John 8:42-59; Hebrews 9:11-15; Genesis
22:1-14
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The First Gospel proclaimed in the Holy
Scriptures occurs quite early, in Genesis 3:15, immediately following our First
Parent’s rebellion against God and His Word and their consequent fall into
sinful concupiscence and its fruits of spiritual death now, and physical and eternal death in time for themselves and for all their progeny. It comes as part
of the curse spoken to Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, and
between your offspring and Her Offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you
shall bruise His heel.” Our First Parents understood that the LORD intended to
provide a human man, a son of their own flesh, who would destroy the power of
Satan even as He suffered a fatal wound from the devil Himself. So literally
and immediately did they understand this Good News that, when Eve gave birth to
her firstborn son Cain, believing that the Gospel prophecy had already been
fulfilled, she exclaimed, “I have gotten a man, the Lord!”
However, Cain was not the promised
Messiah. In fact, Cain became the first murderer, shedding the blood of his
brother Abel: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit.” Origins matter. Who’s your daddy matters. Adam and
Eve had plunged themselves and all of God’s creation into sin, corruption,
decay, and death. Adam was a sinner, bound to die. Eve was a sinner, bound to
die. Together, all they could produce from their own flesh were sinners, bound
to die. This is true for you and me as much as for Our First Parents, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, our own parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and for all.
Everything we produce from our flesh – our words, thoughts, and deeds, our
children – is sinful, corrupt, decaying, and destined for death. Thus St. Paul
exclaimed, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
The scribes and the Pharisees in particular,
and the children of Israel in general, prided themselves that they had Abraham
as their father. Their fear, love, and trust, their self-righteous security,
was not in the LORD, but it was in their blood descent and lineage from the man
they called their father, Abraham. However, Abraham was no less a sinner,
corrupt, and destined for death than was his father Terah, and his father
before him. To be a child of Abraham and of the Gospel promise and of the covenant
the LORD made to Him – which was truly a reiteration of the First Gospel
promise made to Satan in the hearing of our First Parents in the Garden – was
to be a spiritual descendant of Abraham, believing and trusting the Word of the
LORD as their spiritual father Abraham had done so many centuries before. Thus,
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came
from God and I am here.” “Why do you not understand what I say?” Jesus
continued, “It is because you cannot bear to hear My Word. You are of your
father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” And then,
showing that their sinful, blind misunderstanding was really no different than
was Adam and Eve’s at the birth of Cain, Jesus said to them, “He [Satan] was a
murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for
he is a liar and the father of lies.”
It is Jesus who is the true Son of
Abraham, the true Son of the LORD’s Promise to Abraham, the true Seed of the
Woman, who would bruise, even crush, the serpent’s head. When the LORD
commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to test his faith and
trust, Abraham believed and trusted in the LORD once again as he did when the
LORD first called him and made His covenant promise to him to provide him a
land, a son and a people through whom all the nations of the world would be
blessed. The LORD spared Abraham’s promised son Isaac and provided a sacrifice
as a substitute, just as Abraham prophesied as they made their way to the
mountain saying, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering,
my son.” Abraham sacrificed the ram caught in the thicket by its horns in the
place of his son of promise, Isaac. But, Abraham believed, knew, and confessed
that that ram was but a type and a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ, whose blood would take away the sins of the world.
This is what Jesus meant when He said to
the scribes and the Pharisees, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see
my day. He saw it and was glad.” What Abraham saw was that God would indeed
provide a sacrificial Lamb that would be a substitute, not only for his son of
promise Isaac, but for all men of all times and all places. The LORD spared
Abraham’s son and kept His covenant promise that, through an heir from
Abraham’s own flesh, He would bless all the nations of the world. Abraham’s son
was spared and lived and became the father of Jacob and the twelve tribes of
Israel. But, the LORD’s only-begotten Son, His Beloved, He did not spare, but
gave Him over as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of all humanity. Of this the
preacher to the Hebrews proclaims, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest
of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect
tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for
all into the holy places, not be means of the blood of goats and calves but by
means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”
In Jesus’ death, Isaac was redeemed,
Abraham was redeemed, Adam and Eve, you and I and all the humankind were
redeemed. All those conceived of the seed of man are conceived and born in sin,
bound for death. But, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the seed of
the woman. Jesus’ father was not a human man, but God Himself was His Father,
thus He bore not the taint and corruption, sin, and death of original sin. The
death He died was not for His own sin but for yours and all men, the sin of the
world. God, His Father offered up His innocent Son as a sin-offering for your
sin and guilt. Jesus, God’s Son, willingly laid down His life in love and
obedience for His Father and for you. And the Holy Spirit was given to create
faith in your hearts that you may trust in Jesus and become true sons of
Abraham, born not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. If God is your Father, you
will love Jesus and you will hear His Word, you will listen to, believe, and
trust in His Son, his Word made flesh, crucified, died, risen, reigning, and
returning. “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.”
Two weeks ago, on Oculi Sunday, the
Third Sunday In Lent, the scribes and the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting
out demons by the power of Beelzebul, Satan. That was blasphemy, even the sin
against the Holy Spirit, for it was the Holy Spirit, the Finger of God, in and
through the Word of God, who exorcised the demons. Today, once again, the
scribes and the Pharisees utter blasphemy by calling the work of the Holy
Spirit in and through Jesus, the work of demons and of the devil. Thus, Jesus
now pronounces His harshest rebuke of the scribes and the Pharisees saying,
“You are of your father the devil.” Their accusations continue, even in the
face of the clear fulfillment of the Word of the LORD in Jesus’ teaching and
miracles. Like Pharaoh of old, they hardened their hearts against the Word of
the LORD, against Jesus, and against the work of the Holy Spirit. Hearing, they
do not hear; thus, seeing, they do not see. For, the sin against the Holy
Spirit is a willful and intentional rejection and opposition to the Holy
Spirit. Such a sin is unforgiveable because only the Holy Spirit can create and
sustain faith, and He is rejected and refused. The scribes and the Pharisees
knew precisely who Jesus claimed to be, and that He backed up His claim with
the clear Word of the LORD and with miraculous signs fulfilling Messianic
prophecy. When they rejected Jesus, they knew who they were rejecting. Thus,
when Jesus finally proclaimed the Divine Name of Yahweh for Himself saying,
“Before Abraham was, I AM,” they reacted violently, full of rage and hatred,
and attempted to stone Him to death. As Satan was a murderer from the
beginning, so are his children murderers, hateful, and liars. They cannot
convict Jesus of sin, therefore they call His holy works by the Holy Spirit
sinful and demonic. That is blasphemy, to call the work of the Holy Spirit
sinful and demonic. They call good evil and evil good – just like their father
Satan.
Origins matter. Who’s your daddy
matters. If you have God as you Father, you will love His Son and listen to His
Word. The Holy Spirit will make His home with you and protect and keep you,
equip and send you as light in this world of sin, death, and darkness. As Jesus
taught His disciples, His mother and His brothers, His family, are “those who
hear the Word of the LORD and keep it.” You are the true spiritual children of
Abraham, the New Jerusalem. You are marked, named, and claimed as God’s own
children in Holy Baptism, with a circumcision of the heart and rebirth of
spirit. You have been judged already, vindicated, declared “Not guilty!” in the
holy, innocent shed blood of Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God’s own offering.
Because of this, you need not fear death, for, truly, you will never taste it!
You have already died with Christ and have been raised with Him. The second
death cannot harm you. Abraham died, yes. The prophets died. You will die, but
death cannot hold you, because it could not hold Jesus, and you are baptized
into Jesus’ death and resurrection. But, those who reject Jesus, who reject
God’s Word, who reject His Holy Spirit cannot be saved. There is no other way.
You will be rejected by those who reject
Jesus, for the disciple is not above his Teacher. As they did to Him, so will
they do to you. Today our Lenten pilgrimage to the cross intensifies as we
meditate more deeply upon Jesus’ Passion and our sins for which He suffered and
died. Jesus is our ram caught in the thicket of biting whips, piercing thorns
and nails. Nonetheless, take heart, have hope, and be comforted, for you have
been vindicated, you have been judged “Not guilty!” in Jesus’ cleansing blood.
Already you have died, have been raised, born again into a new life that cannot
die! Your Great High Priest Christ Jesus has entered into the holy presence of
God His Father for you, with His own holy, innocent blood. He is your head, and
where your head is your body will soon be. Until then, Jesus communes with you,
forgiving you, feeding you, strengthening you, preserving and protecting you
with His precious body and His holy blood. He who has begun this good work in
you will bring it to completion in day of Christ Jesus. “Oh give thanks to the
LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!”
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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