Lent 5

 

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

There's one more enemy left for Jesus to fight, to conquer this Lent. One last tussle for Him. We've seen Jesus resist sin – resist His own temptation, teach us of our own. We've seen Jesus stare down Satan and show dominance over all the devil's minions. The old three foes are Sin, Death, and the Devil. Death remains – death is the enemy that Jesus must conquer and defeat. Death is what Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to destroy. Three times Jesus has told His disciples that He's going to Jerusalem to die – to deal with death – and three times they have refused to believe. And this points to a harsh truth that we don't like to acknowledge – we don't think we should have to deal with death, we don't really believe that the wages of sin, our sin, ought to be death.

We enter into our Gospel lesson in the middle of an argument. But who is it that Jesus is arguing with? Surely they must be really terrible people, Pastor! Do you hear how He lays into them? Earlier in John 8 we get the set up. Verse 31 reads, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This is the text we get come Reformation Day – and Jesus isn't arguing with pagan villains, with societal pariahs. Jesus is talking to the “good” people, the people who actually kinda figured that He was the Messiah. And a terrible problem arises when Jesus says that He is going to free them – free them from sin and death. It's a problem because these people say, “We don't need that!”

I am going to ask you do so something quite hard today. When you hear this argument in the Gospel lesson, don't think of Jesus arguing with those people – it's Jesus arguing with us. With people exactly like us – the pious, church going, bible hearing people. Oh, surely not, Pastor! Well, honest question: Ever get mad at God? Ever grouse and complain about how things are unfair? Ever pass blame? And remember, I'm a pastor, I listen, I hear. Moreover, I know my own thoughts, my own grumbling. And all of this discontentment with God, when it boils down to it is this: we don't think we deserve punishment for our sin. Not the punishment, not the wages of sin, not death. I mean, maybe that jerk over there deserves some punishment because he's really bad... but me, surely not 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. So, do you want to deny that Jesus is describing you and me right here, you and me according to our sinful nature? To our gut? To the way we react and respond to stuff, responded this past week? We live in a world where people can't bear to hear anything uncomfortable. That includes us. We routinely lie to ourselves. About our appearance, our health, our family and friends, our behavior, their behavior. While you live in this earthly, mortal life, you will struggle against sin – everyone who sins is a slave to sin, and the wages of sin is death – and you can't get out of it. If I stand up here and say, “Alright, don't sin this week!” - every one of you will. And you'll try to excuse it, or think about covering it up, or pass the blame. That's what it is to be a sinner. And perhaps you're a more polite sinner, and maybe you're more disciplined – maybe you only grouse about your neighbor instead of killing him – that's nice... but you're still a slave to sin, and your flesh is in love with lying to itself about sin, and you're still stuck on that sinful roller coaster ride that always, which ultimately ends in one place – the grave. What does a pastor do? I hear people confess their sins – either honestly (Pastor, I did this and I feel bad), or confess their sins via denial, grousing, lamenting, blaming – all of that a confession of being stuck in sin. And then I bury them when they die – and that's the way it goes until some other sap whose heard my complaints and blustering buries me one day. The wages of sin, our sin, is death – and we can't work our way out of it on our own, no matter how many protestations we might make.

And apart from Christ Jesus, apart from God Himself becoming man and doing something to rescue us from Satan, coming to pull us kicking and screaming away from the crumbling, burning mess of a world, sin and death would be all that we would have. And we see all around us what people who have only sin and death do – they stick their heads in the sand, they complain, they hope for some technology to save them from whatever uncomfortable or undesired aspect of reality is hitting them today. Pleasure after pleasure gets devoured and leaves them empty. Leaves us empty, because our flesh plays that game so often, too.

But do you see what Jesus is doing here? Yes, He's having an argument, but what is that? You can't bear to hear My Word, your sinful flesh hates it – so I'm going to come to you and I'm going to speak that Word to you again and again and again. You're going to hear My Word over and over. Why? Why is Jesus so insistent on having His Word preached over and over to the stubborn, the pigheaded, the poor miserable sinners who sin by their own fault, their own fault, their own most grievous fault like you and I?Well, Jesus has a plan, because He knows the truth. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word he will never see death. Woah, wait a second Jesus. We thought we sinful people knew denial! What is this – we might try to pretend that we're not going to die – but in the end we will admit it. Everyone dies. Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet You say, 'If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste death.'” Come on now, I'll grudgingly admit that there were some people better than me, and they died. I might lie to myself but I do know deep down that I can't earn my way to living forever. Who do you think you are, Jesus? Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

Who do you make yourself out to be? Do you hear how the question is framed? That we make ourselves what we are, that we fashion and cultivate ourselves an image, an identity. That we “glorify ourselves” - we give ourselves glory and worth and meaning. That's the heart of sin – that we think our worth, our value, our reality comes from ourselves, that it's something that we create. No. Who you are, your life, your value, your existence, your glory – it doesn't come from you. It isn't defined what what you make yourself out to be. “You can be whatever you want to be” - that's what we tell ourselves, and legally there's some truth to it, but Jesus here is dealing with something far more profound, something eternal, something longer than 30 years of work and a gold watch at the end. Jesus is who He is. The Father testifies that Jesus is the Son, the Savior. This is My beloved Son with Whom I am Well pleased. And you – you are who you are because God has made you, and God has given you so many gifts of body and soul, because God continues to bless you and pour blessings upon you and come to you over and over again even in spite of and against your sin. The question isn't who Jesus makes Himself out to be – the question is who is Jesus going to make you out to be.

So you want to talk about Abraham as the example? Okay. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” Abraham was called friend of God. Now, you read Genesis, and you see that Abraham was indeed a sinner. But the Word of the LORD came to Abraham, and over and over again the LORD focused Abraham on the promise – I will make you, O Abraham, a great nation, and all the nations of the world will be blessed in you, because this is where the Messiah will come from. From your family – that's where the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world will arise. And Abraham rejoiced. And yes, Abraham was still a sinner, and so the LORD had to come to Abraham again and again, bringing the promise again. And Abraham would hear the promise and rejoice – rejoice when his aged hands held Isaac, rejoice when Jesus shouted to Abraham that the ram would be a substitute for Isaac there on the mountain. And all of this driving to another day on another Mountain, Mount Calvary, where this time the Father would not spare His Son, and Christ Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world would take them away by bearing them up upon Himself and dying. So that Abraham lives. So that Abraham would see Christ Jesus, so that all the saints, all the redeemed, would see Jesus' day and rejoice. Abraham saw it, Abraham saw the resurrection that Jesus won for him, for all the prophets, for all the saints, that Jesus wins for you. That Jesus is determined to win for you, even while you're running around next Tuesday all up in whatever griping, grousing stupid sin pops out as it always does.

Because Jesus comes to earth ultimately for one reason. To die, so that with His death the hold of death and sin upon you would be broken and shattered. So that the story of mankind would not be just “and he died.” That's the constant refrain of those genealogies that we don't like from Genesis. Nope – that's going to change. God Himself comes, and He is going to die... and on the third day rise to new life – and now that is your story. That is the promise that Jesus has made to you. It's the reality of your life – you've been baptized already into Christ's death – dead you arise to new life, a new creation. Even now the New Man within you fights and struggles against your sinful flesh – we sin, we kick ourselves – we get tempted, we fight against it, sometimes well, sometimes not so well. That's the story of every saint, every believer, every one who is redeemed. And eventually, you'll die. Your old sinful flesh will be put in the ground. But Jesus has come, and Jesus goes to the Cross, and He dies, and He rises – and because He does that – because Jesus strides to Good Friday and because Jesus strides from the tomb on Easter, you will rise utterly freed from sin, and the rejoicing of that day will be so far beyond any rejoicing we have yet known.

Why? Because Jesus is God Almighty come to save you. Before Abraham was, I AM. And He is going to be your God, God for you. Put down your stones, you don't get to control Him. Jesus knows what is He doing, and He's going to do it for you. And He's going to keep bringing you His Word – pouring upon your head in the waters of baptism, pouring into your ears by the Word of forgiveness, placing His promise upon your lips in the Supper, even until the day where along with Abraham and the prophets, and the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven you not only sing but you see Jesus face to face, your own eyes and not another, my heart faints within me, and sin and death are done and Satan is long gone and remembered no more and there is the Lamb upon the throne, for the Lamb who was slain has begun His reign and we are at His feast forever. That's what Jesus is doing for you, even if your sinful flesh doesn't like it one bit. Tough, Jesus loves you, and His plan is to bring you Salvation. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +