one of these occasions, in Luke 24:45-48, we read this:

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

The words that I want to highlight there involve the content of the gospel that Jesus commanded his disciples to preach. Jesus said “repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name.” Repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. One of the ways to summarize the gospel is this: Repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. Where was that message to be preached? Everywhere. Beginning in Jerusalem, with the Jews. But eventually to all nations – that is, to the Gentiles as well. Everyone was to hear this message.

I want to impress upon you how odd, how unexpected, and how counter-to-expectation that gospel was to Jesus’ disciples. They lived in a different world of priority and hope and expectation. It took years for Jesus and the Holy Spirit to move their priorities and adjust their understanding so that they could embrace this gospel and proclaim it.

To make this point, I begin with the words of two disciples to whom Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus right after he rose from the dead. One of these disciples was named Cleopas. We don’t know the name of the other. They were depressed because their teacher had just been killed, and it appeared that all was lost. They explained that to Jesus, not knowing that it was Jesus that they were talking to. Their eyes were shielded from recognizing him. They said this:

“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:19-21)

“We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” What didn’t they say? There are many things they didn’t say – an infinite number of things. But among the billions of things they did not say was, “We had hoped that he would forgive our sins.” Or, “We had hoped that he would justify us by faith before God.” Or, “We had hoped that he would make atonement for us.” Or, “We had hoped that he would build a bridge to God across the chasm created by our sin.” Or, “We had hoped that he would rescue our souls from hell so that we could go to heaven when we die.” None of that seemed to be foremost in their minds or even present in their minds. There was nothing in their words involving atonement, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation with God, or eternal life in his presence. Those two disciples were depressed because their hopes for Israel’s redemption were dashed. They saw Jesus as the one who would liberate their nation from Roman control and restore their political self-rule under God. That is, they would finally have one of their own in power, a Jewish king like David rather than a Roman governor ruling over them, or a puppet tetrarch like the Herod Antipas. Herod was half-Jewish, but he was evil, and he was really no better than Pontius Pilate. But now that Jesus was dead, obviously he could not replace those two and redeem Israel.

Was it just Cleopas and this other disciple who viewed Jesus through the lens of a redeemer of Israel and a restorer of Israel’s political fortunes? The major disciples knew better than that, right? Peter, James, John, Philip, Thomas, etc. Especially after the resurrection. It must have dawned on them by then that Jesus was about something bigger than and different from national restoration.

But no, it seems they still did not get it. Weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, and moments before he ascended to the Father, the disciples had one last question for him. Acts 1:6: Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

I might paraphrase their words this way. “Lord, will you now restore Israel to its former glory? Is this the time? We’ve been waiting so long for that. We thought we were on track for it. But then we had this hiccup with your, uhh, you know, death, and all that. And we lost Judas – good riddance, of course. But now that you’re alive again, now, now do we get the Israelite kingdom? Now do we get the restoration of Israel that we have been yearning for all our lives?”

It makes you wonder how many times Jesus had to say something before his disciples would get it. How many repetitions were needed before his words would sink into their minds and guide their actions and emotions?

For example, he had told his disciples many times that he would be killed and three days later rise from the dead. And despite hearing that over and over again, they did not understand it, believe it, or absorb it. They fought him on that point, and once he was killed they were terrified and broken. They were not saying, “I can hardly wait! Three days more and we’ll see him resurrected!” They still did not expect a resurrection. In fact, when the first reports came back from the women that he had risen they thought the women were crazy. That’s what the text says. And Thomas famously disbelieved all 10 of the other disciples when they said they had seen Jesus alive. Though Jesus had told them many times, they still couldn’t believe it until they saw him and touched him.

Just as there was this extraordinary hard-headedness to understand that Jesus would be resurrected, so also there was an extraordinary hard-headedness to understand that Jesus’ purpose was not to restore the kingdom to Israel, but rather to forgive the sins of Israelites and Gentiles alike. And to make it possible that those sins could be forgiven, he had to die a brutal death at the hands of Israelites and Gentiles. Both groups would kill him. And both groups would stand to benefit eternally from his death.

When the disciples asked Jesus that one last question, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” he did not say, “Yes, I’m going to do that now.” Nor did he say, “No, I will do it later.” Instead he batted the question away with an absolute non answer. He said, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” While that is true, it gives them nothing. It gives them no clue whatsoever about the fortunes of Israel. I think that was deliberate, because their question reflected a priority that Jesus wanted to move them away from. What he did then was re-direct their thoughts along lines that would astonish them. He said, ”But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

That is a complete reversal from the way they were thinking. The disciples were asking, “Will Israel now be restored?” And Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.” Jerusalem – that makes sense, that’s where the Jews are. All Judea – good, more Jews. But then, Samaria. Samaria? That’s odd. The disciples would think, “The Samaritans are our ethnic cousins, but they’re not true Jews, they’re not true Israel - they’re half-breeds, and their religion is all messed up, and they don’t even want us there! They wouldn’t let us stay the night in their town, remember?” But Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Samaria.” And then the crowning blow: you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. “The ends of the earth??? That includes the Romans, our overlords. And Greeks, and Egyptians, and the remnants of empires that oppressed us through centuries and tried to wipe us off the face of the earth! We’re supposed to go to them?”

This doesn’t sound at all like the redemption of Israel, or the liberation, restoration of Israel. Jesus wanted the whole world redeemed. And redeemed on his terms. It was a redemption that would involve repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name. I repeat: repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name. That’s the message that Jesus wanted his followers to communicate.

With regard to the redemption of Israel, the restoration of Israel, Jesus had already told them in stark, violent terms that it was not going to happen - at least not in their lifetimes. Things would not get better for Israel – they would get worse – far, far worse. Jesus told them that the great temple they so admired would be utterly destroyed, and not one stone would be left upon another. The city of Jerusalem would be annihilated – if you stayed there you would die. That is exactly what happened in AD 70, about 37 years later. Jesus said this generation will not pass before all this happens, and of course he was right. Some (not all, but some) of his disciples would live another 37 years to behold the devastation. It was unimaginably tragic. If Josephus’s numbers are to be believed, the devastation in Jerusalem and Judea in AD 70 was statistically worse than the Holocaust of the 1940s. That is, a greater percentage of the Jewish population alive at that time was exterminated in AD 70 than that represented by the 6 million Jews who perished in Nazi Germany.

Here is an analogy for you. Imagine you are a Japanese laborer living in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in the spring of 1945. Not a lot of news gets through to you about the war but you get the idea that things aren’t going great. You’re nervous about your country, your family, your relatives, your city. But in the midst of your distress, you hear of a champion, a leader, a wonder-worker, a miracle-worker, a god perhaps, one upon whom you can pin all your hopes that he will make everything right and protect your nation and lead it to victory and peace. And then you meet him, and rather than giving you the hope you long for he says, “Everything you see here will be incinerated. Not one brick will be left on another. And when you see the pamphlets fall from airplanes warning that an attack is imminent, flee immediately. Run. Don’t even pack a bag. Just run out of the city as fast as your feet can carry you. Everything you know is about to go up in radioactive smoke.”

That is not an encouraging message, is it? But it would be true, and that is the message Jesus gave to his disciples and to anyone who would listen in the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. Maybe you can sympathize with the disappointment and distress and heartache of those Jews who thought, “This is our Savior, our Messiah, the rescuer and redeemer of our nation! O Lord, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?”

This understanding of who Messiah was and what he would do was a deep-rooted conviction shared by all godly Israelites. Go back to when Jesus was just one month old. Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple in Jerusalem where they met two saintly people: Simeon and Anna. Luke 2:25 says: “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.” What was Simeon waiting for? The consolation of Israel. Even if we take the phrase to be just a synonym for “Messiah,” note how it is worded. It’s not the consolation of Rome. It’s not the consolation of the Greeks, or the consolation of any of the pagans – it’s the consolation of Israel. Israel’s redemption was in view.

Simeon said to Mary at that time, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel.” Simeon mentions the Gentiles, but even there he draws a distinction between Gentiles and Israelites. He says to God, “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

In that statement, the Gentiles get revelation, and that could be ambiguous – it could be a revelation of judgment – but Israel gets glory. Revelation for Gentiles, glory for God’s people Israel.

After Simeon, the prophetess Anna spoke up. Verse 38 says, “She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” There it is again. To whom was she speaking? To people who were looking forward to Jerusalem’s redemption. Little did they know Jerusalem was not going to be redeemed. Quite the opposite: it would be destroyed. Once again, if Josephus’ numbers are to be trusted, Jerusalem’s death toll would be greater than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Two more examples of the longing for Israelite redemption. Go back to the time just before Jesus’ birth. Read the prayer of the priest Zechariah when he learns that he will be the father of John the Baptist, forerunner of Messiah. Here is how Zechariah interprets the message that the angel Gabriel communicated to him. He says,

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Luke 1:68-75)

Very interesting. Zechariah thought that Messiah would rescue them from the hand of their enemies – that is the Romans. It did not seem to enter his mind that after Messiah came Jerusalem will be obliterated by its enemies. Zechariah was expecting his people to serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness right there where he was standing at the temple. But in reality the place where he was standing would cease to exist as a structure. As Jesus said, “Not one stone would be left upon another.”

My last example is the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. After she learned that she would be mother of Messiah, she offered up a psalm of praise popularly called “The Magnificat.” There she says of the Lord God, “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever.” (Luke 1:54-55)

As best as I can tell, all good and faithful Jews, without exception, from before Jesus’ birth to minutes prior to his ascending back to the Father, saw his Messiahship in terms of a liberation of Israel, a redemption of Jerusalem, a vindication of the descendants of Abraham, a rescue from Roman oppressors, and a defeat of Israel’s enemies.

Do I blame them for mainly thinking along those terms? No, absolutely not. I think it was perfectly understandable. Given what they knew and given the oppression that they experienced (some of them on a daily basis) I think it was reasonable to view their deliverer along nationalistic lines. But I also think it is instructive for us to keep in mind the difference between the gospel they were expecting and the gospel that Jesus delivered. It was a most unexpected gospel. It was a gospel made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it was a gospel that Jesus ordered his disciples to preach everywhere – even to those Romans who would destroy their nation. It was a gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus.

The reason I think it is helpful to contemplate the way Jesus redirected and reoriented his disciples’ understanding of the gospel is because we will find that the audience to whom we speak, and we ourselves from time to time will need to be redirected and reoriented in order to understand, believe, and delight in the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here is why I say that. As we go out into the world we see that people everywhere have a variety of concerns that preoccupy them. There are major issues that will be foremost in their minds. And they may look to God as a solution to their problem. If you are a French patriot living in Paris in 1943, then the consuming passion of your life is liberation from the Nazis who control your country. And it is good that you resist the Nazis and look to God to deliver your country from them.

On a more personal level, if you are chronically ill, then health may be your main concern. And it is good to get treatment for your sickness and to pray to God for healing.

If you are unemployed or your business is facing bankruptcy, your immediate concern may be, “I will soon be homeless and hungry and unable to provide for myself or my family. Help me God!”

If your spouse is unfaithful and abusive, then your controlling thought might be, “How do I get him to repent so that our marriage can be happy – or failing that, how do I escape so as to protect myself and my children from this beast?”

In all of these things, the gospel of Jesus Christ comes along and says, “You have a bigger problem than all of those things put together. And that is the fact that you have sinned against Almighty God and stand condemned before him. And that remains a problem even if your city is liberated from the Nazis, even if you are restored to robust health, even if you inherit millions and never have to worry about money again, even if your husband miraculously repents and becomes a godly saint and every woman’s dream. You can have all that more – but as a sinner, you are still lost, alienated from God, and facing his judgment.”

But do not despair. There is good news. Jesus Christ died for sinners. He died for sinners just like you. And in him there is forgiveness of sin for all who repent and trust in him.

And that forgiveness holds even if your city is bombed out and completely destroyed. Even if your sickness is terminal and ends in your death. Even if your finances never recover and you go hungry. Even if your husband murders you and your children. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. God’s forgiven loved ones will stand before him in joy no matter how this world has distressed and victimized them. In Jesus Christ there is eternal forgiveness of sins for all who repent and trust in him.

For that reason our gospel will make the most sense to, and will be received with greatest gratitude by, those who know themselves to be sinners. They know that they are sinners and they feel bad about that. They want to be forgiven and they want to be good and they are afraid of God. But the same God whom they rightly fear is the one who loved them so much that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Those who have no desire to repent and who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord will receive what they deserve – no more, no less. Speaking perhaps only for myself, I’m terrified of getting what I deserve. The idea of receiving from the hand of God exactly what I have merited is, for me, a nightmare beyond reckoning. But thanks be to God. He hears the prayers of those who cry out to him in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. He grants them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. He forgives their sins, removing those sins and their condemnation as far as the east is from the west.

If you have not cried out to him for forgiveness - the forgiveness of sin made possible through his Son Jesus Christ – then for the love of God do so now as I close in prayer.

Lord God, perhaps at some other time I will ask for a lesser thing, like the healing of my body, or the restoration of my country, or relief from a violent oppressor. But in this moment all that matters is that I have defied you by my sins – both those that I am aware of and those that have yet to alight upon my conscience but certainly will someday, filling me then with deep regret and holy terror. Be merciful to me, if not for my sake then for the sake of your holy Son Jesus, so that his agonizing death on behalf of sinners will not have been suffered in vain, but will suffice to bring to glory all who trust in him. Count me among those sinners saved by your grace alone. In Jesus’ name, amen.