CMLC 2026-01-25 Sermon

Howdy! One of the lesser -known realities of

American history is that the Emancipation Proclamation,

the end of the Civil War, and the lived experience

of freedom of those who had been enslaved did

not happen at the same moment. The Emancipation

Proclamation was issued on January 1st, 1863

by President Abraham Lincoln, changing the legal

status of more than 3 .5 million enslaved African

Americans in the Confederate states from enslaved

to free. On paper, slavery was abolished. Legally,

chains were broken. The Civil War itself enacted

after the Confederate states attempted to secede

from the Union over the asserted rights of states

to hold slaves effectively ended in the spring

of 1865, two years later. Freedom had already

been enacted. The system that upheld slavery

had collapsed. And yet, in many places, enslaved

people were still working the fields, still taking

orders, still living as if nothing had changed.

Not because freedom wasn't real, but because

the message hadn't reached them yet. It wasn't

until months later on what we now call Juneteenth

that Union soldiers arrived in Texas and announced

what had already been true. You are free. The

independence that had happened for others on

July 4th, 1776 had finally happened for those

who had been slaves. And that announcement mattered.

Because freedom that is real but unknown cannot

be lived. Freedom that is declared but unheard

cannot be embodied. Until the news arrives, people

continue to live as if the old order still holds.

That doesn't mean the Emancipation Proclamation

failed. It means the good news had to be carried,

spoken, and received. And even then... Learning

to live as free people took time. Habits of fear,

submission, and survival don't dissolve overnight.

It required trust and reimagining what life could

be. Identity doesn't change at the speed of legislation.

And even then, many of those who had been freed

were still struggling with a life that had not

been embodied with land, with funding. with a

way to make a life for themselves outside of

slavery, becoming sharecroppers because there

was nothing else for them. The distinction matters

because declaring something also requires a life

that makes it real. Even years later, seeing

how many would still treat those with darker

skin as being lesser people, revealed that the

Declaration still struggled in the hearts of

many. But you see, this type of distinction matters

when we talk about the Gospel as well. Because

the comparison is so similar. The Gospel is not

simply that something has happened. It is that

something is happening and must now be announced,

received, and lived into. And this whole timeline

helps us to understand how Jesus announced the

kingdom of heaven, even before the cross, even

before the resurrection, even before the climactic

moment. Just as the Emancipation Proclamation

had happened, even before the war had ended,

and the war had ended even before it had truly

been felt throughout. Even so, we look at what

it was for the Kingdom of Heaven to be proclaimed

before the cross and even after the cross that

we are still looking to embody and live out what

it means in our lives of faith. You see, even

before the cross, before the resurrection, before

the climactic moment, Jesus walks the outskirts

of those who had usually been rejected. He proclaims

the kingdom. He heals. He calls people to follow.

He teaches people how to live under a reign that

has already drawn near, because freedom has come.

And now people had to learn how to live like

it was true, even before the final battle on

the cross had been fought. You see, we today

often jump straight to the crucifixion and resurrection,

not just as the center of the Gospel, which it

is, but as if they are the only thing that matters.

But Jesus traveling the countryside is saying

the kingdom of God has come near as he spends

time with them taking all of the brokenness he

came across including their prejudices and their

mistaken assumptions about God and the world

and writing the wrongs that others avoided and

that's before the cross So how can Jesus say

that time is fulfilled? How can he say the kingdom

of God has come upon you? has come to you, is

among you, present. Zacchaeus hears Jesus say,

today salvation has come to this house, not someday,

not later, today. People didn't yet understand

that Jesus would die and rise again. So when

they experienced the kingdom throughout his ministry,

what did it mean to them? It meant restoration.

It meant forgiveness. It meant healing. It meant

belonging. and the Kingdom things God always

had in mind, even in the Old Testament. But He

had to send His Son to finally get the reality

across, to finally make it real, to finally restore

the world fully. Too often we take the Gospel,

which in Scripture is a story you walk into,

and reduce it to a transaction you mentally agree

with. Say the prayer to God, affirm the facts

about Jesus, secure the afterlife of heaven by

the power of the Spirit. You have the verbal

receipt just in case God asks for proof of purchase

when you get to the pearly gates. See, that version

of Christianity, though, treats the cross and

resurrection like a warranty card instead of

the culmination of a lived kingdom. But in Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John, no one is invited to believe

an idea. They are invited to follow a person.

Belief is assumed as they follow, not a separate

action. Allegiance to Christ is the point. Before

anyone understands the cross, Jesus is announcing

the Kingdom of God has come near. That is not

shorthand for, I will die later. It is a claim

that God's reign is becoming visible, tangible,

embodied at that moment. Salvation is already

happening. Every part of the brokenness of the

world is being restored in Christ. Healing is

kingdom. Forgiveness is kingdom. Table fellowship

is kingdom. Casting out demons is kingdom. Calling

fishermen is kingdom. The cross is not detached

from all of that. It is the moment where the

brokenness of the world finally collides with

the faithfulness of God. God himself suffers

for our sinful rejection, our sinful ways, our

sinful humanity, and the resurrection is God

restoring. what the world tried to destroy. Just

like God had restored the brokenness of the world

through Jesus throughout His earthly ministry,

He then restores the brokenness of crucifying

the Son of God by bringing Him back to life and

restoring Him to His eternal body. But remove

the ministry from that and keep only the final

mechanism of the cross and resurrection? and

the cross becomes an abstract idea. No wonder

people who don't grow up in church ask, why would

God choose such a strange, brutal plan for salvation?

Because they don't know the context in which

everything had happened. Jesus does not make

a beeline for Jerusalem running from these places

like He's checking items off of a crucifixion

to -do list. He walks the long way around. He

spends time in places that no one expects anything

to happen. Galilee, Decapolis, villages, fishing

boats, roads and homes and fields. This is not

wasted time just biding that time until he gets

to Jerusalem. This is all revelation. The kingdom

is not unveiled first. at the altar of the cross.

Matthew begins the story in Zebulun and Naphtali,

borderlands, compromised places, Galilee of the

nations. By the time Jesus reaches Jerusalem,

people already know what kind of king He is.

They've seen it. They've known it. He restores

everyone and everything. Jesus reveals God's

heart for those outside religious expectations.

He prevents the Messiah from being claimed only

by cultural or spiritual elites, as if only the

Jews will be the ones to know Him and to trust

Him. He shows the kingdom as something that finds

people, not something that people have to somehow

qualify for, which is much of what even those

within the Jewish community were struggling with

as well. You see, the light does not wait for

people to have the right categories in their

life. It meets them where they already are. If

you were a Jew and you were waiting for the Messiah

to come and restore the nation of Israel, then

all you needed to know was whether Jesus met

the category of being the Messiah. Granted, Jesus

was revealing the kingdom to be more than what

they expected from the Messiah, but He still

had a starting point with them, which is so much

of why Jesus started the ministry there among

them. But what if you were a Gentile? Being the

Messiah didn't mean anything to them. So then

how do you show salvation to people who are not

expecting the messianic king, not only going

to the places up in the north that have been

conquered and overwhelmed by Assyria and so many

others, but were such a medley, a melding pot

of those from different cultures and different

religious and philosophical backgrounds? You

see, there were any number of things that Jesus

was doing to reveal salvation as God truly intended

it for all people. He was healing not just those

who were able to pay for the doctors, but also

those who were treated by society as if they

somehow deserved what they had. As if their sins

caused them to be blind, deaf, lame, or leprous.

As if they had no reason to deserve healing whatsoever.

He was showing them that following God's law

was not about what the teachers kept adding But

by seeking God in spirit and truth by hearing

his word and trusting in his promises He was

forgiving people not because they were able to

abide by the expectations of the priests But

because they turned to God by faith through Jesus

He was welcoming people to eat with him not because

they were clean enough or worthy enough but because

they were loved by God as we all are. He was

casting out demons, demonstrating that God had

not given up on us and left us to the evils of

this world. He was calling fishermen and tax

collectors and ultra -partisan zealots to follow

him, even them. Not because they were smart enough

or rich enough for the rabbis, but merely because

he could. And then he trained them. He took the

things that people already had or knew how to

do and reoriented them toward what God always

intended. And while he used miraculous means

to show that all of this was truly from God,

he has been calling us to do the same ourselves

in every capacity we can for everyone. This is

what God had always intended. even before Christ

was on the earth, but Christ Jesus himself showed

it truly in his ministry throughout his life.

Many of us learned the gospel as a moment of

accepting Jesus, not as a movement where we follow

Jesus. And isn't that the tragedy of it? To accept

the gospel as just a single moment of acceptance?

A prayer, a belief. a future destination. But

Matthew doesn't start the story at the cross

because, well frankly, none of the gospel writers

do. He starts it on the road there. The road

in Galilee, quoting Isaiah. If we want to understand

what the ministry that led up to the cross truly

means, if we want to understand what the cross

truly means, then we have to walk that road that

leads there. But you see, this is where people

get nervous, especially Protestants, especially

Lutherans. James says he will show his faith

by his works, not because works save, but because

faith is not just an idea that you say. Faith

is a life that is lived. The kingdom is a gift

before any tasks are involved. We belong before

we become anything. We are declared forgiven

before we are formed into forgiving. We are not

saved by the lives we live, but the lives we

live, the fruits of the Spirit, reveal whether

grace has truly taken hold. The crucifixion in

Jerusalem only makes sense if you've walked the

road of restoring those who know they are broken,

bringing hope to the hopeless, bringing forgiveness

to the ones who feel they can never be forgiven.

The cross is not a shortcut formula to heaven.

It is the faithful culmination of a kingdom lived

all the way through. Maybe we should start asking,

how often do Christians try to get people to

accept Jesus, not knowing if they actually understand

what that means, forgetting to show them the

fullness of the kingdom that Christ gives? forgetting

to see the world the way God wants us to change

it. There's a man in American history named Robert

Smalls, born into slavery in South Carolina.

For years he worked on the water. He learned

the routes, he memorized the checkpoints, the

secret signals and whistles, the rhythms of the

harbor that allowed you to pass without being

shocked. And one night, he chose to escape. But

he didn't just run. He navigated. He took a Confederate

ship, wore the captain's hat, gave the correct

signals, passed every checkpoint, and sailed

straight into freedom. He trusted that as soon

as he could get to the north, he would be free.

But he didn't go alone. He brought his family.

He brought others. Freedom was never meant to

be private. But here's the part... that really

stands out. When Smalls reached freedom, he didn't

just call himself a freedman and then stop working

on other people's farms. It was more than that.

His life didn't just change location. His life

changed status. He changed. He became a leader,

a public servant, a legislator. He worked to

change the world around him. But more than that,

He conquered the world that had enslaved him,

not with anger, but with love and forgiveness.

He bought the house where he had once been enslaved,

gave it to his mother, but also allowed his former

owner's widow to stay there in her old age. That's

not just an escape. That's life transformation.

It's not vengeance. That's redemption. redeeming

the old and making it new. Robert Smalls didn't

earn freedom by behaving well. He lived differently

because he was free. And that's the kingdom.

Power no longer used to dominate. Memory not

being erased but being healed. Justice without

cruelty. Mercy without naivete. Jesus doesn't

say, here's the spiritual formula for how to

escape earth. He says the kingdom has come near.

And that's the difference between leaving the

darkness and living in the light. As Isaiah says,

the people walking in darkness have seen a great

light. Jesus doesn't begin by telling people

how to earn the kingdom. He begins by giving

it. And once the kingdom is given, everything

changes. You see, faith is not actually words.

Faith is life. God restores the world not by

demanding our improvement first, not by expecting

us to understand everything or have it all figured

out, but by arriving and calling people to turn

toward Him. as He is already breaking through.

You see, the repentance that we are meant to

have with salvation, it's not a hoop that we

jump through before God loves us. It is a response

to the presence of God. And then it responds

by bringing God's presence, God's life to others

as well. It is not that God only brings us His

grace once He has seen enough repentance inside

of us. It is the Word of God saying that we are

loved and forgiven, the grace of God being given

to us first, that brings us to truly repent.

Because grace that focuses on just getting ourselves

somewhere safe, get out of hell free, card. That's

not kingdom grace. Kingdom grace embraces everything

and multiplies to everyone. We don't love so

that God will accept us. We love because we already

belong. We don't serve in order to become part

of the kingdom. We serve because the kingdom

has already come near. The light doesn't wait

for us to understand it. It finds us where we

are and teaches us how to live as free people.

That's why we need to see the kingdom, not just

hear the idea of it. Because that's truly how

the kingdom comes. Before. With. and after the

crucifixion. Thanks be to God.