Wednesday
of Easter 3 (A)
April
29, 2020
Text: 1 Peter 1:17-25
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
In
this world of continual change and decay, what are the things that really last? We know what does not last. Riches, perishable things such as silver or
gold. These slip through our fingers
like sand. You can spend a lifetime
amassing money and possessions, and these can be wiped out in a month of
pandemic. The old ways, the ways of the
flesh inherited from your fathers, are futile.
Things fall apart. Moth and rust
destroy. Thieves break in and
steal. Governments corrupt and
fail. Societies break apart. Our own bodies deteriorate. Creation groans. In this fallen world, subjected to futility by
our sin, nature itself decays. The grass
withers. The flower falls. St. Peter, echoing the Prophet Isaiah, says our
flesh is like that (1 Peter 1:24; cf. Is. 40-6-8). It withers and falls. It dies.
Life in this world does not last.
That cannot be our hope.
What
does last is the Word of the Lord, and Jesus Christ, who comes to us in that Word. That is our hope. That… He… Jesus alone is our hope. Unlike all that withers and falls, Jesus is
the eternal Son of the Father, foreknown before the foundation of the
world, the Word that was with God in the beginning, the Word that is God. And it is He who was made manifest in these
last times for your sake. Without
beginning, without end, God’s Son is everlasting. Jesus lasts. And the things of Jesus last.
His
sin-atoning blood and death. That is
your hope. As you confess with Dr. Luther
in the Small Catechism, echoing St. Peter in our text, He “has redeemed
me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death,
and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy,
precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”[1] Why? “(T)hat
I may live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns
to all eternity. This is most certainly
true.”
Yes,
His resurrection. That is your
hope. That is life that lasts. Jesus lives, forever. Not only as God, but as Man, with a body, His
body that was crucified for your sins, dead, and buried, now risen, living and
reigning. Peter says that through Him, the
Lord Jesus, you are now believers in God, who raised Him from the dead! The resurrection of Jesus lasts forever. He died once.
Death can never take Him again.
He is no longer subject to its cruel grasp.
And
you are included in His death and in His resurrection life, baptized into
Christ. That is what it means to be born
again, not of perishable seed, the seed of the flesh, but of imperishable, God’s
own child. Holy Baptism is your rebirth
and renewal in the Holy Spirit, by water and the Word. The old you has died with Christ, drowned in
Baptism, and that old you daily dies with Christ in repentance. The new you has been raised with Christ, a
new creation arising from the baptismal waters, nourished by His body and
blood, forgiven all sin for Jesus’ sake, spiritually alive and marked for the
resurrection of the flesh on the Last Day.
This life you’ve been given, is the life of faith and hope in God
through Christ, the Crucified, who is risen from the dead. Faith and hope are the things that last.
And
love. Christian love. Love that flows from Christ to you, and through
you toward your neighbor. Sincere
brotherly love from a heart that has been purified by the blood of Jesus (both philadelphian
and agape are indicated in the text, by the way, for you Greek
scholars). This love is not simply warm
and fuzzy feelings or the emotion of a burning affection. It is decision! It is concrete action! It is self-sacrifice. Jesus on the cross is the picture of this
kind of love, giving Himself into death for the unworthy and ungrateful, both
in solidarity with those who would become His brothers, and for those who would
continue to hate and despise Him all the way to their eternal death. You, dear Christian, love with that
love, the love of Christ poured out on you as a gift, given to you to give away
to your neighbor. That love is a
thing that lasts.
And
you, in and of yourself? You do not
last. Yes, unless Jesus returns first,
you will suffer a bodily death. Maybe it
will be from coronavirus. Quite probably
it will be something else. But in
Christ, you do not die. You
live. For the Christian, death is but a
peaceful sleep. The soul lives with
Christ in heaven in peace and in joy. And
on the Last Day, bodily resurrection. As
Christ is risen, so you will arise. He
will make it so.
For
that is what He says. That is His
Word. And the Word of the Lord remains
forever. That, by the way, is the great
motto of the Reformation. Perhaps you’ve
seen it: VDMA (If you have one of our Augustana t-shirts or sweatshirts, you
know it is right there on our logo). Verbum
Domini Manet in Aeternum, the Word of the Lord remains forever. What He says lasts. And what has He said? Your sins are forgiven for Christ’s
sake. You are redeemed for Him by His
blood and death. You live now because He
lives. You will arise from the grave as
He is risen. This Promise is
unchangeable. It is not subject to
corruption. Pandemic is no match for the
saving declaration of the One who has defeated death forever.
In
this world of change and decay, what are the things that really last? Jesus and His Word. Jesus and His salvation. Jesus, and thanks to Jesus, you. Me. We
last. In Him. For He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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