I’m going to move from the burning bush to the Jesus prayer to the fig tree. Are you on the journey with me? Moses is walking in the desert and sees this most amazing sight: this bush that is on fire but it’s not burning. When he draws close to it, he hears the voice of God say, “Moses, remove the shoes from your feet for you are standing on holy ground.” Moses does and God reveals his very name to him. Now, his name is a four-letter word that I can’t say. I don’t know if you know what this is. His name in Hebrew, which was the only time that it would be spoken to Moses, was YHWH, a name so holy that it is not spoken. YHWH. It means, ‘I am who am.’ God is revealing his very self to Moses.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. Lord Jesus Christ. Why does he have three names? What do these names mean? First of all, Lord, when it is capitalized, is English for YHWH, the name that is unspoken. So, Jesus, by calling him Lord, we are claiming that he is God. In Lent, we have been doing the 40 days and 40 promises throughout the renewal of our baptismal promises. Do we really believe that that’s who Jesus is?
Lord, Lord Jesus. What does Jesus mean? Jesus means YHWH saves, that’s what Jesus means, YHWH, God saves. So, we have Lord, we have Jesus, and then we have Christ. What does Christ mean? Christ means, ‘the anointed one,’ that Jesus was anointed from his very conception to do the will of God.
Lord Jesus Christ. He came to save us. But he says very clearly in the gospel that if we do not repent, we will die. What does it mean to repent? It means to come before Jesus and say, ‘I am a sinner, I need your help. Fix me. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Now we get to the barren fig tree that was barren for how many years? Three years. How many years did Jesus work miracles and minister to the people of God? Three years. After three years of all this revelation of him being Lord Jesus Christ, at the end of three years, there were still people that didn’t believe. So, he ended up, because he said when he was asked who his identity is, he said, “I am,” which is YHWH. He claimed to be God and that is what would crucify him and nail him to the tree and he would become that dead wood to save us.
The ground needs to be cultivated; Jesus is being the merciful gardener and saying, ‘Father let me have one more year with them, let me have one more year just to till the soil to water them, even throw manure on them, let me have one year with them.’
This Lent is that time; this Lent is the season of conversion and it’s the time in our lives to come back to him and to repent. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
