Easter
5 – May 18th and 19th, 2019 -
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, alleluia!
We do not know what is good for us. Or if we do know, we tend to fight against it. I, as a person, know what a good and healthy and proper diet would be – but from my simple appearance you can tell such a healthy diet is beyond my current desire or self-discipline. And every one of us in here can think of times where we fight against bad habits that we know are off, yet still do them. And even more to the point, everyone of us in here have things that we think are “good” for us, but actually are not. That is part and parcel of being a sinful human being. The first temptation was “you will be like God, knowing good and evil” - and ever since the fall we have failed utterly in our attempts to know what is good for us. Instead of listening to our own thoughts, or our hearts, or our stomachs, when push comes to shove we must listen to what God in His Word says. He knows what is good, we of ourselves so often do not.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, alleluia!
We do not know what is good for us. Or if we do know, we tend to fight against it. I, as a person, know what a good and healthy and proper diet would be – but from my simple appearance you can tell such a healthy diet is beyond my current desire or self-discipline. And every one of us in here can think of times where we fight against bad habits that we know are off, yet still do them. And even more to the point, everyone of us in here have things that we think are “good” for us, but actually are not. That is part and parcel of being a sinful human being. The first temptation was “you will be like God, knowing good and evil” - and ever since the fall we have failed utterly in our attempts to know what is good for us. Instead of listening to our own thoughts, or our hearts, or our stomachs, when push comes to shove we must listen to what God in His Word says. He knows what is good, we of ourselves so often do not.
With
this in mind, we are ready to hear what Jesus says: “Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away.”
Here again we are in the upper room on Maundy Thursday evening, and
Jesus is preparing the disciples for the transition to the New
Testament Church which will exist after the Ascension and until the
Second Coming – the Church we ourselves are in. And the Church as
we see it wasn't what the disciples wanted. They had wanted an
earthly kingdom of power and might, where they would rule along side
Jesus and share in His glory and have palaces and riches and respect.
They wanted a kingdom like David had, or Solomon. And Jesus is
telling them that this isn't going to happen – and they don't
really believe Him yet. They even ask before Jesus ascends, “Lord,
will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?”
The disciples didn't want the Church.
And let's be honest – often we don't like, don't want
the Church that we have. We can have hopes and dreams for this
congregation that don't pan out. I wish we were so full that people
had to sit up front. I wish there were more LCMS Lutherans in the
US, where we weren't a relatively obscure group making up less than 1
percent of the population. I wish there were more Christians at all
in the US, instead of this rising tide of disdain that I see all
around us. Wouldn't that be “good”? Possibly – but it is also
selfish. Full pews and fuller offering plates would certainly let me
have bragging rights at this week's pastor's conference – but
bragging rights aren't the point, are they? Or being safely in the
open majority is comfortable, and you get to enjoy positions of
social power and prestige – but garnering earthly respect isn't the
point of the Christian faith. You see, with all our wishes and
dreams, we are tempted to over look the unimaginably wondrous good
that God gives to us here and now. A good that surpasses anything we
could have dreamed or coveted.
Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away, for if
I do not go away the Helper will not come to you.
The Helper, the Comforter, the Paraclete. The Holy Spirit. Jesus
here speaks to Pentecost, the pouring out of the Spirit which starts
in Jerusalem and spreads throughout the world. The very pouring out
of the Spirit that we ourselves live in and fully experience here, as
the Holy Spirit is with us, having called us by the Gospel,
enlightened us with His gifts of Word and Sacrament, sanctified and
kept us in the true faith. Consider – that Maundy Thursday, if you
wanted to be part of this “Jesus” thing, you had to follow Him
around, fit in one particular crowd – or wait for Him to come
around again. Fifty days later, you have Pentecost, and 3000 believe
and are baptized, and they all head back to all their homes where
they speak in all their various languages, and more and more people
are brought by the Spirit to faith, and so on and so forth until here
we are, separated by thousands of years and thousands of miles from
where Jesus spoke these words in the upper room – and yet by the
power of the Spirit they are spoken to us and applied to us and
brought to us today.
The Holy Spirit spreads the Church throughout the
world. And in that Church our LORD Jesus comes to us in His Word, in
Baptism, in His Supper, to forgive us our sins. We don't have to go
to Him. He comes to us. How fantastic is that! We don't have to go
to Jerusalem where the Kingdom is (although a trip there would be
sort of cool – but it's not necessary). We don't have to do a
pilgrimage to any place and wait in long lines. No, because of the
Spirit and His Church, Christ Jesus comes to us easily and
conveniently and in our own language. He comes to us as often as we
are gathered in His Name, as often as we eat His Supper. And if for
some reason this place got too crowded – just plant another
congregation – easy peasy, lemon squeezy. And if we end up having
to share with others someday – alright, where the Word is
proclaimed, there Christ will be present for us. And it really is to
our advantage.
Because
we are people of the Word, and the Help that the Helper gives, the
Comfort from the Comforter is the Word of God proclaimed. Jesus
says, “And when He comes, He will convict the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” The
Spirit will see to it that the Word of God is proclaimed throughout
the whole world – that's what that “convict” means. We think
of a convicting primarily as assigning a punishment, but here it
really means to speak with conviction and with authority. Over and
against all the thoughts and ideas that vie for power in the world,
the Word of God goes forth and the Spirit proclaims the truth. And
that is the truth that we are to listen to and listen for. This is
the truth you are to expect from me whenever I preach, and if I do
not preach it, you ought to be all over me like white on rice. Jesus
here lays out the standard for what is to be preached in His Church.
The
Spirit will convict “concerning sin, because
they do not believe in Me.”
Part of the job of the Spirit in His Church will be to proclaim
God's law, showing forth our sin. Sin, at it's root, is disbelieving
God. It is ignoring what He has said, what He has called good, and
instead substituting our own desires in its place. And the Holy
Spirit will always call that out. You will hear your own sin, and
even sins you happen to like and enjoy, called out in this place.
That's what the Spirit does. And we live in a day and age where we
don't like calling sin sin. It's not “nice”. Oh well. We
listen to the Word of God and what God says is right, and that's
where we stand, even against ourselves. It's not a matter of “we're
good and they are bad” as so many want to take it – it's we all
have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. The law is given to
stop every mouth, stop every excuse – and when you are trying to
justify your own sin, whatever shape that sin takes, whether it is
something bizarre or something trendy or just something petty, the
Spirit will use the Word to tell you to stop with your jibber-jabbery
defense and instead admit that you are wrong. And we need that –
not just those bad people out there – we do, because we don't know
what is good apart from God.
But,
the Church is not merely a place where God tells us off. In fact,
it's primary purpose is this. The Spirit will speak concerning
“righteousness, because I go to the Father and
you will see Me no longer.”
Well, what in tarnation that does that mean? When Jesus speaks of
“righteousness” He is referring to the fact that He is righteous
and good, and that His righteousness is shown by going to the Cross
and taking up your sin – including all that stuff that the Spirit
just called you on – and destroying it, and in its place giving you
all His righteousness and holiness and love and mercy. He has done
it all – it is finished. He has gone to the Father, ascended
victorious with nothing left to be done for your salvation. And thus
the job of the Church is to proclaim that Christ Jesus has
accomplished salvation, that all righteousness is found in Him. That
sins are forgiven in Him and by Him. These first two are what we
Lutherans like to call “Law and Gospel” for short – the Law
which shows to us our sin, the Gospel which gives us our Savior and
His forgiveness. And these two things must be constantly preached
and proclaimed – the Law to silence our own plans, the Gospel to
give and include us in the plan of salvation.
But
what of the third? Concerning judgment, because
the ruler of this world is judged.
We don't know what is good. We don't know what good results look
like. We hear this preaching of Law and Gospel – and then, well...
we don't have power and might on the earth. We don't have riches.
In fact, we don't even get to defeat all our enemies, and there are
still wicked people out there and oh no, what are we going to do?
The Spirit's answer – nothing. You don't have to judge or defeat
or destroy anyone in this life. God will take care of it. In fact,
He has – Jesus's death and resurrection defeated Satan, and Satan
is judged already. We are just waiting it out until the second
coming, and in the mean time the Spirit goes forth in the Word
calling sinners to repentance and giving them Christ's forgiveness.
If someone should believe – wonderful. If not – well, we just
keep preaching and singing and praying and receiving Christ's body
and blood – we just keep on living as the baptized and leave any
comeuppances to come in God's hands. We don't even need to fret
about how many do or don't believe, or how wicked the world is, or
any of the things we so often fear. In Christ, we have the victory
now. This world's prince may still scowl fierce as he will – but
the Spirit will remind us over and over that in Christ our victory
has been won and that the true Kingdom, the eternal Kingdom of Christ
and the life everlasting, is ours.
And that's what the Spirit does. He makes us see that Jesus has
actually won our victory over sin and death and the world, and even
over our own selfishness and misplaced dreams. He will use the Word
and pull us away from these things, and give us Jesus - “for
He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
The Spirit gives you the things of Jesus that you need – or as we
learned it in the Small Catechism – In
this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and
the sins of all believers.
And because the Spirit has come, this Christian Church is spread
throughout the world, and yet even we here in this place receive all
the fullness thereof and lack nothing – for God is good, and Jesus
has died and risen, and His Spirit gives us all things. This is what
is truly good for us. Amen. Christ is Risen – He is risen indeed,
alleluia!