5th Sunday in Lent

Transcript

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To be of God you must hear the words of God. Our Lord Jesus had shared many words, but there were some that didn't believe in him. Why? In hearing, they didn't hear. In seeing the miracles, they didn't see. Pharaoh had heard the message from Moses and seen the plagues. He still openly rejected the clear working of God. In the Gospel text today, we're in the middle of a not so calm nor unimportant exchange between Jesus and the Jews. The bulletin cover is a little silly, as if Jesus is in some modern temple or synagogue of Judaism, rather than, as John 8, verse 20 says, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple. It's in a courtyard. Of course, ethnically speaking, Jesus was born of the line of Judah. John, the writer of the gospel, was ethnically Jewish. There's no room in Christianity to claim racial superiority over our Lord Jesus Christ or his apostles. In addition, the Lord Jesus' mandate, go and make disciples of all nations, includes all humanity, every skin shade and ethnicity. It's all nations. That said, in the gospel, what these Jews were saying and what modern Judaism says of Jesus Christ are both terribly wrong. In the text, these Jews throw racist shade and say that Jesus was born a Samaritan, a northern Galilean half-blood, also implying a not so virgin birth. The Jews still deny the virgin birth, those who practice that faith. Of old they said that Jesus has a demon. Believers in Judaism still put Jesus on team evil and say that he was a liar and a fraud. We are not the same faith. Today we hear about Abrahamic faiths. The Abraham Concords. The Abraham Accords. The Lutheranism just springs from within, you know. Abraham's name is invoked in our day and age to refer to the religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. What that really means in the world is that the world is trying to smooth out any differences and say that we're all the same since we have some same source with Abraham. However, Christianity is different than Judaism and Islam. And we're not asking about preferences here at all, like what's your favorite burger chain? Or if you do go to a burger chain, will you put cheese on it? Will you put bacon on it? Yeah? Both, right? Yeah, of course. These religions are different. There are different truth claims, which are mutually exclusive. If Abraham were to show up, he wouldn't say that I'm father of you all. He wouldn't be all three. He'd be one of the three. Abraham is a Christian. Muslims deny Jesus' death on the cross, and they deny his resurrection from the dead. That's not Christianity, folks. They say Jesus was a prophet, but only that, not the eternally begotten Son of God. That's not Christianity. The Jews deny that Jesus was the Messiah and reject that he was even a prophet, and they reject the virgin birth. That's not Christianity. They call Jesus a false prophet. Both faiths, Islam and Judaism, reject the Holy Trinity. In Islam, it's the chief sin, the sin of sins, associating anything with the singularity of Allah. Even in the gospel reading today, we see the obstinate rejection of Jesus and his words when the Jews said to Jesus, Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died, and the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to be? It's terrible their rejection of Jesus and even what they say in the midst of all of it. They're rejecting God as God of the living. They didn't listen to the prophet. It almost comes across as a threat. We killed the prophets, and we can kill you too. They did kill the prophets. They did go after Jesus along with the Gentiles. They reject the truth. But they claim to have Abraham as their father. So does Islam. But it's slightly more centered on Muhammad, let's be honest. Of Abraham, Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Jesus himself says that Abraham was a Christian, right? Yes, Abraham is an ancestor of the ethnically Jewish people, your father Abraham, right? Jesus said that he had seen Abraham. That would make Jesus God. And Jesus said so right then and there. He wasn't being bashful about it or subtle or coy. Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Only God can make a claim like that. And they heard what Jesus said and they rejected him. They picked up stones to kill him right then and there. But we hear Jesus' words, truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. We hear and we believe. When it comes to belief and faith, Abraham is not a Jew or a Muslim. He was a Christian and he is a Christian. Jesus said, Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day, he saw it and was glad. Abraham trusted God's promise to bless and save through Isaac. He believed God's word, and God counted that faith as righteousness. It wasn't that he simply chose ignorance and blind faith. Whatever, I'll just do it. Abraham knew the substance of that faith was that he had no chance to save himself. God must provide the sacrifice. God must atone for our sins. God must make things right for us sinners. Abraham rejoiced that God would send a Savior. In the almost sacrifice of Isaac, that's exactly what we have a type of. He trusted God at his word to bless all nations through Isaac, no matter what. He believed that his son would somehow miraculously return, even if such a sacrifice were made. He held fast to God's promise. And when you consider Abraham's age, you know, he's 100 years old when Isaac was born. But Isaac wasn't an infant or a toddler at the time of Genesis 22, duped by his dad. He's most likely a young man. The oldest he could be is in his 30s, since Sarah, his mother, died after Genesis 22, when Isaac was 37 years old. So he could be like 36 years old. Could be. And plus in the text, Isaac is the one carrying the wood of the hill, the wood of the sacrifice up the hill. Carrying wood up a hill and sacrifice. Now, this whole age digression thing helps us understand Genesis 22 better. Isaac isn't duped, a duped toddler, just believing and trusting in his dad. Whatever, nothing bad's gonna happen up here. Isaac carried the wood of the sacrifice up the hill. He heard Father Abraham say that God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, hyphen my son. God did. He shared God's word of promise and God's word of sacrifice. Isaac carried the wood and laid down on the altar of wood, bound there, as a type of the one who was to come. And with this understanding, we understand the theme of Utica Sunday a little bit better. And you sang the theme earlier, yet cheerful he to suffering goes, that he his foes from thence might free. When Jesus has sharp words to the Jews in John 8, he's talking to sinners who are rejecting him. But he's also talking to sinners whom he's going to die for willfully, with their best interest and yours at heart. And that's literally his dying motivation. Abraham's hand was stayed against his son. And there's a strong ram there. It's like he didn't even see that strong ram before. How could he miss it, right? The strong ram by its strength, its horns, was caught in the bush. It wasn't a burning bush this time with divinity, right? But that thorny thicket had the ram stuck to it. Abraham saw that and rejoiced. He didn't rejoice simply because he didn't have to sacrifice his son. He's not pulling on our parental heartstrings. He's pulling on our Christian heartstrings. Abraham rejoiced because on the mount of the Lord, Calvary, the Lord would show forth his true strength and be caught up for you on the cross, offering the true sacrifice for our sins. God, his son, his only begotten son, the one whom he loved, Jesus. Abraham rejoiced to see that day. He saw it, oh, he saw that on the mount, and he greeted it from afar. Abraham was and is a Christian, and a Christian alone. He isn't dead, but he lives before the Lord, like all who believe in Jesus Christ live even though they die. For Christ Jesus gladly obeyed the Father's will to be born of Mary. He willfully and gladly set his face to go to Jerusalem to lay down his life for you when you were still his enemy. The perfect tent, the temple, Christ Jesus, came to the temple to point us all to the true altar, his cross. Isaac's blood wouldn't have atoned for our sins. Just like the blood of so many goats and bulls and ashes of a heifer couldn't and can't. Only the sacrifice of the Son of God in the flesh could be and is the payment that reconciles you to God. Utica Sunday. We see the root word if we just are good at word jumbles a little bit. We see that word judge in there. And that's right. The first words of the introit give this Sunday its name. Judge me, O God. Of course, it's a little smoothed out and tampered down for our taste. Vindicate me. Which is a little weak, to be honest. Vindicate me implies that we're falsely accused. No. God's law rightly accuses us of our sins. And God's law rightly names us guilty. I have no hope in myself, my merits, my adherence to some moral code, or my failed promises at obedience, being doing better. That's not Abraham's faith. His faith is not in himself. So how are we to pray these psalms rightly and say, judge us, O God? You really want to ask that of God? Don't judge me according to my iniquities. Judge me like Abraham, my father. Don't judge me by my sins, but judge me according to your promises and what you've done for me. I trust in you, God, and you alone, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for my salvation and eternal life. Judge me according to Jesus Christ. In Christ, judge me, O God. Judge me according to all that your Son Jesus Christ has done for me. In baptism you have brought me to His holy hill, and my sins have died there. In baptism you have raised me to new life to dwell with you now and forevermore. Only Jesus' blood sanctifies you, purifies you, cleanses your conscience from all guilt, and presents you without blemish to God. That's Abraham's faith, and that's the Christian faith. Amen.