Sermon: Good Friday – 2022

15 April 2022

Text: John 18:1-19:42

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Nothing happens to Jesus by accident.  There are no surprises to Him who is God, but to us, dear friends, there is much to be surprised at.

First of all, where in the history of the world do we ever read about God becoming human, proving that He is indeed God by doing things that only God can do?  And instead of being worshiped by His own people, He isn’t merely assassinated, He is publicly tortured to death.  And this, after He was hailed as a king entering the city only five days earlier. 

And this was a conspiracy with deep roots.  It involved many of the conservative Pharisees and lawyers and scribes, as well as their rivals, the liberal priests and Levites and Sadducees, as well as the hated politicians known as the Herodians.  And all of these groups conspired with the pagan Romans, whom they considered to be a hostile occupying force.  It involved the provincial ruling council, the Sanhedrin, which was also a Jewish religious court.  It involved the Roman governor, a military captain, a detachment of soldiers, and one of our Lord’s leading disciples as well, who was the group’s treasurer.  This cabal also included the mobs of ordinary people, who were whipped up into a frenzy by their leaders and by the fake news of the day. 

They were so brazen, that this collaboration between Big Religion and Big Government with what was essentially the Big Media of the day, placed the charge over the head of Jesus in three languages at a busy crossroads – the equivalent of airing the execution of Jesus on live TV on all of the news channels.

Indeed, they pulled off what seems to be the most unlikely coup in history: the murder of God, the assassination of the King of the world, the lynching of the one man in history who fulfills all of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and who promised to restore Paradise.  This conspiracy seemed to foil God Himself.

And surprisingly, Jesus was killed because He did things like healing people from incurable diseases.  The doctors and politicians of the day could not cure leprosy.  If you had this disease, you were subjected to a lockdown for the rest of your life.  Jesus embarrassed the doctors and politicians by healing the lepers.  And the same for those who were blind and deaf and mute.  Jesus did what surgeons could not do.  Jesus even raised at least three people from death itself, and promised to raise everyone who believes in Him. 

Why, it’s little wonder the powers that be had to kill Him.  They conspired to commit the ultimate act of injustice.  There is an old saying: if you want to know who rules over you, find out whom you are not allowed to criticize.  And our Lord had plenty to say about all of these groups!  Far from being the syrupy-sweet Mister Nice Guy that ignorant and biblically illiterate people think Jesus is, in fact, He is bombastic and unrelenting in His attacks on the very people that He was “not allowed” to criticize.  It’s all right there in the Gospels.  It is surprising to people when they actually read the Bible.  For Jesus took on the whole lot of them.  And for three years, all of these disparate groups who hated each other could only take their pounding from Jesus, who called them out on all of their evil words and deeds.

Of course, there was another option for our Lord’s hearers: they could have repented and believed the good news.  And some of them did.  Some Pharisees and Sadducees converted and followed Jesus.  There was even a zealot, that is, a formerly violent revolutionary, who laid down his sword to follow Jesus.  Sanhedrin members Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who courageously asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, were such followers of Jesus from among the ruling elites.  Even the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, believed Jesus to be innocent, and wanted to release Him.  Pilate got the last laugh by posting “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” and doing the equivalent of posting it on Twitter and running it on every cable news channel.  But even Pilate, in the end, did the bidding of the mob.  The captain who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus confessed Him to be the Son of God, as did one of the other men who were being crucified.

This was indeed quite the conspiracy.  It even drew in our Lord’s inner circle of disciples, who abandoned Him – even St. Peter, the head of our Lord’s disciples, betrayed Jesus in a shameful way, just as Jesus predicted. 

Perhaps most surprising of all is that Jesus knew every bit of the conspiracy.  He did not use His divine power to evade what was to come.  He did not call upon the legions of angels at His disposal to crush His attackers and the plotters in this conspiracy.  He went to the cross willingly, like a Lamb to the slaughter, for that is indeed who He is, down to the very marrow of His unbroken bones: “The Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world.”

It is indeed surprising that Jesus willingly endures all of this suffering, and dies quickly, before the beginning of the Sabbath.  Jesus dies when He chooses.  For though sinful men participated in this conspiracy, His passion, death, burial, and yes, His resurrection to come, are part of a bigger conspiracy: a conspiracy between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to commit the ultimate act of justice: the payment for the sins of the world.  While the merely human actors in this conspiracy were motivated by selfish hatred, and the desire to be served, the divine conspiracy to place Jesus on the cross is motivated by outwardly-directed love, and the desire not to be served, but to serve, and not only to serve, but to save.

At the cross, Jesus cures the root causes of leprosy, blindness, deafness, muteness, and death itself.  By means of the cross, Jesus conquers the sinfulness and the hatred that motivated this conspiracy and put Him on the cross.  He destroys the head of the conspiracy by crushing the head of the serpent.  And this is the biggest surprise of all, dear friends.

And the details of all of this would not be known, and the depth of this conspiracy and its ramifications would not fully come to bear, until His resurrection, until His ascension, until the coming of the Holy Spirit, and until the Gospels were themselves written, so that we might study and reflect upon the surprising life, death, resurrection, and eternal reign of Jesus.

To this very day, we are lorded over by charlatan religious hucksters and corrupt politicians from all over the world who continue conspire in vain against Jesus and His flock.  There are traitors in the church, from lowly parish pastors pushing lies and feathering their nests, to millionaire TV celebrity preachers, to bishops and popes, and even bureaucrats in our own synod and its various institutions.  And lest we become forgetful of our own sins, like the disciples, we too are part of the conspiracy, dear friends.  For our sins ultimately put our Lord on the cross.  It was to forgive our sins that He willingly died, using the evil intentions of all of the actors in this tragedy, and turning it into a triumph.

So let us plead the blood of Christ when we are confronted with our own sins.  When Satan, who temporarily rules over the mobs and governments and religious factions who oppose the Word of God, when the devil tempts you and accuses you, remember that He tried to tempt Jesus as well.  He accused Jesus as well.  But it was all to no avail.  Remind the devil of the cross, for indeed, “It is written.”

The biggest surprise of the cross is that it forgives you, dear brother, dear sister.  For it is the means by which Jesus becomes your atonement, and your healing from everything.  It is how you are restored, and go from sinner to saint.  The cross is the antidote to sickness and death itself.

And the death of God upon the cross by means of a huge conspiracy that includes both heaven and earth is not even the biggest surprise, dear friends.  And it really isn’t much of a surprise for us, because we have the Word of God to tell us where this is all leading.  Indeed, it is written.  The black drapes that pall our crosses and images of Jesus on this day will give way to white paraments and vestments and glorious celebratory music on the third day.  For the conspiracy to overthrow the King of the universe and to put God into a tomb is a colossal failure to them, but the greatest success of all to Christ and His bride, the church.  The conspirators – included the devil himself – played right into God’s hands.

And not only will our Lord Jesus rise from the slab and walk out of His own tomb, so will all of us who confess Him, dear friends.  This will be the greatest surprise of all to the remaining members of the conspiracy to kill God and silence His criticism.  But we speak the surprising truth with St. Paul, to friend and foe alike: “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Let us gather again here in this place on Sunday, and let our stubborn and vocal presence be part of the worldwide counter-conspiracy to confess Him as God and as King! 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Holy Week

12 April 2022

Text: Heb 3:1-19

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The writer to the Hebrews demonstrates Jesus as the New and Greater Moses, the fulfillment of the Law of Moses.  For “Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant… but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a Son.”  And “we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”

In other words, Moses gives us the Word of God that points us to Jesus; Jesus is the Word of God incarnate who fulfills the Law of Moses.  And reflecting on Moses and our need today as Christians to “hold fast” to Christ as our hope, the writer of Hebrews uses the Israelites from the Book of Exodus as an illustration, quoting Psalm 95: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.  For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’  Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

Because of their falling away, the Lord made that rebellious generation to wander forty years, until all of them died, never reaching the Promised Land.  “Take care,” he says, lest our unbelieving hearts lead us to “fall away from the living God.”

This is a stern dose of the Law, dear friends.  It is a cautionary tale.  So how do we avoid the fate of the wandering Israelites?  “Consider Jesus,” he says, “the apostle and high priest of our confession.”  Our steadfastness is not in ourselves, our knowledge of Moses, our intimacy with the Law.  Rather, we are to be steadfast in Christ, the one who fulfills the Law.  We are to “hear His voice,” and by doing so, we will not be hardening our hearts like the rebellious Israelites. Our salvation, our life in the eternal Promised Land, is found in Christ, for “we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

In other words, dear friends, we are to be steadfast in faith – faith not in ourselves, not even in Moses’s Law, but rather in Christ, who died for us, and who is leading us faithfully on to eternity.  It is rather much like the hymn attributed to St. Patrick that says: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”

Indeed, it is Christ who is our “confidence and our boasting in His hope!” 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Palmarum (Lent 6) – 2022

10 April 2022

Text: John John 12:12-19

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!

Our Lord’s disciples “did not understand these things at first.”  They made their way to Jerusalem with Jesus, and they saw this amazing royal welcome.  Herod was the king of Judea, but the crowds are welcoming Jesus as king.  They are strewing palm branches along His path.  They are cheering His entry into King David’s royal city.  In the course of His ministry, the disciples heard Jesus referred to as the “Son of David” – which means that they recognize His kingship.  And now, Jesus rides a donkey, “the foal of a colt, a beast of burden” into the royal city, which is how King David’s first son, King Solomon, made his entrance to take over the kingdom from his deceased father.

But the Romans occupy the kingdom, and they hand-pick the rulers of Judea: King Herod, the collaborator, who was in fact a pretender to the throne, and Governor Pilate, an appointee of Caesar to lord over the Jews.

But now there is excitement as the crowds hail Jesus, whose name means “God saves,” whose name is the same as the Old Testament Joshua who succeeded Moses and took the people into the promised land.  And they greet this Jesus with cries of Hosanna: a praise that is also a prayer: “Save us!”  So think about this, dear friends: the people are welcoming their king, crying out “Save us!”  And His name is literally “God saves.” 

No wonder they don’t understand.  But at the same time, at least three times, Jesus told them bluntly what was to happen: he was to be arrested, betrayed to the Romans, humiliated, tortured, killed, and raised from the dead on the third day.  But here we find crowds of Jews hailing their King.

However, they were to figure it out “when Jesus was glorified.”  We might think that this royal welcome is our Lord’s glorification.  Not so.  For His real glory is in carrying out His name: “God saves.”  He is glorified when He answers the crowds’ prayers of Hosanna, “Save us!”  For that glorification will be on the cross.

No wonder they are confused.  Crucifixion is a humiliation.  It is painful.  It results in a slow, agonizing death.  It is meted out to slaves and traitors.  In our minds, this is not the stuff of glory.  Being transported into the royal city as a conquering hero is our idea of glory. 

So why is our Lord’s horrific ordeal of His passion, crucifixion, death, and burial considered “glory,” dear friends?  For this is love.  This is the sacrifice of self for others.  This is the same kind of glory that the Congress of the United States honors with the Medal of Honor.  This is the kind of glory that made the name “Leonidas” synonymous with heroism and honor.  It is rare that a king leads the troops in battle and is willing to die for the people.  Usually, it is the other way around.

It is at the cross, and then after the resurrection, and then after the Holy Spirit comes, that the disciples “get it.”  It is then that they will understand the name of Jesus, the “name that is above every name,” the name of “God saves.”  He rescues us from our sin.  He dies for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, the Son come down from heaven to pull us out of hell.  All of our greatest heroes in history are nothing compared to Jesus, the King of the Jews, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the all-atoning sacrifice, the Creator who dies for His beloved creation – even a creation that disobeyed Him, hated Him, tortured Him, crucified Him, mocked Him, killed Him, and buried Him.  They thought they silenced Him, and they thought they silenced His disciples’ prayers of Hosanna.

But, dear friends, here we are singing our Hosannas – week in and week out, two thousand years later, in our worship all over the world and in every language.

But the word “Hosanna” is the same in every language.  It is still a praise and a prayer.  And for us, we welcome and recognize and confess our King – our true king, not our phony politicians and posers and pretenders – but King Jesus, our Lord, our God, our Savior.  He was glorified on the cross, and His glory continued to manifest itself in His victorious resurrection.  Like the disciples, we remember “that these things had been written about Him and done to Him.”

For the crowds who hailed Him “ had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead.”  And they “continued to bear witness.”  For they knew that this was a sign of things to come.  They knew that there were to be more “Lazaruses” to come.  For those Lazaruses are us, dear friends: we who confess Him, we who bear witness of Him, we who remember that these things had been written about Him.” 

We are those same people, dear friends.  Hence our palms and our cries for salvation!  Hence our praise for our true Redeemer King!  Hence the songs of children making sweet hosannas ring!

We know the glory of our Savior, and we know that this glory is shared with us: His life as a ransom for our death, His resurrection as a preview of our own resurrection.  We reflect also on the sign of Lazarus, knowing that we are Lazarus and our loved ones are Lazarus. 

And this is one of the times when the Pharisees got it right about Jesus, dear brothers and sisters.  It is to the Lord’s glory, and it is to our glory, but it is to the shame of the devil, the world, our sinful nature, and the enemies of the cross.  For the Pharisees observing this same royal welcome are filled with dismay and panic: “You see that you are gaining nothing.  Look, the world has gone after Him.” 

And indeed it has and it does – and it will be until His return in glory: saving us and delivering us from the evil one, bringing us into the Promised Land of eternity, calling us by name out of our graves, and giving us a renewed body in the resurrection, fit to live in a world without sin, without suffering, and without death.  The Pharisees and others who rely on their own self-righteousness are “gaining nothing.”  But to us poor, miserable sinners, to those of us who confess our sins and our need for a Savior, to those of us who pray: “Hosanna, save us” to Jesus, our God who saves, we are gaining everything.  We Christians all over the world sing Hosanna and wave palms on this day, knowing that our Lord’s moment of glory was His victory on the cross, and the victory lap of that glory is to come at His resurrection.  And that too, we remember “ that these things had been written about Him.

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!”

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Louisiana Wing Conference CAP – Saturday of Lent 5

9 April 2022

Text: Mark 11:1-10

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Most of the Christian world celebrates Palm Sunday tomorrow, calling to mind the events of our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, preparing for His triumph at the cross and at the empty tomb.  Lest we forget that He is the Son of God, and is God, we are reminded of the miraculous provision that Jesus makes for Himself in securing transportation for this entry into David’s royal city.  And lest we forget that He is Man, the Son of Man and the Son of David, He rides this “colt, the foal of a beast of burden” into Jerusalem, just as David’s Son King Solomon did, as He took up the throne of His father David.

But this King, this Jesus, is a New and Greater Solomon.  For He does not take foreign wives and follow foreign gods.  King Jesus is faithful to His Father and to His Bride, the Church.  He does not chase after temporal glory and empire, but rather empties Himself, “taking the form of a servant,” and drawing us into His kingdom that is “not of this world.”  Rather than order other men to serve Him by shedding their blood and dying for Him, this King “comes not to be served but to serve,” and to save us by shedding His blood and dying for us.

The people hail Him in royal fashion with palm branches and acclamations of “Hosanna!” – a word that means “Save us.”  The name of Jesus means: “God saves.”  Luke’s account of our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem teaches us that not everyone recognized their King.  The Pharisees ordered Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”  Those same authoritarian voices exist today: those who would silence our confession of Jesus and stifle our worship of our King.  Our Lord tells them: “If these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”  And indeed, dear friends, even the stones confess Christ as Lord.  The stone that sealed His tomb will confess Him, as it will be rolled away to make way for Him.  The stones of the temple that were “thrown down” confess Him as the King of a kingdom that is “not of this world.”  For He is the “stone the builders rejected” that has become the “cornerstone.”  The stones of jewels in the gates of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation confess Him as well, and will do so for eternity.

Like the stones, we will not be silenced in our confession, dear friends.  For we cry to Jesus, the God who saves, and we acclaim Him with Hosannas, prayers for God’s salvation, knowing that we are poor, miserable sinners in need of redemption, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

We are honored to wear the uniform of our country and corps, to serve one another and our community, state, and nation.  And we are honored to wear the robes that have been washed and made “white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is our joy to serve our Lord and our neighbor in the kingdom. 

Let us continue to preach and confess “Christ crucified,” our King who was “raised for our justification.”  May this Holy Week remind us to always and evermore give “glory, laud, and honor” to our “Redeemer King,” and may we children of the Heavenly Father make “sweets hosannas ring,” now and even unto eternity.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 5

5 April 2022

Text: Mark 14:53-72

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In 2 Peter 3:5, St. Peter uses an expression that is sometimes translated “willingly ignorant” concerning people who deny Biblical truth.  Such people are different than those who either have never heard of the Scriptures, or honestly just don’t believe them.  To be “willingly ignorant” is a deliberate deception, a lie that one tells to oneself.  And it is disordered and diabolical.

We see “willing ignorance” on display during our Lord’s trial. 

Certainly, Jesus was, and is, controversial.  There are many who do not believe that He is God in the flesh, nor the Savior of the world, holding this view honestly, because they have been taught a different narrative.  Muslims see Jesus as a prophet.  Jews see Jesus as either a misguided rabbi or a madman.  Some Hindus believe Him to be an incarnation of one of their gods.  Some Buddhists consider Him to be an enlightened soul.  Modern secularists like to create Jesus in their own image: whether as a Socialist intellectual, a black militant, a politically correct hipster free spirit, a guru who is “spiritual, not religious,” or just as some dead guy who said some boring stuff a long time ago that makes no difference today.

But we see something different at our Lord’s trials.  First of all, the “high priest” and the “chief priests and the elders and the scribes” engaged in an active, deliberate, and deceptive conspiracy as they “came together” to suborn “false testimony” against Jesus.  And “their testimony did not agree.”  Moreover, this was not a legal trial.  It was a lynch mob unlawfully convened at night with selective members of the Council called to render judgment.  Such shenanigans do not happen where the prosecution knows that it has a good case.  This is a classic case of “willful ignorance” in claiming not to know that Jesus is the Christ.  Otherwise, they would have conducted an honest inquiry.

St. Peter – who gave us the term “willful ignorance” – knows what he is talking about.  He claimed to be ignorant of who Jesus is, but his “ignorance” was an act of the will.  He deliberately lied about Jesus to preserve his own life – contrary to his earlier vow: “Even if they all fall away, I will not” (Mark 14:29).

We will see all the players in this conspiracy to put Jesus on the cross displaying “willful ignorance.”  They know exactly who He is and why He has come.  But they refuse to submit to His authority.  Everyone has something to gain by participating in this sacrifice of innocent blood.  Pontius Pilate will go so far as to pronounce our Lord’s verdict of innocence, just before turning Him over to the mob for execution.  When has this ever been done in the history of jurisprudence? 

Let us be neither ignorant, nor willfully deceptive, dear friends, when we are called upon to confess Christ, “the Son of the blessed.”  For indeed, He is as He says and as His words and deeds profess.  He is the great “I am” and we “will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”  Let us confess with St. Peter when he earlier, without any willful ignorance, testified: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  For we too have something to gain by participating in this sacrifice of innocent blood: “forgiveness, life, and salvation.” 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Judica (Lent 5) – 2022

3 April 2022

Text: John 8:42-59 (Gen 22:1-14, Heb 9:11-15)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus is bombastic in John Chapter Eight.  The average person who doesn’t attend church or read the Bible might not even believe Jesus would ever talk this way.  They might even say that He should be more like Jesus – because the Jesus they think they know is a figment of their imaginations.  Jesus is not Mister Rogers with a beard.  They don’t nail you to a cross for being nice.

There are times when Jesus is not very nice or sensitive.  This takedown of what Scripture calls “the Jews who had believed in Him” is an example of Jesus getting in their face and trading insults.  He tells them harsh truths that they need to hear. 

There is a backstory to John Chapter Eight.  This chapter begins with a woman who was caught in adultery.  Jesus is not harsh with her.  The law has done its work.  She is repentant of her sin, but her Pharisee accusers are not.  Instead of condemning the woman, Jesus writes words that condemn her Pharisees accusers, who leave in shame.  But the woman leaves forgiven after Jesus points out that her accusers are all gone, and He does not condemn her. 

The Pharisees return and begin to accuse Jesus of being a liar and implying that He doesn’t know who His own Father is.  Jesus replied, “You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”  The Pharisees are enraged.  Rejecting our Lord’s offer to set them free of their sins, the Pharisees engage in identity politics.  They claim that they are “offspring of Abraham,” and “have never been enslaved to anyone.” 

For instead of putting their trust in Jesus and the Gospel, they put their trust in their bloodline.  And this is common today, dear friends.  People find their identity not in Christ, but in their ethnicity or nationality, their sex, their so-called “gender identity,” their skin color, or some other category, like being handicapped or being speakers of other languages. 

And yes, we are to honor our fathers and our mothers – which means we should honor all of our ancestors.  We are all of some ethnicity or nationality.  And it isn’t wrong to be aware of this and to celebrate our heritage.  God also made us male and female, and that is not to be denied.  And if we have physical or emotional handicaps, we don’t deny that either.  But that does not define who you are.  Your identity, dear brothers and sisters, is in Christ, as a baptized child of God and citizen of the kingdom.

The woman whom Jesus forgave does not find her identity as an adulteress.  Rather, she is a forgiven sinner, a Christian.  If you struggle with alcohol or drugs or some other addiction, this doesn’t define who you are.  You are a forgiven sinner, a Christian.  If you have had or procured an abortion, if you have a criminal record, if you struggle with same-sex attraction, if you were abused or suffer from PTSD or anxiety or depression, this is not your identity.  You are a forgiven sinner, a Christian.

The lepers and the deaf and the blind and the demoniacs that Jesus healed are not defined by their infirmities.  Nor are you defined by cancer or heart disease or auto-immune disorders or chronic pain.  You are forgiven sinners, Christians.  Lazarus was not “the dead guy.”  He is a forgiven sinner whom Jesus raised from the dead.  He is a Christian.

St. Paul wrote to the Galatians that when it comes to our salvation in Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no free or slave.  Our identity is that we are forgiven sinners.  We are Christians.

The proud Pharisees put their trust in their ethnicity and in their supposed superiority to Jesus.  And Jesus pops their bubble of pretension by saying: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill Me.”  He also told them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God, and I am here.”  He told them, “You are of your father the devil.”  He tells them, “The reason why you do not hear [My words] is that you are not of God.”

Their putting of their trust in their ancestry and ethnic identity is a form of idolatry, dear friends.  And that is what identity politics is.  Again, being comfortable in your own skin and honoring your heritage and ancestors is a good thing.  Being part of a people with a distinct culture and customs is a good thing.  But being in the Klan or the Black Panthers or La Raza, finding your identity in your ancestry instead of in Christ is to turn a gift into a curse.  And these harsh words of our Lord then rest upon you.

Dear friends, at the beginning of Lent, I put an ashen cross on most of your foreheads.  I reminded you that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  This is because you are sinners.  That is part of your identity regardless of your ethnicity.  But those ashes were in the shape of the cross – which we received on our foreheads at our baptism.  The cross, and not your sins, defines who you are.  Your identity is found in your baptism.  Your identity is that you are a forgiven sinner, a baptized child of God, a Christian.  Your identity is in Christ and the forgiveness He won for you at the cross.  And when Satan reminds you of your sins, you remind Satan that you are baptized and forgiven.  That, dear friends, is your identity!

And here we are nearing the end of Lent.  Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, and Holy Week begins the final countdown to Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  We have been reading these harsh words of Jesus on this Sunday in the church year for centuries.  Our Lord called the Pharisees to repentance.  Their response was, as He said, to seek to kill Him.  And they did kill Him, by means of a conspiracy that included Judas the traitor, the priests, the Pharisees, the scribes, the council, King Herod, Governor Pilate, the mob, and a detachment of Roman soldiers. 

The Pharisees falsely accused Jesus of having a demon.  They were furious that Jesus spoke with familiarity about their ancestor Abraham, whose bloodline made them think they were better than everyone else, including Jesus Himself.  And our Lord never backs down, never tries to “make nice.”  He doubles down and calls them liars.

The last straw was when Jesus reveals to them just who He is.  “Before Abraham was, I am,” He said.  Jesus told them He was older than Abraham.  Jesus told them that He was the “I AM” that spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  Jesus just told them that He is God. 

They are so furious that they try to lynch Him on the spot.  But it isn’t yet time for Jesus to die as the sacrificial Lamb.  That time will come soon.  And thanks be to God that it does.  For Jesus is the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”

In our Old Testament reading from Genesis, Jesus is shown in the account of Abraham and His Son Isaac.  For Isaac was Abraham’s only beloved son, and Abraham was told by God to sacrifice him.  Isaac carried the wood of the sacrifice on his own back as they went up the hill together.  Abraham trusted that God would somehow raise Isaac from death and keep His promise to provide Him with offspring from Isaac.  And before Abraham could slay Isaac, his son, the Angel of the Lord intervened and provided a substitute: a ram caught in a crown of thorns.  Both Isaac and the ram are previews of Jesus, the Son who is sacrificed, and the substitute who dies in our place.

In the Epistle reading from Hebrews, Jesus is shown as our “high priest of the good things that have come.”  He is the “mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

Dear friends, your identity is not in your ethnicity, nor your challenges in this life, nor your past or present sins.  Your identity is bound up in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, your High Priest, the Son of God who was before Abraham, and who is Himself the great I AM.  Your identity is that you are a baptized child of God, washed in the blood of the Lamb, signed with the holy cross, so that by our Lord’s death, you have conquered death.  And by His resurrection, you too will rise.

Let us never fall into the trap of the Pharisees, of identity politics, of pride, of idolatry, of contempt for Jesus.  Let us, like the woman whom Jesus forgave, receive His grace with joy.  Let the blood of the lamb redeem us and define us.  Let our Great High Priest who is God, the great I AM in the flesh, define who we are, no matter what the devil, the world, and our sinful nature would say to us by way of deception.  Let us never forget our true and eternal identity, dear friends: we are forgiven sinners.  We are Christians. 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.