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.
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