An Uncontrolled, Rebelious Nation

Introduction

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loved you with his very life Amen.

It’s happened to all of us. You have your mind to do something. Doesn’t matter what it is, but you are going to accomplish your task. It’s something you’ve never done before, but you are mind set on getting it done, accomplishing your goal. And as your working on it, some guy shows up. You know the guy. He has an opinion about how you should do the thing you are trying to do, and he tells you, “Hey, you shouldn’t do it that way, it’s only going to end badly.”

Maybe that guy is your dad. Dad’s seem to have knack do this kind of thing, especially if you’re young. It happened to me and I’m sure it happened to you. Or maybe its that one friend from work. Doesn’t really matter. A

Anyway, your doing your thing, the guy gives you advice, and no. Your not going to follow it. I’ll do it how I want to do it! This is my journey who are you to tell me otherwise! And you try, and it goes horribly. Absolutely horribly. And you find out that the guy, that guy who gave you advice, he was right. Should have listened to him.

If this is or ever has been you, you can relate to the people of Israel in our Old Testament text today.

So like, the history of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament is like a history of bad decisions. After we get to the point in Israel’s history of the kings, to be fair, even before then, we see this nation get into that rebellious stage, like you when you wanted to do something your way even though your dad had a better idea on how to do it!

Right? So Israel has decided to go and do things it’s own way, but it’s much more serious than how to take the drain plug out of an oil pan (that’s one of my times I should've listened to my dad”

Israel had decided that they didn’t need to listen to God. Sure, God was still there, but they didn’t pay much attention to him. They went off and worshiped false gods, they didn’t practice justice, they didn’t follow the law of scripture, in fact they often didn’t even know what scripture was or where to find it. There were of course exceptions to this, but for the most part, people did what they wanted to do their own way that they wanted to do it!

Enter the guy who tells you how you should do things, but the guy you would ignore. Enter Ezekiel.

Our text today is the call of Ezekiel. God sees that his chosen people, the people who are supposed to be a light shining on a hill, a beacon of how to live life in a way that pleases God, are do exactly the opposite. So God calls Ezekiel and says to him, “Go talk to ‘em tell them that they aren’t doing things the right way, and if they continue, it’s only going to end badly. Their stubborn, like a rebellious teenager, and they probably won’t listen to you, but go tell them anyway. They need to know about the coming judgement.

You see, it’s not too long after this that God sends the Babylonians to conquer Israel, to haul the people off into exile after suffering though the horrors of an ancient siege. Ezekiel is one of the last voices, he and Jeremiah warning of the last chance to repent, to turn form their ways, to follow and trust God again, to be saved.

But a prophets words are ignored. The people want to do what they want to do. So they continue at it. Living their lives the way they want to live them, aint nobody gonna tell them how to live their life. So they do.

But Ezekiel is faithful. He listens to God’s word, he is filled with God’s word and he does as he is told. He, and this will come out later in the book, stands like a watchman warning the people of what is to come. Who will heed the warning?

I wonder what his message would look like for today?

I mean, it feels like we live in land that has lost its way. We live in a land where the people do what they want to do, regardless of what’s best. A time where people don’t listen to sound advice and do what they want and get angry at you for offering advice in the first place. We live in a rebellious land, full of rebellious people doing rebellious things. A land where each person does what they think is right where each person makes their own laws.

And the worst part is those people, that nation, that person, is us. It’s you. It’s me. We want to be Ezekiel in this text, we want to be the one who is righteous, who calls out from the watchtower, “repent” but we are the ones who need to repent. We are the ones who have lost our way and done our own thing.

We are the ones who set up our own rules, who like to play God. We choose which teachings we want to follow and which ones we don't. We choose for ourselves what the quote unquote bad sins are and we turn a blind eye to the others. We hear the voice of God, we have his word all over, we all have bibles, and digital bibles, yet we chose not to listen to it and do our own thing.

So God has sent a prophet among us too, to call us to repentance.

Jesus came with a message, a message and call for repentance. The very first words Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Mark, back in chapter 1 are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.” Repent and believe. Jesus came with a message for God’s people, calling them to repentance. And he was rejected for it. In our gospel reading today we see he is rejected by his very family, his brothers and sisters, but the rejection doesn’t end there.

Ezekiel was largely ignored, the rebellious people didn’t listen to his message. Jesus, Jesus wasn’t ignored. He was killed. The Israelites didn’t want to hear what Jesus had to say, so they killed him, they hung him on a cross. And there he died. He died rejected by his people, his nation.

And in a miracle beyond understanding, his rejection brings us into God’s kingdom. His rejection, his death, saves the very people who cast him out. It saves you and me. Jesus on the cross goes there in your place. He takes what your rebellious ways deserve, it takes what your rejection of God and his prophets deserve. And Jesus goes there and experiences the wrath of God so you don’t have to. And because he did this, he offers you something better, a new life in a better kingdom, God’s kingdom. Jesus forgives you your sins and makes you into his chosen people, his holy nation, citizens of his kingdom who live under his reign.

Jesus rejection on the cross make yo belong to God, his life for your life, your sins for his righteousness.

The message from Christ is this. There is a better way for salvation. Don’t try to earn your way to paradise. It’s not going to go well for you. Repent. Believe the Gospel. Turn from your sins, fight against them and trust that Jesus, that the Son of God who took on humanity, has saved you because he loves you more than his own life, because you can’t save yourself so he did.

We’ve all had moments where we are rebellious and fight against the way we are to do things, I’m sure you have examples in your own life of learning things the hard way, I know I do. So let us hear what the prophet has to say, let us listen to the word of the Lord, let us repent and believe the Gospel, for it is good news. Jesus Christ is alive and your sins are taken away. Amen.