Sermon for Judica Sunday (Lent V)
You are of Your Father the Devil
In the Name of the Father, & of the Son + & of the Holy Spirit
Grace to you and peace from the One Who Is & Who Was & Who Is to Come!
Science fiction heroes are often depicted as rugged, gifted loners who march to the beat of their own drum and save the day by their wits, their immense knowledge, physical prowess, and a fair amount of dumb luck. One frequently wonders where their family or friends are. Typically, fans of science fiction heroes are loners themselves, so the appeal is understandable. But faith in Christ is not science fiction, and we are not called to be solitary Christians but participants in a community of mutual faith and action.
Our culture tries to tell us differently. We do not have to turn to research studies to see that people are getting married later and later or even choosing to remain single. A derogatory term for those who go with the flow of society is "sheeple," the implication being that they can not think for themselves. The world believes in me rather than we. The world certainly does not believe that God has your back! That is the most important “we” of all!
God is not a me but a we. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not reflect this sinful individualism. He is anointed with the Holy Spirit at His Baptism. He is in consultation with His Father in prayer at every opportunity. He is wedded to our human flesh in His incarnation. We tend to think of Jesus as "one of us," as we should, but may at times diminish His divinity in doing so.
The Jews had trouble understanding that Jesus is the Son of God because they could not let go of their preconceptions about God. We see it today in the Muslims who denounce the existence of the Trinity: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the third of three.” And there is no god except one God.”1
The Lord made repeated, everlasting covenants with Abraham.2 He promised to give him descendants more numerous than all the sands on the seashore, that He would bless Abraham, and that Abraham would be a blessing. In other words, Abraham would be a means of redemption from sin for all humans because the Messiah would come through his lineage.
But in order for Abraham to be such a blessing, he would first have to produce an heir. But as we know, Abraham and Sarah were childless. Abraham waited for many, many years before Isaac was miraculously born to him at the age of one hundred.
Then it came to pass that God would test Abraham. He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”3 Who among you can hear the story and not see the foreshadowing of Jesus' sacrifice upon the cross? Isaac was Abraham's only son, whom he loved. Isaac would carry the wood for his own sacrifice up the mountain, a journey that took three days.
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.4 Abraham constructed the altar, tied Isaac upon it, and raised his knife-wielding hand to kill his only son.
But God did not abandon Isaac nor forsake His promise to Abraham. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said… “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”5
This is the Angel of the Lord, bringing the Word of the Lord to Abraham. Whenever we see the Angel of the Lord, we see the second person of the Trinity, the Son, the pre-incarnate Christ. It is the eternal Word who would one day come into the world as the Word made flesh to dwell among us. When God spoke to His people through some physical manifestation in the Old Testament, that is the second person of the Trinity doing the speaking. Look again at His words! "you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Not “from God,” or “Thus says the Lord,” but “from me,” first-person singular!
Abraham did not doubt the promises of God, and neither should we! As Paul explained to the Romans: “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”6
Today many people do not believe in Jesus. That does not take a whole lot of brains to see when we look around at the world. But there are those who believe only that He was a wise teacher, a good man, but not really God. They prefer to put their faith in themselves, to go it alone, trusting in their own ruggedness to get them by, while some vague God in heaven smiles down upon their efforts. When the hard times come, they look around for help and find themselves alone. They believe in God but do not see Him as active in the world. They do not see Jesus within their neighbors. And do your neighbors see Jesus in you?
Jesus called those who opposed Him, who did not listen to Him, sons of the devil. “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”7
No matter how splendid your efforts, how pious your works, if you do not hear Jesus’ words - really hear and understand them, you are not children of God, and you do not know God. When we abstract Jesus as a role model, mentor, or wise teacher and not our God, we do not know God. When we forget that our God Jesus is also a man, a perfect man who lived a perfect life and showed us God's intent for our lives, we do not know God. We are sons of perdition.
That is why we must hear the Gospel over and over. That is why we must listen to the Christmas story, the Passion, and the Easter story repeatedly. That is why we must gather together not only to worship but to spend time together in His Word, to learn and understand it. We can not go it alone. We have multiple ways to study God's word together just in our little community and countless others which are faithful to the Word of God nearby and on the internet. Why not join one as soon as possible?
Abraham believed and obeyed God when he was tested. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.”8
Abraham called the place on Mount Moriah where the Lord provided a ram as a substitute for his son, “The Lord will provide.”9 You also know that mountain as Mount Zion, and that place became the site of Solomon’s temple.10 But there is another location on that mountain, a small hill you know by name. In Latin, it is called Calvary, and in Aramaic, it is called Golgotha. There the substitute sacrifice was God's only Son, offered up as a lamb to slaughter for the sins of the world. Jesus is the eternal One, Who is now, Was before Abraham was, yet is also a son of Abraham, and will come again.
“And Jesus began to say to them, ‘See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I AM!’ and they will lead many astray.’”11 Jesus' accusation toward the false messiahs is extreme here, saying they will claim to be God incarnate! The phrase "I AM" is also the name that the Eternal Word identified Himself with when He spoke to Moses in the burning bush. In this morning’s Gospel,. Jesus loudly and clearly declares Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”12 In the Greek language, that is ἐγώ εἰμι (ego eimi). This is the exact Greek phrase that Jesus uses to introduce all seven of His "I AM" sayings. With each statement, Jesus is making clear that He is God, "I AM," and as a result, He is also the "bread of life, light of the world, etc." There can be no doubt that false messiahs have come and gone and that still others are among us today. There will not be few but many. Jesus says they will call themselves "I AM." maybe not those exact words, but they will think of themselves as God or at the very least believe they are God's gift to mankind.
Christ Jesus came to drink our cup of suffering to the last drop, incurring the full wrath of God for your every solitary act of doubt and unbelief in order that you could be free from the power of death. He is the promised sacrifice who carried his wood up the mountain for the sacrifice, to be bound and laid upon the altar of the cross. He is ram offered in your place, who willingly allowed Himself to be caught in the thorny thicket of your sins to wear those thorns upon his head as a crown.
His blood shed, and His life extinguished obtained an everlasting blessing for you! It is the new covenant in His blood we receive every Sunday in His Word and Sacraments. That Word and that Body and Blood enter you and become part of you. We do not travel this vale of tears alone! “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”13 Believe in His true humanity and true divinity, steep yourselves in the study of His Word, and you are not the sons of the devil, you are one family, the sons and daughters of Almighty God. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
May the peace which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus