Here is the special authority of Christ Jesus, your Lord. He does not simply teach the Holy Scriptures, He fulfills them in Himself. And so, for example, here in this Holy Gospel, we find Him keeping the Sabbath Day — in more ways than one — and using the Name of God rightly. With fear, love, and trust in His Father, He comes to preach and teach the Word of God, by which the Name of God is made holy among us. He thus works on the Sabbath, that you may rest in Him and in His Word to you. But He likewise finds His own Sabbath Rest in His own God and Father. He lives by faith as the true Man, and in love for His Father He lives in love for all His neighbors.
God’s Name is hallowed when His Word is taught in its truth and purity. Jesus teaches that Word in truth and purity. And God’s Name is hallowed when His children lead holy lives according to His Word. Jesus lives such a life, and He does so in love for you. He keeps the Law. For He has been born of the Woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law.
That is where you find yourself by your conception and birth — under the authority of God’s holy Law — and that is a scary thing. For the Law of God exposes, and it even exacerbates, your sin, the unclean spirit in your heart, mind, and body, the perverted nature of your Old Man in all your thoughts, words, and actions. You strive to keep the Law and to live by it, but you cannot do it. You do not keep it. The Law does not make you righteous, but it condemns you, because you do not keep the Law. And that makes you angry; and it makes you afraid, like the people at Mt. Sinai.
You want God to stop speaking to you, and you attempt to stop your ears to His speaking, because it’s already more than you can bear. You don’t like His Law. You suppose that you should find in it your salvation, but you don’t find salvation in the Law; you find only condemnation of your sin and certain death. So you flaunt the Law, you despise and disobey it, and you finally despair of it altogether. The more cynical, frustrated, and hardened you become, the more you criticize and condemn your neighbor, because you are sure that God is out to get you. You do not forgive those who trespass against you, because you are convinced that God does not forgive you.
After all, listen to His Law — to His divine Law, to what the Lord commands, forbids, requires, and threatens. And consider that He is the Holy One. He clearly says that you are to be holy and righteous, perfect and good, just as He is. Trying hard and doing your best is never good enough. Your good intentions and New Year’s resolutions don’t count and don’t cut it. Anything less than perfect is sinful and unclean. If you fall short at even one point, you have failed at everything.
So, what does this mean for you? Why does the Lord your God come to you and speak to you with His authority? Has He come in divine anger, with righteous wrath and just judgment, in order to condemn you? Is He here, and does He speak, in order to destroy you? That is the question.
It is the question, not of those who go about their lives ignorantly “out there” in the wild, wicked world; it is the question of those who are in the synagogue, who are there confronted by God and by His Word. It is precisely your question, as a child of Adam, as you are here confronted by the Word of God. For you have some knowledge of His Law — and His holy Law condemns you.
The Giver of the Law is here on this “Sabbath,” and His presence throws you into convulsions — if not in your body, then in your heart and mind, within your thoughts and feelings — because His Word brings to light the war that is waged in your members, that is, within your mortal flesh and blood. You cannot hide from His Law, nor can you escape it. It brings you out into the light.
The Epiphany of God in the Flesh is a bright and beautiful Light that shatters the darkness and scatters all the dark shadows of sin and death. Christ be praised for His coming to us, the Lord who is both true God and true Man! But bear in mind that His bright Light cannot leave your own fallen flesh and sinful nature unscathed. It brings out into the open all that you would prefer to deny, forget, and hide away (even from yourself, wherever possible). It lays bare your sin.
So, there is this sense in which the Lord your God, who comes to you with His Word and His authority, must first of all destroy you. He must condemn you, crush you, crucify you, and put you to death. For if you are not brought to contrition and repentance, then you shall be lost forever.
But it is not finally for that purpose that He has come. Nor is that the special authority of Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, the incarnate God, your crucified and risen Lord. That is not His purpose.
He drives out the unclean spirit from you, and He restores a new and right spirit within you, not by way of violence, threats, or punishments, but with the free and full forgiveness of all your sins. That is why He has come; that is why He comes to you here and now in the Liturgy of His Gospel. He is here to forgive you, in order to give you His Life. Everything He does is for that purpose, the forgiveness of your sins and the free gift of Life and Salvation with God. Everything He does.
It is true that His preaching of repentance puts you to death, and that is a painful ordeal, because it robs you of everything you have trusted and relied upon, everything you have prioritized, valued, and worshiped. Indeed, it throws down and destroys all your false gods and idols, beginning with yourself, your ego, and all your “trophies.” But He does so to bring you into Life with Himself. Everything is aimed at that. He forgives you in order to give you divine, eternal Life.
That is what He has done for you in your Holy Baptism, as the Holy Scriptures testify. By the washing of the water with His Word, you were crucified, put to death, and buried with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so are you also raised with Him to newness of life. That’s not just a promise for the Resurrection of all flesh at the end of days, but a gracious work of Christ Jesus throughout your life as a Christian. For there in your Baptism He poured out His Holy Spirit generously upon you — and into you — and so does He drive out the unclean spirit of your sin, your unbelief, your guilt and shame, your perversity and all your dark despair, day after day, by His gracious Word.
Therefore, do not be afraid. And do not attempt to hide yourself away from Him — which would not work, in any case. You cannot get away from Him, nor can you escape His coming and His final Judgment of the living and the dead. Nor would it be at all to your advantage if you could! For as painful and deadly as the accusation and condemnation of His Law are to your Old Man, far greater is the blessed gift of forgiveness, Life, and Salvation that He bestows by His Gospel.
And again, it is for the sake of that Gospel that He comes to you, enters in, and confronts you with Himself and with His Word, here in the “Synagogue” of His Holy Christian Church on earth.
Do not stop your ears to His Word, and don’t drown out His Voice with your own chatter, with your endless discussions and debates, or with your angry arguments and accusations.
Listen to Him. Hear and heed His Word and the preaching of it. Take to heart His Law, and so examine yourself and your place in life according to it. Repent of your sins and confess them. But do so in the faith and confidence of His Gospel, and allow that Word also to have its way with you.
Be quiet, and be at peace. Be still and know that Christ Jesus is your Savior and your God, who comes to you in the Flesh and manifests the Glory of God in His grace and mercy toward you.
It is in love that He has willingly gone to the Cross and died for your transgressions. You didn’t have to twist His arm or talk Him into it. He went and He did it for you because He loves you. And so has He also been raised from the dead for you and your salvation — for your justification — for your reconciliation with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with His holy people.
His preaching and His authority, which are so threatening and so scary to your fallen flesh, return you daily to the death and resurrection of your Holy Baptism. Which is really to say that He unites you to Himself in His dying and in His rising from the dead, so that you are not destroyed forever, but you are forgiven, and you are saved. Death could not hold Him. So, death cannot hold you. The power of His indestructible Life is your Righteousness, Holiness, Life, and Salvation.
And that is how and why it is that His Christian Church is the true Synagogue, and His Gospel is the true and lasting Sabbath Rest. For it is by the authority of His Cross and Resurrection that you are forgiven in His Name. Even your death cannot destroy you, and the devil cannot accuse you, because God does not count your sins against you. He has cancelled them out. He refuses to look at them anymore. He has judged you righteous in Christ Jesus, in His Resurrection from the dead.
You are forgiven by the Ministry and Preaching of His Holy Gospel. You are innocent in Him. You are holy and righteous by faith in Him. You are alive in His risen Body. And you are free.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment