Sermon: Judica (Lent 5) - 2020

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.