Second Wednesday in Lent

This evening I am going to make an assumption that most of you remember “The Lone Ranger.” I was a fan. Countless times I turned on our old black and white to KTVU channel 2 in San Francisco. For, “nowhere in those sterling pages of yesteryear can one find a greater champion of justice. We turn again to those thrilling days when out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver. For the Lone Ranger rides again!”

In every episode, 29 minutes and 30 seconds into the half-hour program, somebody would inevitably ask the question,

“Who was that Masked Man?”

Here was someone who was in the clutches of death—inches from total annihilation without a pistol—or in a prison or certainly in a pinch or a pickle, and the Lone Ranger delivered, saved, and rescued them. And they missed it!

The Northern Kingdom of Israel Missed It Too

From their youth Israel had been called out of Egypt, fed, nourished for the journey, and given their tribal inheritance. They had the sure and certain prophetic words of Elijah and Elisha. God had again and again delivered, saved, and rescued them. And through unfaithful living they missed it!

God says through Amos,

Amos 2:9-12 “I was the one who destroyed the Amorites in front of them, the Amorites, who were as tall as cedars, who were as strong as oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below. I myself brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I led you in the wilderness for forty years, so that you would take possession of the land of the Amorites. I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, and some of your best young men to be Nazirites. Is this not so, you people of Israel? declares the Lord. But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and you commanded the prophets, “You must not prophesy!””

After everything God had done for His people, they told His prophets, “You must not prophesy!” That’s like someone saying today, “We don’t want to hear God’s Word.” The people had had enough of listening to the Lord.

In the process of ignoring God’s divine love and salvation, they missed it!

Living in the Dark

Live in the Dark

So Amos asks, “What good is the day of the Lord for you? It will be a day of darkness and not light” (Amos 5:18). Those listening to Amos believed that “the day of the Lord” would usher in more wealth, more prosperity, and more blessings. But it was all an illusion. The day of the Lord was going to be a night of severe judgment.

Amos was acutely aware of the toxic waste of hatred, pride, and idolatry that was buried directly underneath Israel’s faltering foundation and that this waste would soon destroy the land. God’s sunshine was about to turn into the darkness of the Assyrian judgment upon Israel in 722 BC. This would be the night the Lord has made.

Two hunters came across a bear so big that they dropped their rifles and ran for cover. One man climbed a tree while the other hid in a nearby cave. The bear was in no hurry to eat, so he sat down between the tree and the cave to reflect upon his good fortune. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the hunter in the cave came rushing out, almost ran into the waiting bear, hesitated, and then dashed back in again. The same thing happened a second time. When he emerged for the third time, his companion in the tree frantically called out, “Woody, are you crazy? Stay in the cave till he leaves!” “Can’t,” panted Woody, “there’s another bear in the cave!” What we may think is a safe place is actually a place of doom.

Face God’s Inescapable Judgment

This is exactly what Amos says: the night the Lord has made is like a man fleeing from a lion, and a bear meets him, or like a man who goes into the house and leans his hand against the wall, and a serpent bites him.

You and I fall into the same judgment. In the baptismal flood we were called out of Egypt. In the Holy Supper of our Lord’s body and blood we are fed and nourished for the journey. “We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven” (1 Peter 1:4). And we have “the word of the prophets made more certain” (2 Peter 1:19). God has again and again delivered us, saved us, and rescued us. And repeatedly we miss it!

Why? John 3:19 states, “This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

We love the darkness of self-centered narcissism. We live in the darkness of lies and half-truths, and we have an ongoing lust for more of the darkness that feeds our flesh.

We listen to the half-truths from the world regarding, politics, wars, pandemics, and the like, and we take it all as gospel.

We heard on Sunday about the “enemies of the cross.” Phil 3:19 “Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things.”

We make life choices based on what we hear from the media, and discredited individuals, while ignoring what God has said and promised.

The Prince of Darkness mocks our feeble discipleship, our failed relationships, and our fatal attractions.

Why do we so frequently live in dark when we can walk in the light? Will we be like the people of old who ignored God’s divine love and salvation, resulting in missing the wonderful blessings God has for us?

Jesus Is the Light

Friends, there is no need to remain in the darkness of God’s judgment.

Jesus is the Light that took on flesh so that He might take us into His arms, heal our hurts, forgive our filth, and destroy our darkness. He became one of us, not to demonstrate the innocence of infancy, but in order to live the life we could not and die our death so we need not. Jesus is dazzling light, brilliant light, and eternal light. No wonder the Nicene Creed declares that Jesus is “Light of Light!”

But the Light of the world also knows the night of the Lord. For three hours He hung on the cross in darkness, bled in the darkness, cried in the darkness, and thirsted in the darkness.

Does this thick darkness mean that Jesus would never shine again? Would the betrayal, the blood, and His burial be the final curtain call?

Never! Jesus is the great Light! John 1:5 states, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!”

Art Holst, a veteran NFL referee, tells about a Sunday when a Kansas City Chief tight end named Fred Arbanas was tackled so hard that his artificial eye popped out. Soon the missing eye was found. Arbanas popped it back into place and was eager to resume play. Holst then playfully said to Arbanas, “Fred, I’m impressed with your courage. But what would you have done if you had lost the other eye?” “That’s easy,” snapped Arbanas, “I’d become a referee!”

While it may seem like referees live in the dark, we oftentimes do.

All that changes as we trust and follow Jesus. When we hear His Word and do what it says—and not cherry-picking only those things we like.

The Psalmist wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and staff, they comfort me.”

We have nothing to fear, friends in Christ. Jesus is not masked man riding in on a horse, He is our Champion who has dealt deaths blow to the enemy of this world. Therefore, though the world may be gripped in fear, the one who trusts in Christ knows that there is nothing to fear in this life. Because, Christ Jesus leads us to live in the light of His love!

Don’t miss it!

“In Christ, we are Delivered, Saved, and Rescued from all fear and dread, free to live in the light of Christ Jesus our Lord.”