Quinquagesima Sunday

 

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

    Lent is at our doorstep. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, and our Lenten journey to our Lord's Cross will begin in earnest. And today, this final Sunday before Lent, we get a third Gospel lesson that is strangely uncomfortable but vital. We have heard that we are saved by grace – that our works don't merit us anything. We have heard that salvation relies upon the Word, and that we don't get to control how the Word works. One final uncomfortable lesson is left to us before we start Lent. Jesus mixes it up for us today, though. The last two weeks were parables, where there was an image, a story – and then an explanation that follows. Today things are reversed. Jesus will begin with a truth that the disciples deemed utterly inappropriate and wrong, and then we get a story, an event that show why Jesus is right in what He says. Listen.

    Taking the twelve, [Jesus] said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.” And Jesus spells it out. Alright, this is where we are going disciples – this is where Lent will lead to, O people of Trinity. As the Scriptures had told us, the Messiah will suffer – He will be the suffering servant that Isaiah said He would be, He will be the sacrifice of atonement that all the temple worship and sacrifices pointed to. He will be the Son that is sacrificed instead of Isaac so that Abraham rejoices. The Serpent's head will be crushed, but the Savior must be bruised and battered – and dying to atone for sin, He will rise to show forth victory over Satan and eternal salvation. This is the point, this has always been the point – the Scriptures, the tabernacle and the temple, worship, the history of Israel, they all drive to Good Friday and Christ Jesus there upon the Cross. That's where it all will end, that's where it will be finished.

    And the disciples, they don't want to hear it. But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. This is the third time Jesus had bluntly told them that in Jerusalem He would suffer, die, and rise again to fulfill the scriptures. And still they don't hear, they don't understand, they cannot yet, the seed does not yet take root (and it won't until after the resurrection). This isn't what the disciples want. This isn't what the disciples think that they need. They want a Messiah who will simply perform wonders to everyone's adulation – but not wonders that are too powerful lest it scare them. They want a Messiah who will be zealous and drive out the Romans – but not be too zealous in driving our their own wickedness. They want a Messiah who will do some good stuff – but be willing to leave them alone when there's too much divine glory and might around. And so, now, before hand, the disciples simply cannot tolerate or countenance or conceive of the full Jesus, the real Savior, the die and rise again to destroy the power of Satan and to usher in the new creation Jesus. And thus, Jesus' plan of salvation is hidden from them, they can't see it, they can't understand.

    This pattern holds true even to this day. So many people who speak about Jesus, so much of what you will hear about Jesus leading up to Easter will be a watered down, crossless, resurrectionless Jesus. You'll find churches where there is nary a cross. You'll hear preachers who flat out deny the resurrection, turn it into an allegory or a fable. You'll hear people treat Jesus as though He was just a wise teacher – a teacher whom we are utterly free to pick and choose what we learn from, a teacher who suddenly sounds exactly like my own personal hobby horse. You'll hear people turn Jesus into a victim of injustice and social oppression, and He'll be turned into a emblem or stand in for whatever social group they want to white knight for and defend. You'll hear so many things other than Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – who takes it away by dying and rising. Even 2000 years later people are still desperately trying to avoid the truth of Jesus' death and resurrection – the truth that it is your sin and my sin that put Him on the Cross – the truth that the only way you and I get to live is for Christ Jesus, the spotless, holy One of God, to die and rise. We need Jesus – and the whole Jesus, the full Jesus, the real Jesus. We don't need just a little brush up on moral teaching and we are good. We don't need just a little pep talk and then we'll live our best life now. We don't need another symbol for our political movements. We need to be rescued and redeemed from the dire and drastic problems of sin and death and the devil – and the only way that rescue happens is with Jesus going to the Cross and suffering and dying, and rising on the third day – and there's no other way. Period.

    You see, my friends, if you think you are just a little sinner, you'll only want a little Jesus. A shoe polish Jesus, where He just covers up a scuff mark or two and then you're good to go. But what Jesus does, what the Cross does, it is makes us confront the utterly uncomfortable realities of our own existence, of our own sin, that we don't like to face. I'm stuck in sin. I don't need just moral teaching or instruction – because For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing... wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death! The problem is deeper than I can fix! And I don't just need advice, I don't just need 7 easy hints for a happier life, because my life is running out. Death is approaching, and all the health fads and cosmetics and surgery can't change the fact that some years down the road from now there's going to be a grave somewhere with my name on it and a start date and an end date – and I can't change that. That problem is beyond me! And in the world, if you look, you will see the powers of evil at work, you will see Satan stirring up strife and chaos and hatred that claims to be love and every sort of disdain – and I can't change the world, I can't free it, I can't stop the swirl out there. It's beyond me. The answer, the solution, has to be Jesus – it has to be Jesus taking away sin and dying and rising and giving new life and bringing about the last day and ushering in a New Heavens and a New Earth where Satan and sin and death are utterly gone and destroyed, and to do that, Jesus has to have Good Friday and He has to have Easter, just like He's told us from the beginning in His Word.

    But the disciples didn't see that yet, and so many today don't see it, and even we ourselves sometime get distracted and forget it. So, Jesus enacts a parable, a real, living parable to illustrate the point. Listen. As He drew near to Jericho – pause. If you hear Jericho, you might well think of the wall that comes tumbling down. Yes – because Joshua leads the children of Israel by Jericho on their way to the promised land, and now Jesus is on His way to the Cross to ensure that we get to the true promised land of the resurrection. And Jesus is goin gto break down some walls. 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 meant. 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!” As Jesus gets to Jericho, there's a contrast. There's the crowd who wants to see Jesus – but they want a nice, quiet viewing of Jesus. They don't think they really need anything from Jesus – but He's nice, He's a spectacle. And their entertainment is interrupted by a blind man. And this blind man, he NEEDS Jesus. He calls out for mercy. Why? Because he knows that he has a problem that he cannot fix. He's blind. He cannot see. And he'll never see unless Jesus does something. He doesn't need a wise teacher Jesus, he doesn't need a good advice Jesus – He needs a mercying Jesus, a Jesus who undoes the effects of sin and death – who takes dead eyes and makes them live again. And the crowd hates this, tells the blind beggar to be silent.

    That doesn't stop Jesus from being Jesus. And 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?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” Here's my problem – I want to see again. I would see again. And You're the One who can do that. And Jesus said, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” Not just made you well – your faith has saved you. You're going to see again now, but even more wondrously, because I'm on the road to Jerusalem and the Cross, even when your eyes close in death you will see again because you have been saved by grace through faith. I see your needs now, and I see your eternal needs – and I see them better than you, and I do what I need to do in order to take care of you both now and eternally.

    This is what Jesus does for you. Jesus knows your needs – He knows your needs right now and He tends to them. He gives you both your daily bread and He gives you His Body and blood under bread and wine for forgiveness, life, and salvation. And by His Word and Spirit He brings your attention to His Cross, to His death, to His resurrection, so that no matter what you encounter this week, no matter what comes, you know what He has done for you – that He has won you forgiveness and life everlasting, and there's not a thing that can undo what He has done. The world might try to ignore the Cross, or sell Jesus short, and our own sinful flesh will often wander off into the weeds wanting something else, but Jesus stays focused. Jesus stays Jesus, the real Jesus, the full Jesus, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die and rise again Jesus, because that's the Jesus you need, we all need. And so Jesus will do all things well, and He will finish what needs to be finished, for He is True God and True Man, and He has come to work your salvation.

    And soon we will enter upon the battle season of Lent. In the Sundays in Lent we will hear Gospel lessons of Jesus taking the battle to Satan, as Jesus enters into this fallen world and wrecks havoc on Satan's kingdom, even as He marches to the Cross where He will destroy sin and death. In our midweek lessons, we will be focused on the whole armor of God, because Jesus knows this world is a dangerous place, and we will see how Jesus keeps you safe. And Jesus does it all for you, as He had promised He would in the Scriptures. Have mercy on us, O Jesus, and open our blind eyes that we would see this all our days! Grant this Lord, unto us all. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World.