The Call Home

Ezek. 1:28-3:3, Hebrews 4:14-5:6, Luke 9:28-36

We often do not know exactly how to describe the concept of home nowadays. We have cute little idioms such as “home is where the heart is,” or “a house is a building a home is a family,” or “east or west home is best,” but we have a really hard time grasping what this means at times. We live in a culture where convenience is often the bottom line. Just look at the myriad of convenience services: drive thru restaurants, drive thru pharmacies, Exxon Mobil tiger speed pass, internet banking, the list goes on and on. We want our families to be the same way so we imagine home as a place of convenience and constant good feelings and are often disappointed when they are not. We expect our relationships, first with family and then with friends, to make us feel good and when they do not we wonder what happened, as if there was something wrong with them.

As we look at Ezekiel today we see that he is being sent to nation of Israel, who has turned away from God. His chosen people where His glory was to dwell have decided to follow foreign gods and rebel against the Sovereign Lord. Ezekiel is to go to this rebellious house, after eating a scroll given to him by God, signifying the word of the Lord dwelling within him, and speak to them what the Lord would say to turn them from their wicked ways. On this scroll “were words of lamentation and mourning and woe,” demonstrating not only the words the Israelites would be crying out as calamity upon calamity would visit them, but the very words of the Lord as He watches the ones He loves self destruct.

The ultimate plan to reconcile not only a rebellious nation with God but a rebellious world with Him, we all know, is Jesus Christ on the cross. Unlike Ezekiel who had to go the house of Israel with the news of what God was going to do to them (starve some of them to death in a siege where they would eat their own babies, let the wild beasts tear some of them in pieces, kill some of them with the sword, it’s all in the Bible I promise you), we go to the rebellious in our own time with the news of what God already did for them. We tell about the High Priest we now have who does not include Himself in the sin offering, as we read in Hebrews, but actually is the sin offering on our behalf and not who was tested as we are every day, and yet was without sin. This means that He can sympathize with us just as the high priest of old could be gentle with the sins of the nation as he looked at his own life and saw the dirt and grime there.

What does this have to do with a home? Every Christian knows where their eternal home is: Heaven, but do we act like it? Do we allow others to accompany us on this journey? Are we willing to tell those whose final destination is quite different from ours how they can also inherit the kingdom of God? The answer to all three of these questions is often a lamentable “no.” I would argue that the Israelites were tired of following the commands of the Lord their God because it was too difficult. These foreign so-called gods allowed them to have huge group orgies in drunkenness. Following these other gods was far more pleasing to them because they could have any kind of little random household idol to worship instead of going to the tabernacle to worship Jehovah Jireh. It was all about their personal convenience and making their lives as easy as possible.

But that is not what family is about. In family you are supposed to learn discipline, which definitely does not feel good in the moment, but later you understand that it was for your benefit. This discipline help you later to handle influence without becoming corrupt, it helps you to handle money without desiring to steal it, and it helps you to handle relationships without being selfish. The discipline you received actually opens the door for you to receive all of these things without them destroying you. This is a huge part of what family is about. The ancient Israelites refused to be disciplined by the Lord their God so He sent a prophet to remind them of their mistakes and what the consequences would be for disobeying the law.

In closing I want us to take a look at the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain in Luke 9. This is a beautiful image of Jesus’ divine nature as His face changed and His clothes became “dazzling white.” Moses and Elijah, both of whom had been dead for quite some time, appeared and were talking to Jesus about His greatest glory: “his departure…at Jerusalem,” as we know, on the cross. We see here that Jesus is the completion of both the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) meaning we are under a new covenant, not doing away with the old, but completing it and that God no longer will use prophets the way He did in ancient days to speak to His people, but will speak to them face to face. This is why we may each approach the throne with boldness and confidence and why we can enter into a true home on this earth with God’s people, but more importantly into a heavenly home where we will be with Him for ever and ever. Amen.