Text:  Matt 9:35 –10:8                                                           4^th Sunday after Pentecost

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

            In the name of him who has called us to be his disciples, dear friends in Christ:

            I imagine that by now almost all of you have heard of Harry Potter and of all the hype and hullabaloo (and perhaps even some of the controversy) that have accompanied the marketing of the books, products, and now the motion picture that bear his name.  But on the outside chance that you haven’t heard of him, Harry Potter is the name of a fictional character created by author J. K. Rowling. In the imaginative tales she weaves, Harry is a young boy whose wild adventures unfold as he studies sorcery at the Hogwarts Academy of Wizardry.  The real magic, however, is not in the stories that Rowling has written, but rather in the way they have made mountains of money appear seemingly out of nowhere for her. The whole thing is truly phenomenal. We hear of people standing in line for days, sometimes weeks, at bookstores – not just at movie theaters like we’re used to – just to be sure to be among the first to purchase the newest book in the series when one’s released.  Of course, the movie, which has just now come out on video, was a major blockbuster; and some people are so excited about the upcoming release of next film that just the other day I heard—and I am not making this up – nor will I, for fear of embarrassing anyone, mention my daughters’ names – I heard some unnamed persons talking about how thrilled they are that the “trailer” – the little clip they use in advertisements to tease you – is about to be released for that film.  I’ve never heard of anyone getting excited about being able to see a commercial.  Like I said, the way this whole Harry Potter thing has captured people’s imaginations is truly phenomenal.

            And I’d like to go on and discuss the reason that these stories are so popular; but before I do I think it would be good to give you my pastoral assessment of the controversy that has arisen in some quarters of the Christian church over this issue.  Many Christians are deeply concerned about this Harry Potter craze because the subject matter deals with witches, and magic, and the black arts, and so on—all things clearly prohibited by God in the Bible.  The fear is that because the stories cast these things in a favorable light, young people will be led to dabble in them, and so to their eternal damnation.  But this fear is based on the faulty assumption that children are unable to distinguish fact from fantasy.  And if we were to apply the same rigorous criteria that those who are warning us about the evils of Harry Potter to other works of children’s literature, we’d have to throw out about ninety percent of it.  Take a story like Cinderella, for example.  I’ve never heard anyone would say that it’s not appropriate children’s literature; but think about it:  just because they call the one character the “Fairy Godmother” does not change the fact that what she does is witchcraft – and it’s portrayed in a positive light.  Yet, somehow, generations of Christian children have survived this assault on their impressionable young minds.  It’s because they understand that fiction is fiction.

Far more threatening, in my humble opinion, is literature that purports to be virtuous Christian reading but leads children into dangerous and false doctrines. Take, for example, the popular Left Behind series and its companion series written for children, both of which teach a completely unbiblical understanding of the End Times; or this:  it’s a series for children called Forbidden Doors.  The stories involve a group of Christian teenagers who combat the occult and demonic forces in their neighborhood with the power of prayer and their holy living – but there’s absolutely no talk of the real power possessed by Christians: the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. This, though it pretends to be good for Christian youth, is a thousand times worse than Harry Potter.  These actually encourage children to go looking for confrontations with the forces of darkness armed only with their own feeble piety.

            But I’d like to return to the reason for the popularity of Harry Potter.  What is it about him that endears him to so many—especially to young people?  I think it’s that Harry Potter is just a likable, normal kid, one with whom people sympathize because he’s disadvantaged since he’s orphaned and living in the home of his very unloving aunt and uncle. He seems so pathetic and helpless – but suddenly he discovers he has powers, supernatural powers – and these powers are able to lift him up and out of his miserable existence. They give him a new future.  With these powers he gains respect and honor, and even love.  And that’s a very attractive idea.  It’s a fantasy we all share in one way or another.  And because Harry is so normal, people can easily relate to him and vicariously live out their own fantasies through him.  These stories are popular because they stimulate the imagination and appeal to a universal desire.  People know it’s fiction, but it’s still fun to imagine what it would be like to possess supernatural powers.

            Now, like with everything else, some people take things too far.  Those who live and breathe Harry Potter (or any other work of fiction) and who get so wrapped up it that they cannot distinguish fact from fantasy have a problem, to be sure.  But people can become obsessed with anything – like food, or sex, or money, or cleanliness, or physical fitness; but then it’s the obsession that is the problem, not the object of the obsession itself.  And so we need to recognize certain limits.  Moderation and appropriate balance are called for.  So while we might, as a form of entertainment, indulge ourselves in the dream of having the sort of supernatural powers certain fictional characters possess, from a Christian perspective, I’d rather that people focus much more heavily on real historical characters that were granted authentic supernatural powers in the service of the Lord:  people like Moses, Elijah, and Elisha whom God gave power to rescue people who were in trouble.  That’s something really worth knowing about.  It’s an unfortunate situation indeed if a Christian child (or adult) can easily rattle off the names of forty or fifty mythical characters from their favorite books and shows, but cannot provide the names of even half of the twelve men whom Jesus gave real power over disease, bodily weakness and injury, demonic spirits, and death.  And being this is Father’s Day, maybe it would be good for you fathers, as the spiritual heads of your households (and mothers too), to check that out – and don’t let your kids tell you the names of the disciples are too difficult:  they are nothing compared to some of the names that appear in their favorite fiction. 

            But this morning, as long as we’re talking about indulging ourselves in fantasy, I’d like to invite all of you to let your imagination run wild for a moment and consider what it would be like to be one of the twelve very normal people we heard about in today’s Gospel lesson who were given real power.  Imagine Jesus, your teacher and leader, calling you into a close huddle.  He’s obviously exhausted.  For weeks now you’ve been with him as he’s been traveling to all the towns and villages teaching people and healing them from all their ailments.  But there are so many people … the crowds are huge … and there are so many places yet to go … the job is way too big for one man.  But yet, from deep within himself, Jesus literally aches with compassion for all these lost and helpless souls he sees – and the many more he has yet to see.  He decides that now is the time to begin to share his heavy burden with you.  You’ve heard the content of his message many times now:  “The Kingdom of God has come. Repent and believe the good news.” Now you are to take the message out there – and he gives you the power to perform healing miracles. “Heal the sick”, he tells you, “raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.  And do not charge people for your services.  I’ve given to you freely, you do the same.”

And off you go carrying your important message and armed with this supernatural power from God. Imagine walking into some village. No one here knows you or why you’ve come.  On the Sabbath, you go to worship at the local synagogue, as you have many times now with Jesus.  There you hear the familiar Scriptures read, and you pray the traditional prayers.  The underlying theme of the worship is, as always, God’s great promise to deliver his people from oppression and all their woes through the Messiah whom he will send.  There’s a sense of deep longing and hopeful expectation that permeates every aspect of the worship. Boy, have you got great news for them, huh?  And then, toward the end of the service, as was customary in this day and age when news traveled primarily by word of mouth, you, as a visitor would be invited to update the congregation with whatever news you had to offer from your own neck of the woods.

All eyes are on you as you stand up to speak.  Normally you’d be very self-conscious at a time like this; but you have such great news to share that you can hardly hold it in.  You’re not thinking of yourself.  You’re thinking of how much these people have to gain by hearing what you have to tell them.  “My brothers and sisters, listen to me.  I’ve got wonderful things to tell you.  The Messiah, the King of Israel, is here.  The One whom the Lord, blessed be his name, promised to send to us has come.  He’s with us now.  He is Jesus of Nazareth. I come to you today as his representative.  He calls you to repent and believe the good news that he has come to save you.  The Kingdom of God is upon us.”

You pause to wait for a reaction, but there is nothing but stunned silence. Mouths are hanging open.  People are shifting their eyes around, trying to gauge the response of others.  The leader of the synagogue is nervously wiping his brow; he seems to be regretting his suggestion that you say a few words.  You’re not quite prepared for this.  You thought there should be instant joy.  What you’re seeing is confusion in some and distrust in others. Some clearly think you’ve gone off the deep end.  You’re beginning to see that this is going to be a lot more difficult than you imagined.

But you notice sitting near the front of the synagogue a child who has some sort of physical defect.  Perhaps it’s that she cannot walk, and had to be carried in by her family.  Well, here goes.  You’ve seen Jesus do this many times … and he did say he was giving you the power.  You hope now you heard him right, because you sure don’t want to look like a fool if this doesn’t work.  You continue to speak as you walk toward the crippled girl, “My friends, I know this must be difficult for you to believe, but I want to assure you that the Kingdom of God has come upon us with great power.”  So saying, you take the child by the hand, look into her eyes, and say, “In the name of Jesus the Messiah, stand up on your feet and walk.”

And she does.  She literally leaps up and begins to jump up and down for joy.  There are gasps from the astonished people – and you’re a little surprised yourself.  The parents are hugging the little girl and weeping with happiness.  Their gratitude to you and to the Lord is plain on their faces.  Other people are staring at you with a strange mixture of respect and wonder.  But some are not so sure.  They suppose that it’s got to be a trick of some kind; besides, it isn’t proper to heal on the Sabbath day:  that sort of work is forbidden.  They think you must be a troublemaker of some kind – a false teacher with strange, deceitful doctrines.  They’ve got to get rid of you and your message.  They stir up an argument, and soon the whole synagogue erupts into confusion and chaos.  You barely manage to escape.

There’s a tense quietness in the village all afternoon; but then, when evening comes and the Sabbath ends, many people begin to come to you.  They are bringing with them their sick and injured, those with horrible skin diseases, and those possessed by demonic spirits.  And with the power Jesus has given you, you are able to heal them and make their lives whole again.  Can you imagine what that would be like?  Can you imagine the joy and satisfaction you would get from doing that kind of work?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Lord Jesus would give you that kind of power?  Can you imagine what you might do with it today?

My friends, as entertaining as it might be you do not have to fantasize about it.  The truth is that Jesus has already given you much greater powers than these.  We read in St. Luke’s Gospel how Jesus’ disciples returned to him after having been sent out to preach and heal.  They came to him with great excitement to report on their successes, “Lord, even the demons are obedient to us in your name!”  And Jesus said to them, “That’s nothing to rejoice over; rejoice instead that your names are written in heaven.”  Do you understand what he’s saying?  He’s saying that the ability to perform miracles and cast out demons is peanuts.  What really matters is being an heir to everlasting life.  The miracles of healing were meant to be illustrations of the greater reality – the greater miracle.

Listen, the disciples of Jesus did some wonderful things with the power they were given; but you know, every good thing they did with that power was temporary.  Every person they healed eventually died. People who were sick, got sick again; maybe with the same disease, or maybe with something else.  Demonic spirits returned to plague people again. Others got hurt or injured and remained crippled the rest of their lives.  Ultimately, the power the disciples were given to heal did not solve any problems, it merely postponed them until later.

But if you look carefully at this morning’s Gospel reading, you’ll see that the power to heal was really a sidelight of Jesus’ ministry.  It says that Jesus went about teaching and preaching the good news in the synagogues – that was is primary mission – and then it mentions that he healed people.  It says that Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them, not so much because they were sick and injured, but because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  It was their spiritual condition that moved him.  And when he sends his disciples out, he commands them to preach the message first, and then to heal the people’s physical problems. There’s a connection there:  the idea is that the message of the Gospel is of utmost importance and that it ultimately is what has the power to heal people—heal people where it really matters: in their hearts and souls.

The disciples did not understand that at first.  They were caught up in the physical and temporary—like we all too often are.  But after his resurrection, Jesus gathered his disciples and gave them to understand the real power.  We read in John’s Gospel how he, “breathed on his disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven’.” Now, that’s real power – for only God can forgive sins, but he gives that power to those he gives his Holy Spirit. And since you have the Spirit, you have the power.  You see, declaring God’s forgiveness in Christ – telling people how Jesus died for the ungodly to justify them and save them from God’s wrath, is the power to heal hearts corrupted by sin and crushed by guilt.  It’s the power to cleanse unclean souls, and silence the accusations of Satan and his devils.  It routs them and puts them to flight.  Proclaiming God’s great love in Christ is the power to share eternal life:  to place the lost and the helpless into the hands of the Shepherd who will never let them go.  My friends, Jesus has given that power to you.

Now, if you had the power to heal diseases, you would use it, wouldn’t you? Of course you would.  How much more should you be eager to exercise the greater power the Lord has given you to share the gift of everlasting life – and rejoice in the Lord for the opportunity to do it?  It’s better than any fantasy, and it’s real.  So may the Lord Jesus move our hearts with compassion for the lost and helpless; may he give us the grace to pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into the mission field, and may he give us the courage and the desire to answer his call with a heartfelt, “Here am I, send me.” Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!