Quinquagesima Sunday Sermon

Quinquagesima – March 2^nd and 3^rd, 2019 – Luke 19:31-43

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

I'm sorry folks, but this is going to be a hard sermon. It's going to be an uncomfortable one to hear, but needed. Think of how our Gospel lesson starts off – Jesus is walking with the disciples to Jerusalem – ah, Jerusalem, the city of God, the place of the temple, the place where the King will reign and here we are, Jesus' disciples and He's the Messiah and He's going to reign and it will be awesome and wonderful and all my wildest dreams are coming true... and then Jesus speaks. “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” Oh good, power and might and I'll get to be in charge and... “For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.” Wait, Jesus – what about that glory and power and might that I get to share in? What about... “And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.”

This is a record scratch moment. This is a drop the punch bowl moment. The disciples don't get it, they can't fathom what Jesus is saying here. The words make no sense to them. Surely He's joking. We've seen all this power and might and the miracles and Peter and James and John have even seen glowing Jesus – how is He going to be killed? How is He going to lose? What's with the suffering talk, what's with this death talk – we don't want any of that. And the biggest thing – this is the third time Jesus has told them point blank He's going to die and rise. And it's been a big thing when He's told them this before – one of the previous times after telling them He was going to die and rise Peter tried to talk Him out of it and Jesus dropped a “Get thee behind Me, Satan,” on poor Pete. You would think that after three years they would have gotten the point. But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Why not? Why couldn't they grasp it? Now, some of you might recall that I said in the Gesima weekends we deal with the three great Solas, the three great Alones of the Church – Sola Gratia – by Grace alone, and Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone... and what's the third? Sola Fide, by faith alone. There's a faith problem here – they don't see, they aren't hearing in faith. They are looking for and longing for the wrong thing. They want nothing to do with this idea of suffering or death, but my friends, faith is all about suffering and death.

Consider what happens next with the blind man outside of Jericho. As He drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this might mean. Remember, Jesus is popular – He's a popular fad, everyone wants something from Him, so it's not just the disciples following Jesus towards Jerusalem to see what He'll do – it's a bunch of people. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Now, don't be too quick to be harsh on these folks in the crowd here. I mean, it's lousy what they do – they ought to be eager to help this fellow to Jesus and all – but, let's be honest. How quick are we to lambaste someone else when they bother or annoy us? How often are we quick to assume that what we want is good and so much better than what someone else wants? After all, they just wanted to see Jesus in peace – wasn't that a good thing? Unless you've never gotten annoyed with anyone else in Church you can understand the crowd perfectly well. Don't make the crowd right, and it doesn't make us in our annoyances right – but we can understand.

The problem is crowd didn't get it. It wasn't just about seeing Jesus – faith isn't a spectator sport or a pastime. You don't just watch Jesus and the flip over to some other channel if you get bored. They missed the bigger picture... but that bigger picture was seen by this blind man. So, “Jesus stopped and commanded Him to be brought to Him. And when he came near, He asked him, 'What do you want Me to do for you?'” Now, keep this question in the back of your mind – Jesus asking “What do you want me to do for you?” “He said, 'LORD, let me recover my sight.' And Jesus said to him, 'Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.'” Ah ha! There it is! Faith! Sola Fide! The man has faith and He is healed. See – easy peasy, lemon squeezy – just have faith in Jesus and He will give you what you want and we can march on into Jerusalem in a most triumphant manner, we'll get some palms, and then we'll go to the temple and celebrate and then we'll kick out the Romans, and maybe cast out the lousy leaders, and maybe get some revenge on that fellow over there who annoyed me and then I'll have everything my way... [record scratch noise]. That's not faith. That's wish fulfillment. That's not what the Christian faith is – that's not what Jesus has come to do.

The disciples didn't understand what Jesus was talking about. The crowd, though they were happy once they saw the miracle, was so foolish and stupid that when they heard a blind man crying for mercy instead of saying, “Oh, oh, Jesus, Jesus, come here – heal this guy,” they go about shushing him. In this entire text, in our entire Gospel lesson it is only this blind man who acts in faith. Why?

Because this blind man is the only one thinking about death. Oops. There, I said it. Death. Let's be honest – we can be quite often tempted to want to push death off into a corner. Jesus mentions His death and the disciples' eyes glaze over – we don't know what You're talking about, Jesus. Jesus mentions sorrow and suffering – which is simply death being accelerated and coming more quickly in your life – no, no Jesus that's not what You are supposed to be here for. The disciples weren't wanting death and pain – they wanted glory. The crowd wanted glory and might. But what about the blind man? You know what the blind man sees? He sees death. He sees dead eyes. His eyes are dead. They've stopped working. He knows death and loss, so He knows Jesus by faith. You hear it in what he says – Mercy! That is help, save, do good to me. You hear it in his request – let me RE-cover my sight. RE. Let me re-see, let me see again – re... just like that re in resurrection. Make my eyes live again because sin and death have killed them. And that, my dear friends, is Jesus' wheel house. That is His expertise. Raising the dead. Taking things that were dead, that were broken, were nothing and making them alive and whole and new. Jesus is the Word of God by whom all things were made – He is the Life of the world – of course He specializes in making alive.

Jesus works now by death and resurrection. Ever since sin hit the world, ever since we were trapped in sin and our bodies were consigned to death and decay, Jesus Christ would have to work by death and resurrection. He would come down from heaven and turn Satan's vile attack of death upon its head. He would swallow up death with His own death, and in its place give Life, His Life, His resurrected and resurrecting life. That's who Jesus is – that is the faith – I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Satan can attack us by pride – so that we get all huffy about how great we are. Satan can attack us with despair – so that we are miserable and frozen and paralyzed. Do you see how else he attacks us? Satan wants us to hate and ignore Jesus' death and resurrection. Satan wants us to ignore our own death and resurrection in Christ. Satan wants us to focus on anything or everything but this death and resurrection for us. Satan wants us to ignore Christ's love. You do realize that Death and Resurrection is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13, right? That's what Jesus' love is – for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son who died and rose. The Christian faith isn't about having power or might or moving mountains or ruling things. Love is Christ patiently suffering and dying for you. Love is Christ in kindness calling out, “Father, forgive them.” Love is Christ neither boasting nor complaining about how He didn't deserve this death. Love is Christ saying, “Not My will, but Thine be done” and drinking to the dregs the cup of wrath and woe upon the cross. Love is Jesus not begruding you the Cross, by dying for you, for your good. Love is Christ Jesus bearing all things upon the Cross, enduring all things. Love is Jesus rising to establish hope. This is the love that never ends – Jesus dying and rising for you.

Everything in the Church revolves around death and resurrection. “We were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” There, at the font – death and resurrection. Christ's death and resurrection – and your death and resurrection as well. The preaching – like Paul, I'm determined to know nothing among you, to focus you and make you to know only Christ and Him Crucified. Not Jesus the divine sugar daddy of wish fulfillment – but Christ Jesus the Lamb of God who comes with the vengeance and recompense of God to save you mightily with His death and resurrection. The Supper is all about Christ's death and resurrection – take and eat, this is My Body, given for you, take and drink, this cup is the New Testament in My blood, shed for you for the remission of your sins. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show forth the Lord's death till He come. Death and resurrection.

We are coming up on Lent. The season where we see Jesus take the fight to Satan, where we see Jesus take on sin and death by death and resurrection. And Satan will do his damnedest to try to focus you on anything but this – he will try to distract you away from the idea of death with all sorts of vainglorious dreams and your wants and wishes, or he will try to make your own sin and death loom so largely in front of you that you don't see Jesus. But over and against that, you have been given the gift of faith, so that you see the real Jesus – the Jesus who dies and rises, who dies and rises for you, you who dies and rises with you and you with Him.

And this is often uncomfortable. It makes our old sinful nature quake in its boots. And this Lent, we might squirm a bit, because our sinful flesh wants nothing do to with death or resurrection. But Christ Jesus came to win you salvation with His death and resurrection, and He will come here to give you the salvation won by His death and resurrection even until the day He comes again and you are raised from the dead. “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +