29 March 2020
Text: John 8:42-59
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
The
Gospel reading sounds like one of those awkward moments at a family gathering
when an angry argument breaks out and the children are shooed off to go outside
and play.
If
anyone thinks that the message of Jesus and of Christianity is to “be kind,”
such a person has clearly never read the Bible – especially the Gospels – and is
clueless about Jesus. Far from being a Mister
Rogers character, our Lord often comes on like a bull in a china shop.
Today’s
Gospel is an example of this.
Our
Lord is actually speaking not to the Pharisees or scribes, but rather to “the Jews
who had believed in Him.” Maybe they did
at one time, but instead of abiding in His Word, they are falling back on their
old habits of thinking that God owes them grace because they are children of Abraham.
Our Lord basically says, “So what?”
God
doesn’t care about the things that matter in this world: who your people are,
where you went to school, how much education you have, how much money you make –
all of that counts for literally nothing. No matter who you are or what you are, you’re
a poor, miserable sinner, and you need Jesus.
And
as our Lord tells His hearers very bluntly: “If God were your Father, you would
love Me, for I came from God and I am here… He sent Me.”
And He further tells them that they are not tracking with what He is
saying because, “You are of your father, the devil.”
Jesus
is not trying to win friends and influence people. He is telling the truth. He is calling these bitter and entrenched
sinners to repent. He is telling them that
they are in eternal peril if they do not turn to Him for help. This is no time for tea and crumpets. This is no time for political correctness. Satan has them in his grip, and they need a
dose of the Word of God. And it is
bitter medicine indeed. It strikes to
the essence of their problem: pride. It
is the same sin that drove Satan into rebellion and brought death into the
world.
Instead
of falling upon their knees in sorrow, seeking forgiveness and appealing to God’s
mercy, our Lord’s hearers just get angry. They call Jesus a childish racial taunt and
then accuse Him of having a demon.
And
even in the face of their insults, Jesus is offering them the crown of life: “Truly,
truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.”
And
here the Jews become indignant once again that Jesus is not impressed with
their descent from Abraham. “Are You
greater than our father Abraham, who died?
And the prophets died! Who do You
make yourself out to be?”
They
know what He is saying. He is confessing
to them about Himself, that He is God in the flesh. They know He is saying this. They know that He works miracles. They know that He is not of the devil. But their sinful hearts, racked with pride,
refuse to submit.
Jesus
tells them that they only think they know God. Jesus calls them liars. And Jesus tells them that “Abraham rejoiced
that he would see [Jesus’] day. He saw
it and was glad.”
Now
there can be no question that Jesus is claiming to have met Abraham, and that Abraham,
the source of their misplaced ethnic pride, is rejoicing because of the coming
of Jesus. The Jews are trying to justify
themselves because of their descent from Abraham, when Jesus, who is the very
promised Seed of Abraham, who created Abraham, who is the fulfillment of the
promise made to Abraham – plays the Abraham card right back at them.
They
mock Jesus because Jesus claims to know Abraham. They deny the supernatural and that which they
cannot explain, saying, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
And
here is where Jesus activates their demons of rage: “Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Jesus
says the forbidden words “I am.” He is
telling them that He knows Abraham because He, Jesus, is Abraham’s God. In the face of this testimony, all they have
is blind rage. They cannot argue against
Jesus. They cannot prove Him wrong. They cannot explain away His miracles. And they cannot force Him to be impressed by
their family tree. Jesus has called them
sinners, and they refuse to repent. Instead,
“they picked up stones to throw at Him.”
Like their father the devil, they attempt to settle the argument with
violence, with murder. They are filled
with hatred, and they cannot just walk away. The critique of Jesus has stung them to the
core. But still they will not submit.
Dear
friends, the Law stings. As much as we
would like to think that God is impressed by us, He isn’t. The Lord doesn’t care about your ancestors, or
if you serve in the church somehow, or if your family has been Lutheran for
generations. God doesn’t judge us based
on our perceived good works, because we are so racked with sin that even our
good works are not so good. We are like the
Lord’s hearers in the Gospel in that God confronts us with the Ten Commandments,
and He doesn’t act like Mister Rogers toward us.
So
what should we do, dear friends? We must
confess. We must repent. We must beg mercy from Jesus, and acknowledge Him
as our only hope for salvation. And when
we do, the sting of the Law is no longer hurled at us. It is then that Jesus does treat us with
kindness and compassion, when He assures us that everything is okay, and that
in spite of our sins, we will never see death!
On
this day, the mob did not get its wish. Jesus
“hid Himself and went out of the temple.”
This was not His day to die. But
the time was coming when the mob would get its way, when the Jews would turn Jesus
over to the Romans on false charges, and when our Lord would allow Himself to
be crucified as a ruse to defeat the devil and to be the “firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep.”
And
when we keep His Word, when we confess our sins and also confess Jesus as our Redeemer
by means of His death on the cross, it is then that we have the free gift of
eternal life.
Let
us not be prideful or arrogant, dear brothers and sisters, never taking the
attitude that God should be impressed by us or by our pedigree. Instead, let us love Jesus and seek His grace
and mercy – based not on our works, but rather on His works in defeating the
devil and reconciling us to the Father by His blood.
Let
us put away our foolish pride, and let us humbly rejoice in Jesus, the great I AM:
God in the flesh who dies to set us free. Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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