Judica - The Fifth Sunday in Lent / The First Sunday of Passiontide

(Audio)

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.

Though we may not like to admit it, the LORD had every right to demand Isaac’s life. He had every right to demand Abraham’s life, the life of our First Parents, the lives of Peter and Paul and of all the Apostles, your life and my life as well. For, they, and you, and I, are sinners – conceived and born in sin, committing sins of thought, word, and deed daily, even this morning. And, the LORD explicitly warned Adam, “In the day that you eat of [the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil] you shall surely die.” And, St. Paul confirms, “The wages of sin is death.”

Thus, the philosophical conundrum called the Problem of Evil or something similar, typically expressed, “How can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God permit, or even demand, evil?” is truly no conundrum at all, if one only takes seriously God’s righteousness and holiness and the seriousness of our sin. After all, we’re not talking about human laws here, which are by nature imperfect and corrupt, able to be bent, annulled, circumvented, and enforced with inequity and injustice, but we’re talking about the divine, holy, righteous, and just Law of God which is of God before the giving of the Ten Commandments, before the creation of man, and before the creation and foundation of the universe. To put it plainly: God is good, and whatever is not of God or in alignment with God is, by definition and necessity, not good. Likewise, God is righteous, just, and holy, and whatever is not of God or in alignment with God is, by definition and necessity, unrighteous, unjust, and unholy.

However, coupled with God’s eternal, righteous, just, and unchangeable Law is His abounding patience, mercy, love, and grace. Though He had every right to demand Isaac’s life, the life of our First Parents, the lives of Peter and Paul and all of the Apostles, your life and my life, from the Fall of Man onward, God promised to redeem and to provide a substitute to fulfill the Law for us and to suffer its consequences in our place: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, and between your seed and Her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Abraham knew of this first covenant promise and He trusted the Word of the LORD, and the LORD counted Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness. Thus, when the LORD demanded the life of Abraham’s son of promise, Isaac, Abraham trusted that the LORD would still keep His promise to provide him an heir from his own flesh whose descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand upon the seashore, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Therefore, as he and his son of promise journeyed to the mountain of sacrifice, Abraham confessed his faith in the LORD once again in answer to Isaac’s worried concern about the absence of a sacrificial lamb saying, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And, the LORD did provide, not a lamb, but a ram, for the sacrifice so that Isaac’s life was spared. Then, over centuries and millennia, to and through His faithful people who, despite their personal sin, trusted in Him, the LORD reiterated His covenant promise until He provided His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The faith of Abraham was a gift given and created by God. There was nothing special about Abraham. He was a sinner just like everyone else. He was a pagan and an idolater, worshipping the household gods of his father and countrymen. But, when the LORD called to him, Abraham listened and believed, he trusted in the Word of the LORD. Even when the path was uncertain and unclear, Abraham trusted and believed. “We walk by faith and not by sight.” The faith of Abraham was in the Word of the LORD, and through it the LORD promised Abraham a Son who would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. This Son was actually not Isaac, however, but He was the very same Son and Seed that was promised to our First Parents, and to Satan, by the way, Jesus. However, Isaac was a necessary link in the covenantal chain, as was Jacob and Judah and Ruth and David and Joseph and Mary and every descendent in between. Abraham believed the covenant promise made to our First Parents, as do all true children of Abraham henceforth. All who share the faith of Abraham, who trust in the Word of the LORD fulfilled in Jesus, the Seed Son of promise, are the true children of Abraham, the true Israel, sons and daughters of God, and the Bride of Christ, the Church.

Jesus came preaching the faith of Abraham, calling Abraham’s children to faith in the fulfillment of God’s Word of Promise and to repentance with the proclamation, “The Kingdom of God is near.” Very quickly, however, He met opposition from the Pharisees and scribes, the priests, and the religious leadership of Israel who had come to believe and trust, not in the Word of the LORD, but in their blood descent from Abraham. By the time of the accounts recorded in our Gospel reading today from St. John, Jesus had already had many confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders. In today’s reading, Jesus gets right to the point with them saying, essentially, “Who’s your daddy?” “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? 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. He 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. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”

Jesus laid it out straight for them: Either your Father is God, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, or your father is Satan, the father of lies, the antithesis of all that is righteous, good, and holy. Jesus said the same two weeks ago in St. Luke’s Gospel, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Then, they accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Here, in today’s Gospel, they accuse Him of this once again. This is nothing other than the sin against the Holy Spirit, for it is calling the LORD’s good and holy work evil and sinful. If a person so blasphemes the Holy Spirit of God, there is no hope for him and he cannot be saved, not because God is unmerciful and unforgiving, but because it is by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God that faith is created. If the means of faith is rejected, then there can, and never will be, faith.

Jesus spoke the Truth, and He was rejected because of it. However, the Jewish religious leaders were not merely rejecting Jesus and His teachings, but they were rejecting the Truth of God, they were rejecting God Himself, and they were teaching others to do the same. That is why Jesus rebukes them so very harshly. They couldn’t convict Him of sin, of breaking God’s Law, but they could only accuse Him of breaking their laws, man’s laws. “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God,” Jesus answered them, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” “Now we know that you have a demon!” they shouted. “Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

It is interesting that the demons know whose Son Jesus is, and they reject Him, while the religious leaders of Israel do not, and yet, they reject Him because they reject the Word of God. They claim to be children of Abraham, and yet they reject their father Abraham’s faith in the Word of the LORD and His promise. That is why, at another time, Jesus told them that He could raise up children for Abraham from the stones on the ground. On the one hand, blood descent has nothing to do with being a son or daughter of Abraham. And, on the other, the Jews often referred to Gentiles as “stones.” This points to the greater sin of the religious leaders of Israel: Not only did they reject the Word of the LORD for themselves, but as the teachers of Israel they failed to teach it faithfully to the people they were called to care for and to protect. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing, devouring the sheep of the LORD’s flock. Whereas Abraham taught the faithful to trust in the Lamb that the LORD would provide, the Pharisees, scribes, priests, and religious leaders of the Jews rejected Him and sent the Lamb of God to the cross to die.

“You are not yet fifty years old, and have you see Abraham?” they protested. “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’.” “So they picked up stones to throw at Him.” But, Jesus was before Abraham, before our First Parents, and before creation itself. For, Jesus is the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him was not anything made that has been made. And, Jesus is the great “I AM,” the Name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, the Son of God, and God Himself. He is the one that was promised to our First Parents after their Fall. He was the one promised to crush Satan’s head. He was the one promised to Abraham, in whom Abraham put his faith and trust. And, He is the one whom all children of Abraham confess still as both God and Lord.

And, Jesus is our Great High Priest who has “entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” “He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” And, though He had every right to demand your life, your LORD gave the life of His Son for you that you may live. And He is here for you now as both Priest and Sacrifice, Host and Meal, to forgive your sins anew, to strengthen your faith, and to preserve you in everlasting life in Him in the body of Christ, the Church. On the Mount of the LORD it is still provided for you. Believe, trust, and receive.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Wednesday in Laetare - The Fourth Week of Lent (Lent 4)

(Audio)

John 12:20-36; Ephesians 2:1-10; Jonah 2:1-10; Psalm 103

 

Jesus Christ, My Lord: From Death to Life – Creator / Life-Giver

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There is a fundamental Christian truth that is the most difficult for us to admit and to confess, while being the most liberating at the same time: “We are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.” What that means is that when we are conceived and born, before we’ve even had a thought, inclination, or desire, before we’ve learned language or spoken a word or done anything at all, we are dead, spiritually dead, D-E-A-D DEAD, dead like Lazarus, we “stinketh.” And yet it’s worse than that! Not only are we spiritually dead, but we are hostile and opposed to God and His Word, Commandments, and Will. Using our own reason and strength we cannot believe in, trust in, or make any movement towards the LORD or His Christ. All we can do is rot and decay in our sin, iniquity, and death, because that’s what dead things do.

It is so very difficult for us to admit and to confess that we are spiritually dead; and yet, it is the most liberating thing we can do. For, only those who have nothing of their own can truly appreciate the value of a gift, of grace. Only sinners can be forgiven, only slaves can be set free, and only the dead can be raised to life. Moreover, that’s why Jesus became a man. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Jesus came to call dead sinners like you and me and all of us to new and forever life in Him.

The scribes and the Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus, but Jesus answered them saying, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” What is the “sign of the prophet Jonah”? Jesus continued, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Now, it’s entirely clear to us that Jesus is referring to His death, burial, and resurrection. However, there is more to the “sign of Jonah” than that. The “sign of Jonah” means the death of the perfect man for all sinful men. This is nothing less than the harrowing of hell. As Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish and was in its belly three days and three nights in the depths of the sea, at the very root and foundation of the mountains, so Jesus was swallowed up by death and truly experienced its thrall, but death could not hold the righteous Son of Man and was burst open and destroyed, foreshadowed by the great fish expelling Jonah safely onto dry land.

In His Incarnation, Jesus not only took on human flesh, He took on all humanity. “God became man, so that man might become God.” When Jesus died, you died, I died, all humankind died. And when He rose, the promise and hope of your resurrection, my resurrection, and the resurrection of all who trust and believe on Him rose. St. Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” Jesus did not go to hell to suffer; indeed, all suffering was fulfilled, completed, and finished on the cross. What we confess in the Creed is that Jesus descended into hell to proclaim His victory over sin, death, and the devil, a death which affected salvation for those who believed in the promise of the Seed before the Incarnation every bit as much as for those thereafter.

Our resurrected Lord was still Jesus, the same Jesus the Apostles had known, but clearly more. While He passed through the stone that sealed His tomb as easily as through the locked door of the upper room, and He could appear and disappear at will and ascend bodily into the heavens, still the fullness of His glory remains yet to unveiled and revealed until His return, the day of resurrection and the judgment of all humankind. Now, and forever, Jesus is the “Lamb standing as though slain,” even now leading a host of captives back to Paradise through death into life that cannot die.

Jesus compared Himself to a grain of wheat sown in the soil of this Earth. A grain of wheat does nothing and is of no value unless it splits open and dies. “Truly, truly,” Jesus says, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus is the grain of wheat who died, and you, dear Christian, are the fruit. Because Jesus died, you live. And because Jesus died, you live even though you die. Indeed, you must follow Jesus through death, first dying to yourself in this life and world, and living to God through Jesus, and then rising from death in and through Jesus who is the resurrection and the life.

Only sinners can be forgiven. Only the dead can be raised. In Jesus, the Greater Jonah, you are forgiven, death has been defeated, and you have already been raised to new life that cannot die through faith in Him and baptism into Him. You have literally, spiritually, been born into a new life, a new creation. Your new life in Jesus is nourished and sustained by the spiritual food of God’s Word and Sacraments, and it is lived in daily repentance through faith and trust in the Father’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. You are a part of Jesus, a branch grafted into the True Vine, and the fruit you bear is Jesus’ fruit, good works which serve our neighbor and glorify God.

Our Lord heard Jonah’s cries. He forgave him his sins. God rescued him from the womb of hell itself. Like Jonah, we can remember with thanksgiving that God has brought us up from the bottomless pit and seated us in a safe place. The radical problem, our being dead, is solved by the radical solution, Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our sanctification is not just a change of attitudes or the introduction of certain habits, but it is a product of our being alive in Christ. Our new life in Christ is shaped to do good works. This too is the Lord’s doing.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.