The authority of Jesus and that of St. John the Baptist go together. So, if the chief priests and elders had answered Jesus’ question, they would already have answered their own. For St. John was called and sent by God to preach and to baptize, to go before the face of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare the way for Him. Thus, according to God’s good pleasure, in keeping with the Will of His God and Father, Jesus submitted Himself to St. John’s preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — and thereby entered upon His Ministry as the Christ.
In submitting Himself to St. John’s Baptism, Jesus repented. For what? For the sins of the world. For your sins. He had no sins of His own, but He submitted Himself to St. John’s Baptism that He should bear all the sins from Adam to the end of the world in His own Body to the Cross, in order to make Atonement for all of those sins by the shedding of His own holy and precious Blood; and so that, in His Resurrection from the dead, you and all the world should be justified and saved.
As a priestly son from a priestly house, by his preaching and ministry in the Name of the Lord, and by his Baptism of the Lord Jesus, St. John prepared the Lamb of God for sacrifice. And in this way Christ Jesus, the Son of God, was sent by His Father from heaven to His crucifixion, death, and burial. As the Word of God by whom all things are made, He has authority over all of Creation. But by His Baptism — and by the completion of His Baptism in His Cross and Resurrection — He fulfills all Righteousness for you and for the many, and thereby obtains and receives all authority in heaven and on earth to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations, even to the close of the age: To send others in His Name to forgive sins and to save sinners by His Gospel.
It is by that authority that Christ Jesus has called you from sin and death to forgiveness and life. It is by the authority of His Cross and Resurrection that He calls you to follow Him; to take up His Cross and follow in His footsteps; to live by faith in Him; and to live unto righteousness in Him.
Your own Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus has united you with Him in His Cross and in His Resurrection. By your Baptism into Christ Jesus, you have been anointed with His Life-giving Holy Spirit, so that you are a Christian. And by your Baptism you have received the adoption of sons, so that you are a son of God in Christ Jesus. God is your Father, and you are His dear child.
So, the question that Jesus puts to you this morning is, What sort of son are you? Are you one who means well and says all the right things — “Yes, sir! I’ll do that!” — but then you go your own way and do your own thing? Do you follow through and do what you have said and promised, or do you just let it go and leave others to pick up your slack and manage your responsibilities?
Are you a child who would really rather do many other things, and yet, in faith you submit to your Father in heaven and bend your will to do His Will? Do you sacrifice your own desires in order to do what is right and good? Do you discipline yourself to live according to your Father’s Word?
In Holy Baptism, and by the ongoing catechesis of Christ Jesus, the Lord has called you to follow after Him in faith and love, to live and die according to the Word and Wisdom of God. For to be and to live as His disciple is to obey all that He has commanded you. As surely as you are called to believe and trust His promises, so are you also given to keep and obey His commandments.
Do you believe that Christ Jesus is your only Savior from sin and death, and that you have no other hope and no true or lasting life apart from Him? Do you confess His Cross and Resurrection and acknowledge His authority? Then submit to Him in faith and obedience. Trust that whatever He says, whatever He gives you to do, it is true and right and good for you and for your neighbors.
Be not a hearer only but a doer of the Word of Christ. That is to serve, to suffer, and to sacrifice for His Name’s sake, forsaking every sort of selfishness in exchange for holy faith and holy love, in the confidence that you are a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Christ Jesus.
Good intentions don’t ever really cut it. And lip service only, without any follow-through, does no good, either. Nor will your past performance justify or save you. The righteous man who turns away from his righteousness to engage in wickedness will die in his sins. What is called for is not simply “trying hard,” nor “hard work” for its own sake, but a life that is lived in faith and love.
So, what will that life look like — really, concretely, and tangibly? What will it look like for you to have the same mind as Christ Jesus, who did not cling to His equality with God but made Himself nothing and humbled Himself unto death? What will it look like for you to have that attitude? What will it look like for you to have the heart of Christ and the Spirit of Christ Jesus?
As we heard from Jesus last week, as well, the Lord has called you to live and to work within His Vineyard. Not that you must earn your place or merit His favor by your labors, but because you are a son of God in Christ Jesus. You are a member of His household and family. You live and work in the place where He has stationed you, because He has granted you to share in His Life and His Love by His grace, by His Word and Holy Spirit, to the praise and glory of His Holy Name.
Consider what that will look like, and what that will mean, within your own home and family on earth, whether you are a husband and father, a wife and mother, a son or daughter, a brother or sister, an orphan, a widow, childless, or never married. How shall you live as a child of God in relation to those people He has placed alongside of you and closest to you in this body and life?
What if your response to sin was charity and forgiveness and mercy and compassion? What if you were always patient and forbearing with your family, friends, and neighbors? What if you did not respond to anger with more anger, to yelling with more yelling, to hurt with more hurting? What if you did not return tit for tat, but you were always eager to be reconciled, to repent of your own sins, and to abide in peace? What would it look like for you to live as Christ Jesus lives for you?
Along the same lines, what about your life within His Church on earth? What will it mean for your life within this congregation for you to have the heart, mind, and Spirit of your Lord Jesus Christ?
What will you begin to do that you have not been doing? What will you give and sacrifice that you have not been willing to let go? How will you exercise forgiveness and love for your neighbors?
If you continue to do wrong and practice wickedness, will you not die in your sins? Is that not just and right? Not because the Lord is evil, harsh, or unkind, but because you have thereby rejected His love and mercy and forgiveness, and you have refused to live by faith in His Word. But if you repent of your sins and practice righteousness, will you not live, just as the Lord has spoken?
As we rightly believe, teach, and confess, the Lord shall come to be our Judge. With all authority in heaven and on earth, He shall come in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead. And He will judge you according to your conduct. He knows your heart, mind, and spirit inside and out. He knows what you have done wrong and the good that you have failed to do. He knows that you have had other gods before Him in your thoughts, words, and actions, and that you have not loved your neighbor as yourself, but you have lived as though you were a god unto yourself.
Yet, you actually belong to the Lord. You are not your own. You are His creature, and you have been bought with a price, the precious Blood of Christ Jesus. Your life belongs to Him. Your body and soul and all that you are and have, all of it is His by right. You possess it only as a gift.
You are accountable to Him, therefore, whether you acknowledge Him or not. You are answerable to Him. And the wages of your sin is death. “The soul that sins shall die.” Thus says the Lord.
But the same Lord God also says, “I do not desire the death of anyone who dies.” Sin and death were not His idea, they are not His fault, and they are not His desire. He does not desire that you should die, either, but that you should live with Him by His grace alone through faith in His Word.
Repent, therefore, and live. Turn away from your pursuit of sin and death, and do what is good and right, so that your sin will not be a stumbling block to turn you away from Christ, to crumble and destroy your faith, or to cause harm to your neighbor in his body and life, faith and salvation.
Live as a new man or woman, as a child of God in Christ Jesus. Learn from Him to live by faith in the Word and promises of God, to bear His Cross in the certain hope of His Resurrection, and to exercise the heart, mind, and Spirit of Christ, which He has given to you in Holy Baptism.
The righteous shall live by faith in the Word of Christ. The righteous shall live by his faith, and do righteously, and practice justice. So, the righteous man loves, and the righteous man forgives, as the Lord Jesus Christ does, even at the cost of his body and life; for that is how Christ Jesus uses His authority as the Author of salvation — by and from His own Cross and Resurrection.
It is with that authority that He loves you and forgives you. And it is by that authority that He has called you to be His disciple, to follow Him through death into Life everlasting. For He is the Son, the one Son, who has perfectly obeyed His Father’s Will, not for His own benefit, but for yours. He has gone to work in the Vineyard, to give and spend His Life for the life of the Vineyard.
He is the Son who has not only said “Yes” to His Father, but who has done all that He was given to do in faith and love. It was not easy, fun, or painless for Him — it was not what His human flesh desired — but He submitted His will as true Man to the Will of His God and Father; He took up the Cup of suffering and death for the sins of the world, though none of those sins were His.
Though He Himself is the one true God, yet, for all of us poor sinners, in order to save us from our own sins, from death and damnation, He humbled Himself, He took on the form of a Servant and all the curse and consequences of sin, and He was obedient unto death, even death on the Cross.
All of this He has done for you, out of His great love for you. Though you have been disobedient, unfaithful, and lazy, He has done this for you. Though you are sinful and unclean, He has done this for you. Though you are covetous and greedy, He has done this for you. All by His grace.
His faithfulness and obedience have established the way of righteousness for you, which is not by your own works, but by faith in Him, in His Word and His works. For His Cross and His holy and precious Blood have atoned for all your sins and failings, for all of your faults and weaknesses.
There is nothing that is not forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And His Resurrection from the dead has opened the Kingdom of His God and Father to you and to all who believe and are baptized into Him — by way of repentance and faith in His mercy and forgiveness.
He calls you to repentance, not to condemn you, but to save you. He calls you to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He calls you from your sin and death to Life with God in Himself.
As the Son of God who was baptized by St. John in order to fulfill all righteousness — who was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification — He has used His authority to call you to repentance and discipleship, to catechize you with His Word unto faith and life in Him, to baptize you with His Name, and to give to you His Spirit, His Sonship, and His own place in the household and family of His God and Father. So it is that His Righteousness is credited to you.
And already here and now — where His messenger is sent before His face, where His Word is preached, and where His gifts are freely given — here is your Life and your Salvation in the Body of Christ Jesus. Here you do not die but live. Here you are saved by the Liturgy of His Gospel.
Here He uses His authority to love you, to serve you, and to clothe you with His Righteousness. And, as He does not condemn you but forgives you all your sins for His own sake, there is no one else in heaven or on earth who shall be able to condemn you. Every other mouth has been shut. It is Christ alone who speaks concerning you before God, and you are forgiven by His Word.
So, then, enter His gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise. Recline here at His Table with Him — eat and drink from His gracious open hand — and live by His good gifts.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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